Print #5 (Office Worker)

For my 5th print, as part of my people and characters unit, I have developed my 5th print, as one on the similar theme of work. This print is a pair to the industrial worker, and they are tied to the 2 teenage prints.

For this print, I used the technique of inking up a board, and then lightly placing a sheet of paper over this. After this, I used a pen to draw directly onto the paper, which when removed, left a bold outline of my character.

Below, images from this print session. Including my final

I love the boldness of this image very much, this print contains a high contrast scheme. If I was to improve this piece, I would have added more detail.

Thomas.

Print #4 (Modern Teen, Female)

For my 4th print, as part of the people and characters unit, I have created a etching print, using a sheet of plastic, and an etching point tool. This print is a homage to Hartlepool's youth, and is similar in theme to the teenage male print, as well as the teenage worker, using historical themes from the past.

My etched print, of a female teenage character.

The print is an etching based print, I used a sharp cutting tool, to create lines on a sheet of plastic.

The process of making this type of print, involved using watered down printing ink, and a squeegee tool to allow the ink to get into the grooves that the needle like tool left. Then, after I soaked paper for a minimum of 15 minutes, and patted until it was just damp, I placed the print ready to go on the press, face down on the damp sheet. After winding it through the press, I removed the print, and I was left with this image (below right).

These two images are my finals for this particular print

I am very pleased with how they turned out, however, I particularly like the image on the left, as it features colour, and the lines look darker. This provides excellent effect, against the pale background.

Thomas.

Print #2 (Factory Worker)

For my second people and characters print, I have created a second lino piece. This lino piece follows similar themes to my first lino print, which I have documented in this blog. This particular print, is larger than my first lino cutting. It is around 3 times the size.

My second print, under development.

I used this sketch I created, as a reference point.

The character included in this print is of a victorian industrial worker. I created this character to reflect upon on the industrial history of hartlepool.


Here are my final 2 prints from this Lino cutting, below.

Thomas.

Print #3 (Modern Teen)

For my third print, as part of the people and characters unit in module one, I have created a final print, alongside several testers and secondary prints, of a stereotypical modern day teenager, from around the era of the 80's/90's and early 00's.

I created this print as a homage to Hartlepool during the eras of the 80's/90's and 00's. This illustration will fit alongside my other prints, that involve an industrial worker, a female teenager, and a rich figure.

I used this sketch (below) I created, as a reference point for my print.

For the creation of my final prints, I have used a few techniques for printing. 

My prints above. The darker print is notably the actual printing source sheet.

Thomas.

Print #1 (Rich Guy)

For my first people and characters print, that sadly never got to be placed on the wall, I created a lino cut out of a 'rich' guy. I carry the 'rich' stereotype across through the monocle, and a trench styled coat.

Sketching the character out onto the vinyls surface with graphite.

After using the cutting tools to highlight the lines.

With the background removed. This will allow the print to stand out more easily.

Final Prints in an assortment of different forms:

A tester print

Print with ink on.

Cleaning ink off print.

Assorted prints, on different surfaces, using different colours.

You can find my final selected prints for this image, alongside my submitted work, and here at the bottom of this blog.

Thomas.

Gallery viewing is live!

The exhibition is go! :) 

Thomas.

Mural is no more

Well, the folio gallery mural is now no more, the walls have been all painted over, back to their original colours. The mural served its purpose, and attracted the attention of the press, visitors, and more importantly, allowed myself and my group to gain experience in creating an actual live, running galley from scratch.

We worked well under high pressure, as well as workload, and we met the deadline for completion no problem. It was a really memorable, and enjoyable experience, and now every time that I peer to the folio gallery space, I will think of the time when I worked inside a collaborative group, to create something wonderful for the eyes.

Here is another reminder of what the exhibition space looked like, at several intervals during creation. (Below)

Before work was laid down.

The addition of the fisherman, which I think is great.

The first day of painting.

The second day of painting.

Completion.

I am glad to have been a part of this exciting unit. :)



Thomas.

Exhibition Aftermath

Well, the folio gallery exhibition is over, visitors have come and went. It all began at around 7:00pm, a few people turned up to look at our artwork, and I did overhear many compliments coming from them.

About 20 minutes after, the area was packed, there were at least 35 people in the folio, and it was so pleasing to see a great turnout.

About 40 minutes after, the crowd started to dissipate, and the exhibition was beginning to be over.

A very good showing, it wasn't my first exhibition, but it was definitely one of my best, something that I am grateful to have been a part of.

Thomas.

Jo Davies

Jo Davies is a freelance people and character illustrator and writer, who creates many illustrations commercially for children's books. (I can tie this in as part of my professional studies research because of this).

http://www.jodaviesillustration.com/page5.htm < Reference to image.

This link highlights her work in the children's market sector > http://www.jodaviesillustration.com/page4.htm

She works as an author and illustrator for such children's book companies as Barefoot Books, and Scholastic Books. She also produces educational work for such companies as Macmillans, Fabri and Chalkface.




Thomas.

Unit Recap

For the people and characters project, all other work aside (painting etc), my main section with the character element, was that I created several draft pencil characters, which turned into final charcoal characters, to fit inside ink printed bottles, that hung on the end of the fisherman's pier. I chose to use charcoal for the final characters, because it felt that by using this medium, it sort of reflected Hartlepool's past, in terms of its industry, which was all powered by the fuel of coal, a dusty, and black substance.

Charcoal is a substance that looks a lot like coal, however comes out on materials so much better. So it worked just perfectly. As a side bonus, it gave the piece the impression of industrial pollution. ( example, a smog dust atmosphere)

My idea was to create alternate people, user a unified theme. One of the characters was of a working teenager, living back in the industrial period timeframe, and the other was of a much more relaxed teenager in today's period in history. A stereotypical teenager, with a skateboard, and long hair.

