The Bear

Our sequential narrative project is almost over and sadly, it will soon be time for essays (due on the 3rd of Jan!) I've found this project to be a pretty big morale boost- everyone seems to enjoy my story and feel its something that you could easily see as a book. My tutors also suggested I try and make a complete dummy book with at least four pieces of finished artwork so I can submit it for the Macmillan's book prize next year- how exciting! I certainly feel I've learnt a lot more about narrative and picture books compared to some of my previous book attempts- this one feels a lot more promising!

Though storyboarding the sequence and drawing the character has been fun, making the actual artwork has been a little more difficult- I've been trying to change the way I draw every so slightly. Drawing in pencils and using colour markers is definitely a lot more time efficient than using fine liners and black pens- I wonder if its the right way to progress.

For today, I'll show off  two rough images I made of my main character, the second image was made in the letter press (Ania, a Canadian girl in my class helped me make it)

Polychromos

Recently, I think I have learnt about some very important strengths of my own, and its not just the ability to make nice looking detailed images either. My work has a pretty good sense of humor (my rough dummy book managed to make my tutor laugh.)
I can come up with great ideas and appealing characters which for me, is almost a daily occurence and recently I've been told I make some great compositions/layout for an image. The one major frustration though is that I can come up with so many ideas, yet it takes so long for me to finish one image, so at the moment I've been playing around with Polychromo pencils:

They have been fun to use, and drawing something in pencils is a lot quicker.I've also tried mixing them up a little bit with copic markers which seems to turn out well. I kinda hope these drawings still look like 'me'

Exciting Ma childrens book course

I've been pretty wrapped up in my sequential image project this week- things at Cambridge have felt very exciting, especially after proposing my sequential ideas. Though I'm finally drawing random doodles from my imagination again I did want to at least try and learn something from my observational drawings by making future work not as stiff or static. (though strangely enough, I've been told that my traditional drawing method is working for my current project.)

Looking back on it, It feels a bit surreal that I've been taught and had lectures by many prestigious illustrators such as James Mayhew, Salvatore Rubbino, Anthony Browne and Alexis Deacon to name a few- it was also great to attend a book launch by some of the stars of our illustration course!

I'm not sure who took this photo. Possibly Martin as he was complaining I was too tall for the photo. This picture has been shared on Marta Altes and Jenni Desmonds facebook pages and I just wanted to share.

Out of the three books there,  I really wanted to get Marta Altes's new book 'My Grandpa' Which I think even my professor Martin felt could be a possible 'classic' and in a way, I think I can understand why. I wondered if one day, I too could make a book everybody knows and loves.

Drawings of Ryan

Only two more weeks of observation drawing left and then I move onto my second project so me and my classmates have been drawing quite a lot- heres some great drawings of me!!

Observation drawings~

I've been dedicating a lot of my time to the observation project- our tutors seem to expect a lot from us- eight hours of non stop drawing! Its been tough to get back into observation drawing since I seem to have ended up drawing in a 'particular' way but it has been a lot of fun just learning and people watching in town. I have at least two sketchpads of drawings so far- some good, and some pretty bad but it has been fun at least. Here are a couple of drawings from my books which have been called 'good'.  

Indonesian Leaflets

I thought these two photos were pretty cute and I wanted to upload them on here for a while. My little website has a small following and its thanks to great people like Mira and Metha from Indonesia who wanted   one of my leaflets from the Southampton museum. Thank you both for your kind support!

adventures in Cambridge

I went to go see the choir sing at the Kings College. Not really interested in going to church but it was a pretty ethereal and unique experience- the inside of the building was beautiful (and pretty inspiring) So I recommend giving it a try.

I was also a bit more hopeful about my project after speaking to Martin. I think he wanted less 'drawings that look like 'illustration' and more drawings that look just like drawings if that makes sense. I did at least get some rather positive feedback from my 'regular' style of illustration from Martin though which is always nice. He even drew in my book- so now I have a Martin Salisbury drawing to keep.

Also kinda glad I made some of these cards, I gave one of these to workers at one of the cafes and got a free tea and a glass of water!