Capture Cure

This is an illustration I have done for the Capture Cure Arts event for charity, in aid of Breast Cancer.

I chose to illustrate the word 'courage'.

I chose to represent courageousness by the use of a lion and a superhero stance, as I feel that these are the two things that most people would think of when asked to think of something representing courage.

Sufferers of breast cancer go through a lot and are extremely brave, therefore I thought it appropriate to illustrate a Breast Cancer patient wearing a lion costume in a superhero pose.

The illustration may not be the most serious of pictures, but I felt it best to create something bright that would make people smile.

To vote for this image, please go to the Capture Cure Facebook page and press 'like'.

Your 'likes' will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/photo.php?pid=4475346&id=199900739203

This image will soon be uploaded to my portfolio.

Thanks for reading.

Julianne

New Postcards

"Yay!" said the sticker on the box and "yay!" said me when I realised my postcards had arrived. ^_^

Last week, I ordered some new postcards from Moo, and took advantage of their two day sale. I ordered 60 postcards and used 6 different illustrations.


The print quality is excellent as always!

I will be using these to send out to potential clients and publishing companies to promote my illustrations. *fingers crossed* they'll do the job. ^_^

Wolverhampton Arts Project 6

Me with my piece '1984' at Project 6, Wolverhampton.

From the 10th to the 20th July, I have a piece of work on display in Wolverhampton town centre, as part of Wolverhampton Arts Project 6.

There are many many fantastic pieces of artwork on display in the empty shop in the Mander Shopping Centre.

If you happen to be in Wolverhampton town centre before the 20th July, then pop by and take a look at all the pieces of art by professional and amateur local artists. =)

To see more of my work, take a look at my portfolio.

Until next time, byeee. x

Degree Show

This is me at the private view of my the degree show exhibition. I am standing in front of my exhibited artworks.

Pieces that are on display:

Two designs for the book cover to 'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer' by Patrick Suskind.


Three Spreads from the children's book I wrote.


Two dummy books.


My portfolio is also on display showing other pieces of my work.

Go to my website to view more of my illustrations. =)

The Degree Show is open to the public until Saturday 12th June. There are lots of different types of artwork on display, across seven floors. My work is located on the third floor.

The show is taking place at the University of Wolverhampton: School of Art and Design - the building with the lights on the main ringroad (opposite Kwik-Fit on the Stafford Road). Map

For more information about the degree show, click here.

You can also view some more photographs from the event by going to my illustration Facebook page.

=)

Facebook page

This is the new facebook page for my illustration work. I can use this as another means of keeping people updated with my work, events and general goings-on.

Go to the page to take a look and perhaps become a fan. =)

In Memory of Ivor

I drew this in memory of Ivor Wilcox, a very good family friend, who passed away in 2008.

I wanted to capture Ivor at his happiest, relaxing in the sun in the garden with a beer - perhaps after a football match.

He is very dearly missed and we will always remember him with a smile.

Postcard

I recently posted a couple of postcard designs. After the comments I received, I decided to continue with the 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' design.

I included the white rabbit as a focal point in the image and worked a lot on the composition. I have also tried to balance out the colour scheme, using similar colours in opposite corners etc.

This is the design as it stands.


I am fairly happy with it but any comments would be really helpful.
Thanks.
Julianne x

Letterhead

My letterhead design.

Designed to coordinate with my business cards and website.

Postcards

I'm designing a promotional postcard, ready for the degree show at university. Rather than use a piece I have already done, I am trying to re-work some old roughs.

The first design (below) originally started out as a book cover design for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I have decided to redesign it to fit the dimensions of a postcard. I was considering incorporating my name into the illustration by having the letters floating around amongst everything else.


The second design (below) was originally a double page spread from the dummy book I created in my second year of university. It had only been a black and white line drawing so I have decided to return to this image and add some colour. I have also made a few small alterations to the drawing. Although I usually use pencil crayon in the other children's book work I have done, I coloured this digitally, as I wanted to show the different ways I can work.


Feel free to let me know which idea you prefer. Constructive criticism is always welcome. I am still undecided as to which one I will finally use.

Until next time,
Julianne

Business Cards

Yay! My business cards have arrived!

I ordered a pack of 50 to start with just in case I wasn't happy with them.

I'd been deliberating over the final design for ages, but this is what I came up with eventually. It's fairly simple yet it does the job. Feel free to let me know what you think.


The photograph isn't the best quality as it was taken from my phone, but you get the general idea. =)

The only slight problem is that the text in the upper left of the front of the card (you probably can't see it) is in white so is not very legible. When I order more, I will alter the text colour.

