xmas lino

xmas lino, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Working on some projects at home today, here is a little taster.

josef frank and apartment therapy

joseph frank fabric

I hope you have had a lovely summer. I can't believe it has flown by so quickly and already we are into dark evenings and school routines.
My summer has been fun and varied, a real break from routine. I have enjoyed doing things for me - looking at blogs, decorating, making plans. One of the discoveries of this summer has been Apartment Therapy, definitely worth a look if you have already heard of it.
Toady the featured fabric from Joseph Frank which I love. Years ago I was wandering around Liberty's, saw the sample book, couldn't quite believe the price but ask for some samples anyway. I still have them!

mrs eliot books

from here

Look at all this lovely work! (above, in case you weren't sure) The lovely animation is from Mrs Eliot Books. It makes me want to print. I have been good and have done one and 1/2 linos since I last posted, so I am making progress. It also makes me want to have another go at animation, but last time I did some I killed my desktop and it is still in a box. So far today has been a mixture of feeding/entertaining kids and having a good hack at my rather neglected hedge, but it is really hot and sweaty and the flies are evil :-( and funnily enough I keep finding jobs to do inside.

lino time

IMG_2521, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

This is my next lino project. Hopefully I will be able to do some prints from it next week.

lovely tree cards

IMG_2523, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.
I printed these recently, with help from a lovely friend of mine, so I now have some cards to ready for feedback.

edinburgh printmakers

edinburgh printmakers (image from their website)

I went for a little jog today and popped in here en route. I had a very happy time looking at all the prints for sale, the studio and their current exhibition "Cheer up! Its not the end of the world....".

sketching

IMG_2518, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I rediscovered my notebook today and took a few minutes to sketch in a cafe. I like the guy in the top right corner, if I try to draw from my imagination I wouldn't have thought of the angle at which he was sitting, but it works, I think. (Sorry about the terrible photo.)

edinburgh and the red door gallery

the red door gallery

I am having a wonderful time in Edinburgh, revisiting old haunts and exploring new places. This afternoon I visited the red door gallery and was like a kid in a sweetie shop. If you are ever in Edinburgh I can really recommend a visit, failing that you can check out their website and blog (where I found the above photo).

nicholas john frith

by Nicholas John Firth

Yeah! Its the summer holidays!!! The distinct lack of sun and the definite need for wellies means I should have plenty of time to get on with college work during the next few weeks and I am hoping that will include printing. Lucky for me I have just found this chap, what a fantastic source of inspiration!

swing

swing, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Another character, he was supposed to be a trapeze artist but never got up off his swing!

juggle

juggle, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Another little character for the programme.

clifford show poster

clifford show poster, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Its going to be good!

andrew bannecker

andrew bannecker

I really love the colours and textures of this guy's work, a lovely balance between digital and painterly. Check out his website and blog for more loveliness.

circus tent

img209, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I have been doing some work for Clifford Village Show programme, we are having a circus theme (in case you couldn't guess!).

elephant

elephant, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

clown

clown, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

seth smoot

seth smoot

I want to be to illustration, what this guy is to photography. Have a look here, you'll see what I mean!

martin leon barreto

Makes me want to learn! Go here to see more lovely pics.

pinterest and rob hodgson

loving rob hodgson

I recently got suckered into Pinterest (nobody's fault but my own). It is SO addictive (the downside), but it is a fantastic way of seeing current trends (the up side). Naturally I gravitate towards the Illustration images which can be both depressing because there are so many amazing image makers out there and SO inspiring because it makes me itch to have a go.
Life is kind of crazily busy at the moment, (I know most people will say the same) but now that College is almost over for the year I am determined to use the time to make things for fun and because I feel like it, and not because there is someone with a box I want them to tick. I'll let you know how it goes.
Oh, I remember why I started this rant... I came across this fab chap thanks to Pinterest.

britishness - a dissertation in the making

For anyone who would like to follow my progress as  write my dissertation, you can follow it here.

ice cream - work in progress

work in progress, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

If you have a look at my flickr stream you will see I am having a go at working on an ice cream poster idea I had recently. I am in need of some help though, both from a graphic design perspective and from a technical (in this case Illustrator) perspective. I am want to add texture to the image but I suspect that I would be better doing that in Photoshop, shame I killed the computer that had Photoshop on.

