My Statment

Section 1
This year my studies have been focused on illustration and graphic design, artists such as Jason Polan, an illustrator who works in black pen and ink and David Carson, who works with typography in an avant garde style, interest me. Over the last year I have learnt a lot of new skills. Without these skills I wouldn’t get a strong visual idea.
I have experimented in a range of media and technique and have improved my skills in illustrations. Using materials that I have never used before as well as my computer skills on Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Having had the experience of going to London in order to draw, research and record the city or even my work within life drawing,these elements have expanded my knowledge around my practice. My aim is to develop my illustration skills in order to become more confident both as an artist and as a person, as i move on higher into university and work. I have always wanted to be an illustrator of children's books and if I succeed in this i will have fulfilled one of my dreams and these skills will help to improve my work. After doing the fanzine project, I really wanted to try the book on a bigger scale and even get it published at the end.

Section 2
For my final major project I have decided to produce and illustrated/graphical book, for children. I used to love listening to my Dad telling me stories when I was a child. He used to make up silly stories and I have always wanted to illustrate them, one in particular (and my favourite) “The Fridge That Was Thrown Away”. The most important thing to me is that the book is illustrated by hand first and then use photoshop to give it that final coloured finish because I like the style of the brightly coloured book. I will be looking into changing my story slightly because one there is only one character in the story and it would make it more fun for me and the readers if i create more and also in my dads story there is no happy ending. I have used computers extensively this year in order to generate my outcomes and although they will still be a very important part of my image generation, i really want to start of with hand drawing the image to try and capture the energy and flow of the work. The illustrative element of this project is vital to me, because of the chance it gives me to express myself before putting them on the computer and editing. My ambition is to make illustrations for books, so I want to use this project to its fullest, to show that i can be as good as I can be. Throughout this project I'm going to experiment with different medias and techniques, for instance, Screen-printing, Dry-point and watercolors, approaches that I wish to explore more fully as well as working more broadly in colour. All of this will lead my work through stages visually which i then will finally enhance the colour making my designs visually stronger and eye catching. I will look at a range of different artists who have influenced me, as well as researching primary and secondary sources. Artists such as Robert Ingpen who creates fantasy illustrations, well known for creating a new illustration for “Alice and Wonderland”, leaving a mysterious pastel affect to his work, or even Dutte Winkelman, who is a student in Rotterdam, I found her by coming across her blog and found her work very intriguing, mainly hand designed illustration, but she improves her work by adding colour in Photoshop. Also, Christina Balit interests me, as her work is very religious. She makes children's illustrations of the bible, the zodiac and self-composed mythical stories. I intend to draw my own fridge and the contents, as well as going to Electrical goods outlets (such as Currys, Comet) and documenting their finest fridges as well as drawing from rubbish sites and kitchens where i can get the style of change. i will be gathering information from a range of kids, I’m going to be asking them questions on there favourite books and on the end result what they think of my book, and combining the research and materials with my designs, will make my work more visually appealing. I am aiming to get this printed professionally but if the book because quite popular i will be finding out if it can be published a larger scale.

Section 3
Throughout this project I am going to monitor my progress as I go along by self evaluation and reflection, as well as an overall evaluation when i have finished, showing the pros and cons of the project and how the book went as a finished product. I will make sure I attend group crits and tutorials throughout to get advice and constructive criticism on the development of my ideas. All of the advice will be kept in my learning journal. I am going to keep two sketchbooks, one holding quick drawings, observations and other people’s views on my work as I go along. I will also have another sketchbook which will hold research into my book, artist research, and media experimentation, as well as developed ideas. I intend my final piece to be a book that is accessible to kids, that they can pick up and read. At my local brownies which i am a volunteer i have promised a print out of the book because it was them who gave me ideas throughout the project to take things out and improve things and once the book is finally done, they said they would give me there opinions.