Final Major Project Animated Gif

I have also made a small animated gif of a Sea Turtle swimming.

Counting With Animals

The name of my children's book is called 'counting with animals' as I wanted the title to be simple and straight to the point. I must admit I have come across some challenges and problems, trying to figure out whether I wanted my book to be landscape or portrait, working with merging my compositions together some were jelling others were not. But in the end I decided to have my book portrait and without trying not to panic so much, my characters and features started to merge together to create the double page spread I wanted. I have worked hard and came across some technical problems with the computer, but it all seem to work out in the end.

Here are some double page spreads of what the inside of my book will look like;

Two Giraffes

Three Armadillos

Four Frogs

Ten Butterflies

Furthermore I feel I have broadened my skills on the process of photoshop, learning different techniques in cutting shapes out, adding images in different sizes inverting the colours, also most importantly learning how to structure my pages so they actually coinside with one another. I have throughly enjoyed this project, I just hope my book turns out well after being sent to the printers. 

Hopes, Fears and Opportunities Part 2

Throughout Part 1 of my hopes, fears and opportunities I touched upon each area discussing my feelings and aspirations for the future. I feel my views haven't changed, except for being more determined to succeed throughout my degree, staying open-minded and optimistic.
I have reflected a lot throughout my influences and how they have impacted on the progression of  my work, for example a strong influence  has greatly impacted my journey, 'Carnival of Animals' is children's author and illustrator, Eric Carle. He uses a similar style to myself, working with different materials, as well as being free and playful throughout his collages, which make up his children's stories i.e. 'The Hungry Caterpillar', 'Mister Seahorse', etc.
I feel I have come a long way throughout the progression of my work, as I came to terms with my inner child and the style I represent.

A quote that always gets me in the mood to create and succeed is;

"Growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional"  - by James Johnson

This means I will always have my inner child which helps me to succeed in life no matter what age I am for example; including my childlike features and sophistication into my work and everything else I do. I don't want to grow old I wish I could stay young forever, but in a way I guess I am just doing that throughout my imagination.

By the end of my degree I aim to produce a children's counting book for young children, which will help them learn how to count using animal images. As well as this, I also aim to produce a children's wallpaper, as I would love to produce interior patterns for a children's bedroom. as an added extra for my degree show I would like to create a small animated Gif for my website. Some ideas include a sea turtle swimming across the page or a swan flapping its wings or maybe even just a frog waving its arm; something that's interesting that will keep my audience intrigued.

My plans on Graduation are to prepare for the big wide world by getting a stable job, as we all need money in this life. However, I will continue with my passion for art, taking up the role of a freelance illustrator, entering lots of competitions for children's books or in any other areas. Researching into more opportunities in meeting children's authors, illustrators and designers, keeping my eyes open for lectures or exhibitions by people that may be of interest to me.
Current work I am doing is helping a school produce pictures to help dyslexic children during class. A teacher at a well known school asked me to illustrate some images for children with dyslexia to help them understand the emotions they maybe going through, as well as to help them with any problems they are experiencing during the classroom environment. I am looking forward to helping these children after my degree, and see where life takes me from there. I am also thinking of doing some more work for 'Teenage Market' as I enjoyed the experience last time and I want to get as much experience as I can selling my work and getting the audience's advice on what they think. I also think this will help boost my confidence when it comes to talking to people within the industry. I do still fear I won't achieve what I aim for, but life is all about fear, and the only way to get over it is to face it. I'm going to keep working hard and stay positive for the future, because my work is all about making people happy and sharing the joy I feel when I produce see or feel a piece of work that I can stand back at and think, wow! Like everyone in this business I wish to produce work that will be worth something and mean something to people one day, because once this happens I know that I've shared a part of me with this world, and although this sounds cheesy, its a lot better than leaving this world without leaving anything behind.

Hopefully I'll  make my family proud  and make children happy with the books I publish, bringing more life and enjoyment to the power of a child's imagination. A power that I can only learn from, and I suppose the best place to look is my younger sister, Crystal and hopefully one day in the future, from my own children to.

Taking life as it comes, living it to the full, and grabbing every opportunity I can, can only lead to good, maybe someone will notice me at my degree show, maybe not, but either way we have to cease the day and cease the moment or as they say in Latin, 'Carpe Diem.'

Talk with Fig Taylor and Portfolio Review!

Fig Taylor is a graphic designer and an agent, she came into Stockport college and gave a brilliant talk on portfolios and what to expect at interviews presenting us with great advice and tips to improve our portfolios.
She told us to be prepared and confident and dress smartly for the part as you will want to make a good impression for an interview.

After a lovely funny talk with the class, we then spoke to her in smaller groups where she actually had the chance to speak with us individually in more depth about our portfolios observing our work, which I found enjoyable and intriguing learning more from an agent.
When It was my turn and I explained who I was and that I would like to create children's books and maybe a children's interior designer, she advised me to research magazines for children and parents whom are expecting to receive a different perspective connecting to a more wide spread audience. She also told me to enter as many competitions as possible as this may help you to get noticed throughout the industry. I explained to Fig Taylor that I am not very good at drawing or creating people my strongest feature is unknown creatures and animals, in response she advised me to try and draw children anyway and to add them into my portfolio as children will relate to them more as they will be interpretations of characters there own age, I especially need children represented throughout portfolio as my work is aimed at children.

