Professional Project: Illustration Number 5 - Heathrow Airport

My process for creating random subject matter threw out Heathrow Airport. Which I though was a really boring subject to illustrate and I literally couldn't think of a single thing to do for it for ages. I tried to find some stats on lost luggage and cancelled flights but couldn't. In doing so I came across a couple of waiting time stats, I researched further and found a few more that I thought would make a good little illustration.

 The times are:

31 Minutes wait before you can check-in.

24 Minutes wait before you can go through security.

98 Minutes after that before you can board. (Based on arriving 3 hours before your scheduled departure as Heathrow advise and an average delay of 18 minutes.)

45 Minutes wait on the plane before it takes off.

As these were all at different point throughout the process of going through an airport I thought a sort of guide of wait times could be created in a sequential format. Which is exactly what I did.

I think the icons have worked quite well. I spent a long time changing the check-in icon over and over, i'm still not entirely sure about it but feedback seems to be that it works well in the context. Having the colour as grey I think is effective as it doesn't overpower as black would. I tried to keep the icons as simple as possible and I think this has worked well with the strip format.

Professional Project: Illustration Number Two - Richard Bartle & The Bartle Test

 Managed to finish up illustration two from my series.
The reasoning behind the imagery is thus. Richard Bartle put forward a theory that there are four groups of people who play online games. These were Killer, Socialiser, Achiever and Explorer. Each group was interesting in different aspects of playing online. A test was then divised to see which of the groups someone fell into and depending on the percentage of their answers they fell into the categories as shown in the image.

It took about 10 times longer than I ideally would have wanted but in the end I'm pleased with the outcome. I think it looks quite a lot like the old school game graphics - pixelated, limited use of colour etc. In particular I like the wine glass as I think the shading works well across it. The medal also works well, although I've just realised where I set it against a background the part of the ribbon that supposed to be white isn't so that needs fixing. But the wreaths around the 1 looks really good, simple use of two shades of square. I think the percentages also work well, I like how the numbers aren't quite perfect, it gives them a little bit of character.

Professional Project: Illustration (set) Number 4 - Bushido

Bushido is the name for the code of conduct that Samurai warriors adhered to. It was comprised of seven main virtues. If a Samurai was to break the code and disgrace himself, the only way to regain his honor would be through ritual suicide. The seven virtues were:

 

Honesty

 

Rectitude

 

Courage

 

Benevolence

 

Loyalty

 

Respect

 

Honor

The process for coming to this subject matter was:

Date: 02/03/2011

Book: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Page: 3

Word: (11th word) "Mortals"

Wikipedia: "Gods and Mortals"

Batman

Frank Miller

Ninja

Samurai

Bushido

The symbols on each illustration are the Japanese symbols for each of the virtues. I wanted to keep the colour scheme really simple to reflect old japanese art. The style is also picked to reflect this, although I decided to use less detail so as to leave block areas of colour. I looked at old Japanese drawings of Samurai and took the poses from these.

Design And Art Direction Awards Not Quite Final Piece

 

So here's the half of the video that Eddy Mac and I got finished before we succumbed to illness and had to drop out of the running. We're both really disappointed we didn't get to see this one through because on watching this back just now we we're both really pleased with the outcome. If we'd had more time there would have been some additional footage on the third screen section and ideally the same process completed for a second song.

I think that the succession of food being hit with the hammer is a really effective portrayal of the notes and makes for interesting watching, especially with the changing of speeds that comes with the chorus and the faster sections of the song it creates various lengths of clip which give a different effect. I think that the middle section is also very effective as the speed of the movement juxtaposes with the slowness of the third screen. I think that the 3 different speeds across 3 different screens works really well and the addition of some stop frame work on the third screen would have brought in an extra element to the video which would have completed the set. 

Work In Progress? The Gypsy And The Moon (Again)

Since last time I posted this I've added up extra layers of paint to most of this. The headband was originally green but it ran too much into the leaves on the rose so I switched it out to purple. The goats skull I painted in yellows and browns and then went over the top in a thin white acrylic so it's translucent. It's actually a bit whiter than it looks on the photo. I've also blocked in the background in a dark purple/dark blue/black mix to try and get it to look like a night sky, probably gonna add some stars on top of that.

Close up of the face. I'm really pleased with how the hair came out, it took a while to work over each area indivdually to get the gradients right in the seperate curls but it was definitely worth it for the effect it gives out.

 

Close up of the lettering. Pretty standard tattoo style script/cursive writing, which I do a lot. It's a lot harder with a paint brush than with a fineliner.

Professional Project: Illustration Number Three - Hermes

 

Hermes

If you're wandering what happened to Number Two, it's still being made. This one came from Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money' through some random words and ended up at Hermes. I had a look at those old Greek jars with the black imagery on them so that's where I took the colours and sort of the style from, lots of black blocking.

D&AD Diesel Illustration Brief: The End

 

So the deadline for D&AD is tommorow and due to Ed having an operation on his shoulder and then me getting ill and spending near enough a week in bed we've had to pull the plug and admit defeat. If only we were immune to mortal ailments. Above is a little glimpse of what we spent out time doing, although only a fraction. There was also a lot of hitting food with hammers and filming it, dropping eggs and things. This Diesel Logo is made with ketchup, flour and mayonaise and it was pretty large as you can see. That was fun. We nearly had one video of fruit smashing fun finished before befalling our bad luck spree. Maybe we'll get it finished and I can post it.