so, ok. I lied about blogging once a week. things have been a little hectic lately. I got a new job working at a call centre, I also just haven't really felt the want or need to design anything lately. still adjusting to life at home after four years of university, Aswell with the fact that I'm no longer wanting to stay in education. so, sadly I just haven't really done any design stuff..... until last night. my partner is a gamer, like most folk. he has decided to make a twitch account and for people who don't know what twitch is: twitch is basically an website/app that you can go onto and watch live streams of people playing a plethora of different games. if you find you like watching a certain player you can follow them and even donate money to them. as far as I'm aware some players are so popular that they actually are able to live off the donations. Every little gamers dream right? (I really hope I got all that info right or I'm in trouble..... I'm totally not a gamer) sooooooooo, my partner asked me to design and create his profile picture, cover photo and any buttons that he has on his profile. Now, anyone who knows my partner, knows he's uppsessed with cats...... see where I'm going with this? I actually had so much fun doing this. I have managed to get his profile picture finished, I am currently working on getting his cover photo finished, here is a few of my enitial drawings it's been a long time since I've last drawn but you get the idea, just imagine it all......waaaaayyyy less scary than my sketches. so all the little drawings were my ideas for the profile picture. As (I.probably should have mentioned earlier) My partners name on twitch is "ShleepyPete" he also sleeps more than most humans... so the idea was basically to make him into a cat, he loves both his cats which are both pure white. I think I have an image on my site, that i did a few years ago. A game of thrones style portrait. It's of my partner sitting on the iron throne with his two white dare-cats on either side of him. I'm currently on my phone writing this blog (first time ever) so I don't have the image on my phone to upload, on here. if your interested. it should be on my commissions page. here's an image however of my partner with one of his cats (hopefully I won't get murdered for putting it up) isn't he sooooooooo cute! talking about the cat here guys... :P so I based his cat on him, I however didn't include the beard. I sort of felt that the cat it's self had enough fur, never mind the beard. So here's the finished product, I am actually so pleased with this, I now just have to get the cover photo done and then the buttons that will go on his Twitch account
That's all from me today :)
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So I went into uni today due to my Photoshop and Illustrator prescription being out of date and as I am a poor student, soon to be just poor. I couldn't really afford to keep my subscription. Not going to lie, pretty heart broken about it. So anyways, I had to re-do my portrait of the eyes open bar-code image. I have 10 different versions of the same image and some really funky looking edits from making the image. So here are my 10 different versions: Some are very similar and there are little changes, but I am glad to say I have my final, although I know things aren't spelt right, I will make this right tomorrow when I go back to uni. here is my final though with all of the incorrect spellings: I also want to do a little more detail with the type and make it more glossy and even 3D looking, as I want to give it the effect of it being a glossy gold.
The rest of my day I have been writing up sketch books and making sure everything is in order, I am sure that tomorrow will be no different with getting my work to a standard that I am happy with. Today I got a hell of a lot done, everything for the end of year show that I wanted to put up is now up. I had to re-cut some new vinyl for my wall. And now everything is beautiful! I now get to just concentrate on finishing off my sketch books and writing everything up that needs to be done before hand in. I feel like I'm in a very good position, I even feel that I could hand in all of my stuff on Monday. Everyone else in my class is currently panicking and therefore this makes me also panick a little more due to myself feeling calm. Don't you just hate that. Although speaking of things that you hate most coming up to hand in, one of my class mates mentioned to me today was he "can't wait for this to be over, so he can stop feeling guilty about wasting time" Shit just got real! Deadlines can be really good for people or you can crash and burn, I do have that feeling of panic and worry, trying to get things done. It is a little weird when you stop just to breathe and then feel guilty. So anyways on to a more productive and positive note. I have done what feels like a million different magazine covers: As you can see I have been experimenting with a variety of different colours as well as text. I also went a step further with this I knew I wanted to have a bit of colour within the black and white image. However I think the lips actually make it more sexulised. This could however be a poster or even a magazine cover for human trafficking or something within that sort of topic. I however want a more generalized kind of image. So, I took the image from the above, went through all my photos I had taken from this project, and photoshopped eyes in from a different photograph. This was unbelievably weird I can tell you that, straight off. I have to admit this I think worked out pretty well, I however think that this looks like me, but a little different..... I know it sounds weird but, yea a different version of me. Although when it really comes down to it, as long as it looks like a person, and gets the point across. That is the whole point. So my idea here is a little more self explanatory. I want the eyes to try and look into your soul!, no I just want to eyes to grab peoples attention, although I still want them to look along the lines as realistic, however the more I photoshop this the more and more unrealistic it looks. especially as the eyes are very much a small part of the image, the colour doesn't really pierce through very well, even with the lines of the bar code coming down the face. I however really like the 1st image on the 2nd row, as I think this does grab your attention. I am just currently a little unsure on how to take it further. I am also really unsure on what colours to have my text and I seem to be continuing the same argument with myself on which fonts look the best. I am continuing to work on this even as I write this blog, I have a feeling however I may need to sleep on things and see how I feel about it tomorrow. So yea, that's it from me today.
