"Alice Through The looking Glass" Painting

For this unit, I had to create something that was linked to the upcoming movie of 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' through any kind of media, so painting, sketching, fashion, make-up etc. I settled for making a painting/illustration for the unit.

My research was mainly on American McGee's work, he's a game designer that's known for his work in DOOM 2 and his games of 'American McGee's Alice' and 'Alice: Madness Returns'. I personally know him for his Alice games that I've played, and the artwork, illustrations, character design etc. in the art book of Alice Madness Returns. He created the video game developer 'Spicy Horse' in 2005 and I find him quite an inspiration for being so successful despite his history and past.
I personally know him for his Alice games that I've played, and the artwork, illustrations, character design etc. in the art book of Alice Madness Returns. He created the video game developer 'Spicy Horse' in 2005 and I find him quite an inspiration for being so successful despite his history and past.

American McGee was born in
1972 the 13th of December 

These are pictures from a book that's linked to American McGee's 'Alice Madness Returns' game, it involves concept art, storyboards, character development, illustrations, quotes, maps, information, backgrounds etc. from the game that was and wasn't included in the game.
I mainly looked at the character and costume designs of Alice, the colours, patterns, details and backgrounds used with them, aswell as some illustrations of the game, Alice herself and even some other characters.

The cover of the illustration book of American
McGee's Alice Madness Returns

I looked at the costume and outfit design for Alice, seeing how
different they make some of her outfits from each other

Also looked at character design, where they mainly
tried to figure out Alice's looks of her body structure,
face and hair

More illustrations of Alice and different outfits

An official illustration of the Alice character that
was actual used to promote the game

Another official illustration that was used to
promote the game aswell

An illustration of Alice that I'm quite interested in
and used alot for inspiration for my painting

My idea for this unit linked to Alice Through the Looking Glass, and was to have her looking into a mirror, linking to the looking glass, and have her reflection different, the reason for this is because I wanted it to look interesting and surreal, the Alice kind of theme, but also because I wasn't strong in drawing faces.
To start my painting, I first sketched out the shape of Alice and her reflection, though I was advised that maybe I should cut them out so I wouldn't have to paint the base/background around it and ruining the drawings shape, so I did. I cut out the pencil drawing and then placed it on another piece of paper, holding it down with some tape and board clips before painting around the cut out, and on it slightly, with a slightly light, greyish blue. Once the main background/base was done, I re-sketched details onto the space that was left from the cutout covering it up from the blueish background, the details being of Alice's outfit. I started to use black paint on areas that needed it, this being the parts of the checkered floor, the boarder across the bottom of the mirror, Alice's dark grey shoes and the reflection to use as a base.

The cutout I did around the pencil sketch and
placed onto another piece of paper

The cutout after I had gone over the new piece
of with the light blue and greyish base.

The painting after I had added some black
paint onto the reflection, the checkered floor,
Alice's shoes and the boarder across the bottom
of the mirror.

The reflection with the details of starts with some
blue and pink smudges and flicks of white paint

So far satisfied with how it was looking, I then went onto adding some stuff to the reflection. I wanted something that was surreal and would catch people's attention, so I though about adding a space look, this also being because I find inspiration and take alot of interest in space. To give it this space look, I used a sponge and dipped it very lightly in pink and blue paint before lightly smudging it on parts of the reflection, giving it the space dust and nebula clouds kind of look. Once satisfied with the 'cloud' look and effect, I started to add in the stars by flicking on white paint and making bigger stars with a thin brush.

I then moved onto doing Alice's dress and striped tights/stockings, using white and red paint for all of it, along with some watered down black to cast a small light shadow on the leg and the creases in the dress. Once I had completed her outfit, I then moved onto the skin. Though I do have trouble understanding how to get a good skin colour, I asked a classmate to help, and they advised, showed and taught me how to get the kind of skin colour I want, what colours to use and what amounts I needed of them.

A nebula cloud, which I used as research
and inspiration for my painting

Another example of a nebula cloud and stars that I used to help
and inspire me to make the same kind of look in my painting

A close up of the detail I put into the space
themed reflection, where the smudges of blue
and pink can be seen

Alice's red dress with white frills and striped
white and red leggings/stockings

The final piece for the unit linked to 'Alice
Through the Looking Glass'

I then finally moved onto doing Alice's hair and black hairband. I used quite an orange base for her hair first before adding in mixes of brown and a but more yellow and gold colours, finishing it off by adding in some lighter streaks into the hair using some white paint.
In conclusion, I'm very satisfied and happy with how this painting turned out, I didn't have much difficulty or problems when making it, I did spend quite a bit of time and concentration on it too. If I could improve anything it might've been a better base colour for the mirror, but defiantly the hands of Alice since my skill in drawing and painting hands sin't that good.