Other than that, I am very pleased with them.

I ordered from www.moo.com and the cards are 350gsm with a matte laminate finish.

www.mrcusta.co.uk

I have recently finished working with Toroca, a web development company, on www.mrcusta.co.uk.

This is a website relating to 'Mr Custa', a radio show written by Philip Whitmore and played on WCR FM. Last year, Philip decided that he would like to turn 'Mr Custa' into a comic strip and I was the illustrator he contacted.

So far I have illustrated two 'Mr Custa' comic strips which have been published in Krash magazine. Below is an example of one of the pages from the comic strip. This can be seen in my portfolio.


When Philip contacted Toroca to make a website about 'Mr Custa', they got in touch with me to illustrate it. Mostly, we re-used any illustrations I had already produced, but I did some extra illustrations for the characters page (below) and I wrote some of the text.

Find out more about Mr Custa.

Download the Comic Strips.

Perfume covers

In this blog, I am posting some possible design ideas for the cover of 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind. Without having read the book, it is probably quite difficult to decide which works best or what the meaning of the image is.

Therefore, I'll do my best to describe it. In the story, several women are murdered and are left naked amongst a field of flowers. they are murdered because of the murderer's strange passion for different scents. The main character, Grenouille, has no scent of his own, but has a very strong sense of smell and seeks out desirable fragrances.

I have used a doll to illustrate the women, as they as well me be dolls in Grenouille's eyes as he does with them as he pleases. The young women are described as being extremely beautiful and this also adds to my reasoning for using a doll as dolls are made to look 'perfect'.

I have covered the doll in red petals. I used the colour red because I thought it would be a good contrast and also indicates something quite sinister as it may make the reader think of blood. I also chose red as I originally wanted the flowers to be poppies because I found that poppies have no particular scent, much like the main character of the book.

I have placed the main figure at an angle so as to make the composition more interesting. The text is a simplistic font and the tile and author are in capitals as this is more likely to attract attention and it follows popular current design trends.

The back of the book jacket has to be fairly simple to allow for the large amount of text that needs to be included.

The following four ideas are all variations of the same design.

Design 1
This design shows the doll covered in petals but it has been blurred quite a lot.
The petals continue onto the back cover to make the composition more interesting.


Design 2
This design uses several of the photographs I took, layered on top each other. It gives a more abstract look. I did this to focus on the idea that there were several women, not just one. However, this image may be too confusing...


Design 3
This design is the same as the first, but with less blurring so as to leave more detail in the petals.


Design 4
Here I have used a different photograph with the figure angled in the opposite direction. In this design, however, the back cover is a little plain.

Please feel free to comment and leave your opinions on my illustrations. I would welcome the feedback.
Thanks
xx

Children's Book Progress

Here is one of the spreads I have completed in colour for my final project at university.


I have used pencil crayon for the main character with a pencil outline. The sky is taken from a photograph and the texture for her wings is scanned in tissue paper.

I am pretty pleased with how it looks so far. Just to continue with the rest of the pages now. =)

Perfume

I have been working on designing a book jacket for 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind. One of my ideas involves a similar concept to that of Edgar Rubin's vase:


I want the perfume bottle with the emerging fragrance to be the image that the viewer first sees, but I also want them to be able to see the silhouettes of the faces on either side. These silhouettes represent the two sides of Grenouille, the main character in the story. I have produced this design with both black and white silhouettes to see which works best:


You may be wondering why the facial features on the silhouettes are exaggerated so much, but this is because the character is intended to be unattractive.

Personally, I am swaying towards the black at the moment, as I feel this has a stronger impact. Feel free to let me know what you think. Please remember these images are still at the rough stage at the moment. =)

13 Inspirational Letterhead Designs

Inspiration/Mood Board

Whilst looking through all my old art work today, I found this inspiration board.


It is made up of anything I came across that I liked and found inspirational. There are cuttings from magazines and brochures, print-outs from the internet, labels, scraps from notebooks etc.

All of these things together, make a board that is full of inspirational designs, patterns, textures, media and colours.

At the time of making this board, it really gave me some great ideas for my own work. I am unsure why I didn't continue creating boards like this, but since finding this today, it is something I will definitely start doing again. I'd recommend it to anybody creative as it really does help spark new ideas.

So join me in cutting, tearing, and printing anything you may come across that inspires you to be creative. You may be surprised at the results.

Happy glueing...

18 Inspirational Business Cards

Unique and inspirational business cards (well most of them are cards).