So I started looking at my dissertation today..... then I thought the dishes needed done, Have to get my finals ready for the interim show. So may as well add the blurb to the book covers.  Had to then  change some of my elements within the book covers around so the blurb would fit.... And about two hours spent arguing with myself on which fonts to use.... so yea..... em, didn't get much of anything to do with my dissertation  done today. Whoops!

I have to admit though, I really under estimated how much time it would take to not only tweak one of the covers to look semi finished,  as the others do. But to then get the elements to change about and try to make them identical to the other. Such a pain in the arse!
I did get it done though, in between cleaning my flat and any other distraction that I let take me away from my laptop. I got it done!

So this was the first font that I really liked. Also just to let you know, the colours are a little funny due to me being lazy about putting the images into RGB mode. I have uploaded too many so look through past blogs to get an idea of colour. I want you to look at the font anyways. So as I was saying. This was the first font I liked. I then tested a few others and finally landed on this one:

Now this is actually the font called "Chaparral Pro", this is it in bold. So I realized I  had to move all the elements on the back page. I was determined not to move my guide lines though. The gun, smoke, bullet holes. ALL had to be moved to have room for the blurb. Took me a good few hours for each of the book cover, to try and get the placement exact on each one.  So, eventually I got this working for me. I then decided to still have the font "Chaparral Pro" in regular.

So these are my finals ready for print and hopefully mounting on Monday. 

Ok, so I got my final done today and sent off.  Very proud wee moment. I actually put so much work into the  cover, as my previous book covers for the other project I was working on were just horrible. They we re far too dark and I did have a really had time with them. So with these book covers, I tried so hard to make them bright and easily seen when printed out. I learnt a lot more techniques than I had first anticipated. So now comes the  doom and gloom, from this day forth.... Interim show and dissertation work..... Yep, lots, and lots and lots of fun. Then 6th of March things should get a lot more interesting. If I haven't thrown my dissertation out the window by then. 

So for my interim show these are  the three book cover I have decided to show.  Not totally sure on the 3rd of the book covers as I really don't think it is to the standard as the others.  But I am still proud of the image, a lot of work still went into it.

This weekend I plan to go back to my dissertation and  see how things are going with it, and look at what I need to fix as well as what I want to take out and put in. I will try to make my blogs a little bit more interesting than...... So I was working on my dissertation today.... Like I did last semester.

So,  again really wasn't feeling well today. Spent another day in bed wrapped around my laptop doing more work. So I did soooo much today. A lot more  book cover stuff for Kelpies. I did majority just variation work. 

So these are all different variations of the spy  and the child work.  I decided to play about with gradients . As I had said yesterday my relatives who are the age range that the book is aimed at. They preferred this image as apposed to my blue boy. So this was really me, trying to make myself like the image more, as I do think it looks very simple.
I even did a few variations with my other preferred book cover, to see how it would look. 

So I added gradients to  the image that I preferred most.  I realized that  actually still preferred my original of all of these with the boy and the submarine. 

So, the more I think about it the more I keep thinking, this right here. This is going to be  my final for the Kelpies book cover. I know my relatives really preferred the other. But I don't know, I keep being brought back to this cover.  Also with the added, "Your  also selling to the parents as well as the child". Keeps coming back to me and I think this really work. As within the story once you read it. The cover will suddenly make a lot more sense. Which should be how a book cover is made anyways, with clues and symbolism.

I also started to go back and have a look at my Main Project.  I have a fair wee bit to catch up on before I start to analyze the new data that I've collected. So I did a few more sort of little illustrations with some of the questions from old data. As I wanted to make it a little bit more fun to look at and more interesting than a pie chart. 

These are outrageously simple looking, but these are just little designs really. I'm more experimenting with how and in how many different ways I can show data. So these we're more little quick designs that I came up with. Tomorrow there should be more. 

I also have an interim show next week. So I have been having to get myself sorted for that. So I will try and get a few images of what my space looks like. Here is just a little quick design peek of what I am planning on putting up. 

So as you can see I am planning on putting up 3 of my book cover designs. The interim show, is more or less a mock exam, to get me ready for my final end of year show. So yea,  I will report back tomorrow. 

So, today  I still feel  iffy, but feeling  a whole lot better than what I was yesterday.  So, I did what I mentioned yesterday about asking my relatives which of my book covered they  preferred.  As they are the age group the design is aimed for. I realized however  that after  I asked, I was slightly rooting for one design over the other.

Especially when both my  relatives said they preferred the image on the right. I had also asked  some of my friends which ones they preferred. They all answered the image on the Left. So I think there is definitely something to be said about that. I then began to analyse both of the designs. Why did I really not like the image on the right, compared to the image on the right. I realized it was mainly due to the very simple shape and design of the  spy like figure.  I then looked at the image on the left , what did I like so much about this cover. I realized that  it was just this. The image on the right, was a bit too complicated, too much going on. The image on the left, too simple and not much happening. So I went back into photoshop and made a  few changes.

So I added text to both of the spines, I took away one element from the left book cover, which was the little spy vector. I then made the right book cover a little more complicated. Now with the image on the right I  still feel there needs to be more done to it. Even just making the little boy in it the same colour as the main figure of the book cover. I would also like to add gradients.  Although I am still figuring that part out, in which way exactly I want to do that. 

