Greetings from...Bristol

The Bristol concept was the clearest of the four postcard ideas I had; nevertheless I began by doing some observational drawings of well known aspects of the city.

Knowledge and Understanding

Bristol doesn't have a set representational animal like my three other cities, so I want to use the animals of Bristol Zoo to relate the theme.

Key Transferable Skills

I found it really helpful having such clear roughs for the concept of this postcard, it allowed me to get a good start and knuckle straight down in completing the process with greater accuracy.

Practical Development- Tracing Shapes

As opposed to Manchester, where I created all shapes from scratch, I decided to have a go at tracing the more complicated shapes in order  for the composition to look more realistic.

Using a secondary sourced image, I began tracing the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Difficulties

My illustrator skills still weren't completely on point at this stage; it would have been so much easier if I had used more layers instead of overlapping lines and getting frustrated due to unintentionally losing valuable anchor points.

 After quite a long time (and a lot of patience) I finally managed to gain an accurate outline of the bridge in which I could construct the rest of the image around.

 Problem Analysis

I wasn't really happy with the way that the bridge was looking at this stage; very sort of cartoonish with the black outline and unprofessional.

Problem Solving

I tested out removing the outlines from each of the shapes and found that they appeared less harsh on the eye, creating an overall more harmonious feel to the image.

I am really happy with how the image looks at this stage with overlapping of elements, creating depth as well as a line of sight leading from the front to the back with the bridge.

Next task- Balloons

Initially I thought it would be easy to create a balloon shape from my imagination (I was wrong- yellow balloon) but soon realised it was much easier to trace the shape (purple).

Difficulties

It took me longer than expected to trace the balloon shapes due to the patience and craft required to get the correct angle of each curve. Again, I probably would have had a greater benefit if I had used different layers for each segment of the balloon to avoid congestion and confusion of anchor points.

Problem Solving

To save time, I only created three balloons with different patterns and changed the colours and shapes to create a higher quantity and variety, which made the image look busier.

 Animals

Problem Analysis

Admittedly I spent WAY too much time getting carried away adding detail to the animals when they were only going to be small in scale in comparison with the rest of the image, but nevertheless I was pleased with their outcome.

The Finished Image

I am really pleased with the way the Bristol postcard has turned out and developed into a finished piece from my initial roughs. I hope that the viewers see the image as being recognisable with the bridge and the playfulness of the balloons in association with the annual balloon fiesta, but also light hearted with the zoo animals travelling in them.

Composition

Thirds

The image doesn't fully abide to the rule of thirds, having the main focal areas of emphasis in the four centre points of the square. However I feel that the image is pretty balanced; the main balloon being in the right third, the two other large balloons in the middle, and the main structure of the bridge archway being in the left.

Line of Sight

When I look at the image, my eye goes straight to the yellow balloon, which is something unintentional to be honest. However looking closely there does appear to be a 'zed' formation with the line structure  leading from the bottom corner with the animals along the river, to the end of the bridge and upwards.