illustration futures - the end

the end, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

With a bit of playing with the frames and timing I have finally finished the animation. Well, I say a bit, basically I lost all I had done in the previous session and had to start over.
Although I was quite pleased with the beginning and the ending (from the contact frame onwards), overall if I had time I would start over. 
At least I have learnt the limitations of animating in Photoshop. 
You see, once the animation was done Jason showed me how to make it into a Quicktime Movie. Unfortunately the Quicktime file and the animation in Photoshop run at different speeds. So if my tutor looks at both and reads this - I was aiming for something in between! Also I would have done the frame and the "about" text again, more in keeping with the rest of the animation. I think the concept was fairly sound though! 
I am so pleased that I have finished this project. It has been a long one, and although I have learnt a lot, because I am not in love with the outcome I am happy to be moving on. 

illustration futures - start leaves

This was definitely a good news and a bad news kind of day. So the good things were I decided to add a few more bits of animation, basically I wanted all the labels to do something, and a start sequence (in the picture above) and an end sequence. This took some serious time to do them all, but they went well and I love the new beginning and end.
So then all I had to do was place the new bits in. This I did, (again it takes so much longer than you hope) and I sat back for a final watch through. But, (and this is the bad news in case you are struggling) the desk top DIED!!!!! 
Naturally it is the only computer in the house with Photoshop. Fortunately I have internet on my laptop so that I can this updated but now I have a nerve wracking wait until Wednesday to see how much of the final changes have been saved. Not much I fear as I don't remember saving it.

socket studios

from here

I am plodding on with my website/animation design for the Illustration Futures module at college. As part of my research I have been looking at the sites other people use to promote themselves or their work. I came across Socket Studios because I spotted the image above at The Post Family, anyway, I was really impressed by how slick and simple this site is. Unfortunately it is a bit to late for me and this project, but it might be of interest to you?

illustration futures - about

I have done this bit slightly tongue in cheek as it references John's picture on his Facebook page. Obviously if this was genuinely for an employer I would do something more sensible (even if it is true)!
I wasn't able to cut out the text and get it scanned in due to my lack of time in College, but I am regretting not having done it sooner as I think this lets the animation down. 
I am worried that it is all looking a bit clunky. I was having to guess how much time to leave for the mouse pointer to travel around the page (I was going to do that animation last, to fit in with the rest) out the animation is getting so complex, if I have to shift something at the beginning because I miscalculated the pointer moving then it will know all the other timings out, which means I will have to redo them. Also I think that the animation will flow better without the pointer. Basically instead of it looking like someone navigating around the page, the animation will just act like a digital calling card and gallery in one.

illustration future - gallery animation

I have been working on animating John's portfolio. I know the picture above doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you can imaging the frame appears and then the images inside it gradually change. I got the idea of the frame from a huge Frida Kahlo book I got out of the library. I was looking for inspiration and trying to understand John better. Frida Kahlo is a favoutie of John's and in this particaulr book there were the most amazing frames, thus the frame. I am afraid it is all rather cheesy and amateur but hopefully if the whole thing ties together ok it'll be ok.

illustration futures - contact details appear

contact details appear, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.


This is my favourite bit of the animation so far. Basically the contact label disappears and the contact information cloud above appears. I know it sounds simple but it took a lot of work to make two separate stop-frame animations then put them into the main animation and get the timings right.
I can't believe how long it is taking to do this animation. I thought I had it really well planned, but it just takes so much time. Also it is slightly frustrating is how easy it is to accidentally change the timings or move something, and how long it takes to put it all back!

illustration futures - labels

I forgot to post my final selection of labels. I wanted the Facebook one to have the same cutout look as the others but still be recognisable. Did it work?
I have been really busy planning the animation. I discovered that it is possible to do slightly more complicated animations as stop-frame animations in Photoshop. Basically you copy and change layers and then convert the layers to frames. You then amend the timings (you can also reverse the order of frames) and then you export the animation as a png file. Having done that with some leaves, some of the labels and a butterfly I was then ready to get help with the next stage.
The plan was that Nick in IT would then help me imbed them. Nick showed me how to do the rendering and then thought it would be best to move everything into Final Cut Pro. Unfortunately this began to get epically complicated. Time was flying by and I wasn't going to be able to continue in Final Cut Pro at home.
So we went for plan B (the Keep-It-Simple-Stupid option), Nick showed me how to import the video as a new layer. Once I had done that I could change the start and finish point, (though not the duration) and the opacity. I have since discovered that it is possible to resize them but it changes the format (still trying to understand that bit!) Also if i want the last frame to effectively "freeze" then I need it as a separate layer.
It was slightly frustrating how long it took and although I learnt a lot I am no further forward with the actual animation. 

pinterest

Heaven help me I have been suckered in to Pinterest. I can't help it, there are SOOO many pretty pictures. I decided the one above sums up the beautiful, warm, sunny, tranquil day that is going on outside perfectly. Have a good one!

