Experimenting with Drawing on Frames

After producing some A4 watercolour and ink animal portraits, I felt they needed an element of imagery which reflected the issue faced by each species. Therefore, not wanting to spoil the original imagery, I directly drew onto the glass in permanent marker. The left illustration reflects deforestation with the stumps of trees and the right illustration reflects the illegal pet trade of orang-utans with the bars. Scratching into the thick lines gives the impression of depth for the bars and also adds texture. 

Even though these are quite effective for creating a statement about the issues, the harshness of the black draws attention away from the illustrations and the subtly of watercolour is subdued. 

To make the illustrations more prominent and the focal point in the exhibition, white frames could be used, clear with the original illustrations. This will highlight the illustrations and raw texture in the pieces without distracting from the sensitive content.

Combining Digital and Traditional

As experimental development, I used my own primary source imagery combined with illustrations to create new ideas and themes. These have been heavily manipulated in Photoshop so the quality may not necessarily be there although these could be used as reference to create new illustrations.

Here I have used a photograph of bars combined with an illustration to make it appear as though the elephant is trapped and caged.

Left: The original photograph.

Below: The manipulated imagery.

These images reflect the trauma of the Asian elephant when faced with threats from the human race. Rather than elephants being physically caged, my intention is for the cage for be a symbol of how such a large animal is made to feel demoralized and trapped in a number of ways. This could reflect on how elephants are used within the tourist industry in Thailand or even how they are kept behind the scenes of a circus. 

Intentionally, the elephant appears vulnerable and lost. Perhaps this is the only elephant left before they become a long lost memory into extinction? The red hues reflect violence and danger, a sense of darkness which is the elephants impending fate.

Using the same elephant illustration, I superimposed the animal into a forest scene. The forest scene is manipulated from a primary source photograph and put into a new context. The in the left image the elephant seems vulnerable in its own habitat whereas in the right image the elephant seems to be fading away. This sense of fading reflects the threat of extinction through habitat loss. Whilst the habitat is replaced and preserved, the elephants and forced to survive elsewhere, or not at all...

 Using an ink illustration, I thought about a comment I had during the formative assessment- why not add a background? Whilst I feel white space encourages the viewer to pay closer attention to the main subject, I decided to use a primary source landscape photograph to provide a sense of context to the image. The darkness of the landscape highlights the elephant slaves whilst the red tones in the sky imply a sense of danger and foreboding. Where are the elephants being taken? What is their fate?

These illustrations were manipulated in Photoshop and given a simple forest-like background. This background was painted digitally and fills out the image.

Overall, I believe these experiments were a success in how they reflected the threats of extinction and providing imagery which is more thought-provoking for the viewer. The colours are vivid and the use of photography brings stronger compositions. However, the manipulation in Photoshop can appear over-worked so it could it effective to replicate similar imagery in traditional media.

Introducing Orang-utans

To progress on the development of my project, I have decided to focus on threats to orang-utans in the wild. The threats include habitat loss through deforestation, the illegal pet trade and agriculture for palm oil. These facts were all sourced from the World Wildlife Fund website and Orangutan Conservancy.

The choice to focus on orang-utans came from when I initially looked into endangered species of the Sumatran forest. Then when I went to Chester Zoo to take primary source imagery I felt I sympathised with the animals, especially one who was by the glass and looked to somber and sad.

Although the animal was hard to photograph due to the reflection from the windows, I cannot explain how emotional this made me feel, how sad it was to see such a grand animal being observed in a cage which resembled not even a small portion of his original habitat. This made me want to make a change even more through my illustrations so that perhaps people will become aware that these animals were put on the Earth to achieve more than be viewed as an object in a zoo. If people are ignorant to the threats of orang-utans in the wild then they will be destined for a life in containers until they eventually fade from this planet entirely.

Here is a couple of experimental illustrations defining the character of this beautiful creature:

WWF Donation Box

As part of the final exhibition, I wanted to include a World Wildlife Find donation box alongside my displayed work to encourage people to donate to the charity. Choosing the WWF to fund raise for was an easy decision as I have based much of my research on their website. My aim is to hopefully encourage people to want to make a change through my artwork and therefore donate as little as possible. 

After contacting the WWF through Twitter I emailed the contact given and was pleased to received a positive response and it seems that it will be possible to get a couple of donation boxes.

