Evaluation

This project has proved different from anything i have done before, it's out of my comfort zone for sure. But upon reflection I think that i have managed well, especially considering that this was not my only project to deal with. Having never worked in this area of illustration I came with a fresh head, which I think is important, so that I don’t end up relying on what I have previously produced.

I have enjoyed myself, but it has proved very tiring producing this genre of work. I have learnt that there is a lot of re-working and time spent detailing if you are to produce a good job.

I think that my outcomes are strong in their field, both as unique images which is what Little White Lies looks for, and as reference to the topic of the film This Is Spinal Tap. The latter because the film is a spoof, and i feel that these images reflect that in their white on black style opposed to a neat, confined black on white which is normal.

Again, I have found it much more efficient to keep account of my work with a blog, it just seems so much more helpful when you know that your outcome has to be digital, it really ties it all together well. However, my Weakness in this project would be not locking down a specific film to work too at the beginning, whereas I, for example, ended up working off topic for a short while at the start, producing ideas for other films, whereas if I hadn’t have done that it may well have freed up some time at the end to show varied and perhaps stronger outcomes of my work.

In terms of the outcome's job as special edition magazine covers, I would say that they are effective in their purpose as they clearly present the topic and deliver it clearly. Creatively I think that they stand out, especially to the Little White Lies audience always on the lookout for that unique cover.

With this work I plan to send it off to Little White Lies even though their brief is no longer live, they have shown interest in my portfolio. (See email attachment in 2nd blog post titled 'Little White Lies'). 

To take this project further I would look at producing other special edition magazine covers, but perhaps for the music magazine industry, say for Classic Rock magazine, or Q. This way i could tie in both interests of art and music which would keep my interest in the topic of cover art.

Further Industry Research

To further my industry research i Have come across this tremendous website looking at where to publish your work, I have sourced a selection of magazines and publishers with whom i am able to submit work.

http://creativeboom.co.uk/tips/73-places-to-get-your-illustration-work-seen/

• http://www.juxtapoz.com/submission-guidelines
• http://newsugar.co.uk/submit/index.html
• http://www.creativereview.co.uk/feed
• http://gizmag.eu/issue/99/
• http://www.ammomagazine.co.uk/
• http://art.webesteem.pl/
• http://www.castlemagazine.de/
• http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/
• http://www.formatmag.com/about/

All of the above give guidelines of how to submit work along with the type of work they accept, although you can generally grasp the latter from the publication look and feel itself.

Final Outcomes

Starting with the template (which wont be included in the final send off), i thought i would show you the intended outline of and where the images would slot in.

Below are my final outcomes that will get sent off to Little White Lies Magazine at the Church of London Creative Agency.

I am very pleased with these outcomes, the chalk effect is especially good in giving a texture that is unique.

Life Drawing And Further Developement

With the knowledge that i am drawing human faces and bodies i thought that it'd be best if i attended Life Drawing classes to see where i could improve on what i already had. Here is a scan of this double page spread from the session:

You may have noticed that i have drawn out both Nigel and David from the film on the right hand side of the page in a brown colour that i originally used to draw out a previous image of the band. This came about when i was complemented on how nice the blown up image of Derek looked and felt (below) after the statement that the Julian Opie style had been done to death.

I was then asked, why don't i do the other members in this style and blow them up to the same proportion and then just slot them into the template and invert the colours so as to give a chalk effect. So, here are my outcomes:

I am pleased with these outcomes, they look both realistic and strongly recognisable.

Now for the text in the same fashion:

I had to re-do Tap separately because i went wrong the first time.

And here are the numbers, as the title will still read 

'THE 30 YEARS OF SPINAL TAP ISSUE':

New Development

Once again i am left to develop my thoughts and current processes further. This time i am to take away the current idea but having made it larger to fill the blank space and trace around the image using thick marker pen to create simple, clean lines. This is a Julian Opie style of working:

Here is what my outcome would look like as, but cleaner and simpler of course that this image below used form my previous development post. This is just to get the correct image size so that i can slot it into my template and not worry this late in the game as to fiddling with sizes.

Below are the images that i have worked from both taken from my sketchbook and the internet:

Having had trouble with the likeness of this one above of David i had to resort to the photo below from the internet: 

Here are a selection of my tracing outcomes in marker pen:

The marker pen outcomes are strong an naive, but still not getting that likeness...

Moving forward, trying inks with water bleed:

Again, these are looking interesting and strong in terms of line quality, but unrecognisable...

Moving into the lettering for the cover in this style, i used a chisel tipped marker pen to get the lines straight and effective. Unfortunately this left the lines a bit to be desired in terms of neatness and legibility. So over all, i haven't moved too far from my previous development stage other than cleaner and simpler images to work with...

Unfortunately I have been notified by my lecturer that this style has been done to death and that i am to move on and progress in a different style... I am happy to do this as i am struggling with the likeness in this stye of work with my characters.

Ian Wright

http://www.mrianwright.co.uk/

Ian Wright (the artist) reworks his portrait artwork to create unique effects, which is interesting, and, if i had more time, i would like to have followed in his footsteps. Here are a couple of examples of his work:

Vanessa Dell

http://www.vanessadell.com/

Vanessa Dell is a portrait artist/illustrator whose work influences me because of her warm, simple portraits that come across in a naive manor. Below are a couple of examples of the quality of her work:

To keep from annoying the copyright police, she works from photos in conjunction with other photos, basically piecing them together using different sources.