I have stumbled upon some anatomical studies I’d made in the past (though I never dated them) and thought to archive them in some form, and after much thought I decided to share them on this blog.
I am in the middle of coding a website for personal use, where personal art, and studies may find themselves catalogued in the future. (Who knows?)
These types studies aren’t of the usual subject matter I post (these being of the macabre in nature) so I have decided to share them behind a ‘read more’, so you may view the artworks as you please. The content are anatomical studies of bones and organs of a rodent and a cat, respectively.
I’ve been test printing work at home to see how my digital illustrations look in full-colour. I made a new tiger illustration, which just so happens to be the Lunar New Year animal of 2022.
As I want to experiment with digital painting, this may be the last vectored illustration I make for some time unless I invest in the programs for it. I’m exited to learn digital painting, however. I’ll have more freedom in regards to texture and line.
Some of my work has been saved as pdfs for future printing as postcards or greeting cards; I’m very happy with these motivational tiger! I also made a birthday tiger graphic (with alternate text).
I still have a lot to learn in regards to typography, but it’s fun to experiment with different typefaces, and learn as I go. I suppose when I make future greeting cards, I’ll be revising my understanding.
First post of the New Year. A little mid-century bear illustration. He’s having a grand old time jamming out the tunes!
I made this with the intentional limit of colours thinking I’ll try to print it as a Risograph at a later date. I’ll be happy if it turns out well, but most digital pieces will end up in a portfolio regardless.
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions or promises to myself – I never do. It’s not directly related to creativity, but just being honest with myself, and being kinder to myself is something that I am woking on. Always. I do, however, have goals to reach. It helps to set those.
I tore into an old Illustrator file and took it apart to experiment more in Risograph printing before winter break. I chose to revisit the circus horse that I vectored much earlier in the year. Separating the layers and simplifying the image was a little bit of a pain, since I made the original image with no intent to print it as a Risograph. But the outcome is something that I’m very happy with!
Riso circus horse!!
I had planned for the illustration to use four inks, and I would have liked them to have been black, teal, red, and yellow. The yellow ink would have been used for detail on the blanket and to add texture to the background. However, I wasn’t happy with the results, so I cut that colour out all together. I think the three colours used here work together well.
The majority of the horses are printed on different coloured sugar paper. Some are printed on white card. I would like to look into printing the illustration on card of different colours in the future. I might even be able to include the fourth colour if I can tweak the original image enough, but I don’t consider it a necessity for the image to work anymore.
Horses on different coloured papers
Thinking about it, I would like to try printing grey horses, with dappled fur either using black or teal for the detail. Really, there’s nothing stopping me from printing fluro pink horses other than my own sensibilities.
I tidied up the tiger assets I already had for a mini print
After cleaning up the tiger illustration I had practiced Riso prating with, I made the graphic into an A5 mini print and then printed the same image onto card to make B5 greeting cards. It’s just experimentation, but I’ve learned a lot thus far. I’d like to make some illustrations from scratch with the intent of printing them this way – it’ll streamline the whole process.
A little update to the personal stationery project I’d started quite some time ago. I’ve had access to print some trial sticker sheets and gave Risograph printing another go after a long absence. It was exiting! Next time I share some printed works I’ll go further in-depth with each method used. I didn’t record every step of either of the printing processes, but I’ve made a note to do so for the next round.
Risograph Printing
It had been… a veeeery long time since I had made anything with a Risograph printer. I’ve posted some Riso work here before. But I need to get back to grips with the machine. I printed some simple note cards using only 3 inks; red, blue, and black. So including the card or paper colour, the card’s design uses 4 colours – never mind that black isn’t really a colour.
Risograph print note cards
Even though I made these rather impulsively, with assets already on-hand, I found separating the layers of the tiger graphic simple enough. Though the graphic was not designed with the intent of Riso printing, the elements of the illustration were grouped sensibly which streamlined the whole process.
Here’s also where I want to say that the mid-century design sensibilities of some of the illustrations I’ve made recently really lend themselves to this printing aesthetic.
