One Week Book: Drawing and Design Development

Today in our group we made a rough version of our hotdog book to figure out where each image would be placed, we also decided which page we would each tackle. It was difficult to figure out if our book needed a direction of narrative for it to make sense, however after doing a little research on 'zines' and other hotdog books, they mostly consist of a collection of illustrations that don't necessarily tell a story.

We had a look at Eleni Kalorkoti's work on zines. Last year she produced a zine based on a particular theme for every month of the year.

     

              Some pages from Kalorkoti's zine 'Glitch'

We made a rough copy of our hotdog book, deciding to call it 'Welcome to the Merrion Centre', illustrating our experiences of the day and up-playing everything negative that we discovered about it.

I decided that I would illustrate the two elderly ladies having a conversation about actually being allowed to draw wherever they wanted in their youth, especially in the merino centre. My drawing is quite simple, drawn in a 'doodle', minimalistic sort of style. I tried out some different methods to refine the image, like adding pattern and texture through the use of line and different ways to portray hands/arms to create gestural impact.

I was then able to refine the final image, ready to transfer onto the clear transparency film in order to complete the final screen print.

It was a tricky and delicate process drawing onto the film. The A3 sheets had to be perfectly cut and divided carefully in order for the book to fold in the correct sequence. All of our illustrations had to be transferred on the same sheet too, so if one of us messed up we would all have to start again! It was quite confusing due to there being two separate sheets for each colour, although both had to be completed in black.

Eventually we finished transferring our designs onto the clear transparency film, ready to be screen printed on Thursday. W

We were shown some work by illustrators who use screen printing in their work. Blex Bolex's Seasons is a beautifully rendered picture book illustrating sentiments of each season created by using screen print. The book displays powerful images through shape and texture using a bold colour scheme that is aesthetically pleasing for any age. 

This one Summer by Jillian Tamaki is a comic book telling the story of a fourteen year old girls antics throughout a particular summer. The textures throughout the book are stunning, and particularly interesting as a particularly narrow colour scheme is used.