21. Colouring in....

A-haaaaaaaaa. ‘ello. Sooooo since I posted last I’ve finished all of the pen work for my images by the Tuesday as planned. Tuesday I went to the Photography suite early and stayed there all day scanning my final images in at 600DPI. Once I’d finished scanning my black & white images for ‘Firm Turd – The Burning.’ I started to re-scan my originals from my last project (‘The Rise and Fall of Keth the Manosaur’) as they need to also be scanned at 600DPI rather than 300 if it is to be printed at the same time as my current project. Pete said I could have both books on display at the degree show so I’d really like to have them both ready for it. I didn’t get all of them scanned before the end of the day as scanning at such a high resolution in full colour takes a long time, plus I ended up scanning about ten images before I realized they didn’t look right because I didn’t have colour restoration turned on. Idiot. Here’s an example of each to show how they’re lookin’:

      Anyway, I’ll finish that up another day and while I was waiting for each image to scan I was looking in to how to best colour my images. I was hoping that I could find an easier way to colour in a mixture of block colour and half tone without having to use the laborious cutting and pasting into method. I tired downloading some half-tone brushes but didn’t have much luck on the university network. I did try one out that existed in Photoshop already but unfortunately when I dragged it across a space it just made a bit of a mess, however despite it not being what I’d originally intended I think a messier approach could work in places. I had a bit more luck with the ‘colour halftone’ filter, which I’ve previously been unable to get to grips with. While I was experimenting, Louise and Jonny came over and gave me some advice. They both said to be looser with it and tried a couple of things out which I found helpful, and I have some examples of here:

      I also went down to reprographics on Tuesday to see Clair again about getting my books printed, but when I went down I was informed that she had left suddenly a few days ago and although helpful, the guy working down there seemed like maybe he’d been thrown in the deep end which concerned me a little. He told me to E-Mail for a quote and so later on I sent him all the specs, which he then forwarded to the London office and then sent back to me. I now know it can be done and I have a price (about £300 for 25 copies of each!!!) but there were also a lot of questions he didn’t answer. Although he told me he thinks it’s a week turnaround for it (which does give me longer than I had thought if that’s correct) he didn’t confirm it, or if I could have a sample run off, etc, etc. Sooo… I’m gonna crack on and pop back down this week to get things straightened out and crystal clear like because I can’t afford to have ANYTHING go wrong with the production this time!

     On Thursday I had a group work in progress meeting with all the tutors, which was really good. It was nice to see everybody else’s work and to get some feedback about where I am at the moment, the main focus of my feedback was that I now just have to bite the bullet and get on with this daunting colouring process! It was again pressed that it could look better if I worked more freely so I’ll try to bear that in mind ad I can get a bit obsessive over things, and where it’s not really my style it’s usually best I keep it loose.  The main focus was our plans for the degree show (which Pete needs to know by tomorrow so I’m going to be thinking more about that today!)  So far my vague idea has been that I might sort of re-create a wall of Firm Turds charred dwelling for my space. For example my board could be covered with 1950’s style wallpaper, but filthy and burnt with exposed bricks (painted on) showing through. On the wall I would hang (wonkily) in a (broken) frame my ‘ad page’ image, blown up. Also, perhaps a vinyl frame holding the Jerry Lee Lewis record which is a recurring theme in the book.  I need two plinths (One taller than the other) in front of the wall. The taller holding the Firm Turd book and the smaller hosting my last book. I also need a holder for business cards and post cards on the wall. I could have some chipolatas strewn about the place too for good measure. Here’s some scribbly little drawings of what my space could look like:

    On the other hand, this could be a complete gimmicky disaster in which the artwork is at risk of getting lost. It could also attract unwanted wildlife.  There’s also the case of how exactly I’d execute all of the above. My other option is to simply choose a couple of images to blow up and frame on the wall above my plinths. This seemed to be the favoured option from the tutors, and it was even suggested that I re-create some of my preferred images from the book as screen prints and frame them. Either way, its occurred to me that actually, I have a LOT of thinking and prepping to do for the show so I can’t afford to spend as long colouring as I’d thought.

     Since then, I’ve downloaded a number of half-tone brushes for Photoshop and completed my cover image. I did it with a combination of block colour, halftone brushes and halftone filters. I did get a bit obsessive over this image and consequently it took quite a long time. I’m very happy with it though and I feel a lot more comfortable with the execution now I’ve completed one. However, not only is it impractical to colour the entire book in this way given my timescale, but I believe that given the content it will look a lot better if I work more loosely on the inside of the book.  I also like that the cover will be slightly more polished than the inside. So here it is:

     Also this week I’ve finally sent off for some business cards and post cards to put in my space at the show! I spent a really long time deciding on that to have on them but eventually chose this for the business cards:

It’s a short excerpt from my last book, I chose it because it’s not too alienating like a lot of my images can be. It’s also very bright and attractive. I decided to juxtapose the image by making the back of the card black as it’s a bit different from the usual white, and to follow it through I added a black border on the front. I then inverted my stamp and some text I wrote with a brush pen and put it on the back. For the postcards I decided the best thing to do would be to use a solitary image rather than narrative. I wanted one that summed me up well, which was bright and eye-catching. In the end I went for the same image that I used for my second catalogue image:

I used the same text and stamp on the back for continuity, but this time in black.

FINALLY, this week it was the deadline for the D&AD Images to get sent off. It also provided me with a great opportunity to touch up my chosen images on Photoshop and to re-size them to be printed and put in my portfolio. Here are the ones I picked:

Well, as you may have gathered I’ve got plenty to be getting on with- So I’ll see ya in about a week for what could be one of my final posts!
Thanks for reading,
Quim out!

Also, this comic strip by Johnny Ryan (Ryan, 2010) I was shown this week is tottally brilliant. Love the satire, humour, disgustingness, violence and absurdity. Plus the bright and silly little drawings are wicked: