Tutor feedback

As it has just been the Easter holidays I was hoping to have all my shoots done by now, but as I only managed to do one shoot in the holiday I am not at the stage previously planned.
I showed my teacher the work I have done and she said she loves the scarecrow, she thinks the lip is rather sensual and likes this aspect.
She has told me to play around with the rhino head a bit more, she suggested lengthening the neck.
My tutor was a bit confused as to why I had added a page of painted poppies and didn't understand how this linked with makeup, she suggested possibly adding them into the lips and making it a beauty shot as this would still resemble the story line. I think this is such a good idea and so glad she has suggested this. I didn't think to show her the Emerald city after this was suggested and started to think of a way I could interpret this into a look.

Printers

After contacting a number of different printers I was struggling to find one that prints an A3 size.
I sent out a number of emails, stating what I was after.
Below is the requirements I was interested in.

Specification -

Size: A3

Orientation: Portrait

Inner Pages -

Full colour throughout

Stock: minimum 200gsm gloss paper

Number of inner pages: 70

Hard Back Cover -

Full colour print on front and back outer cover

Gloss cover
No print on inside front and back cover

Text on spine

Total price for above = £

Optional extras - 

How much extra for gloss lamination to outer cover?

How much extra for layflat pages?
How much print on inside front and back cover?
Cost if only black and white printed cover?

How long is your turnaround time from receipt of artwork?

How much is delivery?

How many days for delivery?

How would you like the images supplied?
How much bleed is required?

 

A number of printers replied saying they couldn't meet my expectations due to the large size of the book.
A number of phone calls to locals printers were also made however they were also unable to meet my needs.

Eventually I managed to find a printers, 2m professional, they are able to make an A3 book and also produce it to be layflat this was for a costly price of £237 pounds however after speaking to the staff at 2m professional they were able to give me a discount which made the cost of the book £113 which is still quite costly but is still a saving. Delivery time for this was as little as 4 working days, which gives me extra time to edit as I am behind schedule. 

Easter Holiday Reflection of work

I have spoken to a number of different models to see if anyone is free to shoot, but unfortunately everyone seems to be at home or busy. This has really set me back and I am definitely going to be behind schedule. I have thought of different ways I can expand my book so I have thought about doing a number of paintings which suit with the story line. In a chapter of the book the characters go through a poppy field and this sends them to sleep.




I looked online at other illustrators work to see how they have illustrated this scene. I was particularly interested in the layout of the poppies on this left bottom image, they start bigger and move smaller as the eyes move across the page.

I then set out and painted three different poppies using acrylic paint and watercolours, these were then scanned in and photoshop allowed me to change the scale, colour and rotation of each poppy.

 These were then repeated and place across a double page spread.

I have thought about ways in which i can make the witch look as though she is melting

The Emerald City was the next piece to add into the book, as the scene of the poppies were painted, I thought the city should also be done in this way. Research into graphics, paintings, illustrations of cites were carried out, below are some I found the most influential.

I have tried to recreate the image above below using acrylilc paints and watercoloours, different shade of green were used to resemble the Emerald City, however I am sure it is clear this was more challenging than expected and I soon gave up with this and moved onto the next.

This Graphic of a city was found, and thought something like this would be easier to recreate.

Again I used water colours and acrylics to create this piece and felt this went to plan a lot better than the last, I will scan this into photoshop and edit it so the edge are neater and it is brighter.

I also decided to recreate a Silver pair of shoes, this could possibly be used somewhere through out the book, maybe at a small scale in the corner of the front cover or on the back cover.

fonts

I was struggling to find suitable fonts for my book. A number of fonts were found but when showing my tutor, she didn't like any of them.

I referred back to Graham Rawles book and noticed that he has used several different fonts through out his book, I suggested to my tutor if I do something like this and she loved this idea, Graham Rawle used about 6 or 7 different fonts, and changed the size, boldness, italics as well as experimenting with lower and upper case letters.

Even further Experiments-Wizard head

From previous experiments and testing, it is clear that I have been struggling to create this character. From looking at online imagery I have made a few mood boards of inspirational makeup looks.

