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Blog on my work, and life in general.

Very Productive Day

21/4/2015

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Today has been a pretty productive day, I managed to get a lot done despite being pretty ill today. I have finally started to design banners and layouts for my main project. 
The poorly photographed image on the left was my original concept idea. I then finally put this into illustrator and created the image on the right. This has even developed  further, as I realized the pound sterling sign, the euro and the dollar sign didn't really go together. Especially as my project is aimed at universities within the UK. So I went back in and made them all sterling pound signs, I then began to play about a little with the design as, I felt everything was sort of floating in space. So I added shadows, banners and back ground colours to see how this would look 
Here are my mini experiments above, I do really like them a lot, although I have definitely decided against the green background. I was thinking a long the lines of the little piggy bank being free and running around. It doesn't look like that at all in my mind. I then began to look at the white and blue banners. I wasn't even too sure why I had three pound coins on display, so I went back in again and changed the display a little.
So as you can see my piggy bank is trying to be a horse, ready to charge into battle. Well that's what I get from it's pose, which I really like to be honest. So as you can see I have made it look as though the coins are going into the piggy bank, or flying out of it, whichever way people see it. I'm pretty happy with it, although I do realize how cartoon like it does look. I'm worried it may look even too childish. So I started to finally get started on making a website. I used Weebly as my website generator. I have to admit, when trying to make a website for a specific thing, weebly sucks. I was on here for about 3 hours playing around with themes, trying to get things to work, change menus, messing around with the HTML codes (which I know very little about). I have to admit, for the amount of work I was trying to accomplish today with the website, it really didn't happen. So now I am currently struggling with the idea of wither, just creating what I want the website to look like on paper rather than actually make the website, or go to a different website developer and try again. I am going to have a break from it for now, here is the home page however:
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Currently it's very bland looking, there is a lot of restrictions within the themes which makes it difficult if you don't know HTML code. I have been trying, and I don't easy give up on things. I think I just need to shower my brain over it and think what else I can do. I also added my little protest character, he was a lot bigger but again on weebly, I found that once I got it to a way I liked it. As soon as I saved it, He was twice as big and took up all the space of the text. 
Here is all my sketch books where I also seem to brain dump all of my thoughts and feeling over my project:
So these are just the pages I have done in my sketch books today. Tomorrow, as I said I am going to be just concentrating on my Cards project to try and get the entire suit finished tomorrow, and possibly even start another suit, I would love to say Ill have the whole set done by tomorrow, but there are a lot of design issues that do come up, like I've seen today with the website, so we will see how that goes. 

I am also hoping to get some of my ViewBug projects started on Thursday, mainly if the weather is nice so I can get some underwater photography.... in fact even just to have the water to be calm, that might help me out more. 

That's all from me today.
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Icky Part 2

26/3/2015

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I didn't get to post yesterday due to feeling  so ill. I didn't manage to get any work done yesterday.
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Still feeling crappy today.  however I was actually finally able to do some work.  Not a great amount but still a fair bit. I finished my Queen of Spades card, I am now currently working on the jack of spades.
I also skipped a little bit a head and have started to design the newest deck of cards design, Cup cakes
As you can see, I'm just on the concept of ideas, I plan to go ahead into illustrator and see what designs work better than others. I also have been toying with the idea of giving the cupcakes a bit of a horror/ monster feeling to them, I am as yet unsure. As I feel that the monsters could again be another design of a deck of cards on their own. I am hoping to be well enough to go to uni tomorrow, being ill is getting boring and I am dying to get my teeth stuck into my work again.  That's all from me today, hopefully more to share and see tomorrow.
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Feeling Icky

24/3/2015

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very short blog today, I haven't managed to do anything today due to waking up at half 7 this morning feeling like death was at my door. Been feeling ill all day :( so I haven't managed to get any work done, just in bed watching Disney movies trying to get better.
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I will hopefully be feeling more like myself tomorrow, and be able to get back on track with my work. That's all from me today.
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Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Done!

29/1/2015

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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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Really Sick Designs

27/1/2015

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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.... 
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Sick Work

26/1/2015

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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 :
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isle of skye 

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.

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The Heat Is On!

25/1/2015

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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.
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By Mirna Jose Photographer: Marcelo Cantu Photography

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Random Day

7/1/2015

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Hello, so. I realize I didn't post anything yesterday. With very good reason I did nothing, I also wasn't able to blog via, my phone. So anyways, today I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, due to illness. However I just did a little more research on the kings and queens that have ruled Britain. It started with King Offa (757-796 pictured below), The throne was then handed down to his son, Ecgfrith reigns for less than 6 months.
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The throne was then empty for 6 years before King Egbert ruled in 802. This seems to be the first and last time the throne is empty for this long.
Another thing I noticed within the date of all the kings and queens, there really wasn't many that had ruled longer than 30 years. I also thought it was very interesting that the first Queen of Britain didn't happen till 1553, Queen Mary, she only ruled for 5 years and then the throne was ruled by Elizabeth 1st, One of the most famous rulers of Britain, she ruled for a hefty 45 years
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So I am now hoping to look into Kings and Queens from Europe and hopefully will start to get a better idea about which historical characters I want to have in my deck of cards. So I think I will more than likely have a few different designs of playing cards. But this will be the first hopefully.

I am now on my last few days with being home, So I am now making the rounds of making sure I see everyone before I leave to go back to Aberdeen. So I have to admit I am unsure if I will be able to post tomorrow, let alone do any more research. So don't say I didn't warn you!
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A Slow Day

3/1/2015

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Nothing much really to report today, I still feel super ill, but have been continuing with developing my ideas for the 3 ghost story books. 

Also again looking into more Ideas for my new logo, Also I have been doing more research into developing my deck of cards collection. Looking into certain themes and things. 

Sorry I don't really have much to show for today. Hopefully will have more for tomorrow to show.
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Illness suuuuuuuuccckkkks!

2/1/2015

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So, today I have been finally organizing myself!
YAY! I have begun to design my logo for this web page. I am hoping to have it completed by the end of the month. Due to all of my other projects going on at the same time.

I have feel totally plague riddle :(
So feeling a little bit slower today with working away than I would normally be. 
Anyways, tomorrows another day, I will hopefully be more on the ball.
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    I am an artist from Northern Ireland, I specialize in Photography and Graphic Design. Please follow me on 

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