Now, here's the kicker. I show these new designs to my relatives. They still pic the same one as they did before. I ask friends who are the same age as myself. They still all pic the same book cover of the blue  main figure. I really have no idea, what to do.  Although after speaking about these with my friends. Something I hadn't realized was brought to my attention. When children want books, it's the parents that buy the books for them. So this cover needs to appeal to children as well as adults.  This being a key factor I had forgotten. I am hoping to send my design off to them tomorrow, So here's hoping I will have made a decision. I still feel myself leaning towards the image on the left. whoops...

So, I'm annoyingly feeling even worse today. Although I again just lay in bed, and wrapped myself around my  laptop and did some work. I spoke yesterday of how I wanted to  pick a few of my designs and  really finish them off. So i chose these two designs:

So these are the original,  I then went on to tweak these a little more. However, I really like the back page design, and in all honesty. I don't really want to change that. I think though, that there still needs to be a lot more done to these.

So these are the newest versions.  I felt as though I had  been concentrating so much on the illustrator point of view of these designs that I totally forgot about  making things a little more realistic looking. So I added a scrape texture to the bullet with the title on it. I also added a  water texture on to the boy to, not only brighten the image but, again make it a little more realistic. I really like these but I feel that they are just images hovering on a page. I feel that there should be more to these, However I just can't put my finger on it.  

I have also decided to send my designs to a family member who is within the audience target age. She is not shy about letting anyone know her thoughts. So hopefully she'll be gentle. I also think that this is great for me, as I don't want the cover to look to aimed towards boys.  So maybe she will like them, or say they need to be a bit more neutral. Here goes nothing.... 

So, still feeling super ill today. But I just curled myself around my laptop and sketch books and made myself do work.
I actually got a lot done today!  So I have two new book covers that I started working on today. I am still not too sure on either, but  I have now realized with the deadline looming. It is perhaps  time to  look at the ones I already have a choose one or two and develop  it further. So here are the two newest editions of my book covers:

So as I had discussed yesterday, I had tried to recreate  the same style of image as the Star Wars posters.  I did this to the image on the left, I don't really feel that this worked. I even added textures to make it look more like rocks and wilderness.  The book is based on the Isle Of Skye, Scotland. So I looked up lots of photos in hope of seeing lots of forests and things to create a similar branch effect to create a type of inception image.  But no, just lots of mountains and  wild flowers :

So, as you can see just a lot of rough rocks and cliffs.  Although I tried to recreate this landscape within my book cover I really don't think it worked.  So I looked at all my previous book covers and thought, well what do I like about these? I then went back and created the image on the right.  Of  just a spy, It is definitely  a lot simpler. than the image on the left. 

I also started doing a little more of my designing of a deck of cards. I looked up royal families from around the globe. Looking at the costumes,  uniforms, jewelry and of course crowns and tiara's. I came across this photos. The only thing that was said about them was these are photos from a party. I don't know what year, or place. but the costumes and amazing looking.

Hello! So  I'm not going to lie, I have done 0 work today. I haven't been well all day. So I haven't really left my  bed. I have however just been  thinking about what I want to do with my book cover and such,  so hopefully I will be well enough tomorrow to do  some work and show you how I've been getting on. 

The heat is on,  as the deadline is this Friday. However I have always preferred to  upload my finals for online competitions the day before, to avoid any technical difficulties that I may end up having. I think this is just a good tip for anyone really.  So If suddenly your internet goes, or your computer, printer etc. isn't working you can go to a friend or families home and get it sorted. Or in my case, panic and run to uni to use their stuff. 

And as I don't have anything to show for today, here's an image from my research for my main project. I am  starting to think of doing  photoshoots and having facts on how to stay positive and the reality of the effect on how we consume.

Today, I just continued on  with my book cover for the Kelpies.  I have now decided to take a different route with it.  Although I am still playing around with it and experimenting so I don't really have anything to show you today.

I am going to experiment with the book cover in hope that I can create something similar in style to these star war posters. Inspired by Saul Bass, one of my favorite  designers.  I really like how these have the idea  of  an image within an image, like inception .  So hopefully I will have something interesting to show tomorrow. I have however already done something similar.  with this image, in hope to do the same style as above.

As you can see I tried to have the silhouette of Alistair representing the submarines in The Cold War. Which I have to admit I am very proud of my submarine. Just saying!
So here's hoping I will have more interesting trail runs to show tomorrow 

Been a busy all day today, looking up videos for my illustrations, doing a few different covers for the Kelpies book. I have a lot of different variations. I'm just not too sure if any are really working. However I am so proud of them so far.

I am still trying a few different techniques, Today I learnt how to make smoke in photoshop. Without using downloaded brushes. It isn't perfect, but it does the job and does enough for what I want it to. I still haven't played about too much with the text of the title. I do however really like the idea of the title being on the bullet. So I am unsure how this will pan out. There is still a few more designs I am wanting to attempt and see how they look. As the weapons might be a little much for 10-12 year olds.  Will hopefully have more to show tomorrow.

So, today I finally got started on my book cover. YAY! I am actually rather proud of it. I am just not too sure in which direction it is heading. But not half bad if I do say so myself.

This is more of less just a first draft of one of my designs, I have a few more I'd like to experiment with and see how they go too. 

On a separate note, I had previously mentioned about the survey I have created, to go towards my dissertation. If you haven't already, I'd really appreciate it if you took just one minute of your time to fill in. I also promise you it won't take you anymore than a minute to answer. It is just simply ticking boxes

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFZ7G9T



Thank you