design juices feature

hello, everyone! i'm just quickly popping by to let you know that i've been featured on the Design Juices website today, and if you'd like to take a peek at the article you can do so by clicking here or on the image above. 2014 has gotten off to a fabulous start for me, and i'm crossing my fingers, toes, eyes and whatever the hell else i can cross in the hope that 2014 continues to be just as exciting for me! *internal squealing*

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

sloth appreciation

just popping by to share with you a sloth inspired little illustration i was working on the other night.
i've found myself quite inspired by sloths as of late (god bless their vacant little faces) and have a couple of ideas i plan to work on regarding them!

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

the wind in the willows: final book cover

here's my final book cover for the wind in the willows, thank you for all the feedback and lovely comments you all left me, i really do appreciate every last one i receive :)

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

my favourite ladies

last week i decided to experiment with pencil and watercolour, and after enjoying the results that i achieved, i decided to have a go at creating a set of images within this style. i chose to use some of my favourite ladies as my models, marina diamandis, ellie goulding, zooey deschanel and emma stone, because i have a soft spot for every one of them but also because they're all beautiful, too, and i've found that drawing beautiful people is, for some reason, very enjoyable.

so, there we have it. a 'project' of mine, if you like. hopefully when uni's done with and i'm not a slave to my coursework i'll be able to set myself some more projects and have fun with them!

 please view on flickr for better quality!

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

late night experiments

lately it seems that i'm at my most active late at night, so tonight i set myself the challenge of painting something using only two colours. i decided to paint myself, for no good reason, just because, and i'm really quite pleased with how this little experiment turned out. definitely a technique i'll revist at some point or another!

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

the wind in the willows: draft 1

so as i mentioned, this year i wanted to enter the puffin children's book competition just for fun, experience and to prove to myself that i can manage other projects alongside my university projects, and here is (finally) my first draft of the book cover!

i still want to tweak the back page and i'm considering reillustrating the main characters so that they interact better with the entire front cover (this design isn't how i initially planned it to be, but while arranging all my characters/text in photoshop i realised that my original plan wasn't really going to work,) but other than that i'm pretty content with the colour scheme, background and type (which is a first!)

here's the background pattern i created, it simply features some of the characters that the main four characters bump into along the way and i felt it was important to include them in the book cover design because they help influence how the story moves along.

any feedback on how to improve this design would be really appreciated, so if you've any comments at all i'd love to hear them!

tweet me @xrobynm  |  follow me via bloglovin

something a little different, ft. zoe ldn

today i had a day off from working after spending all day yesterday getting one of my uni projects finished (hurrah for completion!) and went to visit some family with my mum, help her out with the shopping and we ended up going out for a meal spontaneously, too, which was nice. prior to that, i'd been watching a lot of zoe's youtube videos since watching her and lily do one another's make up blindfolded, mainly because i generally find her quite amusing to watch but also because she has such a lovely voice! not something i usually pick out about a person but just go and have a listen and you'll understand. probably. maybe. i don't know, she's just nice to listen to.

anyway, all this watching of zoe's youtube videos made me realise just how vibrant her hair colour is, it stands out from everything, and although i'm not personally a fan of really brightly coloured hair, i couldn't help but feel a bit mesmerised by it because i just couldn't take my eyes off it (mainly because it just wouldn't let me.) all this watching of the mermaid coloured locks inspired me to dig out my watercolours and look at mixing pencil and watercolour to create a contrast similar to zoe's hair and the rest of the (apparently very dull) world.

here was my outcome, it was something a bit different and fun to have a go at and something i might visit again because i think the bright colours against the softness of the pencil works really nicely when trying to create some kind of statement piece that reinforces one part of the image.

a peek into my sketchbook: the wind in the willows

so around october time last year, i was sifting through some university work where i was asked to research into some design competitions and find one that i'd one day like to enter, and during my searching i came across the penguin design award and decided that i'd enjoy entering the puffin children's competition, where you're asked to design the book jacket for a classic penguin children's book.

this year's chosen book was the wind in the willows, a story that i was (surprisingly) unfamiliar with as, as a child, i'd never read the book or even seen the film! i received the book as a christmas present, and although i started reading it in january, i've only just finished reading it today! as soon as i'd finished the book, i also set about watching the film from 1995 just so that i understood the characters and story fully so i knew what i'd be working with when it came to developing a book cover idea.

