Book Illustration: Brave New World

As part of our illustration module at the beginning of the year we were asked to make 3 images and a cover to use to accompany the book, Brave New World. 

The book itself if quite messed up, and reminds me almost of George Orwell's 1984 - but opposite. I've tried to make the images represent this twisted, backwards reality with a series of abstract portraits to tell the story. 

Book Cover

The night before the final deadline I decided to re-draw two of the above images (Cover and decapitated head). Looking back on the work because it was done a few months ago, I'd like to think I could do a better job of them if I tried again however they sadly weren't going to be worth enough marks to warrant a complete re-design.

Making Texture: Another Happy Accident

Yesterday I was attempting to make a textured background for one of my magazine pages using an image I found of a bit of rust. With some twisting and turning of the image I managed to create this FREAKIN' AWESOME pattern in the texture!

Sadly, it was too detailed to use as a background but it'd be perfect for using as a tiled image somewhere else! I like these happy accidents I have! :)

Bookmaking: Another Finished Project

THANK F**K FOR THAT!

Another project I can cross off my To Do list! 

It's taken me a while but I've finally gotten there, and documented the whole process on video too!

For an idea that started out fairly un-refined and not really sure of where I was going with it,  I'm actually pretty damn happy with how it's turned out. Changing slightly from my original mock-up I think it's come out better at the other side. 

The books are completely different sizes and scales but you can see the initial ideas are the same, but the placement of the spinning wheel and the refinement of the layers have come a long way and a good job too. I think I'd be pretty unhappy if it still looked like that! However, no matter how much I slate the original design, without it I wouldn't have the final piece that I have today! So cheers to you shit mock-up.... You served me well!

I will also be uploading onto here a simple step-by-step video of the process which I recorded as something a bit different to hand in other than a sketch book for when assessment time comes. 

Animation: Preview Clip

The past two days I've been trying to refine and perfect the scenes in my Animation sequence ready for next weekend when I am hoping to add in my sound effects and Narrative. I've finally gotten around to adding in a small black dot to represent a small fly that my frog looks up to eat. 

This clip is just a small section of the scene. 

Check it out!

Zine Design: Making Changes / Updating Template

This morning I concentrated my time on bringing my Zine design up to date and making some changes that I though were necessary for my next assessment. The thing I was most concerned about was one of my comical 'style' pages that focusses on 'What apron is best for your body type' (Since my Zine is based on a Good Housekeeping-style magazine for the dead housewife)

The thing I didn't like about it was that I had originally hand drawn, and then scanned in my illustrations, which looked fine, but have ended up not looking like the rest of my illustrations in the Zine as I have done the rest of them digitally. 

Today was all about drawing in some new heads and adding them to the existing bodies. 

Below are the line drawings of the new heads, meaning to be a mix of all ages to fit the theme of the magazine - and then the final result of the page when imported into InDesign.