SEMESTER 2!!

Week 1- Illustration in Response to the Written Word

The first brief we've been given is to create an editorial illustration based on an article we've been given. Here is the article I chose at random:  

And here's what I have to produce: 
1 × illustration
135 × 75mm
CMYK
&
1 × spot illustration
45 × 65mm
B&W

In brief, the article writes about how Bird Watching has become increasingly popular during the lockdown period and that bird watching groups have seen their memberships rise due to this. Many are using bird watching and listening to bird song in order to help cope with their anxiety during the pandemic. 

Overall, the article is uplifting and lighthearted. I need this to reflect in my illustrations. 

Brainstorming: 

I have also recently invested in Procreate for the iPad. I'm really impressed with the app and plan on using it a lot more. Please excuse the bad drawings, my pencil hasn't arrived yet so I've done these with my finger which is very difficult! However for quick brainstorming it'll do. 

For the main illustration I was thinking of drawing a bird-watcher looking happy and enjoying the tranquility of the outdoors and the birdsong. I'm unsure whether or not to have a piece where the focus is mainly on the bird-watcher (denoting that they are a bird-watcher with the binoculars and other objects perhaps?) or to create a garden based setting with a bird as the main focus. This is something I will have to think about in order to decide which is more suitable for the brief. 

Another idea I had was to draw a webpage, or a Facebook page for a bird-watching group and somehow show the member numbers rapidly increasing. ​

Looking further into editorial illustration: 

Responding to feedback:

I felt that the feedback session we had with Dwayne was very useful. It made me realise that I was going in the wrong direction with my ideas. My ideas are only portraying the idea of bird watching they're not portraying the idea of bird watching during the pandemic, which is what the article is about. So with that in mind, here are some of my new ideas: 

Here I was trying a range of different ideas. I must admit that I am finding it rather difficult to think of things to accurately portray the content of the article. However, I did like the image of the girl sat looking out the window, so I decided to look at this one and develop it further. 

Developing Ideas Further. 

From the thumbnail sketches, I really liked the idea of the phones and also the person sat looking out the window. I decided to work on these and push them further before deciding on my final piece.

Rough Idea for the spot illustration

Feedback pt.2 

After some very helpful additional feedback with Tony on our Monday session, I looked at my designs again and pushed them even further to fit the article better. 

I thought for the person sitting in the window, I could turn their head into a pair of binoculars, the lenses as eyes, looking out the window at the colourful singing birds.  The coronavirus is the wallpaper, but the person has their back to it and is instead focusing on the birds, and the phone on the blanket has the bird watching group on it... which I hope relays the contents of the article a lot better. However I do feel as if this could be pushed further again although I'm not 100% sure how. 

For the spot illustration, I liked the idea of having the phone with a bird watching group page up on it, I think this has clear denotation of the article. I also put little colourful birds on the coronavirus. I must admit when I was making this, I forgot that it was meant to be in black and white, therefore I think I could change the colours in the original piece in order to have a range of different tones which help the piece stand out more in the B&W piece.