Summer projects 2023

Over the summer between year 2 and year 3, I gave myself four smaller projects to complete which were based on popular children's books. At the time my goal was to work in children's book illustration after university. My aim for all of these projects was to diversify the characters in race, age, abilities, gender or sexuality. (click on image to go to non-clickable pages)

Mr Men and Little Misses 

I got into fashion illustration toward the end of year two, so I made a project for myself to make fashion illustrations out of the Mr Men and Little Misses characters. This was to get a better knowledge of alcohol markers and pencil crayons which I used when illustrating all of these characters, I used this little project to sharpen my photoshop skills so I could take advantage of texture layers to give atmosphere and mood to the pieces.  (click on first image to go to hidden page)

Drawing skills 

I wasn't taught the basic drawing skills or the proper ways to use different pencil grades while in school. I have addressing this need by drawing pages of portraits. One way I have been doing is drawing in public, however with the cold weather it hasn't been as accessible. So for some portraits I have used the account: @Earthsworld on instagram to find more unique people to draw. I moved on to using a fineliner test if the mood changed for the portrait

How I address art block

Another issue I have been addressing recently is art block, toward the end of semester one I entered a depressive episode in which I couldn't get into painting anything. A technique I found that works is taking a material you used as a child and a subject you don't often use. For me that is highlighters and buildings. This really helped me warm up and made me want to draw more recently. It was also a quick way to get in some thumbnails of these two paintings. I painted from a trip to Whitstable, of a friends home studio and a cute restaurant I found.

University project- Geraldine the Ghost

Geraldine the Ghost is from a project I had at university in year two, I was inspired at the time by series like heart-stopper and sad ghosts club. The project behind it was a protest pack, and I chose to use the debate on trans healthcare/ acceptability for mine. I made a digital zine about how to address coming out as a parent. It was the first inkling to combining education and illustration for me. 

University project- History

A project from my last semester at university,the project was based on History and my given theme was Molly Houses. It was another mix of education and illustration, I used the project to tell the stories of the Molly's. This project was helpful in me learning about Photoshop more, because I had to use different unique tools to enhance the pieces I presented. 

University project- Science

Another recent project at university was on a science textbook which I had to envision I was modernizing. For mine I tried to use existing visual language to my advantage. For my presentation I wanted to include visuals to help visual learners or neurodivergent people. It was important for me to keep it fun, bright, and colourful. This was a very mixed media project (Watercolours, gouache, digital and scans)