Tag Archives: Drawing

Type-llustration

I just read back through my last post and realised…. I haven’t really explained the artistic direction of my Zine. (Before you start reading… I’m in a chatty mood so this is going to be a lot of writing! So get a coffee & get comfy!)

From my drawings you can get that I am going with what I like to call ‘Type-llustration’ – typographical illustration. It’s completely not me – I’m not an amazing illustrator(I can’t draw?) and I really can’t doodle spontaneously because I like to plan everything out first. So how did I get here? I don’t know… but I like it!

I actually really love this project – I chose smoking which I absolutely hate with a passion so have the fire behind me to really put the punch in! The only problem was that I found it so hard to put pencil to paper. This is because I was scared that it wasn’t going to turn out as well as I wanted – I had to force myself to use pen so that permanent marks were made! Once I get into it I absolutely love it and can run with it like the wind (bullseye – Toy Story reference for J.K :D ) but I keep having to challenge myself and get over that first hurdle!

The other night Bobbins, Danielle and Helen were over mine to do work at 8.30pm… I didn’t draw anything until 11.30pm! Just too scared to put marks down on paper incase it didn’t turn out perfect! I really need to get over this because it’s starting to affect my work – I’m leaving things until the last minute and then rushing them a bit. This is typical me. I did it at GCSE, A-Level and even College but thought I had got over it now I’m a big girl at Uni…. wrong! I guess it’s kinda like procrastination? I’ve got the vision & ideas but I’m being lazy/ too much of a girl to do it!

Anyway, so I think this Type-llustration is the new way forward for me!? I’m really enjoying making words/phrases/quotes into images – I love typography afterall! I have found some amazing examples of this kind of work here at Typostruction – absolutely AMAZING! This site will keep me amused for hours/ maybe even days haha It’s run by Chris Piascik who puts lots of examples of Typostruction (my ‘Type-llustration’) in one place but he also does his own stuff! And in the spirit/interest of the Zine project… I have been admiring his zines! They are basically everything that I wish mine could be! So jealous of his talent!

So anyway, I’ve decided that I’m going to carry on this even after the end of this project – I’m going to Paperchase and getting me a lovely little notebook so I can do some lusting over type (Type-llustration) more often! But first I should get my Zine finished, hey? I hope it turns out as amazing as I want it to…. Yellow Fingers crossed (Yellow Fingers is the name of my Zine – you heard it here first!)

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Filed under BA (Hons) Graphic Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Sketchbook, Typography, University, University of Lincoln

J’adore… Marian Bantjes

With it being Valentine’s day yesterday and all, I thought it was about time to post about Marian’s work seeing as I’ve had this drafted since before christmas(which is quite weird considering the subject)!

Whether you are loved up or anti-valentines, theres no denying that these laser cut, used Christmas cards from 2010 are beautiful!

Marian asked her friends to send her used christmas cards and 500 cards later….

… she had a lot of hearts!

I think that Marian does Valentines really well…

2011

2008 (below)

2007 (below)

2006 (below)

2005 (below)

Each year is so different and quirky – the sign of a true idea blessed woman!

I love so much of Marian’s work! Here is just a snippet of things I drool over on her website…

Wedding Invitation

Branding for Sak’s Fifth Avenue Campaign

Magazine Cover for Walrus Magazine… WOW! Look at the detail…

There’s actually too much of her work for me to post here – this post would go on forever! For more amazing work go to her website and drool yourself!

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Filed under Craft, Graphic Design, Illustration, J'adore, Typography

Boom Boom Sketch

Yesterday we got all sketchy in class with some old format technology! Old Macs, Typewriters, Cameras, Floppy Disks, Stereos… the list goes on! Armed with lots of pens, pencils and paints we flexed our creative muscles:

As an 80′s child (for 6 days) I decided to take the Neon approach for my stereo…

Then in groups of 3 we produced a big drawing, starting from the same point but in each of our own different drawing styles. On my team….

…. Amy, Bobbins and Myself.

And the finished piece….

Dirty drum and bass (Amy) control centre (Bobbins) and 80s electro (Me)!

You can see some of my classmates working  here at the new course site!

No idea what this new project is heading towards but it will be interesting…

Oh also got feedback for my Magazine Design yesterday – 63! :) I did some sums and my average for Semester A is 62! That’s a 2:1 so I’m pretty happy with that, YAY!

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Hogwarts of Lincoln

So, it’s been such a busy week and I’ve been really under the weather too which hasn’t helped :(

Some might know about my love for Harry Potter, so no surprise that I saw it Sunday :) Come Tuesday, I thought I was actually at Hogwarts! Let me explain…

Tuesday has become sketching project/Cafe Nero afternoon day. Last week we had to draw people we wouldn’t usually observe and I expressed my new found love for sketching. Well this week the love is still going strong! We took a walk up the Steep Hill (I was taking pictures for City Typology Project along the way) and found ourselves at Lincoln’s Cathedral. Bobbins managed to get us in for free (any Lincoln University Student can get in for free) and we had a wander around. He loves grand historical buildings (about the same level of excitement I get to with Harry Potter) so as you can imagine, he was very smiley.

We wandered around and I found this really lovely typographical drawing on a prayer noticeboard near to Gilbert Pots (couldn’t find the artist name though, sadly):

Bobbins did want to show us the Chapter House where apparently some of the Da Vinci Code was filmed (Oh, I walked past THE Magna Carta! Blimey!) but there was a service in progress so we sat in the Cloister courtyard. It’s absolutely beautiful there – like something out of Harry Potter! I will definitely be going back to take photos and the best part is that we have our Graduation ceremony at the Cathedral! Eeek! Graduating at Hogwarts? I can’t wait! Haha
Anyway, freezing our fingers off (it’s pretty much impossible to draw with gloves on) we got down to the sketching…

(Photo courtesy of Bobbins)

To get some feeling back into our fingers we headed to Cafe Nero…

I think I’m developing a style now, and I quite like it… What do you think??

This is my favourite sketch I’ve done so far, although I did end up with a headache from the Sharpie fumes!

P.s. Exactly one month today I will be 21 – arrrgh scary!

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Filed under BA (Hons) Graphic Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Sketchbook, Typography, University, University of Lincoln

People Watching

Today a group of us got comfy in Nero to do some people watching/ observational drawing. It was my first proper coffee shop coffee – I am completely clueless about all the different coffee types but Helen was kind enough to fill me in :)  I had a Caramelatte and a Spiced Apple and Pecan Muffin –  both very yummy!

To be honest, I don’t really like drawing because I know I’m not good at it/cannot draw. I know I need to practice more but I’m put off when everything is rubbish. Can’t get better if I don’t practice though… vicious circle!
I actually got quite into it today though! :) I found that a more scribbly approach worked better so tried to develop that kind of style drawings…

I repeat… I cannot draw! Also, until you have to draw people you don’t really realise how fast they walk! I have tried though so give me credit for that…


Amy, Danielle, Me, James and Helen concentrating!

I started drawing a man sitting on a bench and then he caught me! Ooops! I was quite embarrassed haha Then he let me finish drawing him and came over to the window to look at the drawing… he said he’s an artist so I think he understood luckily :)
Also, there was a man in Neros taking photos of us working…. creepy!! It felt quite weird because we were drawing people, but trying not to be obvious and then the man was photographing us but he wasn’t being very subtle – a taste of our own medicine! Haha

Oh and also guess who walks past the window whilst we are hard at work? None other than the man who set the project, Tim Fabian! We got a thumbs up which is one of the nicer reactions we had in the 3 hours we were there :)

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