Collaboration Project!

Welcome to my first blog post!

First of all, I would like to mention that posts will be fortnightly, due to having young children and not being able to update as often as I would like to.

At university, we've been planning on doing a student takeover at Aunty Social. Aunty Social is a commercial space on Topping Street for local artists.

(Aunty Social takeover poster)

To begin with (the 31st January), we started with being put into smaller groups to decide on separate themes. I was paired with AJ and Harry. We put together a few mind maps, including event name ideas. We also wrote what Aunty Social is about, such as it heavily supporting

(group mind map of event ideas)

We also came up with a few rough logo ideas together; these are a few of mine.

(Logo sketches)

I put together a rough idea in my sketchbook of what I would like to sell at Aunty Social. I chose a huge variety, from prints to keycharms. Here is a sticker series I created called 'Carousel of Horror' - carousel horses themed to horror icons, such as films and tv shows.

(Carousel of Horror horses)

On the 24th February, we discussed that we all agreed as a group that we liked another group's idea of a circus theme. I went ahead and emailed the Tower Circus if it would be okay if me and a few other students would be okay to come and take photos at the location, thinking this would be good for primary research.

(Screenshots of first email)

AJ and I discussed about doing workshop together as well. Due to both of us wanting to character designer, we agreed on doing a character design based workshop. We came up with the idea of having a number of adjectives (such as villainous and sweet) in one hat and a number of nouns (cat and demon) in another, then having to pick one thing from each hat as a prompt for those attending the workshop.

(Workshop ideas)

The name of our workshop, we decided, would be 5 Minute Character Design. We also thought it would be good showcase our own characters and give some tips at the start of the workshop. AJ agreed to work on the posters, whilst I work out what prompts and character design tips.

On the 25th February, my family and I attended the circus, but I also managed to get a the odd few photos. My daughter also got her face painted like a clown, so I got a photo of that for our memories.

(Photo of daughter in face paint)

The ringmaster, Mr Boo, was nice enough to stop after the show and let me take a photo of him too.

(Photo of Mr Boo)

In the evening, I checked my emails and found I had gotten a reply from the Tower Circus. It was to they talked with the manager and agreed it was okay for us to take photos, asking what day would be best. I quickly replied, after discussing with AJ, that Friday would be best.

(Screenshots of emails between me and Blackpool Tower Circus)

Along with these, I messaged the Facebook page for Blackpool Comic con World to ask about having a stall, asking for a bit more information. AJ and I also agreed on sharing a stall for our artworks. I went ahead and reserved a stall space for us.

(Screenshots of conversation on facebook)

On the 28th February, we agreed as a class group what the theme of the event would be. We agreed it would be circus/ vaudeville, using Cait and Connor's ideas. We wrote on the whiteboard, dropping ideas for titles and catchy slogans.

(Photo of Circus/ Vaudeville notes + circus mind map )

We've been planning logos and here's what I contributed to begin with; I focused mainly on the circus theme, heavily following it and trying to incorporate art into in some ways.

(Circus logos)

I also began some concepts for illustrations for the theme, mainly going toward the posters, as well as some products to sell.

(Illustration concepts)

On the 1st of March, AJ and I met up at the Tower Circus; we had to phone up to find out where to go as the main doors were locked. We were told to go through the staff doors, which was quite exciting, and to wait in the foyer area as someone would be down to show us around. Once a member of staff came, we were shown into the circus ring, where a couple of performers were rehearsing.

Due to them not being part of the tower Circus company, we weren't allowed to take photos of them. We did get a number of photos around the arena of the architecture and history of the location, including past posters. AJ and I got a good number of photos between us, which were put into a Google drive folder and shared with the rest of the class.

(One of the Posters displayed in the queue)

On the 3rd March, I drew up some illustrations - a dancer on a horse and a sketch of the ringmaster. I finalised these, and then decided to experiment by putting the illustrations onto photos. I really love how the details came out on the illustrations, but feel they get blurred when printed or the spotlight is added.

(Ringmaster sketch, and illustration + horse illustration)

I tried to put both the illustrations on to the same background, thinking to add more in the future, but not liking how it looked after a while. I think this could be a good group project, where each of us does a circus act illustration and we all put them into one photo.

