SECOND ROUGHS.

I've just received feedback on the rough ideas I sent over to SingRamonaSing last week and it wasn't the best. They stated that they loved the concepts being what I'd sent over but they weren't really what they had imagined for their EP. When I firstly asked them what sort of thing they were wanting for the design, they replied with see it as an open brief as they didn't really know them selves what they wanted and to go with whatever. I tired to narrow this down by working on some lyrics that they sent me to try and make sure I was sort of going down the right path. They had now decided of a number of things that they wanted in the design so that I could work on more designs and ensure they were right.

It was slightly frustrating to hear that my designs weren't right and a list of new things they wanted when I hadn't been specified anything at the start of the project, but it's just one of those things hat I can imagine will happen a lot with freelancing and I need to plod on with. The new requirements consisted of a list of imagery linked to each track and a number of my illustrations they liked from my site.

From this I sat down and brainstormed again and had a few more ideas then the first time round. However, in order to stick to my time plan that I had made from this project, I couldn't afford much more time making rough designs. To overcome this, I drew three designs that in my head, ticked all the boxes that they were after and made a neater version of the one that I preferred and hoped they might pick. It turns out that I was more pleased with these ideas as they seemed to have more depth to them in comparison to my first sketches. In looking back, a positive has come out of a negative set back, providing I don't have to re do they again ha.

I've sent the ideas over to the lads earlier today and am waiting to hear on their feedback. Hopefully I'll be hearing from them relatively soon as I'm already slightly behind schedule due to this little set back and need to push on with the making side of things.

COLOUR TEST.

I'm constantly trying to adapt my method of working when colour is concerned. I've always pushed it to the back of my mind to a point where I can't ignore it any longer as I find it hard to get a good balance of tone. I slip in to the trap of using a huge colour pallet and it looking like a colouring book. I think that it is one of the downsides of working digitally as decisions can be careless. With the option of changing a colour scheme at the click of a button, its too easy to change your mind and become sloppy or maybe this just applies to me. Anyway, rather then dropping colour behind my work digitally, I've started to play with working on top of a painted background. The graphite doesn't blend as smoothly as it would on tracing paper (how I usually work), but I much prefer the texture and colour tones the gouache creates rather then a solid block of colour. It's definitely going to be a process that I'll have to keep pottering about with until I'm happy with. I really enjoyed pushing some paint about as it feels like a lifetime ago since I last had a paint. Good times indeed. 

EP ROUGHS.

After two weeks of frustration, drawing and redrawing, I've finally got something to send over for the band to have a look at. I wasn't sure how rough my roughs actually should be as I haven't had a live client before but think they'll get my ideas across. I chose to focus the majority of my imagery on the song Adviceberg as I think I mentioned in an earlier post and combined them with elements of winter. It's been a good week of drawing that I've enjoyed loads, as the pressure of working for a client has kept me on my toes. I don't usually spend much of my time drawing the human form so it was a good chance to knuckle down and practice. I'm hoping that if all is good, they'll choose the weird face mold image as I really got into it and feel I could push it a lot further given the opportunity. I'm quite nervous as to what their reaction will be towards my work but fingers crossed I'm on the same wave length.  Just a case of waiting now.

SING RAMONA SING a.k.a THE EIFFEL TOWERS.

The band formally known as The Eiffel Towers have been in touch today to inform myself that they have had second thoughts on the name. I had started to play about with typographic logos but I guess I'll just have to scrap them and start again. They're now set on being called Sing Ramona Sing. Personally, I think it works much better and typographically, gives me more to play about with. All I want to know is, who's Ramona??

VALENTINES SKETCHES.

 

I've been working a on a quick sketch for valentines day to give to the other half over the past few days. Inspired by The Cure, as shes obsessed with them, had a go at doing something based on some lyrics by Robert Smith himself. I've been trying my hand at working on paper as oppose to the usual tracing paper and it's been a pleasant change. I need to pick up some inks and have a go at painting next time as I see it as being the next step forward.

EP IDEAS.

Admittedly, they are very crudely drawn and taken on my phone, but this is the direction I intend on taking with the album artwork. Recently, I've found it best not to work from reference when first trying to get an idea down on paper. I tend to focus more on the imagery in front of me rather then the concept of an idea. I understand that as a result of this, the first sketches usually aren't proportionally correct, and don't really look how I intend them to (the woman isn't meant to be an OAP), but I find this dead helpful in the first steps of visualising and idea.

TRACK LIST.

Having emailed the band on Monday, they've replied with the names of the tracks that are (probably) going to appear on the cd ,as well as lyrics to accompany each.