Banner & Poster Design

I took photos around the Art department, mainly of the painted walls that had been done recently done by students, including myself, making the walls look bright, colourful, eye catching and expressive.

An edited version of a picture, I
increased the brightness and contrast

I took quite a few photos inside the art department of the walls and certain angles, and outside the art department of the flowers, reflections, buildings, plant life, certain angles etc. I then moved the photos I would possibly use from the cameras memory card onto the Mac, I picked out some images and edited them in photoshop, mainly adjusting the brightness and contrast to make the colours stand out and 'pop', sometimes inverting them.

An original picture from the camera of a wall
with splattered acrylic

An edited version of the picture, the brightness
and contrast being adjusted

The inverted version of the picture with the
improved brightness and contrast

An edited version of a picture I took of
people in the hallway when painting the walls.

I then opened up illustrator to start making banner designs, the ideal kind of design to have was to have one of the banners using a picture from the camera, then the other being of text, object and or blocks of colour. I first started making a design with unedited version of the photos from the camera, using colours from the photo and putting them on the other banner on squares and rectangles.
I then started trying making designs with edited versions of the photos, but I was still having difficulty making a good design that I was happy and confident with, they were just looking boring and almost childish in design. I tried to get past this 'block' in my design I was having trouble with my adding filters onto some photos, though this still wasn't helping that much to give me better ideas.

My first attempt at making a design with an
unedited photo, and as shown it's not that eyecatching.

A different design I tried doing with an inverted
version of a photo, but the left banner design still
looks childish but also something that's quite overused

A edited version of a photo, as usual the brightness
and contrast was adjusted to help make the
colours 'pop'

A filtered version of the photo, a polterize
filter, giving a cool look and effect

I tried to try different designs for the banners, using a technique from a classmate by putting lines making the shapes of triangles above the pictures I'm using, I first made the lines with the line tool and coloured them with either yellow or blue, then putting an original coloured photo and inverted version of it underneath this design and then using the eraser tool, I erased the parts of the photos that weren't underneath the line design. I thought it was going to turn out quite good and work out, but it resulted in a weird and not that much of an impressive design, with the other banner not looking impressive either. I then tried to use a hexagon design some classmate had used in their design, though when I tried to use it in my own kind of design I just couldn't get it to work in a design. I then tried doing the technique I saw in my research with one banner being of the logo and the other an image with some text, I tried this but I still thought it wasn't looking that good or eye catching.

The technique I used to
make the line filled design,

The design I did with the lines next to the other
banner design, not looking that impressive.

The banner design with the hexagon design on one
of them, still failing to look impressive or good
to me.

My design technique with the logo on one banner
and an image on the other one with some text, I think
it's a good technique but I'm unsure it would work for
what these banners would be used for

Since I was having trouble with making some actual good designs with this 'creative block' I had, I paused with doing my work and looked at my research I had done, but I still wasn't getting anything, so I then I began to look around at other students work, seeing different kinds of designs that actually looked good and some even professional. By looking at some other peoples designs, I actually come up with some ideas, inspired by some of my class mates work, I didn't 'copy' from their designs, but used some techniques they used, included faded pictures and lines going over it.

I started by doing a poster, first putting down the text for Art & Design on a white circle with an edited picture background and then an inverted version of it, then adding on some white lines and 'paths'. Becoming more confident with how my designs were looking, I developed them further by adding in low opacity squares over parts of the design and then finding a space to put the NNC logo, which I place in the bottom right of the poster. I was liking how the poster was looking, but I decided to develop it more by having both of the edited photo and inverted version of it together in the design, so I had the original coloured photo underneath the inverted photo of it, using the eraser tool on the inverted photo in the spaces between the lines so the original photo would show, I then did the same thing the other way round.