below are a few peeks into my sketchbook, there's not much to show at the moment because i've only spent a couple of hours sketching so far, but it's a start nonetheless! i'll be sure to keep my blog updated with my progress as and when i make it, hopefully within the next couple of weeks as the competition deadline is very soon and i think it would be beneficial for me to at least attempt to enter, just so i can try to somewhat develop a style, my use of colour, composition and my overall character generation.

all four main characters sketched out roughly in a style that i wished to further develop

all four characters developed further with my chosen style and with colour added using watercolour, acrylic and fineliner pens

i've got a long way to go in terms of colour application (i'm fairly new to working with acrylics so it was a bit hard to master controlling them exactly as i'd wished, however i did like the texture they helped me to achieve!) and tweaking my overall style, but i think i'm at a good starting point and it should be fairly straightforward to progress further and a lot of fun, too!

i'm setting myself a few deadlines for this week: to have collected and written up all my timeline information formally by monday evening, to develop some ideas and attempt to finalise them by wednesday evening and to have completely finished my timeline by friday evening. by setting these and sticking to them it will ensure that i have an entire week to look at developing and finalising any work for this book cover. fingers crossed i can work efficiently and stick to my plan!

also, don't forget to follow my blog on bloglovin!

motel rocks illustrations

at some point last week i became aware of the competition that motel rocks are currently holding, where entrants are asked to illustrate their favourite motel rocks pieces for the chance to win money to spend online and some arty goodies. i thought "what the hell?" and drew up a few sketches before finalising them into what i've got displayed above.

this isn't a style i've drawn in before, and is probably one i won't revisit again, but it was something different to have a go at and i felt it was appropriate for what it was i was illustrating. i've seen a couple of brilliant entries so far - and although i drew these up for more of 'something to do' rather than because i was interested in entering in an attempt to win - and they've left me feeling a little nervous about entering! i've ten days left to enter, so in that time i think i'm going to decide whether or not i want to enter; half of me says "why not? you've nothing to lose!" and the other half says "if you do enter, it means a few judges might have a few cheap giggles if they don't like what you've done." probably a nasty mindset to possess, but it's one i'm struggling to let go of at the minute.

in other news, i'm now back in barnsley for my 3 week spring break and in that time i intend to finalise some ideas i've had for the wind in the willows book cover, finish my outstanding university project that i should've finished a LONG time ago (oops...) and make a start on my new university project, which sounds very interesting but also scary because we have a measly 4 weeks to get it all done in. 

busy as ever, being a graphic design student is a lot of hard work.

how me and the pea feel about the snow

view in flickr for a better quality image

i'm just quickly popping by to say a: my mothers' day gift and card went down a treat, and b: it's snowing again here in 'boro (and i'm assuming in most other places of the uk, too) and this time, it's really, really not welcome. at all. by anyone (but especially me.)

so, in celebration of my hatred for the snow, have an illustration depicting how me and the pea feel about the snow: pretty ticked off.

mothers' day preparations

this year mothers' day has managed to creep up on me so i've been left desperately thinking at the last minute of what gift i could get her and have it posted home in time for the day. i considered flowers (but £30 a bunch is just waaay out of my price range,) chocolates (but we've still got a shed load left over from christmas) and bailey's (but she's still got two in the cupboard from christmas), until it hit me that i could send her a personal, unique gift for just the price of a picture frame and postage!

i decided to dig out a photo of me and my mum from when we went down to london for my 18th birthday to watch the lion king in theatre (which was fabulous, by the way) and put my own spin on it. i'm hoping she'll appreciate the gesture, i'd like to think that a few hours of my time and a personal gift beats a box of chocolate or a bunch of flowers that'll die within a couple of weeks, but who knows. i suppose i'll find out on the day when she's received the gift!

as well as the framed illustration, i also designed a personal card for her. the two little piggies are me and my brother and the biggest piggy is my mum, the whole piggies idea spirals from my mum's fondness of piggins, but also because she enjoys calling me her little pig and making the occasional hilarious joke about me eating bacon being cannibalism, etc. etc.

i meant to take photographs of the framed illustration and the printed card, but me being forgetful and in a rush to get things posted on time forgot to do so, d'oh, so i'm hoping the original design/scan will make do!

it's all over!

so after spending the last two weeks working like a dog to get everything completed, mounted and and put into a presentation for today's assessment, it's finally all over and done with! so, as promised, here is what i've created for my digital graphic communication university module.