I gave them my address and received the boxes soon after I contacted the charity. Here is one of the boxes pieced together, I received two others which I can display with my exhibition.

Ideas for an end product

As an illustrator it is important to find a compatible context which is suitable for the topic. In this case I needed to figure out the context for the topic of 'endangered species' which would help me communicate in the best form possible. I have decided to step away from animation which I was leaning towards in my last project. This is due to the fact I would need to learn a whole new set of skills within a couple of months, and as I want my best work included in my final major project of university I felt that it was important to develop on skills I already have rather than learn new ones.

Therefore, I would still like to incorporate campaign in my work and making them more effective by enhancing my traditional and digital skills. The final product I would like to create is a campaign brochure as I feel it would allow me to explore the issues and causes of endangered species in the most effective way and hopefully begin to make a change. This will require research into brochure design and the content included, which I will do along side creating concepts through illustration.

Experimenting with Campaign Ad Ideas

Using the imagery I had created, I decided it was best to test them out in the appropriate contexts in order to convey a clear message to the audience.

Audience being the general public, I felt it was necessary to keep my ads simple and straight to the point even including well-known charities so people would recognise and understand the context and message of my illustrations.

With these ads, I wanted to focus on the decline in nature, using an image where the black space seemingly traps it into a small section, significant of how humanity pushes nature to the side and has complete control. The birds are reflective to the decline in wildlife population if humanity keeps abandoning nature in this way- without habitat there cannot be wildlife.

The text 'Don't let nature fade away' was used in an experimental way, gradually making the text smaller to give the illusion that it is in fact 'fading away'. The tag line is a simple message to help the audience become aware of the rise in habitat loss and decline in nature. Also, I have tested out two charity logos in the bottom corner of the advertisements in an attempt to create a sense of context.

Using an illustration based on badger culling, I wanted to use it in the best context to convey a strong message against badger culling, especially in the local area. The simple slogan 'stop the cull' is effective and straight to the point. Using a simple bold font (Ebrima) highlights the importance of the message. This tag line has actually noticeably been used in protest campaigns so will be recognisable to the activists already campaigning against this issue.

Initially I used a red tone for each word in the tag line, though as I wanted to make the word 'stop' stand out I decided to keep this red and make the rest of the text black. This seems to work a lot better than the original as it separates the text into the action and the issue.

Once again I have used a known charity logo in the corner to make to ad appear more professional and give the imagery context. However, please note than even though the charity is Yorkshire-based, currently there is no problem of badger culling in this area. Regardless, the charity has stated it supports the campaign against badger culling, as do all wildlife trusts:

Via Twitter:

As a budding illustrator, I feel that this new turn in my project fits the profession more adequately in the approach and the ad campaigns provide a realistic context for my illustrations. This idea of communication is important in illustration and previously I don't believe I portrayed this in the best way. 

My next stage will be to focus on badger culling as an issue and continue to research, develop and create illustrations which communicate a message effectively to the intended audience.

Animal Rights: Badger Culling

As a new twist in my project and a desire to find more substance in my work I decided to look into current issues concerning animal rights. Through a short search I found out that the most recent issue in the UK seems to be the legalisation of badger culling and over the past month this has been occurring for the second year running.

An article struck me as shocking by the Western Daily Press as the culling was described in a casual, desensitised manner:

"The chairman of Gloucestershire’s NFU, Andrew Guest, said the cull was ‘a mixed bag’, but sources at the NFU said it was believed the marksmen had reached their targets of 70 per cent of the badger population killed"

This comment 'a mixed bag' caused me to think visually and need to create an illustration.

Original pencil sketch of idea

Badger portrait

After the initial ideas, I scanned the imagery into Photoshop for further manipulation. I decided I would set myself a rule to keep human/ man-made forms in digital media and nature/ animals in traditional media. This would highlight the vulnerability of the badger in comparison with the human form and bin bag which take control in the image.

Outlining the human form and bin bag with the pen tool in Photoshop brings in the digital side of the illustration whilst the badgers are preserved in traditional pencil making them appear vulnerable and innocent.

Overall, I believe that this new direction in my work in positive and more illustrative. These illustrations could accompany an article, campaign poster or book. Trying to bring more context in my work has definitely improved my understanding of where I want my illustrations to be placed within the industry.