An additional character, was of a 50's female, wearing 50's style fashion and clothing, to represent the middle period in Hartlepool's history.


Thomas.

Exhibition day

Today is the day of the big folio gallery exhibition. All is set for the press, and for the viewers to come in and to take a look at our hard work.

Very excited for today, can't wait until 6:00pm tonight, as that is when the exhibition begins. I will post an update to the blog, after the exhibition, detailing what happened.

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Brief Update: The event is about to begin, in a mere 20 minutes, about to go down to the folio, and begin showcasing mine and my groups very hard work.

Thomas

Gallery Project Complete

Yesterday, the people and character mural in the folio art gallery space, that myself and my group have worked on for two weeks, was finally completed.

As a recap to what the mural consists of, the piece contains various elements of hartlepool's culture, and maritime history, as well as environment. It has a number of different people and characters inside the ink-printed bottles, which are situated on the wall. The fisherman on the pier, who is 'fishing the bottles out', is Sophie's character, and I really love what she has done. Her style is rough, but fits the aggressive brush strokes of the sea.

The gallery exhibition is on november the 18th, and I will be attending, with two guests. I can't wait to see what they, and the press think of our accomplished hard work. I am very excited.

(Example of one of the characters in a bottle)

(Modern, and old fashioned teenage comparison sketches)

(The piece as of last thursday, unfinished)

(The finished piece)

(The bottles close up)

Thomas.

Lucia Emanuela Curzi

Lucia Emanuela Curzi is a talented people and character illustrator, who graduated from an art school in Milan, Italy. She creates work using a wide assortment of colours and techniques. Her work also has a very unique textured style toward it, in my opinion, as she uses water and various types of inks to her advantage.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/LuciaEmanuelaCurzi/view < image reference at this link.

Her favourite types of art equipment to use on her pieces, as said so on her site include, watercolours, and Windsor and newton inks. I think these two types of equipment work very well together, as I like using these myself.

Some of her clients include InStyle, Estée Lauder, Selfridges and Glow magazine.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/LuciaEmanuelaCurzi/view < Main site.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/PortfolioScrapbook.aspx?artist_id=3510 < Link to her great scrapbook, with images, and more info about her.

Thomas.

Sharon Tancredi

Sharon Tancredi is an illustrator, who produces work on people and character themes. She works in a pure cartoon style, and uses a broad range of vivid colours, in her work. I love her style, naturally to me, there is something about cartoon stylised artwork, that makes it really interesting to me. An element I tried to add into my character work, in my folio project. I aimed to be semi-realistic in my character design, but with a hint of realism.

http://www.folioart.co.uk/illustration/folio/artists/illustrator/sharon-tancredi < image reference at this link.

http://www.folioart.co.uk/illustration/folio/artists/illustrator/sharon-tancredi

Rodrigo Araya

Rodrigo Araya is a people and character illustrator who is a client of such big companies as O2, Panasonic and Siemens. He creates his images in a slightly cartoon-like style, something that I admire, as it is one of my favourite styles. From this I took inspiration, and I worked it into my mural character figures, to go into the ink bottles on the painting, that hang from the pier, on the far left of the piece.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/RodrigoAraya/view < image reference at this link.

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/RodrigoAraya/view

Gallery Viewing Hiccup

Today was the scheduled day, for my class and myself, to attend the gallery viewing, that was being run by the illustrator, Mr Penfold.

I was really looking forward to this, and I even turned up in my halloween costume, but alas, there was a hiccup with the bus, and it never showed up.

So we all sat in the Flix Movie Cafe instead, can't say I'm not disappointed with the bus issue, but at least it has been rescheduled, for a later date, so I will definitely be attending in the near future.

Thomas

Mural Painting, day #2

Today, was the second session day spent painting the large scale mural, on the wall at folio gallery for the November 18th exhibition.

As of today, the large painting is now almost complete, just a few patches now need filling in. Most of the work today was spent on such things as colouring in the sea, and adding to the plume of yellow toxic smoke. (Photos will be added soon).

After a group crit toward the end of the day, we all came to the conclusion, that the piece needs to include some more people and characters in it. So I started developing some more characters to place into real glass bottles, which will now hang from the pier, where Sophie's fisherman is featured.

My idea concept to contribute to the piece, was to use old and new themes. For example, I drew a young man from the 1800's, and a young man from today. One was an industrial worker, and one was a regular stereotypical teenager. I thought it would be notable, to display the extreme differences, between eras. (I will add my character photos soon)

After this section is added to the wall, the piece will be complete.

Thomas.

Mural Painting

Today, the main part of mural development went ahead, After yesterday's initial sketch on the wall.

Me and my group, spent the majority of the day painting the base on the folio wall gallery, after going through a very large amount of paint. I personally think one more day on the paintwork, and the mural will be complete, after buying more paint though of course.

I occupied most of my time spent on the mural, painting the power station, the wall under the landfill heap, and focusing on the tonal sea. 

(Above, photos of yesterday's mural progress, which was the basis for today's work).

A great majority of the piece has now been painted out, after a very busy, and collaborative day, working on the mural for the completion date, which is at the latest Monday the 4th of October.

I will post photos of the mural, as of the date this blog was made, very soon.

Guitarist live session

Today, for our third live session in the people and character project. There was a talented young guitarist, who I, including the class observed to sketch, and get a feel for how to draw a moving performance.

I really enjoyed this session, although like all the others, it was really difficult to sketch moving things, such as animals, people, and performances.

Here are some of the sketches that I created from the live session. (Below)