They are as follows :
Queenie
The Ballad of Sally Sinatra
Adviceberg
Everything Flows
Dropsy
The Thaw
I'm not 100% that the order will stay the same but they've assured me that as soon as they come to a decision, I'll be first to know.

Having read through the lyrics of Thaw, it seems to be about winter loneliness and how if effects most people yet no one seems to talk to each other about it. From this, I intend to play with the idea of conjoined faces in various ways. Throughout a couple of the other songs there appears to be a repeated nautical theme cropping up (especially in Adviceberg). I might play about with trying to combine this alongside the idea of winter loneliness and see what I can come up with!  Lets hope I'm not being too weird and they go for it.

SELF PROMOTION.

Self promotion can either make or break first impressions of an artist, so with this in mind, I intend on making some killer work to take down to London with me next month. I've done a brief bit of research into what other creative folk are doing and I particularly liked the hand made looking bits. Rather then just printing out my work in a zine or some other form of publication, I think I'm going to make some sort of pack, almost like a more 3D envelope out of thick card. Almost like the format of Don't Panic! but a sturdier packaging. It's also going to be another form of transport for my business cards as well, so I'm hoping if they're encased in a slick, hand made package that looks like its taken time to make, people might be less likely to just throw it in the bin. I hope. A few weeks back I read an article on Creative Review (I can't find it to put on here so it must have expired) that had a list of design based cv's and business cards, specialising on how to makes yours stand out against the rest. It featured some brilliant ones by post-graduates, one in particular that I remember that unfolded to make a poster of a print. The net used was dead simple, but looked really well thought about and pretty innovative that stood out to me as being a memorable piece of design. I'm aiming to hopefully achieve this myself in whatever I decide on making.

With this in mind, I've been trying out some rough designs in Illustrator (haven't used in a lifetime and can tell) to see what sort of layout I want to go for. I think I'm going to try and keep it reasonably compact and stick to a print size of A6 so it's not too bulky. Playing with layout and type arrangement has been a refreshing change from the norm that I've really enjoyed doing. Differing from the usual illustration based work, it's made me think about how I could apply the two together and apply my work to packaging amongst other 3D items. I like the idea of it all folding/unfolding together to reveal some text, perhaps a short bio or something which I intend to screen print onto the card itself. I need to have a look at what sort of material is going to work best for me and what I can realistically afford, which isn't loads.

I've seen a couple of places online that offer reasonably cheap laser cutting services, so it could be an option for me to get the packs cut professionally, cost dependent. This could be really beneficial and save me a lot of time with the scalpel if I can get score lines cut with a big laser beam. Some of the studios also have the technology to engrave using lasers as well but I presume that depends on the depth of the material used and more specifically, what the material is. These are all things I need to look into pretty promptly as I want to get it done and dusted asap really. I'm pretty excited to be making something to hand out as I haven't really touched on self promo much other then my site. If all goes to plan I think it could look really professional and play in my favor with potential clients. I just need to make some decisions now and crack on making.

MAJOR PROJECT PART TWO.

So having just finished my piece for OhhDeer, its time to crack on with the second project in the pipeline. About a month ago, I was contacted by band, having seen my work online saying they were interested in me producing the artwork for their first self-titled EP. Obviously, I bit their arm of at the offer. As well as the illustrations for the album covers, they want a disc image, logo and possibly a typeface that the can associate with themselves. 

The Eiffel Towers are an acoustic two-piece from York, with elements of folk creeping in. The band is going into the recording studio in early March so this fits perfectly in the 5 weeks I have put aside.  Having listened to a few rough recordings several times, my cogs are starting to turn as to what sort of imagery I'm thinking would compliment their music. The bands has been very open and easy going where a brief is concerned. They stated in an email that they preferred my pieces of work that contained birds but were open to any input that I had. As they haven't really got an idea what they want, they've left it up to me to play about with whatever I feel would suit their songs best. I'm going to try and limit myself to some extent, so that my mind doesn't wander and get lost in too many different ideas. The only thing they have said is that they don't want anything literal concerning their name. Even though its a self titled EP they clear stated that no images of the Eiffel Tower should be used ha.

I think the best thing for me to do is to ask the band for lyrics so at least I have something to go on and the imagery isn't completely random. I'm trying to give my work a little more context then it has done in the past so I think could be a help. I'm aiming to send the band as many roughs as I can do in two weeks, then as soon as I get the nod, really go for it.

I've never done a live project like this before so I'm pretty excited to get drawing and massively flattered that they've seen my work and got in touch. Time to get my draw on.