So Today I have been just sort of tying up loose ends. I have designed a few more bits and pieces and I finally got my work up :D Big smiles all round. However I'm not quiet finished. As the vinyl I cut yesterday has a few issues, so I need to re do this tomorrow and then I will be able to say I'm finished. I also went back again and re-did my awareness posters: I still need to do a few more bits and pieces to these and again more touch ups for my magazine cover. I have a few ideas I want experiment with. So hopefully get all this done tomorrow. Short Blog today, that's all from me for today, im sure plenty more to show tomorrow. Just a little sneak peek of what I plan to show off for the end of year show.
Today has been such a tiring day. So today I was to put up my work for the end of year show. I went to put my work up and then after speaking with tutors. They thought I should go back to my plan and edit it a little further, such a blow. I was hoping to have all of this done by today. So I went back to he drawing board and came up with these very similar ideas to show: I decided to in the end go with the second image. So I then had to go and get my vinyl done. I have to admit I was very nervous about getting it done. I have never used the vinyl cutter, but thankfully I had another class mate who was just as clueless and we, I mean she. Figured most of it out. I have to admit I have been working so hard and trying to get all of my work done for hand in and then some. I was a total zombie most of today. So with my vinyl I had originally wanted to have under my facebook image, "If you're not paying for the product, the product is you." Under the Coca-Cola portrait "Open Happiness?" I wanted to plat on words for that. Then finally for my bar-code image "Just another price tag." Due to my Coca-Cola and Bar-code slogans being one line, after a little bit of debate, and discussion. My self and the tutors all agreed on simply shortening down the slogan. "The product is you." The plan is to finally get all of these up tomorrow for the end of year show. I have to admit after all the running about I have done today, I definitely feel more prepared for putting all the portraits and everything up tomorrow. Also excited to see how the vinyl will look.
Just a little miffed that I have left playing with the vinyl to literally the last week of university. Although I have to also admit I found that the process with vinyl is unbelievably tedious. Tomorrow will tell more however. I also decided it was best to go a head and get another sketch book. As I plan to do a lot more editing and just in general more work. So that now brings me to having 10 sketch books to hand in next week. I am just hoping that tomorrow I will be able to really start in getting things done. I have also done a lot more of my sketch book write ups today. So I plan to finish it off hopefully tonight and then the rest of tonight I will be stuffing my face with chocolate and watching Netflix. That's all from me today. Today, I just went back into my magazines and even did a little advertisement stuff: I wasn't too sure about how to cover the magazine cover with the type. To be honest I am still not too sure, I think I will have to edit this a little more. I did however print out the first image in A4 to see how it looked. I have to admit I still want all of the writing and topics around the cover to be a lot bigger. Which is strange due to while in Photoshop I didn't want to cover the face too much. I think I will have to do some additional research. The coca-cola image I was getting pretty annoyed with the portrait I had chosen for the end of year show. The colours within it I really couldn't get it to work. It started to look like a 90's magazine cover, which isn't a big deal. But it's not the idea I am trying to convey. So I got my original portrait of the Coca-Cola portrait and put that as my magazine cover. I think this image work a lot better. I am again still not happen with my colours or fonts. Within this sort of magazine cover, I decided to go further and put my images into bus shelter advertisement slots, buses and even billboards. So I did a bit of a mixture, although I have to admit, I prefer the bar-code image to the other portraits: As you can see, I have been busy. I am also still trying to figure out what to say underneath the portraits. I also realized that with other awareness portraits, they have their image, slogan and then some other smaller text: here is just one campaign, that shows what I am describing. I might even go back and try some of my other images that I took for the portraits to try and see what else I can come up with. I will hopefully have something great to hand in, which is now a week away, and I have a funny feeling it may end up with a 10th and final sketch book....
