Initial Ideas for Final Major Project

The Final Major Project is the last body of work that I will produce at university, its a self initiated-project where we are required to write our own brief on almost anything we want. This gives us a pretty big scope to choose from and so I've spent the last week or so trying to decide what to do for it. Its a 16 week project so it needs to be something I'm going to enjoy and something that I can develop week by week.

To start with I've made a few notes on the things I like, feedback from the last project, and what my favourite projects have been in the past:

Pages from my "Ideas" notes.

Looking at these notes, I think I've come up with an idea that combines my interests with some elements from my favourite past projects, and should also allow me to work on some of the suggestions from negotiated study. 

I would like to illustrate a collection of fairytales (most likely the Grimm's stories), but adapting them so that the characters are animals instead of humans (which might involve a bit of anthropomorphism, something I've been quite interested in recently). By using a collection of stories as my theme I think I will find it easier to stay focussed and motivated for the project, as I won't be working on just one narrative for the whole 16 weeks.

At the moment I am aiming to produce an illustrated book as my final outcome, and I have a few ideas for that as well. A while ago I purchased a book called Mamoko which I found really interesting. At the start of the book you are introduced to a selection of characters, and after that there is no other text in the book. Each double-page is filled with a busy scene involving all of the characters, as well as "extras", and the idea is to re-read the book again and again to follow each of the character's stories, while some of them overlap and interact with each other:

I like the idea of using this sort of format to illustrate a collection of fairytales. I too would make some of the stories overlap with each other, for example: Red Riding Hood could drop the apple that Snow White later eats etc.

Rather than introducing the characters at the beginning of the book, I would more likely simply ask the question "How many of your favourite fairytales can you find within the book?" (or something similar).

This idea needs to be approved by my tutors on Monday, but today I am going to do some research into collections of fairytales to make a decision on what stories to use. I originally wanted to use some of the lesser-known fairytales, but now that I have this idea for an outcome I think it would be more appropriate to use some more popular stories, as the characters and stories within the pages will need to be reasonably recognisable. 

Reflecting on Negotiated Study

 Before I get started on my final major project, I'm taking a quick look back at my most recent project to see what went well and what went wrong, to hopefully help me out with ideas for the new work.

For my negotiated study project (a self-initiated project where we were required to set our own brief) I chose to produce a series of illustrations based on one of the books from the reading list entitled 'The Science Chef Travels the World'. Its a cook-book for children filled with a variety of recipes from countries around the World. The main aim of the project was to depict the recipe and its origin in the form of a poster.

Below are my final five posters:

Posters based on recipes for:
Quiche L'orraine, West African Peanut Soup, Southwestern Ontario Fruit Salad,  Paella, Mocha flavoured cupcakes.

Below is a selection of pages from my sketchbooks. The first few weeks of the project were spent drawing a long list of ingredients and utensils to use in the recipes. Some of these sketchbook pages ended up being printed onto the backs of the posters in a colour that co-ordinated with the design on the front.

Overall I was reasonably pleased with the outcome of the project, particularly the Quiche poster (First image in this post) as I feel it has the strongest layout and colour palette. The final posters were much more successful than the initial ones which had a lot more empty space, and no elements relating to the recipe's country. My final mark for this project was a B2, and I received these suggestions in my feedback:

- More variation in lines (thickness etc.)

- Make the colour less precise or more offset.

- Experiment further with type

- Perhaps print onto other textures such as wood?

I will be keeping these suggestions in mind when I begin my FMP, particularly the suggestions about line thickness and typography. I plan to try using a brush and ink to draw with rather than a fine-liner which should help me to vary the weight of the lines whilst still drawing in my own detailed style. I will also be including the use of type in my project in some way to allow me to experiment with various fonts and styles.

Week 1 (In brief)

- Reflecting on Negotiated Study

(The highs and lows of my previous project, and all the things I have learnt)

- Initial Ideas

(Sharing my thoughts on where to begin for my Final Major Project)

About Me

Hello! My name is Emma Margaret Simpson and I am a third year illustration student studying at Southampton Solent University.

My illustration work tends to be drawn in quite a detailed style, generally including lots of patterns. My favourite subject matters are nature and animals, and I've recently taken an interest in anthropomorphism. My interest in drawing animals mainly stems from my Final Major Project at college where I produced a children's book about the animals of London Zoo. During that time I spent over 10 weeks repeatedly drawing animals and as my ability increased so did my interest and its something I've enjoyed ever since. I am not sure what made me begin to use patterns in my work, I simply sat down to draw one day and began to add patterned details, and again it is something that has stuck since then. My personal sketchbooks are filled with drawings and quick doodles of all the things that I've mentioned, all drawn in coloured fine liners. I'm also quite interested in typography and often including quotes and song lyrics within the illustrations in my sketchbooks.

Pages from my personal sketchbooks.

I like to take my designs into screen print as I like the painterly texture that it gives, and in fact I run a little shop selling screen-printed cards, prints and other items. Any spare time in between university projects is spent working on and printing these designs, and I also enjoy keeping a creative lifestyle blog where I share my inspirations and ideas.

Screen-printed items

I don't have may specific artists that are a source of inspiration, instead I like to browse websites such as Pinterest looking for illustrations that are relevant to my work and that I generally find interesting. Artists that have been popping up quite frequently in my inspirations recently have been Sandra Dieckmann (1), Bjorn Lie (2), and Oana Befort (3). However my inspirations are constantly changing and I am always looking for more artists and illustrators to discover. Generally I will find an artist inspiring if they too have used pattern or typography in their work, or if they simply use a similar subject matter to what I am interested in. 

Three of my current influences.

My Pinterest board of inspirations and influences.

About this blog

Welcome to my blog documenting my Final Major Project on the Illustration course at Southampton Solent University. I will be sharing the highs, the lows, my processes and thoughts as well as inspirations and outcomes with you.

Each week I will be reflecting on my progress, as well as discussing any workshops or guest lectures that I have attended, both in detail and in brief summary. I will be sharing plenty of images here of both my own work and the work of others that inspire me. Throughout the project I will be referring back to posts from this blog and using my own evaluations to help me produce work to the best of my ability.

I have chosen to produce this document in the form of a blog in order to share my progress with anyone who wants to read it. Writing in this way also makes it quite easy for me to refer back to earlier entries and reflect, whereas writing in an unorganised notebook would be much harder to navigate later on.

So here goes...