My inspiration for the portrayal of the character Mr Punch came from traditional depictions of the character created in pen and ink, as well as Dave McKeans portrayal of the character for Neil Gaimans 'The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Mr Punch'. I looked to the traditional depictions of Mr Punch to inform my practice in terms of colour palette and Mr Punches attire, but Dave Mckeans illustrations and puppets had a great sense of character and malevolence, which helped me decide on my own version of Mr Punch. 

I have created a series of illustrations some produced in full colour and others in black and white, as I often found that I struggled with knowing which colour palettes to use without overpowering the composition. I wanted to create thumbnails which were inspired by different elements of the art direction and subsequently the text itself to gather multiple ideas for composition and the story that i would be telling about Mr Punch. The thumbnails which I found to be most successful were the ones of Mr Punch inside a box with a more limited/ subdued colour palette, as I felt that they helped to tell the story of Mr Punches anger at his entrapment as a puppet. 

The Part of the text which I have focused on for my final piece is as follows,

'Punch disappears, his faced rammed into the dark of the box.
The thing called wife takes over and laughter rings.
The policeman and the judge behave like clowns.
The dark of the box whistles. Punch cannot hear.
He wraps his face in a piece of the dark

and the huge doubt bleeds.' 
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I feel I have managed to depict a malevolent scene through the use of a receding shadowed background, which induces the pull of the dark, as it contracts into Mr Punch and adds to his already overflowing cup of evil. I have used perspective lines to depict the inside of a wooden box, as well as appearing prison like, which is metaphorical as Mr Punch feels trapped. Mr Punch lies, as if he has been dropped into the box carelessly, his position with an arm wrapped over himself, as if for self-comfort. Being cast off has further fuelled anger and misanthropy towards his jailer, as he plots his escape.  I have used the traditional colours for his costume, but muted them to reflect the darkness of his surroundings, the red being the most prominent and used to guide the viewers eye through the piece from Mr Punches hat down to the blood splatters. 

This set of thumbnails needed to convey the anger of the boss and the fear of the employee as they're being reprimanded for something they have done wrong. I used mundane colours to convey the office setting and tried to focus on the body language of the figures. The boss leans over the employee which comes across as threatening and the employee has her head in her had which conveys disappointment.  

These sets of thumbnails aimed to highlight the sense of joy felt when receiving good news, which happened to be heard of the telephone. I liked that this piece was set in the 1950s, as it made for a more interesting setting. I wanted to convey a stereotypical 19502 setting of a woman wearing an apron, as if she had just picked up the phone while cooking. I think from her facial expression i have depicted more of a sense of shock which is an emotion that can be closely followed by joy. 

This was by far one of the most difficult pieces to thumbnail, as I struggled with knowing how to visibly show the teenagers impatience while also showing people talking  while making it an interesting composition. I found that putting the annoyed teenager in the front of the composition allowed the viewer to see their facial expression of pushed out cheeks and rolled eyes. 

This is by far my favourite piece, I found that the thumbnails really helped to inform my understanding of body language and unpack the idea of two married people who cant stand to be near each other. I also feel like I have captured a sense of sadness between the figures and a sense of unspoken disappointment. 

The direction for this piece was to depict a figure in an air craft before their first jump. Now depending on your personality you could be really excited for your first jump or you could be terrified. I chose the latter emotion when deciding on the body language that i wanted to convey within this piece, I have done this by drawing the figure crouched as if about to jump, but then also gripping onto the side of the plane for support. 

This piece needed to depict serious concentration in an academic or scientific setting. I chose to convey a genius at work by looking at scientists in their labs. For this piece I wanted the focus to be on the face and hands of the figure, as these are the areas where you can physically see the concentration in action: the focused eyes and the steady hands both showing the seriousness of the work. I also wanted to create a slightly unfinished feel to the piece, as if a geniuses work is never done.

I have tried to capture the range of tone used in my thumbnails to inform my final piece, making the piece feel more three dimensional. I have used a monochromatic colour palette, as I wanted to concentrate on using lights and darks to push the tonal  value, I also think it adds to the foreboding of the scene and the imminent feeling of dread.  

Doing the thumb nails for this piece really helped me to experiment with view point and perspective, as my first few thumbnails are quite similar in the way they are set out with the tower being the most commandeering part of the piece with a small figure placed somewhere on it. I realised that these compositions were feeling similar and not very exciting so I decided to experiment more to find a more dynamic angle. I decided on the falling man as I felt the composition was engaging and instilled the feeling of vertigo that I was hoping to capture. 

I found it quite a challenge to create interesting compositions which captured the sense of movement between the figures and putting them into a café setting, However, I enjoyed rendering the final piece and when for a vintage feeling with the colour palette with subtle browns and reds, adding to the sexy and close atmosphere. 

Thumbnailing for this idea was difficult, as there was a lot of space to fill (pardon the pun!) As wells as thinking about how to fill the space by creating a dynamic composition there was also the question of the struggle and how to capture the physicality of that action which I decided to depict by the hands reaching towards each other, as if on of the spacemen had come detached and was floating away. 

When creating the thumbnails for this piece I used reference images of parkour runners to capture a sense of bravery and peril. I decided on my final piece, as I felt the positioning of the figures drew the viewers eye through the piece and created a dynamic composition. 

These thumbnails were difficult as I felt that the sizing was a little bit restrictive and there were so many figures to fit in to the composition which needed to be rendered fairly proportionally in order to create a realistic sense of claustrophobia. This is also the only final that I've rendered horizontally, as I felt that the vertical composition was not working as there was more space which reduced the feeling of claustraphobia.  