The first design I was actual happy and
confident with and developed it further

I added in low opacity squares and put them
in the corners of the poster design along with
the NNC logo 

An inverted version of the design which I
think looks better than using the original
colored photo in the background

The inverted version with the low opacity squares
in the corners of the poster with the NNC logo

The design where I added both the original
coloured photo and the inverted version,
along with an added line path in the middle

I changed the text font to try and make it fit
in better with the design, mainly to fill in
the space around it

Satisfied with how the poster turned out, I moved back to making a banner design, which I would like its design to link to the poster design, so white lines/shapes, shapes with low opacity, using the same original and or inverted photo for the background etc. I tried making a design that has circles instead along with white lines, it looked okay but it didn't match with the poster that I wanted to have it linked and look alike to, so I used the same design with the white lines and paths along with a white stretched circle. Once I had made this design I was actually quite happy with how it was looking, though it only used the inverted background, it still fit and linked with the design.

Another design I made but also had difficulty
developing it further to look better

I tried to use a different kind of design using
linking colours and circles, but it didn't fit the
level of being eye catching like the poster does

The banner design that starts to look the part and
linked to the posters design while having a
 professional look to it

I changed the font to being more bold to
stand out, so when seen from far away on a
banner it would be able to be read

Confident and pleased with the successful designs I had made so far, I then moved onto making a leaflet design, that would still be linked to the banner and poster designs, so ideally look alike photos to the others I had used in my other designs. I did find a look alike photo to use, so I edited them in photoshop, adjusting the brightness, contrast and then inverting it, I then started making the design for the leaflet version, using the same white lines/paths, having the inverted version in one design in between the spaces of the lines and then the original photo. I decided to add in some more lines/another path in the middle of the designs which I think made it look a bit better and did the inverted photo as the main background then the original as the main background. This time I added some white squares to fill in the corner spaces, which is where I placed the NNC logo on a top left and the address and phone number of the college in the bottom right.

The first design I did for the poster, showing I had a good idea
of what I wanted to have in it and shows how I linked it to the
banner and poster design.

The design with an added in path/lines in the middle of the
leaflet, making it actually look a bit better

The design with an inverted version, both seemingly looking
quite good to use

Happy with how my first group of successful designs turned out, I wanted to do another different design for a poster, leaflet and banners but still had difficulty developing any others further. The successful group of designs is what I'll be using, this including inverted versions of some of the designs because I believe they look just as good as the 'original' design.

Banner Research

To help inspire and give me ideas for designs for my own banner for NNC, I looked up promotional banners and posters, observing what's involved and what's happening in them, how they get their message or product across with their design.
I came across quite a lot of different styles, designs and the themes that they had to fit with. There were designs which were a picture covering most of the banner area with minimal text or none at all, ones with logos with a pattern or text with it, just text etc. I found the banners that seemed to move into the next banner that would go next to it interesting, or having a matching theme to show viewers that they're linked together.

These banners look linked with
the use of the same text font and the
use of the stars next to the text.

I like how this group of banners link and merge
together since they have a shared image spread
across them, having a cool but alluring affect to viewers.

The two green banners are linked
because they both use a woodland
background, the same text font and
the logo and its colours.

I found this to be quite an interesting
design, using a logo for one whole
banner and the other to show what
their theme, company or product
is or linked to.

These banners show the design linked across different kinds
of banners, showing how they've adapted the design to fit
whatever form or display it's on while still keeping its main
design and logo included in all of then.

These banners use almost
identical designs, one having
no text or information while the
other does, though this keeps the
the two banners linked because pf
their almost identical designs on them..

I like how the design spreads across the
three banners, linking them together so
people would know by looking at them that
they're about and linked about the same thing
they might be displaying.

I then had to research promotional material, how companies, businesses and people put designs, text and logos onto materials such as tops, hats, pens, mugs, bags etc. to promote their business, building or product. Researching how they display a product onto these certain materials, do they add or remove anything from their original designs, do they keep the text, logo, do they change them to help fit the way it would be advertised on 'promotional material and items' etc.

This shows the pretty simple and basic kind of product
design that's quite common for companies and etc. to
use to promote something.

More basic product design that's commongly used, though these
products are the ones actually brought and used more since people
would use a pen or mug more than wearing a product promoting
piece of clothing.

Product design that is also commonly used for promotion,
 but also commonly used by the buyers/customers/viewers. 

Promotional material that I haven't seen as often or
commonly is putting a logo on an umbrella, which I do find
interesting and something people would still use.