Risograph tigers
I think the tiger turned out very cute and suites these bold colours. I ensured to knockout the tiger’s body entirely on the blue layer, or else I’d end up with purple as the two inks overlap. I used half-tones on the blue layer and black layer as too much solid colour can result in track marks (ink streaks resembling an automobile’s tyre tracks).
Sticker Printing
There are a few different sticker paper qualities that I can use; glossy, matt, and transparent. I intend to try out all three different types of paper, and get a better idea of what qualities suit the different visual styles of sticker designs.
B5 sticker sheet featuring two large dragons
Below are some dragon sticker sheets; before and after being separated and trimmed with the guillotine. They’re printed on white, glossy paper.
There were a couple of tiny cutting errors on this sheet. But it’s a trial run, so I’m able to sort out any mishaps (big or small) after seeing these printed physically.
Though I didn’t take photographs of the process of arranging the assets for print, next time I’ll take screenshots to show the steps taken to print these. I’ll be printing on different types of sticker paper, so when I share them, I’ll mention the quality and characteristics in-depth as I compare them.
Well, that’s it until next time! I’m learning a lot as I go, but it feels good to have some physical copies of digital pieces to hold at last! There will always be some sort of discrepancy in colour when printing digital pieces as printers can’t always reproduce colours accurately. (Some colours just aren’t ‘printer-safe’.) I look forward to more printing and experimentation with Riso!
There are a couple of personal projects that I’ve been slowly chipping away at. It’s difficult to move any faster than I am when most critique is from a small number friends who want to give any, and I’ve been away from academic pressure. I’ve feel like I’ve had a difficult time structuring myself. I don’t have access to all of the tools needed to reach the end of projects, so nothing I’ve done really has a ‘completed’ feeling. I’m going to log some project progress here so that I can better see how much farther I have to go.
Assets from last year that I’ll put to use on stationery
I’ve wanted to make stationery for some time now, I’d like to finalise some of the letter paper designs that I had worked on. I do need more specific critique on those works though. I thought making sticker sheets would be a fun (smaller, and more straight-forward) project.
You may think stickers superfluous, but they can brighten up diaries, notebooks, and workspaces in general. I’d argue that their surface value of being “nice to look at” is good enough.
I have a few assets from digital illustration experimentation in that I’d very much like to put to use, such as these pair of tigers. The current plan for a tiger sticker sheet is simply both of the tigers, with a small selection of leaves. The colours are bold and cheerful.
There are two dragon graphics I made with the intent of printing them as large stickers, rather than part of a sheet of stickers. Personally, I’d like to have some big stickers to place on sketchbooks and such, and I know others would, too.
I don’t want to squander space when printing, so I’d like to add some smaller stickers to avoid such waste. I’d like to add relevant objects such as coins, pearls, or jewel encrusted daggers or staffs – anything that you’d find in a dragon’s hord. But It also depends how competent I am at designing them!
I know the compact design of the first dragon graphic is much less fussy than the second. I anticipate the red dragon may be a little more difficult to peel and stick place. I don’t have any plans to adjust the design however. I’d like to see how practical it is once printed.
To help remedy some creative blocks I mentioned, I do want to support students though the alumni scheme I was offered, and I feel it will help build up confidence weakened though lack of any real meaningful academic discussion and exercises. I’m more than happy to share skills and methods of creativity with students. I hope that I can visit the school campus safely, and even have the access to tools I don’t have. Maybe even make use of the facilities from departments outside of graphic design (such as the textile department). I’ll be printing stickers the first change I get. I look forward to recording the results of trial sticker printing on my blog!
To keep up digital artworking practice, I dug up an old sketch of a fox to work from. I still really liked the shapes that the fox was made up of, so I didn’t have to tweak anything before working on it. It is a pretty static pose, but I have more kinetic compositions in the works.
This digital artworking exercise was carried out in Adobe Illustrator. I followed the same steps I usually do: begin with a sketch, trace it in Illustrator, and then deck it out with colour and textures.
I traced my sketch into basic shapes
You can see the basic shapes the figure is made of. You may not think about it consciously, but basic geometric shapes all carry some ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ associations. The triangle was used a lot in construction here. You may associate triangles with progression, instability, aggression, and unpredictability. The fox is softened by the use of semi ellipses though.