(ringmaster & horse illustration)

On the 6th March, we agreed on a title idea for the takeover, having done a poll and it be between Artful Makers and Artful.

(Tally of poll on whiteboard)

I designed a few concepts around this idea, so they involved art supplies.

(Logo development)

On the 7th March, we had a visiting illustrator come onto the university campus. Jane Dodds gave some really good advice on a wide range of topics, from working in the illustration industry to what to do after university. When she asked if we had any questions, I already had a few noted, so once it was my turn I asked her. The questions I had asked her were answered in detail and helped ease my mind a lot.

• Do you have a list of references we could look at on who to get in contact with? 

• Is there any legal things, like Public Liability License, we need to get in order to be able to work as an artist? 

• Is it useful having agents? How would you recommend looking for one? 

• What’s a way I can boost my self esteem with my artwork?

As a table, we were asked to list themes and products. We later found out this was to get ideas for the brief she set. I was quite excited about this brief as I was wanting to design some products for somewhere like ASDA. I decided to go with a bedroom set, choosing bedding, pyjamas, cushion and a blanket. I also chose a Halloween/ witchy theme to design my products to.

(Theme ideas)

During the breaks, I sketched out the products and some rough ideas. These are a few of what I came up with:

(Product doodles)

On the 10th March, I sketched further developments of my products for Jane Dodds' brief. I researched a bit into what products were already being sold by companies such as ASDA and created a mood-board for my Halloween theme. I decided to go with my wolf ideas for each one. I really like the idea of the book blanket mostly, especially with the thought of being 'wrapped up in a good book' whilst reading a good book.

(Sketches of products)

Since I didn't know much about patterns I decided to practice. Here's a pumpkin and ghost one I did:

(Ghostly Pumpkin Pattern)

I created some traditional fine-liner drawings of the wolf characters to get a better look at the characters, but also to test some real life wolf colours that I thought would look good.

(Wolf drawings)

I developed these sketches further by creating digital motifs of the wolf characters and the moons. I experimented with the colours of the wolves for each pose to see which colour worked best with each pose. These are my favourite colour of each, plus one of the moons.

(Digital wolves and moons)

Along with these, I digitally drew a rough up of the cushion and blanket, creating variations for the outside of the book blanket.

(Cushion and Blanket digitals)

On the 13th March, I was unwell to attend the group, but it was decided that the name of the event would be changed to Artville. This is because the previous name (Artful/ Artful Makers) was too wordy and may not have flown best off people's tongues.

(Artville Mind map)

On the 14th March, I was well enough to go into university and attend the next meeting. I created a few logo ideas around the Artville name.

(Artville logos)

Along with this, I sketched some poster thumbnails and bunting ideas onto Post-it Notes.

(Post-it notes)

On the 20th March, I sketched up some rough concepts for the event posters and flyers. I thought to incorporate the circus theme, such as curtains and tear-off tickets.

(Poster + flyer thumbnails)

As well as this, one of my ideas for a poster was a 'search and find' type of poster, where the poster would have multiple things going on in it and the audience would be able to spot certain things if tasked to. This would create an interactive element for the audience to have.

(Close up of search and find poster thumbnail)

It was a small group to usual, but together we showed what work we had and gave each other feedback. My feedback was along the lines of keeping to the curtains ideas of my poster - as well as the tear-off ticket idea -. I also explained a bit on my bunting ideas, having the bunting shaped like the logo, and showed the rainbow art supplies. The class seemed to like that idea, so suggested developing it further.

(Sketches of rainbow art supplies + whiteboard)

I developed the bunting idea further, testing it with fine-liner colours. I found that some of the fine-liner colour bleed against each other. I will develop these further on Procreate.

(Fineliner bunting)

I also developed the posters idea, using the curtain idea as the main focus of my poster design. As a class we noted what should be on the posters, such as the title, the slogan and important details like dates.

(Sketches of posters)

I also tried to do some colour palettes for the posters. I will also develop these more on Procreate as well.

(Colour palettes)

On the 21st, we had a deadline for Enterprise and Commercial Application; for this we had to do a website and an infographic. I finished this, but had been planning via a google slides doc. I successfully submitted my assignment!

(Screenshot of successful submission)

Thank you for reading -

Linzi