I got a good bit done today. I went back and started to add more to the portraits, as though they were magazine covers: I am aware there is an other magazine called "Mental", however there magazine is more based on mental health issues and in new techniques to treat mental illnesses. The reason I choose "Mental" was due to how we were asked by the labeling guys in our class, to pick 1-3 words to describe our work. A lot of the words others chose within my course were really funny and laid back words. I randomly chose mental, due to how the portraits I will be displaying and the whole back story to them is very heavy going stuff. Or in layman's terms "Mental". Also with how I am also displaying my playing cards. So as one of my friends suggested, it's also another symbolism of how corporations play games. I really didn't like my Coca-Cola magazine cover. I don't think any of the colours work. I have to admit I really under estimated this task. I really wanted to have the idea of a magazine that basically tells of all the things going on in the world, a bit like The Sun, but not as terrible. So I found that the Facebook Magazine and the bar-code, worked really well. I think this was mainly due to how the Coca-Cola image it's self already plays on the opposite of colours with the red portrait and the blue background. I also did a few more versions of sort of awareness posters. Within this campaign. I am still figuring out what to say with each image. I have a lot of information of each. I just don't really know how to put it all. Especially with how I want all of my images to have very bold and hard hitting statements. To really make you think and of course to try and get a shock factor involved. I also turned backed to the end of year show with my piggy bank idea. I decided to start designing them today to finally figure out whether or not I need to build my shelf tomorrow for them. Here are the designs I came up with: This is my piggy bank that I am thinking about buying to decorate for the end of year show. I took this image into illustrator and began to design over the top of it. I firstly thought about designing the pigs to go along with the pieces I am putting on. So I firstly created the first three images. I personally don't find these very interesting. Also because the when all the issues I am bringing up really boil down to. Is money, So I thought about why not be simple and have gold pigs. one for every image, then I of course thought about silver and decided to just have a little look at the idea of having a silver pig with pound symbols all over. I decided I really didn't like this. I even began to look into spray paint I would be able to get: I then started to look further into other piggy bank designs that others have done: I came across the crystal covered piggy bank and the cartoon piggy bank. (two very big images above)I have to admit I got really excited to do something like the cartoon piggy bank. Although I realized within my time limit it just really wasn't going to happen. I have to admit most of my concern comes with the piggy bank I am thinking of getting. Because I am getting that particular one, I am not too sure on how to completely cover it minus spray painting it. So the idea of self adhesive crystals on the piggy bank, really makes sense. So I began to research this idea further: Found these crystals online. I also found the gold and silver studs. I think the studs would be amazing. Almost like a blow fish or a hedgehog. The idea of something being covered in spikes makes it a little harder to hold. So this I think would really work for the piggy bank. I also went on to looking at how I want to display all my work for the end of year show, again. So above are again more mock ups of the end of year show. 1st image is of my first idea of having a piggy bank for each portrait. 2nd looking into having just three gold piggy banks, 3rd I had previously mentioned about having vinyl coins around the wall, with again three gold piggy banks. Then of course I started to look at possibly not having any piggy banks or even vinyl coins. I have to admit I am strongly thinking about not having anything, but just my art work, and the slogans underneath the portraits.