i'll start off by briefly outlining my campaign's ethos and aims. my campaign was to get children between the ages of 4 and 9 cycling for fun while staying safe and improving their fitness, but because my target audience is so young, i also took into account that parents would become part of my target audience, too. because my campaign aims to bring everyone together, both children and parents, i called it 'pedal pals' as it suggests a friendly community and sense of support, but also because the alliteration makes the name memorable and punchy and would so appeal to children.

this is my logo. i wanted to create a mascot for my campaign that would represent its ethos, so i chose to use a monkey because they live within large groups and support one another within them, but also because monkeys are easily recognisable, easy to anthropomorphise and closely linked to humans, meaning they could perhaps be easy to relate to. i suggested cycling safety subtly within my logo through the inclusion of the helmet.

these are my three posters. i wanted to create a campaign that would be promoted through primary schools, so my posters will be on display around schools in classrooms, dining halls, gyms etc. my idea was to make my posters somewhat interactive so that my audience would get involved with them rather than walking past them and dismissing them, so i chose to directly address my audience by asking them to look for something within the posters. i thought this may be a fun idea for a child as they like to interact with their environment, so while keeping my poster entertaining for them, i once again made sure to subtly enforce safety while cycling, so the items my TA will be looking for are linked to cycling safety within different situations. the use of rhyme also makes the posters sound more fun and entertaining for a young audience while the font looks quite childlike and welcoming, giving the posters an overall friendly, inviting look.

this is my animated web banner. the web banner was always hinted at being the least important aspect of the whole project, so i only left myself with a measly three days to plan and complete it. i initially wanted to work with image on my banner like i had done within my posters, however i discovered the dimensions weren't large enough to include images successfully, so i looked at using a typographic solution. i figured that there wouldn't be many 4 - 9 year olds online, so my banner is mainly aimed at parents. my idea was to present them with a cycling fact that they may not know, so i chose the one above to highlight how easily accessible cycling is and how popular it actually is worldwide as it may open a parent's eyes to the different possibilities when thinking about travel, finance and fitness. i kept my campaign's consistency through the use of my font and the textures which i used throughout my three posters.

so, everything's over and done with and i'm fairly happy with the overall outcome (and a lot happier with my work for this project than i have been my last two,) so i'm crossing my fingers that i get a grade that i'll be happy with. only time will tell!

vw family

please view on flickr for a better quality image, blogger destroys it!

everyone who knows me in real life knows that i'm an absolute weirdo about my car. personally, i don't think naming my car and giving her a personality is all that weird, but you know, we're all our own people... anyway, along with my volkswagen lupo and her being my little pea, i've extended the family in that polos are mothers and golfs are fathers, the parents of the lupos (ok it sounds weird now i type it out to myself.)

i'd been debating for a while how i could visually represent this idea of a volkswagen family, and after attempting drawing out cars, i found out that it's hard making a golf look as adorable as a lupo, so i scrapped the idea of using cars and started thinking about others ways to depict it.

i finally landed on the idea of using humans and dressing them up to depict the car models that they were representing, and very simply chose to dress the mother in polo attire, the father in golf attire, and the child in a wolf hat, as lupo means wolf in italian. a simple solution!

lately i've really taken to scanning in textures and illustrating within photoshop, using the textures to add depth to otherwise flat colours, and i've got my latest university project to thank for that as i found out that collaging alone is ridiculously time consuming and (sometimes) stressful, so using technology to push me along really helped to make things a little smoother and gave me a bit more control over exactly it was that i wanted to do.

in other news, i now have three posters completed and an animated banner to make before the end of the week as it's assessment (gulp!) the following thursday and friday... why do i feel as though i'm repeating myself?

spirit animals

there's always a lot of talk from the 'bloggers' on tumblr who think they're hilarious about 'spirit animals'; they'll reblog a post of their favourite celeb and a quote from them and comment something along the lines of, "omg -insert name here- is my spirit animal!" and it got me thinking about what a spirit animal is and what my spirit animal(s) could be.

so after a small spot of research, i basically discovered that a spirit animal is an animal that encompasses some of the characteristics that you do as a person. kinda cool, i guess, if you're looking at creating a fursona for yourself (wow, i've just been taken back to 2007 and my subeta days.)

