Character Development

Examples of characters:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/character-reference/

I catalogued the characters into the following: Babies, kids, teenagers, adults, animals, families, toys, and characters (made up).

At first I found this exercise really overwhelming, I didn't know where to start in choosing a character. I decided to start with what was familiar, I've created characters from animals before and I'm currently working on Christmas designs for my own art business products so it made sense to go with Christmas/Winter characters.

I narrowed it down to a snowman and Santa because they are the ones I want to use in my products.

I started with sketching snowman heads. I sketched them at first in a familiar way but then I accidentally drew the carrot nose a bit too plump and I thought actually that looks really cute so practiced drawing it that way intentionally.

I then scanned this in and practiced drawing the full snowman in Procreate.

I then sketched the Santa. I started with just his head to get a feel for his character and then drew him full bodied in different directions.

Here is my final Santa character.

Final Snowman character.

I really like how they both turned out and think with more practice I could get them even better.

Visual Distortion

Initially I struggled with this exercise, I wasn't sure how I wanted to approach it. I started with researching dog photos as I am a dog owner and so wanted to choose dogs over cats.

I decided to draw a Boston Terrier as I think they are really cute and not a dog I have owned before.

Dog Reference:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/dog-reference/

Sketch of a cute Boston Terrier using Copic markers.

Five Line Drawing:
I found the 5 line drawing really difficult and had to have a few goes before I got it right.

Collage:

I used a variety of textures for this collage. Charcoal lumps, rocks, marble counter tops, wool throws, fabric studded sofa, over exposed river, patterned fabric, white kitchen brick tiles, black kitchen floor tiles. It surprised me how long this took to do, trying to get the colours and patterns glued down in a way that worked with the colours and shadows of the dog.

Drawn Collage Illustration:

Drawing the collage patterns on the dog I found really difficult because of all the detail involved. There seemed to be so much and it seemed so complicated but I got there in the end.

I really liked the marble and the floral patterns the most so decided to focus on those for the next part. I drew the simplified version in Procreate first.

Then I added in the patterns using a pencil brush.

I thought he looked really cute with the new simplified patterns and it made me think he would look great as a company mascot.

Instantly I thought of a tea company and decided to create my visuals as brand mock ups for 'Boston Tea Co.'

I used the pattern from the dog to create a pattern for the tea caddy.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out, they still need some polishing up but I think the concepts work really well and I am amazed how this has evolved from the initial exercise.

A Tattoo

Tattoo Research:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tattooing

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tattoo-history_n_4957215?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=ohP8yxkuMb4ykNKHqoddyQ

https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/5-remarkable-animal-moms

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/05/animals-mothers-pandas-spiders-octopus/

https://www.tattoodo.com/a/2014/08/30-beautiful-tattoos-on-dark-skin/

https://www.xojane.com/beauty/skin/getting-a-tattoo-on-brown-skin

To begin with I did a spider diagram for ideas to do with the word Mother.

I then thought about who this man/friend was, what were his interests, style so that I could get an idea of the style of tattoo he might like. I then decided how I would represent his Mother in a tattoo. I decided to choose her favourite things to represent her in tattoo form.

Her favourite things are stags, winter/snowflakes and trees. I also wanted to use brushlettering with the word Mum to make it more personal and also creative.

Tattoo Research:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/tattoos-research/

I decided to go with the black and grey style of tattoo and practiced different ways of drawing the elements I wanted to include.

Thumbnails of tattoo layout ideas.

I played around with several compositions until I found one I felt worked the best.

Deer Reference:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/deer-reference/

Practicing brushlettering using Tom Bow pens.

Rough first line drawing.

This was my first line visual for my idea, I liked it overall but felt the stag needed to be more realistic for this design, so I looked for good stag reference photos (see link above)

I then decided to import my initial sketch into Procreate and then sketch over the top to get the detail I wanted.

So this is what I came up with after lots of trial and error. I am much happier with this one and so proceeded to start adding in detail.

I used a calligraphy brush tool to get most of the lines as I wanted a very precise look to it. I wanted lots of detail for the snowflakes and so added that to each one individually.

When it came time to put the detail into the stag I really struggled to know how to approach it. I tried using like an airbrush tool but it just didn't look right. I felt the line drawing of the stag was quite strong and so didn't want to take away from that. I then tried the stipple brush tool and found that to be perfect. I could add shading and highlights without it being too heavy.

This is the final tattoo design. I am really pleased with how it turned out, this was one of my favourite exercises and I really enjoyed all the drawing involved to get the design just right. I feel this exercise along with the book cover one has really helped me learn new skills on using Procreate, which is very new to me, but a skill I really wanted to learn.