I always start my design process by creating thumbnails, as they allow me to see what ideas are successful and which ones need more work. It also helped me to visualise how I could use the same four pantone colours throughout my designs to create a cohesive visual language. 

I felt that a lot of my initial pin designs were quite simple, as it was my first time using illustrator and I was just getting to grips with how to use the different tools and effects. 

I found that these mock ups appeared rather clunky and unfinished which was not what I wanted to portray. I actually found that the designs on my backing cards were more ambitious and would make good badge designs. 

These final mock ups of these complete enamel pin badges and backing cards convey the many things I have learnt from this project, including using illustrator and how to make a 2d design feel much more tangible by adding simple things like cast shadows and adding a hanging tab to my backing cards. 

To further improve on this project, I should have added a website or Instagram link on the bottom of my backing card, as it is so important to market your website, as people will visit it to look at designs and then if they like it, buy things from you and share your work with their friends. Overall, I ended up really enjoying this project and would love to one day design and sell my own enamel pin badges. Things I struggled with most was using illustrator I found it difficult to locate and use the different short cuts that would have made things easier for me, however I watched a lot of YouTube videos which helped inform my practice and in reality the more you use a specific software the better you get so I look forward to my next illustrator project with a lot more confidence in my abilities.  

I have been inspired by many different band posters and hope to convey some of the influence I have taken within my own work, in terms of colour, font and technique. 

I created a series of thumbnails which helped me with my creative expression and helped me to explore different ideas surrounding the title of my band.

I have documented my process to show the different design decisions I have made through out the project and the experimentation I have tried with my use of font, background and colour palette. 

These are my two final outcomes in response to the brief to design a band poster, using a made up band name. I really enjoyed this project and had a lot of fun experimenting and expanding my photoshop skill set, along side using procreate as they both work using pixels. Overall, I think that both band posters have been successful, but both exude a different style and could be posters for two completely different genres of music.  However, I think this is a good thing as it has allowed me to experiment further with colour, design, symbolism and it even comes down to my new found knowledge of how paper texture effects the age of a poster. 

Ewan McClure is an artist who has great skill when it comes to technical painting, using broad brush strokes layered on top of each other to capture even smaller details. I enjoyed trying to recreate his technique, but I focused too much on trying to get the objects to look like objects rather than being braver and using bigger brushes and being patient enough to let the piece come together on its own. 

I really enjoyed recreating Anne Magills' style and I tried to be a lot braver this time around when it came to using bigger and more textured marks to describe the objects. Technically speaking, parts of my drawing area little off and I feel that I smoothed out the surface of the cup quite a lot, which is a shame as it comes away from Anne Magills way of working.

Ambrose McCavoy is an artist well known for his portraits in watercolour and his use of bold colours which are blended together fluidly. I have tried to replicate his technique by drawing out the portraits in pencil first and having visible pencil details in the face. I did one painting using darker colours and another using brighter colours, I found the one with brighter colours more difficult to replicate as i am not as confident using watercolours in that way.

I found Peter Blakes style to be one of the most fun to recreate, but also one of the most difficult as I had not realised now many layers went into making up the brightness of his watercolour paintings. If anything that was the most difficult thing to do as it meant waiting for the paint to dry and knowing where to add more watercolour to add depth to the painting. 

I started planning my ideas in my sketchbook, drawing some simple plans including unusual shapes and then progressing by adding colour. I started with the idea of creating a recognisable face shape, incorporating features such as, eyes, nose and the mouth. However, I felt that the more experimental ideas were more fun and I was more interested in the mask conveying more about my personality rather than what I look like. This was how I decided on making my mask look like a rabbit, as they are my favourite animal, with their gentle natures and fast reactions, I like the way they live as part of a community which is how I feel as an illustration student. I wanted to use bright colours, as I see myself as a cheerful and upbeat person with a love for the weird and wonderful. I made this mask from manipulating cardboard into round shapes which I then taped together and putting  Papier-mâché on top. After the Papier-mâché dried I painted a few layers of orange on top, waited for it to dry and then added details with a selection of posca pens. I also added ears which were made from card and painted purple, I used a limited colour palette and liked that they stood out from each other. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this project, as I feel it has allowed me to develop my 3D skills, but most importantly it has allowed me to express myself through illustration using a method that I would not normally choose too and I have thoroughly enjoyed the creative process. 

The aim of this task was to make us feel more confident about playing with materials and not overthinking a concept or idea. Ultimately, the task was to have fun! I have used a limited range of materials, including cardboard from amazon packaging, card, paint samples and posca pens for detail. I really enjoyed this task, as I often find myself overthinking and worrying about it looking good, which inhibits me from having fun. I think if I had had more materials to put to use I could have had even more fun and created something much more three dimensional. I recently found an Instagram account which made me chuckle called @eyesonamazon and it reminds me of this mask and just shows that you can make art from anything and have fun at the same time! 

In the Images below I have documented my own creations which have been inspired by Alan Fletcher. The materials I have used mostly came from routing through my recycling bin, stealing the tops from bottles and spending hours papier- mâché -ing. I added colour by painting layers of acrylic on top of the papier-mâché and the finer details were drawn on with posca pens. I tried to use different shaped objects so each character would look a little different from its counter part. I feel that I have captured the essence of cats and dogs in making my little friends a little abstract and unique as Alan Fletcher would have done, but keeping them with their recognisable features such as pointy ears and whiskers for a cat and droopy tongues and flapping ears for a dog.  Overall, I had a lot of fun making this little unusual family of cats and dogs and it made me realise that good illustration doesn't always have to be serious - it can be fun too!