The first project I started on was the zine. Looking through all the options it was the one that caught my eye the most and in particular “Mickey Mouses glass eye”. Straight away I had ideas that I wanted to try and quickly came up with a narrative and quickly designed the storyboards for it before working in detail on the character. Previously I had trouble replicating a character in different positions and with different expressions so I knew it would be a challenge but as I got into the project more I found that it was starting to work well and that it showed a clear story. I chose to draw the originally designed Mickey Mouse character for a reason as I wanted the final shots to show him appearing in the more modernly designed way, almost as if it was a project of re-branding. I used a limited colour pallette and relied more on adding shadows to create impact and dimension and in particular I think the shadow from the window achieves this the most creating a depth and sense of space and width of the corridor. Out of all of the projects for the brief this was the one I was most pleased with. There is more illustration involved and by using illustrator I was able to get a lot of sharp lines for parts of the background.

For the Cacotopia project it took me a while to come up with any ideas and to understand how to show the meaning of it. There wasn’t a lot of research that I found useful. However following on with the idea of cartoon characters I found it easier to relate to if I chose a well known cartoon and turned it on its head and tried to show it’s not all it’s made out to be. Therefore I chose to show the characters of Scooby Doo in a seedy way, e.g. drinking alcohol, getting into trouble instead of the ‘nice heroes who capture bad guys’ and I think showing them in negative ways to how they are shown, creates a Cacotopia. I drew a basic setting and had rough sketches of where the characters would go within it and what they would be doing before then drawing them in detail and adding them. I most enjoyed changing the character Velma from a nerdy geek to a flirty gambler. After all the characters were placed the piece still looked a bit bare and the composition wasn’t balanced so I added in a few of the villains from the series to interact within the piece and show that they actually just go to this bar once they are caught. However I thought that there was too much writing for a poster to be looked at twice and I think this is what lets the project down.

I struggled most with the postcard project I didn’t find it easy to think what others might like or find ‘cool’ to start a trend. I eventually stumbled across idioms which are a phrase or words with a figurative meaning, such as “blind as a bat” or “a leopard can’t change its spots”. Looking through lists of them I had more ideas for the ones related to animals which I thought I could change to be funny and therefore more memorable. I chose to focus on ” as quiet as a mouse” but change it to be a bit ironic and have the mouse playing loud music and generally being loud and annoying. I then did a silk screen print for the first time so it was good to have this for the future as it gave me some good results.

My website was fun to create beacuse it was the first time I’ve shown work that I’ve done in my spare time along with university work, and I feel I’m starting to get a wider range of styles and a bigger body of work. I was able to incorporate a lot of work into it and express myself in a way that I would like to be perceived with my interests within art. I created pages for work done in the past, currently and my own major project which I am constantly working on. The background for the pages is quite cartoony and this links in with some of my work.

I really liked designing my business card and tried to show a bit of my style of work, which is quite conceptual with a fantasy theme. It includes a piece of my own work I created a while ago that added as an overlay. The background was created with a number of overlayed layers to create this worn medieval effect with my face looming out of it. I made the writing white to stand out most against the darker background, as ultimately however good the design is you need the contact details to be legible and concise.

The stamp design came from a personal part of my life and is of a brain. I think it is quite memorable and is a unique symbol for me. I sent the design to a company where they printed it and sent a self inking stamp in a small contraption which works really well and is easy to use.

The icon as well comes from personal parts of my life and my own interests. I used the colours and shapes of Captain Americas shield from Marvel and put the first letter of my name in place of the star. The colours are bold and immediately draw your attention, because of this it is something that is recognisable and particularly useful to be distinguishable on a website.