I will continue to develop on this idea of badger culling and apply my illustrations to appropriate contexts to see how they can fit into the professional industry.


You can see more of my illustrations on my website at carlataylor.co.uk

Thanks for reading,

Carla

New University Project: Final Year

This post is long over-due, but better late than never they say!

So, I have started my final year at University (scary times!) and my first task was to decide on a project theme which could carry me through the whole year. No easy task although I was sure of my interests, it was just a case of crafting it so it would contain both visual and contextual substance.

Therefore, after much thought I decided that I would look into Animal Rights and the Environment, focusing on several aspects of this theme and developing them into a large body of work. As well as this, I have a desire to make sure my work is as professional as it can be at this stage, even though my first module consists of mainly research.

As an initial starting point I decided to research into local aspects of the theme, bringing the environmental side to the foreground and saving the Animal Rights aspect until I gathered some decent literary research.

Having a desire to be unique and create my own style, primary source research is important to me as an illustrator. Due to this, my first step was to go out and take my own photographs of the environment, with an aim to capture the relationship between the immediate urban landscape and nature:

These images were taken around Huddersfield and it soon became evident how man-made forms either take over certain areas of the landscape, or intrude on the natural beauty of the landscape which is already there. Another point I noticed was that much of the landscape will have been planted by men, so therefore is it natural? Or is it man-made nature?

Questions constantly popped up into my mind, and I so from this I am eager to bring nature into the foreground of beauty and push the urban landscape into the background as an attempt to regain some of what is left of nature. Even though I have questioned some of the natural aspects of the landscape, in my illustrations I will capture them in a beautiful, natural sense to highlight nature's importance in comparison to man-made forms such as roads, buildings and cars.

The Malaysian Insider: Search for MH370

Looking at this article from The Malaysian Insider online, I have illustrated some of the photographs portraying the heartache of the relatives of the missing plane, MH370.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/gallery/view/search-for-mh370

'A woman praying for passengers of the missing Malaysia Airline flight MH370 at a prayer session organised by the Mahindrama Buddhist temple in George Town for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers on March 11, 2014. - The Malaysian Insider pic by Hansnoor Hussain, April 8, 2014.'

I chose to illustrate this particular photograph as I felt the close up composition was heart-felt and touching, reminding the viewer that it is not just the passengers on board flight MH370 who have suffered. The watercolour I have used is more subtle and less intrusive than the original photograph with lighter more friendly tones.

This illustration is very effective as it holds so much emotion but in a sensitve way. The image conveys hope, loss, prayer and anguish, feelings left over by the unknown whereabouts of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. This is what is important at this time and should not be ignored.

'A Malaysian Muslim woman wiping her tears during a special prayer for the passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang on March 13, 2014. - The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, April 8, 2014.'

A slightly different approach to this illustration, using mainly line to portray the saddened woman. The space around the woman gives the impression that there is a loss which has caused her saddness. Selective tone emphasises certain aspects of detail with this particular style. It also reflects how Kugler and Butler illustrate their imagery, leaving out unnecessary aspects of the image and focusing on what matters.

'People holding up balloons carrying messages during a vigil for the passengers on board missing Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370 in Kuala Lumpur on March 18, 2014. The search area for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has now been expanded to a massive 2.24 million square nautical miles, says acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein. - The Malaysian Insider pic by Najjua Zulkefli, April 8, 2014.'

This image intrigued me a lot in relation to the relatives heartache over the missing passengers of flight MH370. No faces are seen and the messages could not be read, though there is still a sense of pain and loss. The tones I have used to illustrate the original photograph are bold but not over-powering. My illustrate is more abstract allowing the viewer to interpret what they can see. With the caption from the original article which described the scene, the image suddenly gains a background. Without it, there is mystery and interpretation- just like the entire ordeal over the missing flight MH370.

Overall, I believe these illustrations have been a success. I have learned which images to portray in my reportage illustration to help gain a better insight into the emotions of the relatives and friends of the 239 missing passengers. It is important to know which parts to illustrate and I think I have achieved this well here. Watercolour immediately creates a sense of subtly and sensitivity which some photographs and hard facts cannot achieve. My illustrations give the viewer a chance to approach the subject on an emotional level even without the text involved and without knowing the full story. After all, the full story is not yet known and may not be for a long time, so it is absolutely essential to focus on the people who are suffering in the present and the losses they have had to face.