The initial idea to hide the hair of this character was to have it slick back to the head, but this seemed to be repeated through a number of my looks, further development of this resulted in the idea of having a head piece below. From looking online the ideal way to create this look was through the use of a hijab. A hijab was found in a local shop and will be used for the shoot. As seen in the bottom image here, I think the use of the silver neck piece looks really effective. This will be considered in my final look.

As the Wizard Head is painted I wanted to express this through the use of texture and brush strokes, the images found resemble this.

Below is colourful lip designs, blended together with a gloss.

The eyeshadow below has been applied using brush marks, bright lips were added to this, but feel the two do not complement each other.

The use of cross hatched eye shadow was also a test to see how this worked on the eye. I feel with the lips and eyeshadow draw attention away from each other.

I decided to putthe hijab on to see if this would help inspire me, and make my looks look complete, However the eye makeup below is slightly to swan princess style.

After hours of practising, I thought more inspiration was needed, I looked at a diverse range of images to help.

After many test and experiments, I think this character has been overthought, so the curved eyebrow will be the main focus with a red lip that has a touch of gold in the middle, this will match will the highlights of gold on the face and neck.

Scarecrow shoot

The makeup for this shoot is below, but as previously said this will be without the straw and the eyebrows will be squarer as this arched brow seems to be repeated through out some of my makeup looks.

The hair style and poses are in the moodboard below.

The model  for this shoot is Aimee Loosley, she is a friend from home and has done modelling before, she has long blonde hair which could work well with this character.
The photographer for this shoot is Panduka Ekanayake, I have collaborated with him for previous work and seemed to work well together.

 I initially started with the models hair up in a ponytail as seen in the moodboard, we took a number of shots of her with her hair like this but something wasn't working with it, the photographer thought the same  looking back now it is because her hair wasn't long enough when it was up but luckily I had brought a  back up plan.The short choppy wig I found when rummaging through my teachers cupboard came in handy. This instantly made the look work so much better.


The look below is a shot off my phone with the models hair up.

The hair was changed to the wig below and this has had a drastic impact on this image.

Further Experimentation- Wizard beast

From looking over the wizard beast look with the gelatin, I have come to the conclusion this was not up to the standard of my previous looks. I have decided to rethink this makeup look and see if I can come up with something more striking.
As the hair is a major part of this look I thought starting on this would help with inspiration. I spoke to one of my tutors and asked how to go about making the rhino horn. She told me to get some chicken wire to create the structure, and then use gauze to cover it, crepe hair is needed to then go around this. At the time this literally made no sense to me as she was saying it, and I thought to give up straight away, but I don't like to give up.
My teacher said I could get some chicken wire from a hard ware store, but as I don't drive I thought I would see what I could find.
I went to Pound land on the hope to find some wire, and they actually had some which was perfect for what I needed.
I started on this as soon as possible and was actually easier than initially thought, and I remember my teacher saying once your doing it you will see how easy it is, and she was definitely right.
The frame of the horn was filled with plastic bags, and instead of gauze, I used a pair of tights to cover it all.
 To straighten the crepe hair this had to be steamed over the kettle, this was then placed around the horn structure, this was then sewn into place so it was smooth.

I thought back to when I used fullers earth and wondered how else this could be used. I found this image below on a social networking site, I asked the girl how she done this and she explained she painted inside the cracks, then added the metallic colours on top, this looks really effective.

I have also found the image below and I really like how the fullers earth goes down the neck.

I have decided already on the model I want to use for this look, she has a very harsh features and this would be great for this character. She also has dark skin and hair. From previous experimenting with fullers earth it seems to have a green/grey look to it, so I have decided to get something similar and use chocolate face mask which works in the same sort of way. 

I found the chocolate face mask not only smelt good but was a much nicer colour than the fullers earth, it really matches the skin tone. I believe this resembles the texture of a rhinos skin. I have added a metallic silver and gold, and also some grey and black to the face mask. This will be paired with natural makeup and a dark bold lip, Gold highlighter will be added.