Talenthouse - Capture The Spirit Of Halloween

I submitted a work to a Talenthouse contest a couple of years ago for a This is England project. I found out about this a couple of days ago but didn't really look at the brief, I've now realised that submissions must be in by the 29th September so If I want to enter this I'm gonna have to be able to crack something out quickly. Luckily I love halloween and when I'm in my element I can get really absorbed into making something so I think I would like to do this, as I have been thinking lately about making halloween related work anyway, and it will give me good practice working quickly. Since the deadline is the 29th, I'm guessing I can't include this in my extended practice work but I can/will document this process on my PPP blog. 

Extended Practice Prep: Inktober

This would be quite a small self initiated brief, there is an official prompt list from the creator of inktober. The task is basically do to a drawing using ink every day of October - which would be a fun way of improving skills with ink (of which I do not have many). I just thought doing this would be a bit of fun as a sketchbook project alongside bigger, better, proper briefs. It would give me an opportunity to experiment with ink and maybe different kinds of ink, bending the 'rules' - printing ink is still ink, so I could do prints, or find exciting ways to use regular ink.

Extended Practice Prep: Christmas Animation Brief

Enrollment day and things are exciting already. Fred announced an exciting sounding brief, to create an animation with christmas / winter themes that will be projected onto the lifting tower. This brief is something I would be interested in doing, and I've got to decide whether to do it pretty quickly.

I think I will just to get the ball rolling on briefs. I think there are opportunities with this brief - connections to be made, new experiences etc.

My only real worry about it is the fact I am not great at animating, and would have to propose something simple to make it feasible in any way shape or form. However sometimes simple is good.

It's mandatory for level 6 animation students to enter submissions for this brief so I don't have particularly high hopes for managing to place my humble illustration submission but I think it would definitely be an experience that would help me build up skills in storyboarding, creating presentation boards, and gentle animation - all good skills to have as an illustrator!

Extended Practice Prep: Music related ideas

Something music related - Band posters / Gig posters / CD art covers

• think it would be fun to focus it around pop-punk / alternative bands that put out absolutely iconic tunes when I was growing up. Blink - 182 - All the Small Things, Fountains of Wayne - Stacys Mom, Evanescence - Bring Me To Life, Sum 41 - In too Deep, Bowling For Soup - 1985 - maybe a design for a compilation album. 
• CD cover / booklet could include lyrics - working / experimenting more with typefaces
• Gig posters is definitely something I'm interested in doing because a lot of gig posters are just photographs of the band these days but I really like the more intricate, artistic ones, they're more eyecatching for me. 
• These things could easily be transferred into stickers / tshirt designs / merchandise
• Could be a selection of bands or focusing on one band

Drew Millward has done a lot of work for the band PHISH, creating these posters. I think they're pretty neat, and many bands require album artwork etc. I think this project would have scope and definitely be very fun to do! A lot of band posters are just photographs of the band and maybe I could explore some photo-collage style stuff or something like what Hattie Stewart does - drawing over magazines.

Extended Practice Prep: I want to make some patterns

Last year I got really into pattern and over summer I have enjoyed making patterns as well. I would like to do a project that focuses around patterns so I thought that it would be a good idea to enter Feathr again. I submitted two designs last year, but thats when I had just started making patterns and I would like to push myself in this field and learn more about successful pattern making - try out different techniques etc. I have only made patterns digitally and I'm wondering about traditional pattern making methods I could explore. I feel like this project should be based around something so I'm not just generating random patterns, but I'm not sure what. It's got to be something I can stay interested in and research, maybe something with a purpose, endangered animals or something? I'm honestly not sure!!!

This is a pattern I made over summer that was based on The Killing Joke. I love how this turned out but I don't want to do a project basing these patterns on someone else's work I want to create something more original - as other projects I have proposed are working from other people's ideas (commemorative buffy stuff, Pan Macmillan, etc) 

Extended Practice Prep: Pan Macmilan

https://www.panmacmillan.com/macmillanprize

It's been a little difficult to choose live briefs as briefs that are live now don't run into term time and a lot that will be on during term (D&AD, YCN, big name stuff) isn't on yet. Two potential briefs I think I may be interested in are the Panmacmillan Prize and the Penguin / Random House book covers. I entered the penguin contest last year and enjoyed creating the book cover, but that all depends on what books are chosen - I may not be so interested in them or find them hard to read (I'm a slow reader anyway and struggle to get through books) thinking about this the PanMacmillan prize may be more suited to my interests as you can choose an old fairytale of folk-tale to illustrate. I think this would be especially fun as I am developing quite a dark style, and original fairytales are quite dark and scary - I think I could make some really out there work based on a fairytale. (Plus I have a big ratty book of fairytales from when I was a kid that has a lot of horrifying stories in it, and illustrations that terrified me as a child). It may be interesting to look at the deeper and darker themes of fairytales, though they're barely appropriate for children. 

I love the work of Camille Rose Garcia. I think her work is quite creepy, but also so visually pleasing with all the colour and shapes and interesting characters. I think it stays child appropriate while also being a little weird. (Akin to Tim Burton's films Nightmare before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie - they're definitely appropriate for children but have darker elements). I think it would definitely be interesting to see how my work would translate when added to a story. 

This project has a lot of elements to it and could involve character design as well as page layouts and text, it would definitely be a big project to work on. There are many constraints on the brief which I think would be helpful for me and definitely something I can really get into. 

Extended Practice Prep: Ideas errywhere - Illustration Friday

I'm not sure if this counts as a live brief or just a self set one so I'll just throw it out there as an idea. I want to explore narrative more, and I have a terrible habit of over complicating things. The idea is to use the weekly 'Illustration Friday' themes and creating a three panel comic based on that theme. This would help me to not over-complicate things by restraining myself to three panels (a beginning middle and end). The different starting stimuli will allow me to not get bogged down over one huge complicated story - I am not a storyteller and my brain is a confusing place so I feel the need to get a grasp on narrative before attempting something larger.

I did have an idea while listening to The Tell Tale Hound by Louis Barabass and the Bedlam Six to maybe do a horror comic illustrating the story of the song - but thinking about this I feel like doing that while being fun may be biting off more than I can chew, especially with my tendency to over complicate things! Maybe I can do this on my own time, one day.

Some short  comics I've been enjoying as of late include Adam Ellis - This is pretty fun as it shows how you can transform comics for the internet so you can add an extra level of gentle movement to it. COOL, also funny and relatable with simple, straight forward, non-complicated, ideas!