Reportage Illustration: Relatives of the Missing Passengers (MH370)

A series of illustrations in mixed media watercolour and watercolour pencils, depicting the relatives and supporters of the passengers who went missing on the Malaysian Airline Flight MH370. All imagery has been illustrated from various news articles, re-invented in my own style to convey the sensitivity of the tragedy, and focus on the heartache, anger, frustration and hope of the relatives.

Some references to the original articles are provided as links of the imagery.

Relative of a passenger lighting a candle of hope

Relatives Protesting in frustration about the lack of information they have been receiving

Relatives lighting candles of hope

The subtlety of the watercolour demonstrates the sensitivity of the topic which I believe works very well. Reporting these areas of the news is important to generate a sense of empathy with the viewer who may or may not be familiar with the tragedy. For the standard viewer, the plane has been found. However, to the relatives of the missing 239 people onboard, there will not be any closure until the truth has been found and their questions have been answered. These images portray a sense of long-term loss and hope that some day they will be able to let go.

This is what is important.

Project Statement for Formative Assessment

From the initial starting point of innovation and creativity, I instantly knew that I would work better with a subject which I am both familiar with and interested in. Therefore, my initial approach led me to look into nature and the way this subject has been used in innovative ways. I didn't focus on creativity so much as I felt I could explore that aspect later on with my own unique development of the project. Through research, this led me to innovation inspired by nature, which in its more complex term: biomimicry. Instantly I loved how specific aspects of nature were already taken to invent new products and ways of thinking. This seemed to be the perfect entrance into the commission brief.

Once I had visited the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre and listened to Liz Towns-Andrews who is the primary client, I decided to stick to my original idea of biomimicry as it turned out that the client had a personal interest in this already. From this, I tried not to think too much about the clients personal interests as I wanted to present her something entirely new and different. This led me to take my own primary source nature photography to gain direct inspiration from nature itself.

After experimenting with the photographs in Photoshop, I felt that this approach was too generic so therefore brought some traditional media into my approach. The use of watercolour is very fluent and I feel this reflects the delicacy in nature so would be ideal for representing my work. Once I had experimented traditionally, I was able to put these works into Photoshop to manipulate them digitally. This brings in an aspect of technology which is very forthcoming in the 3M company and also the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre itself.

From that point I have chosen to concentrate on using watercolour as my primary media of choice for this project and use it to create more abstracted and simple imagery. I used this technique to illustrate existing forms of biomimicry as I felt that trying to invent something from nature in a technological way was near impossible for me, so decided to re-invent existing biomimetics with my use of watercolour, as my style captures a variety of images in innovative ways. I have also started to experiment with animating my work as it is a new approach for me personally and it challenges my abilities.

New 3M Buckley Innovation Blog

As we have been told to create a new blog for the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre Commission, I will focus on putting my development on the new blog and keep this blog for artist inspirations, tutorials and anything else I don't find directly beneficial for Liz Towns-Andrews who is the primary commissioner for the brief.

Here is my new blog address so you can keep up to date with my commission work for the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre:

http://3mbiccarlataylorillustration.blogspot.co.uk/

Or click image to go to new blog:

New Term, New Brief! Innovation and Creativity

For the second term of University, I was set an entirely new brief where I was given a 2 week period to complete research and ideas on the topics of innovation and creativity.

Through my initial research, I found that innovation was 'the ability to generate new ideas or to restructure and redeploy old ones'. Also, a lot of innovation has been centred around new technologies created by man. This led me to think of how I could innovate my own practice and perhaps look into personal past projects to see how I could re-invent them in new, innovative ways. Themes that immediately sprung to mind were modern day political issues, experimentation, superstitions, and editorial design for magazines. However, even with these initial thoughts, nothing seemed to really grab my attention for a starting point for the project.

Group Tutorial with Ian Massey: 23rd January 2014

In the group tutorial, we were asked to present our initial ideas about the theme of innovation. However, as I was not clear about which direction to take with the project, I listened to others to try and gain some inspiration. 