anyway, rambles aside, i decided that i didn't feel as though any one animal could completely be my spirit animal, but there were a few that definitely have some of the characteristics i do. so, i decided on a sloth, mouse and a panda. a sloth because getting myself out of bed on a morning has become a hell of a lot more difficult over these past few months, a mouse because i'm generally a quiet, reserved, shy person (and also because my grandad has nicknamed me mouse), and finally, a panda because the minute i wake up i think about what i can eat for breakfast, and while i'm laid in bed on a night i also think about what will be for breakfast tomorrow.

so, me in a nutshell: i like sleep, food and keeping myself to myself. seems pretty accurate in my own eyes! what would you say your spirit animal is?

poster draft #2

just a quick update to show you what i've been working on today! in my feedback session i realised that from afar the white title text sunk into the green background so it wasn't really legible, and also the monkey sunk into the floor because the two colours were too similar. other feedback was that the monkey and the table looked too 'static' and that the image and text had equal prominence on the page and perhaps one needed to take dominance over the other.

so, in response to my feedback, i've worked on the title text and composed a text arrangement which i think is more effective than the previous one, changed up the colours that were sinking into one another and i've given the monkey and the table a slightly more dynamic angle. i don't think i've quite tackled the image/text hierarchy issue yet, but i'm still unsure about which i want to take precedence.

that's all for now!

poster draft #1

i began working today around 11.30am, and didn't stop until around 8pm, and this is what i have to show for it! i slaved over scraps of card, paper, magazine cuttings and various tools such as paints, markers and pencils to achieve an illustrative monkey style that i was finally happy with (the amount of hand drawn and collaged monkeys in my sketchbook is something of a joke), then moved onto assembling a background (and i've still to try out a digital style just to see how i feel about it) before finally attempting to tackle the type on my poster.

type's something i don't really get along too well with. there are a handful of fonts that i'm comfortable with because they're just good all rounders, however, when it comes to combining fonts with my illustrations i feel as though the two just don't mix. recently i made a set of font brushes from my own handwriting, and when i've needed to include text on any of my illustrations, i've used those as the style fits in with my illustrative style. the text on my poster was no exception to this rule; i feel as though my font's somewhat childlike and playful, as is the imagery on my poster, so i tried the two together and i think they work pretty well! of course, i'll mention in my sketchbook that i made the font brushes for the purpose of this project, but that'll be our little secret.

the basic idea behind my poster is to promote cycling safety by subtly enforcing the idea that helmets, high vis jackets and waterbottles (there will be three posters in total) are essential items to take with you when cycling, depending upon the conditions, while also getting my audience involved with the poster by directly addressing them and asking them to interact with the poster, keeping it entertaining for them while also educating them.

tomorrow we're having a feedback session at uni so i can get some advice on where to go next with my design as it's obvious it's not quite as strong as it could be, but if any of you had any suggestions, i'd love to hear from you!

rotten lips & take me home eyes

I'm having to blog from my phone because my Internet is so slow blogger is refusing to let me upload pictures. I never thought it'd come to this, but I'm actually looking forward to going back to uni and using their Internet; pages that sit loading for five+ minutes are just no fun!

so anyway, happy new year to all, and in between seeing family and spending a stupid amount of time looking around meadowhall's sales, I've managed to spare a bit of time to sit down with my sketchbook.

after my Bowie poster went down so well, I've been asked to look at perhaps designing a fratelli's poster. before I decided on Bowie, I'd considered Jon fratelli and decided against it as i thought it had potential to be a bit visually lacking, but I've now been asked to create the poster around the girls that are featured on the Costello music album and the covers of the album's released singles.

here's what I have so far, let's hope I can pull something together with it. if I can, I can see a certain bedroom wall getting awfully crowded some time soon. watch this space!

woodland animals

i've been meaning to get some more practice drawing animals for a while now, so today i took the woodland animals route, mainly because they're what i see a lot of online so they were the first animals that sprung to mind. i also chose to do something a little different with composition and tried to tie in the three animals together to make the piece flow nicely, and for a first attempt i'm pretty happy with the outcome.

yesterday i also reached 100 pageviews! in the grand scheme of things it's such a small, insignificant number, but it's nice to know that people are seeing what i'm doing and that i'm not just talking to myself when i post on here. so, here's to 200 and so on!

a very bowie birthday

so a couple of weeks ago i designed a bowie poster with the intention of printing it out and giving it to someone as a birthday present (alongside other presents too, of course!) the poster was unwrapped today, and despite being printed onto bog standard a3 paper, its receiver was really pleased with it! and that makes two happy chaps; it's always nice to know someone likes what you do!