People and Characters/ Drawing on the walls. Update 4

Day four of our project was spent adding finishing touches. I finally got to finish the tree, I finished the branches on the roof and filled in the gaps behind the drawing by another member of the group. We added some of the spare lino leaves to the bare branches which made the tree look a bit more interesting. One member of the group thought that my wall space looked a bit empty and asked me to draw something on the bottom. she suggested a cat in the grass would look good. I did add a cat but  left it mainly black with very little detail. When I drew him I made him look like he is pointing because I think it makes him look more interesting. I don't mind the cat and it does help fill in the space. Early on in our planning we thought of hanging picture frames around the pillars. One member of our group brought in some frames and I think they really suit the style we were looking for. To help fill them we added some of our drawings.

Some photos of the cat, I need to colour his eyes

This is the other tree, I didn't work on this column but think its looking very cool

Some of the picture frames around the column

People and Characters/ Drawing on the walls. Update 3

On the third day of drawing I mainly continued drawing the tree as we had the full day to work on our illustrations. Our team decided earlier that the tree branches would extend onto the roof. I found this to be very difficult to do but still give it a shot. I don’t mind how they look but they are a bit scruffy compared to the rest of the tree. I started drawing the fourth face in the tree, when the outline was done I began to add detail to the rest. I used a smaller pen to add shading on the faces.  There was one side of the pillar that I couldn’t work on because another member of my team was drawing there for the full day. While I was waiting I thought it would be good to use some colour. In our early planning we wanted to use bright colours in the trees. I thought it would look better to only use one bright colour on my tree to keep it from looking cluttered. I chose a bright blue emulsion because I thought it looked good with the black pen work. I only used it on the eyes of the faces and the apples around the bottom. I like how it turned out and I think it helps the drawing to stand out. On the other tree the group began to add the lino cut leaves, some had my faces printed on to them. I thought they looked really good and made the tree seam a lot bigger.

Photos of me starting to draw on the roof

All the finished faces

The lino cut leaves on the other tree, we used some of the ones I made

Some photos of the colour I added.

The Consumer

For this week’s professional study’s we talked about the consumer. The consumer is an important part of any form of creative industry. In the chain of people that are involved with a product the consumer will always be last. The product is aimed at an audience of consumers with the hope of a purchase. Now with the huge boom of the internet and social media aiming a product at its intended buyer is a lot easier and directed. For example if I look at a book about animals then there is a good chance that I will have web ads showing similar products.

As I want to be an illustrator I thought it would be good to look at how the consumer effects the children’s book industry. The usual chain of work in the children’s book industry starts with the writer. After the story has been completed then an illustrator will be hired, sometimes the illustrator will have also written the book. When the book is illustrated then it is passed on to the Agent and Publisher. When the book is published it is then sold to the consumer. In the case of books for small children like picture books they are not aimed at the child but the intended buyer is the child’s parents. This means the book has to look appealing to the parents. Ways of doing this include making interesting illustrations, characters and also making it seem suitable four young children. Another appealing factor is making the book have educational elements or a moral underlining. This can include trying to teach the child to understand and read different words or telling them what a bad thing is. Or it might just be a bit of fun. The well know children’s book “The Gruffalo” by Julia Donaldson has elements of all these things. The book was illustrated by Axel Scheffler and has a really fun style. It has words which the child can read. It also has interesting characters and an interesting plot for the child to understand.

A great way of understanding a consumer is to work out what type you are. What would I buy? and how much will I spend? are good questions to ask yourself. If you want to create something that you like then there you have an understanding of the people who also like those things. I like fantasy and monsters. I’m a PC gamer and I also take an interest in the natural world. Just some of the things like D&D, Diablo, Warhammer 40k and The Godzilla moves. I also have to consider that I’m a student and I have no job. I won’t spent a lot of money when I don’t need to.  A lot of the things I’m interested in (often games) have advertisements on YouTube and other similar sites. I suspect this is because they know that their consumers are often young adults and will be using these sites a lot.

It’s important to understand the consumer because it could affect how well you do in the creative world. You might end up catering to an entirely different type of consumer than yourself.