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I realised how much I was leaning towards the incredibly simplified, block-shaped, modern illustration style of Corporate Memphis used by big tech companies (e.g. Google). This is very common in commercial illustrations because it is so inclusive and easy to read, however it can be void of creativity and is disliked by many.

Also, having preset templates like this - ready for someone to use - reinforces the lack of creativity.

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My notes on what I saw as the main points in the article. I wanted a clear understanding of the article so that my piece could communicate as effectively as possible.

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Different ideas based on different parts/things mentioned in the article. In the bottom left I used a renaissance painting of Adam and Eve but that time was Adam going for the ‘forbidden fruit’ which ended up being an iPad.

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I looked at having the iPad as a puppeteer - to show the control over the author of the article but it felt quite unoriginal.

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I enjoyed the idea of the iPad making this father of a newborn being reduced down to a baby himself to really back up how much he sounds like man-child.
This idea developed with my chats with Luke (group tutor), who encouraged the idea of the author being babied, not being a baby.

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To get a cleaner finish on the illustration, I moved over to digital illustration. This was for better linework and what I thought would be better colour. However, Procreate works with RGB not CMYK so when it’s printed it doesn’t look entirely correct.
Another error I made was having too low resolution on the canvas - this made the illustration quite pixelated on the printout.

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I wanted to go for colours that would pop and be as inclusive to the audience as possible as it is quite a relatable topic for a lot of people.

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After putting down the block colours, I added two low-opacity layers for the screen’s glowing highlight and the darker shaded surrounding area. This was to make the focus on the obnoxious father but also to dampen/darken the colours of the wife and child, representing their negative feelings and disappointment.

I realised how much I was leaning towards the incredibly simplified, block-shaped, modern illustration style of Corporate Memphis used by big tech companies (e.g. Google). This is very common in commercial illustrations because it is so inclusive and easy to read, however it can be void of creativity and is disliked by many.

What I would change would be the background colour, possibly style, the colour palette to CMYK and maybe move further away from the ‘Corporate Memphis’ style. Mainly for the background I would link it to Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art Ben-Day dots to give it more of a printed/physical feel.

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Drawings representing Sheffield - where I’ve lived/grown up.

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Personal pseudonyms to spur on ideas.

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Different drawings/representations of myself.

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I made a spread of different ideas for this task but tried focussing on my hobbies - climbing, drawing, films, exercise.
I enjoyed the idea of showing my hobbies but in a negative way.
However I thought this was too much of a narrative.

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Based on previous cards I sketched new ideas but didn’t do 10 diff cards

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I thought the previous tasks were good enough ideas to use rather than making 10 more in the final task

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I wanted to draw something that I like to draw and not make it a deep meaningful topic

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From the ideas of my eyeball card being about my hobbies, I focused on climbing (which I started recently).
I wanted to make a self-deprecating joke about how so many people can make climbing a personality trait. I did this because when I was making the card about climbing I realised I was doing just that.
In addition, I knew the top sketch was too dynamic and detailed for a small postcard, so I didn’t make more versions from that drawing.

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I then went through different poses, text, text layout, etc. but nothing was seeming to work - especially not when I started drawing practically.

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Going through all these different ideas/layouts, I realised that I was going down a rabbit hole with this idea that had too much of a narrative, so I changed it to my other idea of the ‘Dead Man Steadman’.

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I measured the dimensions of the piece to make the physical sketch. Moving from digital made it apparent that “Eyeball” or  “Exaggerating Ed” would be too difficult to fit. This led me to want to move towards my previous idea of my card’s character being a corpse as that’s what I enjoy drawing.
Not having a steadfast concept behind the piece was hard for me and out of my comfort zone but I wanted to make something that I would enjoy - making it more personal, which is better in my own opinion.

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I looked at different horror comic font styles to make the card more aesthetically pleasing. I also used it as practice on drawing out fonts because this is something I don’t focus on but I want to use more text in my pieces.

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More inspiration from classic horror comics printing/colours and fonts.

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The blocky characters are really eye-catching and bold. I definitely want to work with fonts like that in an upcoming project.

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Although it was tough trying to accurately redraw my corpse character, it started come together - especially with the horror font.

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Alongside telling myself to do more traditional work, I recently bought so colour pencils so wanted to use them.
I like the red for the crosses on the eyes and it makes the text pop. I also tried using a cool blue-y grey as a mid tone and for rendering the shadows but with the brown paper (that I used for a different texture) the colour was muted and looks just like pencil shading.
What I would do differently is attempt more differences in line weight with the inking as well as a more apparent secondary colour to make the piece pop more.

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I first saw this satirical Cold War newspaper illustration doing A Level History but I’ve always found satirical editorial illustrations entertaining whilst also highlighting the laughable sides of very serious situations.
I used this as inspiration for the editorial project as the article talks on the control/addiction to screens and how people can become very neglectful but I wanted to show it in a more ridiculing way towards the author - similar to the comedic tone to this pieces very high tension conflict.

(No date) Longsands Academy. Available at: https://www.astrea-longsands.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Year-10-Exam-Revision-Guidance.pdf (Accessed: 22 October 2023).

(I got these from a GCSE History paper because I couldn’t find the original images so that’s why the citation is strange.)

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This book is a collection of classic horror comics and inspired my eyeball cards’ font and somewhat informed my style in the illustration.
In addition, the printing style - similar to my research on Roy Lichtenstein - was what I thought would amplify the quality of my editorial illustration after I had finished it.

Gwandanaland Comics (no date) THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED: VOLUME 1 READERS COLLECTION Vol 1. Charlton Comics.

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As I was looking back through the book, I was realising how impactful the fonts are to the page.

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“An inexpensive mechanical printing method developed in the late 19th century and named after its inventor, illustrator and printer Benjamin Henry Day, Jr. The method relies upon small colored dots (typically cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) that are variously spaced and combined to create shading and colors in images.” - MoMA

These ink dots give a much more tactile feel to the piece and I regret not utilising it in the piece.

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Lichtenstein utilised the Ben-Day dot printing style to show texture and density throughout his pop art pieces.

(No date a) The collection | moma. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/ (Accessed: 22 October 2023).

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This unit was a good introduction into an editorial fast-paced turnaround and more professional experience.

Using the customer/commissioners input meant I could focus on the illustration - yet it meant that I didn’t focus on the research for either the eyeball card or editorial illustration.

For the eyeball cards I struggled with exploring topics about myself and finding something to base the drawings on. Having to condense that down into such a small piece was tough because the ideas I was having was becoming too narrative driven and complicated.

Also, during this piece I had a change of direction from the overanalysed idea of the eyeball card being about climbing to my corpse character. Even though I don’t know if this move to a less conceptually-sound idea was the right decision, I was able to enjoy making the piece and I think that’s shown in the illustration.

So being more concise in my work, embracing the abstract sides to a piece and experimenting more with different mediums would be beneficial for my art practice.

When making the editorial illustration, I enjoyed moving towards making more satirical illustrations because I like satirical cartoon illustrations that poke fun at serious situations.

I talked through how I would change the practical sides to the piece yet alongside these changes, I would also work towards making more developed outcomes and doing more research.

Overall, I want to create more preliminary outcomes and ideas and explore them deeper before committing to a single idea as it narrows my view and constricts my work.