My illustration also looks good small so would be ideal for a greeting card too.

Updates:

Greeting card mock up.

Body Mock up.

People photo created by yanalya - www.freepik.com

A Menu Card

For this exercise I started with lots of research. I wanted to find out  more about European restaurants, the kinds of meals that would be on the menu and the kind of restaurants that already served fish dishes and what their branding was like.

I started with a Spider diagram for the words sophisticated and European:

Fish Types & Associated Colours:

Colour psychology in branding:

Colour Research:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/fish-restaurant-logo-colour-ideas/

This board contains sections for colour ideas based on what I imagined the fish restaurant to look like inside.

A section for types of fish that they might serve and font ideas/menu samples.

I also did research on current fish restaurants, looking at their websites for colours ideas, menu ideas and an overall ambience. These are the links I visited:

https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/restaurant-gordon-ramsay/?utm_source=tripadvisor&utm_medium=referral

https://www.galleylondon.co.uk/?utm_source=tripadvisor&utm_medium=referral

http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk/?utm_source=tripadvisor&utm_medium=referral

http://www.bentleys.org/

https://www.anglerrestaurant.com/

https://www.scotts-restaurant.com/?utm_source=G&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=G_LPM_Scotts

https://thewrightbrothers.co.uk/

https://thehawksmoor.com/locations/airstreet/

https://decaturlondon.com/

http://prawnonthelawn.com/

List of European fish dishes:

https://www.yummly.co.uk/recipes/european-fish-main-dish

https://www.thespruceeats.com/top-eastern-european-fish-and-shellfish-recipes-1136286

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/99designs.com/blog/creative-inspiration/fish-logos/amp/

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.pinterest.co.uk/amp/koyl5/fish-illustration/

Fish Restaurant Meals Research:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/fish-restaurant/

Colours:

After researching different colour palettes I decided on colours navy, copper, light grey and white as I felt that would represent the brand well and would look sophisticated for the restaurant decor.

Sketches:

For the logo illustration I decided to use a simple copper coloured crab with waves underneath which would look smart on a menu but also be suitable for branding and could be used in the restaurant on walls, windows, signage etc. I chose the crab because it was more simple in design and would look good for a sophisticated style.

Ideas for crab illustrations:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/crab-illustrations/

Large scale illustration:

Illustration with background cleaned up:

40 x 40mm Illustration:

Illustration with restaurant name:

A Children's Book Cover

I started by doing research into what children aged 7 - 11 were actually into. I asked a range of families and here is a summary of what I found.

Whether girls or boys they all seem to enjoy a similar style of book and illustrations. Very comical, primary based colours, cartoony illustrations. I was surprised that out of the range of families I asked they all enjoyed similar titles and styles. I have pinned some of the books mentioned by the families on my Pinterest board below.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/kids-books/


Research on animals of the world:
Next I did some research of different types of animals from around the world.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/animals-of-the-world-reference/

I cataloged the animals into countries and found this really interesting as some of the animals I hadn't heard of before.

Initial Sketches:

Based on the research I had done and the overall theme coming through I wanted to create covers that were more comical and bold in design. Using bright bold colours and the use of black outlines like some of the books my research members mentioned.

Book Cover 1 Visual:

Book cover visual 2:

Book cover visual 3:

For the colouring of the designs I decided to use digital because I wanted a very crisp bold look to the covers. I chose a variety of animals to make the covers appealing.

I think the covers came out fairly good, I wasn't sure if I had put in too much detail for a colour visual, I think they ended up being closer to finished covers.

Museum Posters

We decided to visit the East Anglian Musem of Life for this exercise, it is quite a large museum based in Stowmarket, Suffolk, with many out buildings showing various exhibitions.

We picked up a leaflet for the map and exhibitions list and also noticed they did a comic trail for kids too.

I took lot's of photos of a lot of the exhibits, we didn't get round to seeing everything but we did most of it.
I've added my photos to one main album on Flickr and then divided them up into age groups as well. I think a lot of the exhibits are really interesting and would appeal to all ages but have tried to distinguish as much as I can.

Main album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173850@N08/albums/72157701131598251

Child aged 5 - 9 album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173850@N08/albums/72157702538761864

Teenager aged 13 - 16 album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173850@N08/albums/72157696844254760

General Adult album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143173850@N08/albums/72157701164804041

Museum Sketches:

Line Visuals for each age range:

Coloured visuals:

Initial Sketch & Coloured line visual for final poster - Adult audience:

 

Colour palette ideas:

Finished Poster:

Revised Version: