Chloe Isteed Illustration

This project had a tight deadline, but I worked hard and managed to get all illustrations finished and printed for the crit. I was happy with the book cover and two of the illustrations, but I could see changes I would make to the third one if I had more time. I do plan to make these changes after the crit, as I have some spare time before the next project starts.  Book Cover: Originally, I wanted to use the streamers on the fan as the front cover to my book. I liked the simple collage I had done during George's book workshop of the fan streamers, however I wanted to change it to add some texture and make them less generic. However, I didn't like how simple it looked on the cover, and I felt that the text didn't sit well with it. Also, it was a very small part of the book, and I wanted to use something a bit more significant. As I wanted to focus on the objects, and the relationship between them and the characters, I decided to look at the typewriter. I think...

During the summer, I got a very kind message from Allan and Ellen Wexler, saying that they had seen my animation and liked it. This was a huge surprise, as I hadn't even sent it to them! It was great to get such good feedback from them, I am very pleased that they liked it. My animation then got posted onto his Facebook page, and there were quite a few lovely comments too.  When making the animation, I never even considered the possibility of him seeing it! It was really nice to give my tutors some good news after coming back from the summer, and they were all very happy and supportive.  This has also led to the possibility of him coming to London to do a talk at UAL, which is very exciting!  You can view my animation here.  

After the crit, I wanted to explore the objects in the story more, and try to work out how to use them to portray the story. The story has a lot of emotion in it, but some scenes use this more subtly than others. I am drawn towards the scenes that are perhaps less obvious, for example the wedding scene when Miss Amelia reaches out for her pocket, which doesn't exist as she is wearing a wedding dress rather than her usual overalls. I really like this scene because it shows the vulnerability of Miss Amelia. Although from the outside she seems like a tough person, inside she is vulnerable, and the action of her reaching out for a missing pocket shows how uncomfortable she was in the situation. This is something I would like to explore more in my illustrations. I would like to try and find moments like these, that perhaps the reader doesn't pick up on when first reading the story.  The bookmaking workshop with George really helped me to realise this. I started off by ...

2nd year has started already, and it was great to see everyone and finally get access to our new studio! I found seeing everyone's summer work for the Fiction project really interesting, as everyone had taken a different approach, and because everyone comes from different places, everyone's work looked completely different.  I chose The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. I enjoyed reading the story, and could imagine the characters and the setting fairly well as the story was so descriptive. I also liked the atmosphere in the story, and the use of colour, light and symbolism to help tell the story and convey the feeling and atmosphere.  I enjoyed drawing the objects from the story. This was because I had easy access to quite a lot of them, meaning that I could spend a bit longer drawing them. I think that some of the objects in the story help to convey the emotion of the story, and are actually just as important as the characters. For example the acorn that Miss Amelia has, is...