I used a good four or five vector brushes to get the analogue-like textured feel that I wanted. There are probably better brushes out there (to download) for this sort of work, but I’m making do with what I have just now.
A MESS
Above, you can see how messy the canvas got while applying textures. I used the Pathfinder tools (Unite, Intersect, Minus Front…) extensively while adding textures. I’m sure there’s a more conventional way to go about it, but it’s how I taught myself to apply such details.
The end piece!!
I’m very happy with the colours of the fox, and how well the initial sketch’s silhouette translated into this vectored artwork. I feel content to make further digital works in this graphic style. I… might even want to make a set of caniformia illustrations! AR-WOOOO!!
At the tail end of last year I had the idea of making downloadable stationery. I wanted to refine some of my skills in Adobe programs and learn some new ones. I had the idea of making weekly planners and letter paper sets – the latter being something not everyone uses nowadays. Still being on a mid-century illustration high, the designs I worked on have that feel about them. I’m sharing a some of them here.
Organisation is key to getting tasks done, so I wanted to make practical stationery to aid those who want to get organised, and benefit from writing tasks down physically. The compositions of the weekly planners are simple enough. I chose to divide a page into seven blocks – for seven days of the week – focusing on a countryside illustration. I made two sheets.
Details from two separate weekly planner illustrations
I think the weekly planner illustrations turned out very friendly. If I remove the text, they look like background assets ready to be part of a fuller, livelier illustration. I enjoyed filling them out with just enough details for interest, but balancing the empty spaces for the use of writing.
I think the composition of letter paper is much more straightforward. I made a lot of pages that were detailed around the corners or edges of the page, while leaving the centre free of distractions.
I don’t think I’ll be using the above template as a writing paper as the stylisation isn’t as playful as the other ideas I had for compositions and subject matter. The target audience for such a niche item is more likely wanting to use designs that are much more stylised and fun. But it’s worth keeping in mind if I want to revisit the composition itself.
One set of letter paper I wanted to make was nautical – anything to do with ocean life or perhaps boats – so I made a few pages to go together as a set. I think having the nautical paper lined works well to reinforce the ocean waves feeling, but I can of course remove them. I do want to give the option to users to choose unlined paper to write upon.
In making a lot of similar assets for themed writing paper sets I have the choice to recycle some of the assets towards sticker sheets etc.
Ocean friend illustration assets
There are aspects of the digital stationary project that aren’t finished at all – I have some designs that need to be touched up, or pieces that I’m unhappy with. I have yet to decide on where to host or sell PDFs of the stationary. I really enjoyed making these even though I did find it trying at times. I’d say I learned a lot. While writing this up, I realised that I can even make colouring in and activity sheets if I think I can contribute something that isn’t already being provided by other services.
If for some reason I can’t move forward with the idea of downloadable stationary, I can add the designs I made to my portfolio for now. This year, I want to make a lot of things for personal growth and portfolio needs!
Here are recent vector illustrations of leaves made using Adobe Illustrator; I wanted to post some of them here. Made using basic knowledge and basic skills, but each time I practice a (digital) skill, I get better at it. I also don’t often draw or study plants enough!
Recently I’ve seen that my peers from the graphic design degree course we took are steadily moving forward with their personal goals and projects during the latest school term. I really want to make use of the campus facilitates to use the Risograph printer, sticker machine, and laser cutter etc. but I can’t use the facilities yet – maybe in the New Year I’ll be able to go into town to use the resources safely. The wait is really hard.
More leaves; differentiated by size and texture pattern
Reflecting, I need to organise what I have done this ‘term’ so far, what goals I need to meet, if I need to set some new goals, and who I want to talk to for advice to move onwards. I do realise it’s important to think positively at present, and not lament what I can’t do! Best to keep looking towards the next goal post.
Well it’s certainly been a much different final year to the course than I had envisioned. Nothing’s really turned out the way I had thought it would go, but there’s nothing to to than work towards an end-goal in a different fashion than I thought I’d do.
