Illustration Project - Evaluation Guidance and Submission Requirements

“ILLUSTRATION DAHLING”

PROJECT EVALUATION

To accompany your project submission you need to complete a word processed evaluation of at least 500 words, illustrating your evaluation with photographs is helpful. Discuss anything you feel was relevant to your work in the project, but ensure you cover the following areas:

Starting out:

·        What Roald Dahl story did you choose to work with? What appealed about this particular narrative, which images and scenes captured your imagination?

·        Who did you look at in your initial research (into storyboarding and existing responses to Dahl’s work), did these responses appeal to you and help you to develop ideas for your own photoshoot?

·        How successful were your storyboards? Did they allow you to compose shots to photograph, make you aware of potential problems, help you to identify the locations/props/models you would need?

Your Photoshoots:

·        Describe how you went about your photoshoots. What lengths did you go to in order to source props/models/locations/make up.

·        In your photoshoots how did you employ lighting, camera angle, composition, gesture and expression to achieve dramatic results.

·        Do you feel your photoshoots were successful? Are there any aspects of your shoots you would do differently if you had the chance to do it again?

·        Which photographer/s work did you research? Did their work appeal to you? Explain why you liked or disliked their imagery. Was this research helpful in terms of how to approach this part of the project? If the Photographers influenced you in any way explain what that was.

Drawing and Printing:

·        What drawing techniques did you employ when responding to your photos, do you consider your drawings successful?

·        Which Illustrators who focus on drawing did you research? Did their work appeal to you or help you with your own images, how?

·        How successful were your prints, are there ways in which you could achieve even better prints in future?

Mixed Media and Photoshop:

·        What techniques and imagery did you use in your collaged illustrations? Do you feel your mixed media images were successful?

·        Which Illustrators who use a mixed media approach did you research? Did their work appeal to you or help you with your own images, how?

·        Did you develop your work through PhotoShop? Did you integrate text into your work in any way? Are you pleased with your PhotoShop images, why?

Your Final Book:

·        How did you select imagery for your final board? Did you need to produce imagery specifically for the book or adjust existing images?

·        Describe how you chose to lay out your final book. Talk about the way in which you decided to include text, and how you feel this complemented your illustrations.

·        Did you encounter any problems resolving your book? How did you overcome these challenges?

·        Having looked at the online preview are you pleased with your project outcome? If you were to do it again what changes would you be tempted to make?

The Project:

·        How do you feel you managed your time throughout the project, did you push yourself?

·        Identify two skills you have acquired or improved upon during this project.

·        Identify two areas you could improve upon in future projects.

Include a printed version of your evaluation in your sketchbook and submit with the rest of your work.

DEADLINE 4.30pm Tuesday 2nd May

Submission Requirements:

Research into Roald Dahl (1 page is fine)

Research into Quentin Blake's illustrations for Dahl's books, include reproductions of his work, background information, analysis of his style and at least one visual response. (2 pages)

Research into 2 films inspired by the works of Roald Dahl, some background information, justified personal opinion and images from the films (1 page for each film).

At least 3 pages of storyboarding for your photoshoot, this should be a mix of quick sketches and annotation. Sketches should explore potential compositions for photos; annotation should include quotes from the book that you are illustrating and lists of requirements (models, postures, expressions, locations, props, costume, make up, lighting etc.).

1 or more pages showing some good examples of existing storyboards, with brief analysis.

Contact sheets of prints from your first photoshoot.

Larger prints (A4/A5) of a range of your best shots.

Research into one narrative photographer with fantastical elements - e.g. Annie Liebovitz, Ruven Afanador, Viona Ielegems, Tim Walker. 2 pages with imagery, background and some of your own analysis of a couple of specific shots, consider what practical steps went into creating the image we see. So discuss location, models, postures, costume, props, make up, composition, lighting, camera angle, post-production.

At least 2 sustained full page careful observational drawings from your photographs, use different media for each of these - e.g. one tonal image in pencil, and one piece in biro. Fine liners or coloured pencils might be other media to consider using for these controlled pieces.

4 or more quick expressive drawings.

Research into 2 narrative illustrators, these MUST be one historical and one contemporary practitioner. In this research it is important to give background biographical information on each illustrator, analyse some specific images in terms of content, technique and media and justify your own opinions on the work. You also need to compare the illustrators from different eras and describe how you feel illustration has changed over time. This research is set to meet the requirements of the Narrative Illustration Unit, so MUST be done well. 

Using your own photographs as inspiration produce 2 interpretations of your images in the style of each illustrator you have researched - that is 4 illustrations in total. Take time over these and do your best to really replicate the style and use appropriate media.

A second photoshoot (ideally if your first was in the studio then this should be done on location). Injecting your project with fresh imagery is key to achieving a good final book.

2 Gold Card plates cut with a range of prints taken from them, one of these should be an ambitiously scaled piece (A3).

2 or more good pieces of monoprinting.

A few selective colour/invert experiments on the copier from either your drawings or prints.

6 well resolved mixed media Collage images integrating the best of your drawing and printing along with other elements and text.

Ideally you should also complete some Photoshop developments from your Collage images.

Research into 2 Collage based illustrators.

Your word processed evaluation (see above).

& obviously as soon as it arrives, YOUR FINAL BOOK.

Illustration Project - Final Book advice

You should now be at the stage where you are ready to upload your selected images (15 - 20) to an online publishing service such as Blurb www.blurb.co.uk, the price for a 20 page standard size (20 x 25cm or A4) with softcover should be in the region of £15 - £20.
The Blurb website has clear instructional videos on how to upload and arrange your imagery.
Obviously this is a narrative illustration project, so having relevant text from the book either integrated into your illustration, thoughtfully positioned alongside or placed on the page opposite is a requirement.
The inclusion of text needs careful consideration, you have a number of options, make sure you choose the best one to complement your illustrations:

• Using text options from the online publication website (limited in terms of available fonts and placement options).
• Collaging text by hand directly onto images before scanning (Flexible, but needs sensitivity so as not to interfere with the effectiveness of your images - a sensitive piece of drawing could be swamped by inappropriately chosen text slapped on top). Fonts (either hand created or sourced from magazines or websites like www.dafont.com) need to be carefully selected.
• Scanning your illustration and then adding text through Photoshop (best done on a computer where you can upload fonts as typesets within Photoshop are limited).

  

  Be creative with your text...

• Producing separate text (using direct quotations from the original story) to be uploaded as separate image files to be used on the facing pages to your illustrations. You can do this using downloadable fonts, by hand, through collage etc. This is probably the most flexible choice if you are keeping text and your images apart.

Everyone should select, scan, adjust and upload  all imagery/text pages and order their books by the end of Tuesday 2nd May.

Scanning and PhotoShop tips:
Remember that many of the illustrations you upload will benefit from some editing to ensure they have maximum impact in your final book; simple tweaks from the Image Adjustments menu in Photoshop can be highly effective, Contrast, Brightness and colour saturation are worth altering for almost all scanned images. Ensure you scan images at 300dpi resolution of higher so that you get decent reproduction quality in your book.

We will be delivering the briefing for the new GRAPHICS project next Tuesday 2nd May and you will have new work for that project from that point onwards.

The FINAL DEADLINE for completed sketchbooks for this project is Tuesday 2nd May. Your final books should be handed in as soon as they arrive in the post.