For this assignment I was asked to either undertake a self-directed project or, undertake a competition brief or work with a client on a brief. I chose to do a self-directed project as I enjoyed the idea of creating my own brief and sticking to my own guidelines. I started my writing out my brief. I was influenced by Part 5: The Brief’s second research task where we had to find an example of a self-directed project set by an illustrator, I research Jake Parker; the creator of ‘Inktober’ a worldwide challenge, Jake creates prompt lists with a word or phrase for each day and people draw their outcomes and post them on social media with the hashtag #inktober.

Brief:

Find a creative prompt challenge like ‘Inktober’ to draw a different prompted illustration over the month of January 2024. After, find a book publishing company online and create a physical outcome showcasing all the 31 finished illustrations from the challenge.

Target Audience:

13+ (teen and adult) – nudity and subtle horror.

Mandatories:

For book:

18x18cm – Matte pages – Hardcover.

For illustrations:

16x16cm – Full bleed – Digital illustration (using procreate) – 2cm boarder (edge of illustration to page).

start date & end date (When is it needed):

Start date: 1st January 2024 – End date: 18th February 2024 (when I submit part 5).

plan for project creative process:

1. Research self-publishing companies
2. Brainstorm ideas
3. Thumbnail sketches
4. Chosen thumbnail sketches
5. Scan into Procreate
6. Illustrate and Colour on Procreate
7. Get my illustrations onto the book to print (need to figure out how)
8. Use online self-publishing company to print book
9. Take photos and evaluate final product

I was on Instagram looking for prompt art challenges and stumbled across Blurb’s ‘One page a day’ AI generated “unhinged, out of the box and imaginative one word prompts” for January 2024. The company Blurb also prints self-published books so it was helpful to find a company that does both things that I need for this project brief!

‘revised’ plan for project creative process – now i have ‘blurb!’:

1. Brainstorm ideas
2. Thumbnail sketches
3. Chosen thumbnail sketches
4. Scan into Procreate
5. Illustrate and Colour on Procreate
6. Use ‘Bookwright’ (software from Blurb) to create book pages
7. Print book using Blurb
8. Wait for delivery!
9. Take photos and evaluate final product

research Blurb Pricing – to see if it’s even possible!:

I researched if it would be possible for Blurb to print just one book and it is! They also had the dimensions I wanted (18x18cm) which they call a ‘small square’. I wanted the pages to be matte so I had to get the premium paper. I had to make the page count 32 as it had to be an even number. £24.88 isn’t that bad, I was sure it was going to be more expensive, and it’s ok as it’s a one off and worth it as it can be a physical part of my portfolio in future, it also makes for a great assignment outcome as I haven’t made anything 3D for a while now.

Idea Brainstorms for each word:

Thumbnail sketches x 4 for each word:

Chosen thumbnail sketches:

Final illustrations:

‘Bookwright’ – create book pages and print book using Blurb:

Photos of outcome:

Evaluation of final product:

I am really happy with the way the way that the book turned out, it looks professional and I’m glad I actually have a 3D final outcome for once! I’m glad I paid for the matte paper also as it compliments the illustrations. I feel as though I responded to my own brief well. I tried hard on my illustrations and also listened to my tutors guidance of trying out different digital brushes and effects which I have included on many of the 31 illustrations. I stuck to the mandatories and formatting that I wrote as part of the brief. Some illustrations are stronger than others and I can see how this happened, I think some ideas were more exciting so I spent more time on them. I also used different art styles depending on what I saw in my head for ideas. It’s exciting for me to have my own ISBN, as it feels more professional.

I think it’s great that I have a physical outcome to also use as part of my portfolio for the future as an Illustrator, it’s a great way to look back on this unit.

References:

Inktober – https://inktober.com/

Blurb – https://www.blurb.co.uk/

BookWright – https://www.blurb.co.uk/bookwright

Reflection:

I need to look at the assessment criteria in the Introduction and make sure that my work meets the standards set.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

I feel as though my technical and visual skills are still getting better but are gradually getting stronger. I am still developing my art style and I primarily work digitally now. I have started to use different digital brushes that are offered through using Procreate. I think my observational, design and compositional skills are very strong.

Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas

Because I worked fully digitally on this part, I can see that my outcomes are very clear and the colours are bold. My conceptualisation of thoughts and communication of ideas is getting better and I feel as though this is shown strongly in Assignment 5. I have a clear design process now and this is almost done instinctively when I complete my work now. I feel as though my content is of a good standard but I can always be improved.

Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice

I think this section is my strongest in the criteria. I enjoy letting my mind go wherever it wants now, I create whatever comes into my head as long as it stays within the brief. This is shown well in Assignment 5 as I followed word prompts but used my imagination to sketch out ideas as thumbnails, I then continued to develop my ideas into full illustrations. I will continue to build on my personal voice.

Context reflection – research, critical thinking (learning logs and, for second and third level courses, critical reviews and essays)

I think this section is still weak but I think I am improving more. I am finding my research tasks more interesting and I am starting to gain an understanding of why it’s needed. I now need to focus on developing this section the most as I feel as though the amount of research is only going to get bigger! I complete and write in my learning log well though so that part is strong. I also update my learning log regularly and have down since the start of this course.

I had my feedback meeting with my tutor and she gave me useful feedback on my critical review, she gave me advice on what I need to improve on for the review so I have edited my review below.

2nd Draft of Critical Review:

This critical review proposal will outline my initial ideas about what subjects I want to look at and what kinds of questions I want to ask about the subjects I am interested in studying further. Throughout this course, I have experimented with different techniques and mediums in a variety of exercises and assignments but only a few have really interested me. Graphic Fiction, Fashion Illustration, Natural Science Illustration, and Reportage have been my favourite areas of study but I would also like to include a few more, these include, Animation, Photography and Graphic Design. I understand these subjects are very different than Illustration but, in my eyes, illustration is still involved in all three. I think there is a very strong connection between Illustration and Animation and this is the subject I would really like to develop and research further as I am going to hopefully be studying MA in Animation when I graduate. I have two questions: “In which ways do Dana Terrace and Rebecca Sugar use their illustrations and animations to communicate and show emotion so well?” and “How does Dana Terrace and Rebecca Sugar use similarities from their own lives to influence their animations?