Colourlovers

http://www.colourlovers.com

Continuing on my exploration for inspirational and useful websites, I recall being informed of a website called 'colourlovers'. On this website, using the search bar, you can look for the colour palettes that other artists have used in their work. I have found this website invaluable as I often struggle to find colours that work well together in my work, not only does this website solve most of my issues, but it also teaches me what colours work better together allowing my to require less help but is always there if I need it.

Behance

http://www.behance.net
Another website that I have found especially useful is that of Behance.

Like 'It's Nice That', Behance is a website full of creative pieces of work covering all areas. While Behance arguably a less refined selection of work rather then filtering only the best, the useful search bar they have allows the user to search specifically for the kind of work you are looking for. Using both Behance and It's Nice that, will surely provide more then enough inspiration for ideas should you need it.

D&AD Annual

Anyone in the creative industries is surely aware of D&AD as it is usually the ultimate goal of any creative to receive one of their renowned yellow pencils, or if you are really aiming high, their black pencils. D&AD also release an annual book packed full of the very best work produced within that year over all creative sectors such as graphic design, photography, animation, film making, etc.

I have been fortunate enough to purchase the 2009 and 2011 edition and I can say first hand how full these book are of inspiration. After all, they are full of the best pieces of work from that year showing the most creative and effective ideas.
I would say if you are after inspiration in a more specific area, say logos for example, this may not be the most useful, however, if you just want to get ideas for your creative field in general, then I can not imagine and more useful book.

It's Nice That

http://www.itsnicethat.com/

I just thought I had better share this link, it is to a great website called 'It's Nice That'.
This website has a wealth of inspiration no matter what creative industry you are in, so if you are struggling for ideas, this you should be able to find a wide variety of articles to help get your creative mind working.

Don Kenn

Don Kenn is an artist whose work i can really appreciate.
His is work consists mainly of horrific, yet beautifully detailed sketches on post-it notes using a fine liner. Now I personally am a fan of fine liner, and when it comes to sketches, i find it is my strongest medium, yet i find myself amazed that Don Kenn is able to create such wonderful images, with as much detail as this on such a tiny canvas. While I can only assume they are not all made on the most standard sized post-it notes, the ones he uses surely cant be anywhere near A4.
Thanks to his use of this paper, his otherwise colourless images are now filled with this dull, eerie yellow which completely gives his work a whole new level of 'creepy'. If these images were created on regular white/cream paper, the effect would be much further away from what Don Kenn is after.

Another thing to note is, while his images are predominantly made up of these hulking monstrosities, there is a recurring theme of children present in his images. What I think this does is, gives his images some story, these are not just pictures of behemoths, these are pictures of massive creatures, lurking around innocent children, if this is to immerse the viewer more, or simply because of his affinity to children (he writes childrens television shows) I am unsure.

Final Piece No.1

As you can see, I have successfully completed the first of my magazine covers for Little White Lies magazine. Fortunately for me, I was able to create this piece using only a few of the tools available to me on Photoshop.

Begin the process I simply opened up the document I was provided with by D&AD in Photoshop, this gave me the Little White Lies logo where they wanted it to be as well as the correct sized document. I then opened up the scanned image of my illustration into Photoshop and moved it across to this document. Using the Burn Tool, I made all of the dark parts to the image slightly darker, including the hair and glasses. Then the only real change I made to the image was to add a filter to it, in this case I used the filter named Cutout, messed around with the options and created the image you can see above. I then scaled the image leaving some bleed. Finally, I edited one of the fonts I had already made for the magazine and placed it where I found most suitable.

I feel this piece shows some great progress on my behalf. I have managed to create a piece that I am pleased with using illustrations which I have previously been unable to integrate into other projects. I think another point to mention is that the moving from the comfort I am used to in Illustrator into the uncertainty of Photoshop shows development of my confidence and skills. While you could argue that my lack of skill in Photoshop halted the potential that this piece has, I am without a doubt aware that Photoshop is where I needed to put in the most practice in order to learn the ins and outs.

Cover Titles!

Using two different methods, I have successfully created two different titles for my magazine covers.

Starting with the top, I created that font by simply using the pen tool. First of all I created the the actual words without the 3D effect using the pen tool, copying any letter I had already created as I went along. Then, it was simply a matter of creating a 45 degree line at the length I wished and copying it all around one version of each letter. I then created a new layer and used the pen tool to make shapes around the edges of the letter using the 45 degree lines to tell me where to stop.

The second font was far more interesting to create, using the Pathfinder tool. To begin with I typed out the title. Then I placed different rectangle shapes and circle shapes across the title. Then selecting a rectangle/circle and the letter it was covering, I used the 'Divide' button in the Pathfinder option window. What this does is it creates new shapes where the two objects over lap for example, the T in Tinker was made by placing a rectangle over the top half of the T, then when I pressed divide, the rectangle with some missing bits became a new shapeand the top and bottom halves of the T became individual shapes. I then just deleted the rectanglular shape, and used the arrow keys to move the top half to the left and down slightly. Doing actions similar to this allowed me to create the title you can see above.

These two titles are intended for the single portrait idea and the broken glass idea repectively, though one concern I have is that the second title might make the broken glass cover look somewhat busy and messy. If this transpires to be the case then I see no issue really in swapping their placements, I dont think either will look to much out of place on the other cover.

Targets 13!

As you can see, I was quite successful in the completion of my final sketches. That is not to say that it was not a stuggle. I beginning my creations with the sketch of the charcter George Smiley, at the top. The main issue I had to deal with during the entire week was that, when I was sketching in my sketch book, my fine liners were very tempermental, eventually just not working on the paper. This caused me to start several different attempts at the first character, eventually having to scrap the attempt as the pens refused to work. This set back cost me quite dearly. I then thought that I might as well try to complete the sketches on my printer paper that I have at home, and luckily, the pens worked perfectly and so I was able to complete each piece of the pieces of printer paper and then simply stuck them in my sketch book. In order to save both time and ink, for the other 4 characters, seeing as I would only be using part of each portrait, I felt it necessary to only the draw the corresponding sections. Natutrally, even though I would only be using a quarter of each portriat, I drew alittle bit more for each portrait just to be on the safe side.

Even though, as I have previously mentioned, I have not drawn portraits properly since mid 2011, I am very pleased with how these portraits have turned out. From the moment I saw this brief, I very much wanted to create a piece that had illustration heavily involved as it appears to be a rarity in graphic design and I have yet to recieve a brief that has allowed me to do so, and therefore I feel that this brief allows me to show off another aspect of my skills.

By next week, I plan to=

• Complete the fonts that I will be using on each cover. I will be creating 2 different fonts for the title 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' that will be placed at the bottom of each poster. Some experiementation will be needed as I am not certain what path to go for, but I plan on trying to use a font that bares similarities to the rest of the cover.
• I will also begin the creation of my final pieces, getting both documents prepared, ready for the rest of the week.