punch and judy

punch and judy coloured, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Digitally coloured version, but I don't like it. :-(

illustration futures - screen grabs

etsy page, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

So today I learnt about screen grabs as I want the animation to look like someone is following links to John's Facebook page and blog. I also thought it would be good in terms of self promotion if it looked like John sold his work, so I mocked up the Etsy page you can see above. Does it look convincing?

illustration futures - big leaves

animating leaves 4, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

Today was a good day! I finally got to grips with getting things to move between points at certain times. In my head I had grand plans, but in the timeline animation you can't rotate or change the size of things, only move and fade them. The leaves above are at the beginning of the animation, they move out the way and smaller ones move into place on the tree.

illustration futures trying out different labels

The image above shows my tree with different styles of labels on. I have enjoyed making the labels and then scanned them in and changed the shape and colour. After much playing about I have chosen the oval labels in various colours. But which ones would you choose?

illustration futures - tree with symbols

tree with symbols, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

As I mentioned before, this is for animation I am working on. The idea is it will look like someone is using a webpage, so the strange symbols on the tree will link to (from left to right) John's shop, gallery and Facebook page. John likes surreal imagery but I am worried that this idea doesn't look slick enough. I am going to work on some text that can be displayed instead, to see which looks best.

engine house workshop 3

ghosts, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I had so much fun with the kids yesterday. I was introducing them to the concept of typography. They were really up for it and all got stuck in. There are more pictures on my flickr, but I thought this one was particularly clever.

saucy

IMG_2250, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

So yesterday I was at Engine House again and this time we were looking at typography. It was messy and fun!

dog

dog, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

This is one of the roughs for a story that features a dog with red eyes (it makes sense when you read the story!)

illustration futures- tree with leaves

web page background tree with leaves, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

This is a still from the animation I am working on for my Illustration Futures project. I cut the leaves out from magazine supplements. I rather like them! (You can see the tree with out its leaves here.)

illustration futures - eight hour day

I have been doing some website research for the Illustration Futures module and thinking about the way in which practitioners present themselves and also what information they include on their sites. I thought this (see above also) was a good example of communicating a look to your audience.

illustration futures - web page background

tree with arrow, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I am working on a mock up of a web page for the Illustration Futures module. The work I am submitting is going to be an animation showing how the page would work and at the same time promoting my classmate John to a potential employer.
I have chosen to do the project in Photoshop as that will allow me to work on it at home. I was shown how to insert objects (in this case the arrow) on to the background in layers and how to change their location and opacity on a timeline.

mtn-world

from here

Graffiti isn't often my thing, but when we visited Barcelona earlier in the year I had an introduction to it that has made me think about it differently. Anyway, if it is something you want to find out more about mtn-world is a great resource with lots of links to events, articles, blogs etc.

chiccham

from here

Loved this blackboard doorway and it is a great site too, have a look here. Happy weekend!

engine house workshop 2

IMG_2231, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

So we did music themed still lives this week and the kids did a great job. The listened really well and worked so hard!

lady

lady cropped, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I have been at the at the scrap box again!

possibly the most beautiful blog in the world....ever?

from joythigpen

Joy Thigpen. Packed full of beautiful, romantic images, ever. Perfect for a quiet Sunday. Enjoy.

dominic owen

blue face

Yesterday at college we had a visit from recently graduated illustrator - Dominic Owen. What a lovely guy! It was really interesting hearing what life is like for someone who graduated two years ago. He went to Uni in Bath and has recently moved to London so we had a discussion about the old "in town v out of town" issue. Basically, in London, you go out, meet people and it all comes together, but if you base yourself elsewhere then you have to market yourself more aggressively.
He talked about being represented by YCN and the pros and cons of having an agent. He also talked about the various clients he had had. He spoke very favourably about being involved in Pick Me Up (it is a great day out if you ever have the chance to go). He talked of his love of hand drawn font and how his sister is better at digital type. Also he likes to sketch first  and then render his work in illustrator before printing the image on wallpaper lining paper.
I asked if he follows any illustrators or blogs, and he explained that he is wary of absorbing and being influenced by someone else's style but he does enjoy Booooon, its nice that and fecal face.

jane ormes

unblinking by jane ormes

I have just come across some of the most beautiful, characterful prints I have seen for ages. Please take some time to look at the prints of Jane Ormes - sooo good!

banker?

img162, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I wanted to experiment with some paints I was given as a "thank you" and decided to combine them with collage - pattern paper and envelopes (again!)

pattern section

pattern section, a photo by only lucy on Flickr.

I was having a little doodle yesterday to try to get in the mood for some project wrok.