Educational Strip

Firstly I made a start researching illustrated strips to get an idea of style and how to put one together since I've not done this before.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/comic-strips/





Spider Diagram:

I started with a spider diagram to think about the way boys and girls are differently affected by the onset of puberty.

I decided I wanted to take the boys view and illustrate a educational strip for them.

Ideas:
Since I am fairly new to comic style illustration and character design I decided to start with using reference images to practice drawing teenage boys.

I tried using different pens to see how it affected the character lines. 

I then decided to do a practice of what my strip might look like based on some of my reference images. I've not done anything like this before so I wanted to get a rough idea of the direction I might be going in.

I then started to think what kind of story I would tell and which angle I could go with, these are the options I came up with.

Character Development & Thumbnails:

I decided to go for a fairly simple story with a bit of a comedy slant. I wanted to aim my comic at teenage  boys and so went for a very sketchy look. Inspired by my favourite comic artists I tried to keep it quite loose and simple in design.

Mock Up:

Character Design for Front Cover

Educational Strip:

Working for Children

Collect Imagery for Children:


I collected a range of book covers and illustrations for pre-readers to Young Teens.

Age Groups Chosen:
I chose 7 - 9 year olds (Established Readers) and 5 - 7 year old (Early Readers) as my age groups and the words 'Wild' and 'Growing.

Animals:

I chose a tiger for the 7 -9's and a bunny rabbit for 5 - 7's.

References:




Simple Image:

I chose to draw the tiger in a more grown up way for the 7 - 9's and I chose Copic markers to colour it in to give a bold effect.

For the 5 - 7's I wanted a soft feel, so chose watercolours and ink pen to illustrate this one.

I think there can be a slight cross over in the age brackets, especially when you are going above 5 years old. There are many ways to illustrate for these age groups and different types will appeal to different children.

For the older group I thought they might like something a bit 'tougher' and 'grown up', whereas the younger children would prefer something much softer and gentle. I think this is because the younger audience are still quite close to their parents for comfort and the slightly older group are starting to get a bit more daring and independent so would have different needs.

I don't think all children's illustration should have bright colours, I think as I said above different styles appeal to different children not necessarily relevant to age. I think bright colours help to catch the eye when illustrating book covers but there are many books that have soft illustrations and soft colours the appeal equally to children.

It's an interesting subject of how an illustration communicates to different age groups and I look forward to exploring this further which future projects.

Packaging

Firstly I started researching what animals are classed as extinct so I could get a good idea what kind of animals I could use for the biscuit packaging. I firstly wanted to have a range of animals in mind and then narrow it down to the ones children might recognise more.

I searched on Pinterest to see what kind of things came up and then moved on to other sources.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/extinct-animals/


Then I looked for articles on reptable sites, I wanted to make sure the source of my information was accurate. I looked at the following articles:

https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/general-animals/extinct-animals/

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/22/11-extinct-animals_n_4078988.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGQw_eMITZ-eJSh1B_lbj8ypf4FsSMLJklA0qJoEsdYR5fuR_2tY4U5yQJCqmKvXObCZ6BrOHsTaLMvWxXzH7giwCKPbjgP0RojZApnbtjICPoA-wJiEuCHgth0XDMD_GAn-LtcHpZ9p5pSDxoSURHdU53k9TBm63660drgnOaK_

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/02/the-uks-extinct-animals-can-we-bring-them-back/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/lists/beautiful-extinct-animals/

Then I did some research online for existing children's biscuits:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/biscuit-packaging/

I included research for regular biscuits and organic and also did some colour ideas here.

Then I went to my local supermarket to see what they had and took some reference photos of a range of children's foods and biscuits to get ideas for designs currently in use, colours, style etc. My supermarket didn't really have much in the way of organic items for children so I will refer to my online research for further ideas.

Coming back to the character I will use for the biscuit packaging I decided on three extinct animals; Tasmanian Tiger, Quagga (looks like half horse, half zebra) and the Lynx said to be extinct from the UK.
I chose these animals because they look similar to animals that are still living today and so children would recognise them more. I ruled out using dinosaurs simply to be different and more unique.

In terms of who my packaging will be aimed at it will be the parent but will still be eye catching to the child.

I noticed a lot of organic children's packaging has a matte type of finish and some tend to have more muted/natural colours, I really like this look so will try to implement that in my designs.

The colour research I did online for the different flavour biscuits was interesting, I found that certain colours are used quite a lot for specific flavours for example orange for ginger, purple for raisin and red or browns for chocolate chip. I think this is because our minds instantly connect those flavours with what the ingredient looks like so it in turn makes sense to us. So when we go to the supermarket looking for a specific thing like ginger nut biscuits our eyes are drawn to the orange coloured packaging. This isn't the case for every biscuit packging some use those colours more subtly including them in the design, rather than the overall colour. I will take this into consideration as I design mine.

Character development

Visual 1

Visual 2

Visual 3

Mock Up

Final Illustration

Text Option 1

Text Option 2

Text Option 3

Final Mock Up

Credit: http://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates/psd-cardboard-packaging-mockup

Editorial Illustration

Article Chosen.

The heading for the article and the illustration itself take a slightly comical view of something that can be very serious for those affected by dementia. Since the article is written by the lady herself I assume she is wanting to put a little light on a difficult subject. The article itself reads like a story which concludes with a warning on how to potentially spot the signs of early dementia in loved ones.

The style of the illustration is comical and storybook like with bold colours and a simplistic but effective design. It really stands out as the central piece, drawing your eye into the article itself. I think it's quite a clever angle to take for such a serious subject.

Chosen Heading:

I heading I chose for my editorial illustration was: 'The best restaurant in town'.

