Developments on 2nd editorial.

I change the idea for this piece so a clearer narrtive could be portrayed. I use a similar format to the last image. Making it a sequential piece rather than a singel image. I think using the bottle as a symbol of enclosement and issolation works. I could have played with this metophor more but decied that I should just get on with getting the piece of work out of the way. I spent longer on this piece that I wanted and it was hard to try and find an idea that would work. I was over thinking. The next challenge is to try and get some spot illustrations going , for a different subject. The subject of spies and nerve agent is a very heavy subject and I would quite like next to maybe do somthing , still with a strong narrtive but a bit lighter so I can play around with colour and animation more. Creating really in depth images dose restric that amount of movement I can make as I have create so many layers to make the intial image , and as a result it becomes very chaotic. I think that next major step is to condense down my ideas, foucs them and work on the composiotnally from there. The image itself might have looked simpler if I had got rid of the top layer of bottles. Looking back I think that top layer throws that narrtive off slightly. Visually it is another complex image, meaning that there are a lot of dark tones and different compositions. Not that this is a bad thing, but it dose take too long for an editoral time frame in which to create this.

It was also a challegeing artical to illustrate becuase the man who it is written about ided as a result of being exposed to the nurve agent. So it again needed to be handeld with sensitivity. Becuase of the highten attention and contrivery surrounding the subject at the moment , I think that this has possibly be a underlying resitiction too. A fear of taking somthing too far or miss interpirtation.
Overall , sequencal illustraiton is defently a strength that I am suprised at and need to work on. But I need to work out how create image that can be flow well between animation and image. I would have also of like to make the smoke/vapors move.

Roughs and developments for editorial image 2

Using the bottle/flask to symbolise isolation and trying to wokr out how the rings can fit into the image.

Group Crit Notes.

Overall really postive feedback and it was a good reveiw that helped riterate what I was already thinking. My narrtive work is much stronger than  textiles and I enjoy that more,  i'm able to push that further. The main thing now is to really build up my profolio. Carrying on with producing piece for editoial, and the developing them into gif/ short animations. I also need and want to get back into the print room before the end of the year. Really itchign to do a project that involves expeirmental screen printing.

2nd image gif expeirments

This image is based on an artical from the guardian surrounding the subjuect of ruissian spies. The artical give the account of a scientist who came into contact with the same nurve agent that was used in insident in Salusbury. The section of text I have decied to focus on is Andrei Zheleznyakov (the scitentist) account of first coming into contact with the agent. 'Circles appeared before my eyes: red and orange. A ringing int my ears , I caught my breath. .... I sat down on a chair and told the guys: it's got me.'
I decied to try out an idea that was kept quite close to the text. The only thing that I really add a spin on was the description of the red and orange circles. I had the idea that these could be vapours with hands coming from them holding him to the chair. I want to push a more metophorical appriach for this image and im not happy with how this image had turned out. The detail in the mans face is hard to see and sort of blends into one. The image as a hole feels to controled. The subject of chemicals and sience lends itself well to an experimental approach. I am going to re develop the image and approach it in a more metophorical and experimental angle. Making the gif too was challengeing. It is not as slick as I would like. For ideas that have fluid movement after effects would be the best software to use. But also the image is not as bold or eye grabing as I want it to be. The duller tones wash out the key elements slightly. Bolder and simpler ideas and shapes too are easier to turn into gifs. I need an image like the previous gif , that is sucessful both as an image and gif.

Gif experiments with editorial image

I really wanted to try and make parts of this image move. The individual sections I though could led themselves well to being animated, even if it is just subitally. With papers transfering online I think it is vital to explore the different platforms the image with the articals could take. I forgot how much I actually enjoy making GIFs and how easy it is in photoshops to create short sequences. For a more complicated and refined animation I would have used after effects , but I quite like the jutterness of the movements. Think it works well in the context. It was really hard to try and combines the different elements movement to a speed that would work for all. I struggeld to seperate the different movements so I had to play around. My gif skills need imporvement. I would really like to find a way in which to sperate each elements movement so they can be at different speeds. Because the curser is flashing too quickly and parts of the eyes movement could be slower. But due to all the elements being same timeline I could do this. 

