Geeting closer...

Well the final week rush is on for final hand in! (queue biting nails) but although there seems to endless jobs to do, it all seems to be coming along nicely. My once epic to do list is reducing in size at a lovely speed!

Below is one of the initial rough lay out ideas for my business card, featuring one of my little whale characters I produced for my Greetings card work :)

As well as finalising these, i am finishing of my proposal for my Berlin Residency tomorrow so it shall be revealed....

Thanks
Leonie Elsa

Final card designs

For my final greetings card designs i8 chose to do some 'new baby' greetings cards. I felt the theme I was working with went well, it had not been done from what I looked at in my market research and I also felt that it would allow me to produce soft imagery for a product that people ages 16-35 would purchase (this being the ages in the brief).
Here they are...

All cards measure 148 by 148 mm, and indicate where the glitter would go when prototypes are created.

Im very happy with the final designs overall, however I may work more with he 'baby girl' design, and re-work the octopus character.

Thanks

Leonie Elsa

More Nautical Fun

I have completed the first mock up design for my first card, along with a couple of gift tag ideas, these will be developed more as well as the other two card designs for the collection.
Really happy with how they are going, and I have gotten so good feedback on them, so I'm going in the right direction!

Front Cover

Back Cover

Insert

Gift tag designs

Thanks

Leonie Elsa

Nautical Logo

I have finished the design for my Nautical but Nice collection logo. This design will feature on the backs of the greetings cards and on the gift tags, however I may play with the shape more, especially when thinking about it being a little gift tag. Possibly an anchor or port hole cut out shape, which will add that little extra touch to the design.

Thanks
Leonie Elsa

Nautical development....

Today I have been experimenting with materials, fabrics and the wonder that is Illustrator and Photoshop to develop the style and look of my sea life characters for my greetings card collection. I really like the direction they are going and I feel am very close to being able to design my final cards, logo and gift tag designs for my brief and portfolio.

Targets

1) finalise greetings cards collection, ready for printing tomorrow.

2) Complete my digital storyboard which I have using to experiment with drawing completely digitally.            Although its very rough, I am enjoying playing with it.

3) Make plan for what I want to do for final show after final hand in.

Thanks
Leonie Elsa

Octo

The line work for my little Octo friend is coming along, I have decided to gather material and scan them in to use these to colour up along with digital colouring for my character for the cards. I think this will work well and produce some really nice, interesting final pieces.

Thanks
Leonie Elsa

Background Ideas

Good Morning Everyone!
I have been experimenting with the very rough layout of background ideas for my Nautical but Nice collection. These are just a few of them, as I say these are just to help my rough out where potential shapes could go, pattern ideas and colour palettes I could think about, however very basic as it is so early in the developmental stage.

These were done digitally, where as much of the final design for the card will be done by hand and then digitally enhanced. However I am finding it very quick and helpful to use Photoshop and Illustrator to generate rough plans such as these.

Todays Targets

1) The main thing I want to get done today is the finalisation for my octopus character, working out his final colour ideas and get him finished.

2) refine or develop more layout concepts for my greetings cards

3) Collect and print a black and white copy of all the work I may want to include to begin putting my portfolio for my interview together. 

Thanks

Leonie Elsa

Meeting the Gruffalo..

I had the fantastic opportunity to go along to a master class at Seven Stories, the centre for childrens books, with non other than Illustrator Axel Schiffler, along with his art director and publishing company.

It was a great lecture and I got to see his very initial, early workings for some of his most famous childrens books. I also got some one to one advice on how to contact people in the industry, especially when starting out, and how to present my work. I took a great deal from this session, and there was talk of more and more people of the industry returning to Seven Stories in the future. 

I would urge anybody who is interested in Illustration, commercial illustration, publishing, or writing for children to keep up to date with there adult sessions, there worth it!

Thanks

Leonie Elsa

Nautical but Nice

I am developing some initial sketches for one of my live briefs which I am working on. This brief is to design three greetings cards designs, and a name for the collection. After much mind mapping I decided on a nautical theme for my greetings cards. My collection will be called 'Nautical but Nice'.
I will be developing three sea creatures to base the each card around, and my first I am playing with is an octopus character. Below are the initial ideas for his shape.

I really like the plump, cuter look rather then working with long wispy tentacles, and I think I will be taking forward character idea 3 for further for the development of my first greetings card.

Thanks
Leonie Elsa

Paul Hess Workshop

I had the pleasure of taking part in a great lecture and workshop with Illustrator Paul Hess.
It gave me a great opportunity to see how a contemporary artist is working within the industry and I was lucky enough to talk with him during a stylistic change he is going through, which was all the more interesting.
He also gave me some great tips and ideas on how to approach the development stages of illustrating something, as well as a inside look at his own process. This helped me think and reflect on where my work is at the moment and what it could develop into using different approaches. It also reminded me that not every up tire I draw is going to perfect, it's part of the beauty of developing visually creative work and he taught me to relax with my work and really enjoy it, this is when you get some if the most rewarding and end peeved results.
Even more exciting is I got two stories from a current project he is working on to approach and illustrate, this will help me start putting my own creative process into action and see what happens!

Thanks
Leonie Elsa