Monday 25 May 2015

AIM

A friend recently asked me to help him with some backgrounds for a website he's building for the Bannocknurn Bowmen Archery Club. The website at the moment is in serious need for some TLC...

I started putting some ideas together for possible backgrounds/artwork etc. 


Started off with a really simplified target image using Photoshop.. I understand that each band of colour is supposed to have another circle outline present. Will fix it in the final design, but for now I'm just playing about with ideas.. 


I'm trying to redesign the club's logo, without loosing any of the imagery/ meaning from the original logo..


Another background idea.. The blue is the club's colour. 


I quite like this one. As I said, I'm trying to rethink the club's logo.. 

The website builder friend had an idea of including an interactive, live scoreboard on the website so i'll be looking to help with that later as well. 

I just need to add the extra rings in between the colours and we'll be jamming. 



FIREBIRD

SO. A LOT has happened since this year began. I cannot believe it's already MAY? Where have these past few months gone? Anyway- I was working in Dundee with Smallpeitklein Dance Company, which unfortunately shut down in April. As part of the Creative Learning Team, I got to work on some great projects with some of the best people.

One of the projects I was involved in was "Aspire"- funded by Dundee City Council- it looks to bringing the arts closer to areas and children who otherwise would not have the chance to be exposed to it. During my last term on the project, we focused on Stravinsky's "Firebird" with the children. It was challenging and some days it was difficult to get out of bed. But every time I saw one of our students dancing their heart out to music they wouldn't have otherwise listened to, it made me realise just how important my job was. I've seen students with the most challenging behaviour become entranced by movement, dance and music. And that's amazing.

At the end of the term my fellow Creative Learning Team players and I were extremely proud of our students. Over 200 of them got a once-in-a-lifetime experience to perform in the Caird Hall in Dundee. The day was manic. We had a whole lot of children to be responsible for, each of them had a different piece to practice and perform. The Caird Hall was packed. The students performed alongside a 70 piece orchestra to over 500 audience members. What a day.

Apart from all the dance theatre workshops being run during and out of school hours, I was asked to create a GIANT Firebird puppet.

And so I did… I used a technique I had learned during the River Of Light Festival and made the Firebird head structure out of willow.









Here's the bird, who I named "Bob" during the different stages of being built and covered in wet-strength tissue paper and PVA. 





Thanks a million to all those who helped me build and cover this beast! 



Here is Bob- moved from the Gym Hall onto the stage of one Rowantree Primary school- of the schools we were working in.


Cant say I wasn't worried about Bob's safety..


Caird Hall! Performance day on 7th March 2015!





Bob in action on the Caird Hall stage before the performance. I also kitted him out with torches. so when he went down the aisle, he lit up people's lives ;)


TIME TO PARTY

SPK needed imagery for the website. They needed illustrations to advertise their newest venture- birthday parties- planned and run by the SPK crew. So, once again I put pencil to paper and did what I do best… I painted these by hand and then took to Photoshop to bring it all together..


Balloon Girl


Cupcake Boy


Handstand Boy


Gift Girl 


Part items...


Havin' a good ol' time!



So here's the artwork I created for the website.. Unfortunately, since the website is not functioning anymore, I don't have evidence of my work being online! Tis a sad day for Illustrators :P 

BRO-CHURE

When I was still working for SPK, I was asked to make design a brochure advertising all the dance classes the company offered. So I set off, camera in hand and started by taking some nice new pics! Then came the interesting bit. