Element of Surprise

For the next workshop, we were referred to the red book of texts and in particular, the fish article. This was a list of names given to groups of different species of fish. This was interesting as there were many different names for different groups of fish.

We were aced to pick a species of fish and develop some understanding of it's aesthetics. to do this I drew many different sketches and different angles of my chosen fish, which in my case was the saw fish. I chose this fish as it looked interesting as well as original and unlikely to be picked by anyone else in the group. This would prove to make interesting illustrations because people would notice it above other types of fish and I could utilise this to create a better illustration.

Here are some images i researched and found relating to the sawfish. I did this too get as accurate as I can to the true proportions and sizes of these animals.

I think these sketches show my development towards gathering a good grasp of how the sawfish look.

The next task was to create a repeating pattern involving the fish. 

These are the studies of the sawfish that I produced in different styles to present my gained knowledge. I feel these are successful and bear a true resemblance to the real creatures. I also tried to create each illustration individually and uniquely. I feel I achieved this.

These images (above) are the same digital drawing and I have replicated and edited to look at a variety of colour designs. I feel they look like legitimate illustrations and are professional as well as get across the natural design and shapes of the saw fish.

These three images (above) are my attempt at another uniquely styled illustration of the saw fish. I used a new technique to create the shapes and lines on the two right images which i I feel look like old, japanese ink style pantings.

I wanted to do a variety of different styles, so played around with colour variations and colouring methods (above) I think these images aren't as successful as the first few sets of illustrations.

These two illustrations (Above and below) I created on my phone on a painting app. I think the style and proportions work well together, as they are a little chunky and look cute, as well as being accurate to the reality of their design. I also like the effect of when I used the rubber tool to go over certain areas to create a sense of shadow and depth on the texture.

For the pattern of fish, I began to think of ideas of an underwater scene of the sawfish surrounding their prey in an almost comical way. This would give a comical approach to these animals as well as presenting their physical structures and deigns.

My next idea was to design a flat, silhouetted I'm image of these animals which i could then copy and fit together in such a way that at first glance, the audience doesn't see the fish, only the pattern created.

I took my first design and copied it to create an even more complex image that removed the actually aesthetics of the saw fish form the image even more. At first, you don't se the fish, only the pattern and negative space created by their design. I think this is successful and is what I was looking for in terms of design for this pattern idea.

I took a screenshot of a smaller section of the big compilation of images to get a closer look, as well as to see the contrast from the background and the images of fish.

After revisiting my pattern a few times, I decided it did not meet my standard of work or represent my abilities and style of illustration. I looked back over my sketches and ideas and found this design of sawfish i created form reference images. I changed around the colours and layout to create a board of sawfish. I feel this image is more successful than my first idea as the use of colour and the pallet really lends itself to the design. The contrast of the blue and pinks remind me of the texture of fish and seafood. I also feel the red sawfish adds a twist to the image and brings it out more as a piece.

I decided to look back over this workshop and the finals I produced. I feel that this final illustration does not represent my style and work as well as I had hoped. I wanted my final to be unique and have another layer of depth to my work. I revisited my ideas and sketches and thought some angles I studies of the sawfish made it look like a jet/plane, mainly because of the position of the fins and tail. I thought this could be an interesting area to expand upon. I then researched images of the red arrows and their formations, as the idea of this piece is for it to be a pattern and to have a twist to the image.

Fred Gemballa

From the images and my sketches, I came up with this digital sketch of the sawfish in the red arrow formation and added the trails behind them to see if this illustration could work in terms of about and dynamics.

My next step was to add simple layers of colour to the image, building up shadow and shape. I also made the fish red, to link with the red arrows a little more. I may even look at putting roundels on the side of the animals .

After going over all of the fish, I decided to look at colour options and wanted a backdrop that fitted with the idea of these fish flying like planes, as well as them being underwater, so chose a pastel turquoise.

I also decided on adding another layer of shadows on the fish, I think this improves the design of the illustration.