After hearing others responses to the brief, I decided that as one starting point I could look into the link between nature and innovation. This interested me in the sense that on the surface, natural forms do not seem to have a part in this kind of modern innovation and are unable to innovate themselves. This led me to think about adaptation and evolution. 

Another idea that came to mind was the link between innovation and the subconscious and so I asked myself, can innovation be accidental? This triggered me to think about how I have experimented with media, made 'happy accidents' due to mistakes, and how I often find myself thinking up new ideas at random intervals where I am not consciously making a decision i.e. the shower! These subconscious thoughts have often directed my projects or at least given me starting points! 

Therefore, I found the group tutorial with Ian Massey a major help as now I have at least a couple of ideas to start off my research into the new brief!

First Term Achievements

What did I achieve?

After the completion of my project 'Hide and Seek' I feel that I have progressed quite a lot in comparison to my previous work. I managed to achieve what was requested of the brief which I had set myself, and achieved a professional standard of work at my final exhibition.

My main achievement of the overall project was managing to stay consistent when designing my pack of playing cards. Although this proved to be challenging, I found that this has helped me develop a personal style with the use of watercolours and has enabled me to be more creative, designing from imagination with limited reference.


How do I want to progress?

In this term, I would like to continue creating new ideas and perhaps testing out more traditional techniques. I have a great desire to focus on making my work professional and ready for potential clients.

'Hide and Seek' Exhibition

Statement along side exhibition:

'My inspirations for this project were derived from the film ‘Drowning by Numbers’. I decided to use the themes in the film as a direction for my work including: numbers, death and games. One particular game featured within the film inspired me to create my own pack of playing cards: ‘Dawn Card-Castles’.

The illustrations for each card are based on a variety of symbolisms and research into the suits. To reflect the film, my illustrations all contain the suits and numbers in subtle ways, sometimes more obscure than others. I feel this helps my illustrations become more fun and the viewer will sometimes have to find the symbols to figure out which card they relate to. This creates a light-hearted notion for some themes that may not be seen in this way otherwise.'

The title 'Hide and Seek' came from the playful idea of games and the concept of hidden numbers and imagery which I have included in my playing card designs. This idea was taken from the film 'Drowning by Numbers' as the numbers 1-100 are integrated sequentially within the scenes; sometimes the numbers are more visible than others, and from personal experience when I watched the film initially I did not find all 100 numbers. This idea has been developed into my own designs where sometimes the numbers and suits are more obscure than others.



Presentation of Exhibition

Four images just less than A3, over-mounted onto black A3 mount board to give a visual look of frames.

This aesthetic decision was made as I felt that the white background of the images would cause them to fade into the white wall. The black frame enables the imagery to stand out and also gives them a professional finish.

The inclusion of these images was to give the viewer an insight into all 40 of my playing card designs as I was unsure if the finished pack of cards would arrive on time for assessment. This was successful as it illustrates how all my designs would look when put into their desired context; you can see them on a closer scale on a previous blog post 'Final Playing Card Designs'

 

To compliment the mounted images, I picked out 5 of my favourite designs, all on watercolour paper including 3 originals. I really wanted the viewer to see the designs as finished artworks on the textured paper so they could see where I started out. The frames give the pieces a professional look for the exhibition space, and their rectangle forms take a similar shape to the playing cards which are the intended contexts.

I was extremely relieved when my pack of cards finally arrived! Therefore, this allowed me to incorporate the cards into the exhibition space and give my designs a visual context as a finished product. 

Simply hanging the cards sequentially on string with pegs add a final touch to my exhibition space. The viewer is able to see each stage I underwent to produce my final playing card designs. 

The back of the card was a collage I created earlier in my project which I made with a mixture of newspaper cutouts, ink and acrylic, layered and edited further in Photoshop. I think the abstract composition compliments my designs effectively and the darker background contrasts with the lighter face of the cards; this is reminiscent of real playing card backs which always have some form of pattern on the back which continues through each card.

Final 'Hide and Seek' Exhibition

Overall, I am very happy with the presentation of my work in this exhibition set-up. The entire look is professional and finished, including all of my designs in a contextualised form. The layout is simple and straight to the point, with no extra props which distract from the artwork itself. This is all that is needed, with an added statement, to explain the intention and aims of my entire project.

A very successful outcome.