This idea of just having the slogans under the portraits and no piggy banks, would really help me out with getting to concentrate with other work, true. But I think it's a little bit distracting too, for the public, in what too look at. The portraits them selves are very striking, with the added piggy banks and vinyl coins in the background. It may be too buys and not really knowing where to place your eyes on. I will have to ask around possibly and see what tutors say about this. Although, as it currently stands, I am thinking of not having the piggy banks or vinyl coins. This was a very long blog today. I clearly had an incredibly productive day. Today was very productive, I got my finals done! YAY!!!! and I started to paint my wall for the show: I have to admit I think I got one of the worst walls in the hall, simply because it had the most masking tape on it as well as holes poked through it. My wall had the random bar above the wall is directly above my space. We were told that the hall is in the best condition it has ever been in. The hall above is actually the First year hall, so it's a little poetic that our end of year show is being held were in our first year studio. So the wall was stripped, sanded down, gum strip ripped off and re-applied and painted. So this is how my wall looks now. I am hoping to have the wall finished tomorrow. I can only imagine I will have to polyfill most of the wall too. So this is all very exciting, then next week we get to hang our work. Then it will be final hand in. The rest of my day I have been spending making QR Codes for my sketch books so my tutors will be able to link what I say in my sketch books to what I write on my blog.
Short blog today, just a little up date on my final weeks of being at university. That's all from me. Short blog today. So I did some more experimenting with my portraits, my tutor suggest a few changes to the facebook portrait: I had to change the portrait to look as though it had been projected on. The first image is my original image. the second is the re-edited image. I have to admit I still prefer the first, original image. This is how my portraits will look at the end of year show. I also got the idea of making these images into editorials. Like you would see in magazines. So I am very excited about developing that idea. I am also hoping to have slogans now underneath the portraits for the degree show.
Again looking at all three of the images together, I prefer my original facebook portrait. I am hoping to get these printed tomorrow, So all very excited for that :) Short blog today, hopefully more to show tomorrow. Today I got a lot done. I have re-photoshopped some images, even ordered my deck of cards to be printed for the end of year show. Everything seems to be coming together nicely. For my deck of cards I had a choice between my three designs: I have decided to just show my cupcakes, I have also ordered my monsters to be printed and my cupcakes to be printed to hopefully sell at the end of year show :) I had also experimented with the idea of having all three of my designs together and the jokers and backs of the deck of cards, I just felt that this looked really strange. I'm honestly just not happy about it, So I have chosen to go for just the cupcake theme. I also successfully and finally got around to the re-edit of the "No Say" Coca- Cola image, I also went back to the facebook images and the bar-code ones too, and just tweaked them a little: I went back into my bar-code portrait, I just made the bar-code look a little more realistic, The Coca - Cola portrait I finally edited to a way I liked it. I will admit the almost turquoise background was a little unexpected. Although I have to admit I rather like it and I think it really makes all the other colours within the portrait really pop. The Facebook images, I simply just went back in and made the "F" lighter and more white to really stand out. I really like all of these and I am really happy with these results. This is an update of what my end of year show will look like. I just have to make a choice of whether or not to have my original Coca-Cola portrait or the re-edit of the portrait. I have to admit while l look at these side by side, I actually think the original Coca-Cola Portrait stands out more compared to the new portrait. I will have to ask around and see what others think. I am hoping to have these printed out either tomorrow or Tuesday.
I am still to buy my piggy banks, as well as dwindling down the slogans or facts I may put on them, although I have to think fast about either paper mache, black chalk board piggy bank and the paint it yourself piggy banks from hobby craft. Again hopefully this will be more items I can sell at the end of year show, hopefully people will want to buy them, I just have to start thinking of how and what way I am going to design them. Which I will hopefully get started on tomorrow. So, I am very much nearly there, If this was the lord of the rings trilogy, I have just reached Mordor. That's it from me today, hopefully more development to show tomorrow. |