I wanted to bring the designs off the page a little more so added an outline to the designs. I think this black outline is probably too dark, so practiced and found that a darker shade of red than used on the shading works well.

I then applied this dark outline on the rest of the sawfish.

I also practiced with the background and looked at various gradient techniques. I don't think i'll use these colours as they're too vibrant and take the attention away from the layout of the sawfish.

As the brief specifies that there is an element of surprise required, I looked over my design and thought that simply being juxtaposed as jets may not prove obvious enough to be the element of surprise. So I decided to review this idea and wanted to include something in the space below the six fish. I thought another fish, coming at the audience would look well in this place, after continuing with this idea and adding him in, I feel it was successful and works well in contrast to the other fish that are all at side angles, where as this fella is coming right at you.

I mentioned I wanted to make the link to the red arrows more obvious, so looked at including a roundel to the design. I think the colours I used work well. But i'm unsure about the placement and overall look of the design including the roundel.

Continuing with the backdrop, I wanted to have a more subtle and loud background, but also one that could look either like the sky or under the ocean, leaving it up to interpretation, and flowing with the red arrows references. I think the trails of smoke look good, as they aren't as obvious and cartoony as my last attempt. I also tried some of them in red, but thought that also looked too eye catching.

I now want to look at the illustration with all of the animals bearing roundels . 

Here's a screenshot of the illustration including the roundels on the sawfish to further communicate the reference to the red arrows. I think that it looks interesting and would confirm the similarities and that that is the juxtaposed look I was going for with this design. However, on further reflection of the whole piece, I feel there is a lot of spare room around my design. I will now look into making the background smaller or adding subtle objects into the frame to help with this problem.

When talking to peers and in my tutorial about these pieces I discovered that a lot of people thought that  the roundels looked very much like the fish's eyes and that they were just very big. I couldn't get my head round this idea and tried to see how people could think this, even though everyone thought they looked like eyes, but just couldn't see it myself. I looked at ways of conquering this problem to stop people thinking this about them.

Another think that was suggested by my tutor was the idea of having bubbles in the background. I thought this could look quite cool if they were very subtle, so i tried with them in to see how it goes.

A problem that I encountered was that I had accidentally drawn all the roundels in the wrong order of colours. This meant I had to quickly change them to be correct.

I wanted to look further into this idea, so tried thinking of another method of portraying these fish as jets. I found this image whilst researching how red arrows look, and liked it so wanted to do a quick piece based on this photo.

I started with a very rough sketch of the layout to work onto of of this illustration. Just to get the basis and layout in proportion.

I created this piece by playing around with different brush strokes and trying out different thicknesses and strokes. I found types that were suitable for different parts of the image. Such as one brush and thickness for the outlines of the clouds, and one type of brush for the stream of vapour behind the fish.

I also tried different varieties of colours of the fish and streams to see if it altered the dynamics and visuals of the image at all. I think these two images look very cool as side pieces, but I doubt I will follow them up with any more work as I need to carefully balance the remaining time for the workshops.

I looked back over advice given to me by tutors and peers and dealt with the suggestions about the eyes of the fish. I did this by making the real eyes more noticeable, by making them bigger and darker, as well as making the roundels a bit transparent. I feel that these two techniques combined create the desired effect and stop the mix up between the two.

Another suggestion was to create other images of the same fish designs, but with different layouts and displays.

It was suggested by my tutor to look back over my final and do some more designs involving the already created characters and lay them out in new displays. I tried this and decided to include the images beside the original. This adds another sense of balance and weight to the images when shown together.

For my final, I believe I have finished the design successfully and made the right decision in terms of the side images being incorporated. I feel that I have successfully responded to peer and tutor feedback. Especially in terms of the eyes and roundels being confused with each other. By taking steps such as making them more transparent and moving some of the roundels to the top of fins, as well as making the real eyes darker, that this issue has been tackled. I feel that I have fuelled the brief correctly by taking my chosen design of fish and incorporating it into a situation that gives the context an element of surprise. I have taken my design further and am happy with the results. I feel this design would belong in an article beside text and is very successful in terms of theme and colour palette.