These are some more experimentation with digital collage.  

1. original image, touched up brightness/conmtrast

2. image -> adjustments -> threshold to make it into a stencil.

window -> channels, select Blue, then click on the circled button (load channel as selection)

3. back to layers, double click background layer to convert to a normal layer. click delete to remove the white of the background

4. color on a new layer below the stencil

I like this technique because it's very versatile. You can take the stencil as a line art and pay on top or underneath it. I used the lines on the examples above to put in some more colors. A way to achieve the same but with traditional materials, would be to draw the silhouette on top of a collage.

second illustration analysis

Cover art for "The Rider" by Frank Frazetta.

For this analysis I've chosen my own artist, mainly because I couldn't find anything on the one named on the blog. I've also been meaning to look at Frank Frazetta's work for a while - I think his work relates nicely to the theme (covert and obscured).

Frank Frazetta (1928 - 2010) was an American fantasy artist. He's worked in a lot of different media, including paperback book covers, comic books, paintings and posters. He's a very famous American artist and has a lot of influence on modern fantasy art. 

The painting I picked to analyze is cover art for a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Frank and Edgar frequently collaborated for books, perhaps the most famous example being the original Tarzan covers.

There's several elements to Frank's style that made it appealing to book and comic authors. He has a very strong sense of composition. Depending on the book, the key subject is always in the center, always in their element. For example, both of Tarzan's covers show exactly what he and the book is about, so that the consumer knows exactly what they're getting. However they're also intrigued - another notable quality that Frazetta's work has is it's sense of movement. When he depicts figures it's usually in an epic and dramatic matter, like in the middle of a battle - his work always has impact.

                                          
The dynamic figures are a key part of Frazetta's work, but his use of color is a huge factor as well. In his more "epic" paintings he uses more vibrant reds, yellows and blues. When the cover needs to be more mellow his colors appear to be more washed out but still have good contrast. In the very first picture I picked, you can clearly see he was going for a more moody and dark mood. The dominant color is black and the parts that are emphasized are the rider's pistol and his mask.
Most of Frank's work focuses on figures in action, however he has no issues drawing different subject matter.

                                          
I like Frank Frazetta's work a lot, that's why I chose to analyze him. Even though I'll be making a magazine cover for my final outcome, I can learn a lot from his artwork.

theme: covert and obscured

1,2: Maren M.

3,4,5: Marcos Mateu-Mestre

mindmap and sketches from my sketchbook
posting moodboard soon

This collage is by Ashkan Honarvar (b. 1980). It's part of a project for an anniversary issue of Please! magazine, and the theme for the pictures is "Bourgeoisie".

Please! is a magazine centred around fashion, and  you can tell that by looking at Ashkan's work alone. The cut out of the girl is from a conventional fashion photograph, but what makes the image unique is that he's added cut outs of victorian architecture. Bourgeoisie is a term for the 18th century upper middle class in France. It's associated with higher society, wealth and stylish way of life. Ashkan tries to convey those elements in his artwork.

To further analyze the image it's important to look at the individual elements. The blank eyes and mask on her face resemble a masquerade mask. While masquerade balls were most popular during the 16th century in Italy, they're also associated with mainland Europe during the 18th century. The roe deer adds to the seemingly innocent character. It's wooden with golden elements, much like the other elements in the picture. 

Considering the candles and the golden elements, the chandelier is victorian. By turning it upside down Ashkan makes it more aesthetic - the wide part is at the hips, and then swoops down, following the figure. 

Now I'm not completely sure what the parts on the side are - they seem like a combination of different elements, each of them conforming to the theme. I've no idea what she's holding either. Don't know if I have any comments about it, he probably should've put something that resembles an actual object there as it's the center of the picture.

The model has a pale complexion, and her clothes don't stand out individually. She's deliberately paler compared to the wooden/golden elements. 

I like the picture overall, the style and color choice is very interesting. The composition is balanced and interesting, and the colors compliment each other well. I wouldn't mind trying to do something similar, except probably with photoshop and not actual paper

brief

-break-

evaluation

1. Write an explanation of your brief - what did you have to do? How did you come up with the ideas for your personal project? 

Our aim for this project was to create a magazine including:

• front cover/ back advert
• illustration spread
• photography spread
• feature spread

So thats 8 custom magazine pages. We were given the themes for most of the pages, but for some we could personalize it a bit more and picked something closer to our interests (such as the feature spread topic). Inspiration comes from different sources, sometimes from published magazines on a certain topic, or during the process of work.

2. Write about the creative 'journey' of the project - how did the project and ideas evolve from start to finish through experimentation and research?

We started by analyzing a couple of artists' work. We analyzed various artists in photographers, each having a link with the theme; eg. Georgina Luck's illustrations and Henrik Bonnevier's photography to create a more effective back advert. The analysis also served as text for the future magazine pages we created. 

While I was creating a page or an element for the magazine (eg. the logo) I always made sure to have a couple of variations to choose from; so I ended up with the best possible outcome. 

3. Who inspired your final outcomes? - You MUST talk about who has inspired your work - include images and links where possible. 

I had different inspirations for each of the spreads.
For the back cover I went for a more 40s-50s, vintage style ad. I looked at a lot of reference material to construct the picture, such as vintage fashions, magazines, wine bottles, actresses. It payed off because the ad looks legitimate, and I also learned a lot of stuff about advertising in the time period.

The illustration spread is meant to look a bit more artsy, with less text and images occupying most of the page. I drew inspiration from the artists I analyzed. All three of them use watercolor and I decided to incorporate that in the use of font and color.

With the photography spread I tried to go the "fancy watch advert" route, limiting my use of fonts to a simple, formal and sophisticated style. Light text on a dark background is probably not the best choice for a spread with lots of text, but the colors I chose are grays and blues rather than complete black and white. 

Lastly for the feature spread I chose fashion/make-up as a topic because it was the most convenient one - I had most things to photograph. Also, I used to buy girly magazines to look through during long trips in the car. When I sat down to make the spread I remembered some of the conventional elements they shared - lots of colorful titles, wide range of fonts, and bits of information around the page (the target audience shows in the last one).

4. What do you think you have done well? What has worked? Are you happy with your final outcomes?

Overall I'm happy with the outcome. My goal was that each spread had it's own visual theme, and I think it worked out. I'm happy we had freedom to chose the topic for certain pages, and I enjoyed researching what I had picked. I'm also very glad I was allowed to draw instead of taking photos at times. 

5. What do you think you could have improved in your final outcome? - you need to talk about something, nobody is perfect!

Oh, there's a lot to talk about. While the pages I made look okay, they don't look like a real magazine. There's some things missing - little things like page numbers, dates and bar codes. The drawings for the back and front covers can be improved as well - now that I look back at work I've done about a month ago I see A LOT of mistakes and it irritates me.

6. Conclusion - overall how did you find the project? What techniques would you like to develop further in the future?

I really liked this project. I got to work digitally, which is ideal for me. I also liked researching for the back and front covers -  working in advertising/marketing and making promotional artwork for books/games/magazines is something I want to do professionally.