Due to the novel Corona virus, educational institutions around the globe switched to video classes and video one-to-one tutorials in March. I do feel that the class suffered somewhat from inconsistent interaction over the internet – and yes, I also feel that I should have interacted more with my peers online. Even in using the internet to stay connected, there was still something missing and I guess it is the irreplicable feeling of working alongside others in a studio. People like myself enjoy the energy others have. Physical proximity really is just something I’m used to.
NEW SKILLS TO BUILD UPON
The new skillsets that I have learned are varied, and I’ve reflected on them in module reviews and retractions in the past. I’m still surprised that I performed as well as I did while learning coding. I think even understanding how the basis of coding works informs my ability to work smoothly with others working on website design, and the understanding means I will know what front-end coders can and can’t do.
I’ve believe that my soft skills have improved. I think those sorts of skills are constantly improving for those working with other people day-to-day, and jobs that involve quality of life issues (such as design). I’m aware that some of them need much more improvement than others such as time management – or rather the prioritising of tasks.
LIVE BRIEFS
I’d already written about my feeling on the live briefs in good detail in other blog posts, so it feels redundant to write about them in depth here. They’re a great opportunity to reach out to real-world companies – big and small – and I hope to scout out more. It is worth repeating that while most of the end-results of this year’s live briefs were disappointing or disheartening, the happenings that led up to abrupt halting of projects could not have been foreseen.
WORKPLACEMENT IN SWITZERLAND
I’ve already mentioned how lucky I was to visit and work in Switzerland for a tiny while. I wrote a little about one of the programs that I was introduced to in the past, some of the touristy places places I went to and some souvenirs of sorts.
Ideally, it’d be nice to keep some ties to the agency in ST. Gallen I had my work placement at. I sent of a couple of letters, and some e-mails during the Corona virus lockdown to staff, though the agency was able to function in working from home.
I got these in the mail, all the way from Switzerland
Here are some postcards I got in the mail from a friend I made during my placement in Switzerland. I was really exited when I got them. One postcard is essentially a sample from the Swiss paper company INAPA Schweiz, and another is by Swiss illustrator named Stephan Schmitz (see his portfolio from that link)!! I also got a sticker featuring the cover of the children’s book on Swiss customsGlobis Buch vom Shweizer Brauchtum. It’s cute.
BLOGGING
I’ve enjoyed keeping a student blog far more than I had thought I would, even though I often write things that I know won’t likely be read by those outside of the graphic design course. I’ll keep my blog up-to-date as I continue to use it for personal graphic design research, and to share personal projects and any personal progress. I want to keep this blog to show others that I’m serious about design!!
MOVING FORWARD
I’m not taking part in the third year of the course, but I don’t have to say good-bye to the facilities; having alumni status I can use some tools on campus for. I do not have access to further knowledge exclusive to the course. I will miss out on small tips from tutors that I otherwise might not pick up on my own. The last year is key to design students learning the importance of marketing and how to market themselves. That last part would be especially useful to me! I’ll need to learn what exactly what it means to market oneself through my own research.
I have ideas for personal projects!
The future is more uncertain than ever. The way the workplaces function are changing, the way business treat patrons and staff are changing… I’m not sure of what day jobs there are out for me in the immediate future. I’m unsure of what graphic design placements and work I will be able to shoot for. I need to work on myself over the summer and work on unfulfilled projects and seek out what I really want.
My instagram; to be used for analogue illustration
It’s important for me to take advantage of social media hubs. I’m not one to take to these platforms well because I generally dislike the overstimulation, and the way (news) information is delivered on social media. (Both the constant repetition, and the over-simplification.) The platforms don’t have to be used to gather ‘internet friends’ though. I can use them to keep tabs on other creatives and drop off work.
I have an instagram that is in suspended animation (more like it’s a zombie) and I need to be using it as a space to share work exclusive to itself. Sometimes creatives cross-post work, but I want there to be a reason for others to look at it. I may want to set up an account that shares only finished graphic design work.
I think most importantly, I understand that I can’t rush anything. Once I’m sure of my next destination I need to remember that if I focus only on the destination, then I might just miss the journey.
DESIGN WORKS 