I then proceeded to look for articles that would suit the heading, it took some digging as a  lot of the things I found online were Top 10 places to eat... type of articles but I managed to find an interesting one about a fish restaurant fairly local to where we live.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/features/wells-crab-house-wins-best-restaurant-in-norfolk-award-1-5696811

Initial Thoughts:

The words or key important facts from the article that stood out to me were:

• Award Winning
• Local Fresh Fish/Seafood
• Personal Touches
• Front of House
• Decor

Rough Sketches:

Words to describe the Illustration:

• Fun
• Diagrammatical
• Cartoon Style
• Story
• Bold Colours (matching the restaurant decor)
• Decorate the text

Size: 4 x 4 inches (10 x 10 cm)

Visual Roughs:

Rough 1

Rough 2

Rough 3

Rough 4

My initial ideas were to create icons of the most meaningful things about the restaurant including the two awards won. I wanted the shop icon to be the main focal point of the illustration, especially as the decor is so quirky and talked about in the article also. I thought about ways to tie the icons together and thought about drawing little shells as directional wavy lines but then I thought fish shapes would be more fun and relevant. I wasn't sure if it cluttered the image too much so I will play around some more with this and see how it looks. I thought about drawing some shells as decoration to help fill the space more equally. I will put all this into Procreate and play around with placement for the icons and colours.

Final Client Visual:

I decided to go for a simpler version of my previous ideas. I really wanted to capture the shop front as it is so vibrant and eye catching and I wanted to include the awards they had won too.

Final Illustration:

I am really pleased with the final illustration, I like the simplicity of it and I feel it communicates the vibrancy and uniqueness of the restaurant which came across in the article and the photos i found on their website.

Travel Guides

For this exercise we are to create travel guide illustrations for three places; Istanbul, Helsinki and Milan.

I started by going to my local library to research what travel guides looked like, especially the front covers and how different companies produced them differently.

 

I found that most travel guides they had were around A5 in size, 148 x 210mm.

I then went on to research the places,

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/travel-guides/

I tried to find reference for the places most popular attractions, what it is known for and places to eat etc.

Istanbul, Turkey the vibrant colours and patterns struck me most and this is something I'd like to include in my design. I used this article to get more of an idea of what Istanbul is like: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/turkey/istanbul
https://www.google.com/destination?q=istanbul&safe=strict&site=search&output=search&dest_mid=/m/09949m&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjNiYCFw-PgAhVxThUIHRnGA9wQ6tEBKAQwAHoECAEQBw#dest_mid=/m/09949m&tcfs=EhoaGAoKMjAxOS0wMy0xOBIKMjAxOS0wMy0yMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niCzGnzQblM

Helsinki, Finland has beautiful architecture and seems very romantic and focused on design. I used this article to get more ideas: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/finland/helsinki
https://www.google.com/destination?q=helsinki&safe=strict&site=search&output=search&dest_mid=/m/03khn&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx6P2gwOPgAhUDSBUIHRLdBDMQ6tEBKAQwAHoECAEQBw#dest_mid=/m/03khn&tcfs=EhwaGAoKMjAxOS0wMy0xOBIKMjAxOS0wMy0yMiAB
This video was really useful to learn more about the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOQWN9Q95oE

Milan, Italy comes across as a very contemporary city, with its focus on art and creativity, fashion and design. This article gave me more information: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/italy/milan
Further research: https://www.google.com/destination?q=milan&safe=strict&site=search&output=search&dest_mid=/m/0947l&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj26aWLvOPgAhW1RRUIHdDvDosQ6tEBKAQwAHoECAQQBw#dest_mid=/m/0947l&tcfs=EhoaGAoKMjAxOS0wMy0xOBIKMjAxOS0wMy0yMg
https://www.timeout.com/milan/things-to-do/shopping-in-milan
https://www.timeout.com/milan/things-to-do/best-attractions-in-milan
https://www.timeout.com/milan/restaurants/best-restaurants-in-milan
https://www.timeout.com/milan/restaurants/how-to-eat-like-a-local-in-milan
https://www.timeout.com/milan/hotels/best-hotels-in-milan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVLfT2_Vo4

When looking at the hotels to stay, I was particularly looking at the designs of the rooms, the colours they used, styles of furniture, art on the walls. This one took my eye for the design elements and colours, so I'd like to use that to influence my illustration.
https://www.timeout.com/milan/hotels/room-mate-giulia

Lettering:

Istanbul lettering ideas:

Helsinki lettering ideas:

Milan lettering ideas:

Diagrammatical Illustrations:
I needed a reminder of diagrammatical illustration styles and so I did some research on Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/travel-guides/

Spider Diagrams:

My Brief:

Create three eye catching diagrammatical travel guide illustrations, combining the best things about each city. Illustration to fit 5 x 7 inches. Text should be hand-drawn in appropriate colours and font to the city. The travel guide illustrations are to be attractive to young adults wanting to explore city life.

Other Research:

https://www.islamicity.org/11228/blue-mosque-the-jewel-of-istanbul/

Prada Logo

https://www.prada.com/us/en/women.html

https://www.baltictravelcompany.com/northern-lights-finland/

Client Visual 1: 

Client Visual 2: 

Client Visual 3: 

Mock Up: 

I really struggled with this exercise because I am not used to travelling and have virtually no knowledge of these cities. I really struggled to narrow down what I wanted to put into my illustrations. In the end because I was so limited for time left I incorporated an outline of the cities with their most prominent features. Northern lights for Helsinki, bold colour of the Italian flag and outline of the city for Milan and bright, vibrant colours, the city view and outline for Istanbul.

I am pleased with these ideas but realise I needed to do much more exploration work through thumbnails etc and just didn't have the time in the end to finish it as detailed as I would have liked.

Book mock up credit:

http://www.pixeden.com/psd-mock-up-templates/paperback-psd-book-mockup-vol6