Gianne Amparo Illustration: My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down

Apologies! I usually update my blog every Sunday but due to deadline stress (and my procrastinator self) I was too tired and stressed to even turn my laptop on. ANYWHO, I am back now to show the progress of my uni project!

-Monday-

(Lecture on Publishing with Paul Roberts)

I won't go into too much detail about this lecture, but I will just point out the points that were quite important:

The market is dominated by global corporations such as: Penguin Random House, Amazon (also good for self publishing), Simon and Schuster, etc.

Due to high use of technology, ebooks have become more prominent, especially with the Kindle. Hardback book sales remain strong, but paperbacks are down- this might be due to it lasting much longer, since it has a much stronger finish.

Obviously, in books pictures are often associated with younger children and words as people get older and advanced.

Within children's books there is often merchandise associated with the books themselves, for examples popular characters such as Peppa Pig have been turned into toys, etc.

There are some websites that promotes self-published work and these include: Amazon, Issuu, Kickstarter, Blurb.

If I get a chance to illustrate a book cover, don't go for the classics or the most obvious piece of work, that has been done or illustrated too many times (such as Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick)- go for the titles that haven't been done well.

One-off bespoke items (such as concertinas, extravagant pop-up books) can be sold quite expensively due to how they are made with high quality. To get an idea of price ranges, we were told to look on Etsy to see how much people sell their original pieces.

And lastly, don't undervalue your (or my) work! Be confident about producing work to the best possible standard.

(So sorry about all the typing, it's just so that I can look back on this if needs be )

-Tuesday-

I had a Format Workshop, where I was asked to consider the possible final formats of my project. Being all dreamy in the beginning where I thought I was going to make another children's picture book, that now seems ridiculous considering the time I have left. SO, I will now just illustrate 4 final pages up to a good quality. Or maybe a book cover and 3 final spreads.

Some pictures now, hurrah!

-Wednesday-

I had a tutorial with my course leader, Lisa and basically I just showed her my work and addressed some problems I had with my project. We had quite a long discussion and this tutorial sheet pretty much sums up how much work I have to do:

The one thing she said that resonated with me the most was I should ask myself, "Am I enjoying it?" In my foundation, college and sometimes in school I would worry and sometimes obsess over my grades. Being on a degree is so much work, but I just want to get to stage where I don't even have to worry about mark schemes and doing what I think I should be doing to please someone, if that makes any perfect sense?

I love drawing because it's fun and that's what really should matter at the end of the day.

And also, I should relax more because I worry a lot too. This project theme is so ironic!

-Thursday-

I was chosen to develop my initial designs for the smart car wrap and mural along with some fellow illustrators in my year and basically we were told to make our designs and colours brighter because this new smart car that we're designing for is aimed

at young, cool-hip people driving in the city. I just did some research on the car itself and these were some images to get a feel for the client's brief:

Additionally, I found some inspiration from the periodicals in the library and in a contemporary illustration book in the studio so I photocopied the images above for inspiration for the mural and car wrap design.

The mural was made by Chris Haughton and I love how he applied the bright vibrant colours on the animals.The graphic posters were by Caroline Tomlinson and I admire how there's a narrative going on in her images.

-Friday-

Timed myself as I made these drawings below and it worked out so well! It made my character appear more loose, which I was aiming to do.