Speed for both these is 0.1 , but the blinking is way too fast.  

This speed is 0.2 and I tried 0.3 but that was too slow. Adding the flickering texture to the pixel image works. I did try to sperate the different pixel layers but struggled to incorporate them into the psd with the timeline on. Also animating the circle was tricky as the different layers kept shifting for some strange reason but evetualy got it to move how I wanted. 

Quick response to new scientist article

I gave mayself a very short respoce time to this , a day. In this time I had to rough and make the image.

The image is in responce to an artical from the new scientist about russian spy ring using a system called steganography, which is when coading or messages are hidden within images. The concept behind my image is, the image is layed out like a google images page, with scroller and search bar. But the images all relate to the idea of steganorgraphy and the manipulation of these images.

 Some of the images are quite conceptual. For example the red circle represents the spy ring and the left hand box above that repesented the shapes of written coad.
If I had more time I would work the black into the image more. I decided to add the black into certain sections and not to add variation in tone in the image and make parts bolder , but the room image needed to be bolder.
My intial intention was to screen print this , I overlayed screen print texture and managed to do it so it was even across the whole images. So I though a more effect use of time would be to get this digtially printed A3 and go stright onto working on other ideas. I may screen print this at a later date but with time being so tight it would be a more effective use of time to print this digtially.

When thinking of the ideas for this I was consous of the fact that wanted to try depict the spys neutral way. Depicting them in a way that could be interipited as good or evil could could cause contirousy and offence.
I did want to add a darker tone to the eyes to give them more defintion but it made them look evil.
Another debate I had was weather the image would be too complecated with all the different picutrues inside it. I had to keep the motifs very simple and I think this has worked. But still if I deceid to develop this at a later stage I can pick individual image out and work with them.

Moving on.

I have decied that due to time constraints  I am going the leave the 'Tweleve Brothers' project at two image as I need to get on with creating some resent editorials for my protfolio to keep the range of work within it diverse.

Roughs from editoial

It didn't take too long to rough this idea becuase I already had a solid vision of how and what I wanted this image to be. So I just roughed to get a an idea of composition and refine the different elements that can exisit in the spaces.

Time table revised

2nd image- last developments and final

The images relates to this part of text 'Said the servant: "Do not be grieved. You have many large dogs, so what you must do is burn twelve of them and send their ashes to your future wife. She'll never know. And after you are married, even if she learns the truth nothing will happen to your sons." 
And that was just what the lord did. He killed and burnt twelve dogs.'  
I couldn't fit twelve dogs onto the image as this would be too crowded. So I deciding to symbolise the burning of them through the smoke fire was a way in which it could shown sentivly but still have impact. The image of the smoking dogs by its self( screen shot below) would work or somthing along the similar lines , for the book cover.

Keeping the cover to one or maixum of 3 colours would work really well. On a plain background. foiling could be woven into the design gold or maybe sliver? 

The composition of the final image , overall I am happy with. it took a lot of building and changing ideas to fit the different elements in. This is probely the furthest away I have gone from thinking of an image in print terms. The last image with the ravens had a lot more white space and looks like a print. Where as this image does look  digitally based. Im not so sure that I prefer it , I like it when an image involoves the white space as it feels like it allows the elements of the image to breath. 

This image is one of the most compilicated , compositionally that I have done , and I think that it has worked out okay. Again though it is hard to get the print textres equal and even across the whole image. It's difficult to estimate this on the computer so only really shows when printed. I need to find a different way of adding the textures over the image so it is even.  

The images narrtive however I think is strong. Placing the dogs in the smoke was a good idea and having the boys watching from above in the foreground , add and addition to the story that is already being told.  (Final development images below.) 

2nd image developments

 Based on the roughs I built that background up digitally. I decied to increase the sence of depth I would add a gradient to the sky. This way it is not just one flat colour and it brings attention to the hills in the background. One problem that I can already see , how am I going to make clear the definition between water and land? The colours may need changing but I like the blue hue.