Here is an example of Fig Taylor talking to someone about there portfolio;

I also explained to Fig Taylor that I would love to write and illustrate my own children's stories to hopefully publish my own book. She expressed that to write and publish your own story can take a long time, I have to make sure I create a storyboard/roughs a synopsis and the main characters. Will they be based on animals, myths, folk-tales, fairy-tales etc. What do I want to do with my story? What age range is my story aimed at for instance 5-7 year old's. If my story is aimed for an audience of young children will it be too sophisticated? or too grotesque?.

A key factor I mostly took on board was to be open minded to not dis-regard the ideas of packaging and advertising, she told me to explore other areas as my work could be used for a developing life style such as; food and drink. If this was to happen I could then add this subject matter into my portfolio.
Another tip she advised is to always make sure that my printouts are not too dark in my portfolio and to make sure I have the best quality as I would want to make an impression.

Fig Taylor advised to have a look at this book if you can as it is useful throughout your journey of creating a portfolio.

Listen to Five top tips by Fig Taylor!

My Inspiration and Influences throughout Final Major Project!

Here is an image of my favourite books that have inspired me throughout my work. 

The First Cut 'Paper at the cutting edge'

I went to 'The First Cut' exhibition at Manchester art gallery last year it was amazing seeing things in there real form and not from the book really gives you a different experience, I bought the book as a momento of the fantastic show. 

I looked at the leaves created throughout this image as reference and ideas towards the environment I'm creating for my book.

Peepshow Collective

Exploring animals as an interior feature on cushions, curtains, stationary etc.

'Sometimes I think Sometimes I am' by Sara Fanelli

Exploring the concept of creating my own book, In college I had a session on hand stitching pages together to create a book it was very intriguing and time consuming however, now learning this technique I hope to use it in the future, I love a challenge.

Quote By (me) Emma Johnson; 'Always Be Open-minded and Optimistic and you'll go far!'

Final Major project 'Carnival of animals' update 2

For the last few weeks I have been working really hard to completing pages for my children's book. I have been painting, collaging, researching, been inspired, and used photo-shop to put all my compositions together. I will show you some of my sketch book development work of my animals and elements of a sense of place of where these creatures live in the environment to some compositions I have created where I have merged these features together to create something new and exciting for my children's book.

Sketchbook work of the different animals that will be used in my book; 

Seahorse and a green Fish

Flowers, Sketch of a Seahorse and funky red Fish

Frog in the middle of some leaves

Experimenting with a flying bird, Sea Turtle and some colourful little Fish

Exploring the feature of a lion and on the opposite page two different Sea Turtles

More Funky Sea Turtles in different positions

This is my ultimate Favourite Sea Turtle, I love the vibrant colours I've used I feel they work well with the marks made on the brown paper. 

This is also My ultimate favourite as my 7 year old sister decided she wanted to have ago at interpreting a Sea Turtle and I think its Fantastic, very Inspiring I love the colours, the way the character actually looks like its swimming over the seaweed and the little clown fish is following behind him. Brilliant!

Here is some work from my sense of place sketchbook; 

Sea plants

Sea sponge

These Flowers and other environmental features have been painted using Gouache paints and watercolour and collaged using various materials. I have enjoyed this exploration very much discovering new things, learning about the different plants that live in forests and under the sea.

This has made me want to know and learn more about the features of the environment around me and the creatures that live in the wild. So I have been watching documentaries mainly about sea life as this is something that really intrigues me. 

Deborah Wiggelsworth Lecture

Paper Passionist!

Deborah Wiggelsworth is an Independent Consultant, Paper Innovation, Product Development, visiting University Lecturer, a Paper Artist Agent working in the paper industry for 25 years beginning her career as a graphic design student. She has also worked with many successful UK and international businesses, art galleries and paper artists. Formerly product and brand manager of world re-own creative paper company GFSmith, Deborah has visited many paper mills across Europe and America working in design, product development, brand management and marketing. She also has extensive experience in the UK greeting and retail industries - having spearheaded the creation of many paper products sold in stores including  Paper-chase, John Lewis, TATE, WHSmiths, Harrods and across several countries globally.

Deborah's passion for paper is infectious, her enthusiasm, knowledge, experience and inspiring collection of papers that I got to explore and experience for myself.
I have never learnt so much about paper before, I didn't realize there were SO many different types of paper that existed, I was in my element as I, myself have my own love and passion for paper as I use various papers and materials when creating a collage and Seeing various types of coloured paper excites me. To me it does make a difference whether the paper is thick or thin smooth or rough depending on my composition, I love using and exploring the different techniques and skill I can use with paper.

At Deborah's lecture I learn't a lot about the weight of different papers which I had never thought about before so was very intriguing to learn about, especially the fact I got my VERY OWN FREE SAMPLE PAPER PACK!!! Major excited! It was inspiring to find out that: uncoated paper was really good for embossing and uncoated white paper had this really nice smooth feel to it, with textured paper you can feel the mark where the paper had been pressed to make the impression. There was even BEER paper it just looks like brown paper but does smell a little bit, I thought this was fascinating I never knew you could make paper out of beer.

Here is an image of the paper pack I received;

She also told us about various exhibitions she has been too such as, Slash, The First Cut, popupology, The Art File, etc.
Here are some pictures of there stuff;

Furthermore, she gave us all a free sample of a card created by Charlie Waite a landscape photographer, his style of work is considered unique in the way his photographs portray like a spiritual  quality of tranquillity and calm. His work is recognized all around the world , his work has been in many magazines and he has 300 books to his name. Well worth having a look at his work on his website.

Charlie Waite

Here is a couple of sample's of his work;