 Moving on from this, I did alter the ground colour. It was clashing too much with the water colour and made it difficult to define. The fire was quick to create both digitally and analog. But it is making that now fit with the rest of the image. How is the light going to shine from it ? I added grass to the bank in the foreground of the image but I am not so sure about this. Looks to busy and I think it would be better if it was jsut plan colour.
Adding in the clouds was fun to do and it definetly helps to darkern the atmosphere of the image. A danger however about the image as a whole is that I could become over crowed and too much. The waves and clouds may need to be fade down more.

Adding the dog in was difficult. The idea I had for it was quite complex and this is where the anger of overcrowding came in. It was also hard to figure out how to incorpoate the clouds of smoke in with the animal. In additon adding the light to the smoke/dogs.

Using the dog shilloute as a basis to was much eaiser to then build the smoke around that digitally. It is quicker and easier to change and redraw it.

Using the head from a dog print that I did last year, I blocked in the shaed shape in soild colour and the built up the body from this.

Selected roughs for the 2nd image

Final Time Table for final action plan

1st print developments and final image

Not screen printing the image, I did feel like the image wasn't complete but once it was printed out on the digital printers on texture paper it did have similarites to screen printing. The stock defeinetly makes a difference. Texture works a lot better then flat matt paper. On the matt paper the colours seemed darker but on the texture paper thhey are dulled down slightly which I like. The image itself fits with the section of the text I chose to work with. It is slightly different to the other images that I have created in other projects and the composion is different. However I only realise when it was printed that the textures where no even thoughout so this need to be somthing in the future that I will need to pay close attention too. I deceid when printing to go to A2 and it worked well. Especially on the textured paper it looks like a screen print. Pros to digtially print are that everything is clear and visble , makeing the image is simpler , and you are able to experiment with opacity and tone a lot more. A negitive aspect is cost. At the moment it is much cheaper to screen print that digtially print. Your do get more prints by screenprinting and the texture across the image will be consitant but the colours may not be as acutate. It is hard to try and convay print though a digtial medium , as with print you do get slight missprint and little odd spots and this can add to the quality. But digitally you are garenteed accuracy and a consitant series of prints. And in the long run digitally printing may become a lot cheaper than finding a print studio.

1st image layer build up

new 1st print developments

The challenge with this brief that I have set myself is to try, in the end result, print digtially using textured overlays instead of screen printing. I am doing this with the hope that it will speed up the process and enable me to be more felxiable with elements such as composition and adding in small detials without having to worry about it not being clear or misslining when printing. I can also get the exact colours too but it depends how it look when overlayed with the textures.

This intial image looks too digital and it's not the desired asethetic im after. I spent a while trying to work out how add texture to this but found that if I sperated the first layer away which had the texture addded it created the perfect base to build onto.
This background came about but playing around with the orginal outline I made and digital brushes.

From this I was able to add tone and shading and start to add the smaller features in.

 Roughs

Character development and experiments with digital screen print texture overlays

This is an experiment with the character of the witch is too see how screen print texture would look overlayed with digital shapes. I have found that in previous images features such as faces when they have been screen printed loose a lot of there detail. Suprisingly this works really well placing the textres over digitally and it dose help to lift the image.It also keeps the presition of the shapes.
Not worrying about the image being made for screen print is a lot less restrictive and I can really get into the process of creating the character and being able to easily make changes and adapt things really quickly.

The main character/ people development that I have started with this image is adding detials to the features of the face. Really quickly and simpley. I think that these defiently add to the character and work well, but depending on the distance of a character in an image the freatures will alter. But I suprised myself with these beucase I didn't think that it would be so quick and easy to do.

I am not sure however weather to keep the eye or not ? Part yes becuase it emphasises the kind of character she is part not becuase I think it makes the image darker and slightly scarier if she has no eyes. Also simplifys things a bit. This is the danger now however, that too much detial an be added.

Simpler shapes have more impact and would work for the cover but for the inside illustrations narrtive and character are the priority. In addition though this method could easily lend it self to developing a short animation ? and as a general note I need to start to really think about how I makes the character positions more dynamic.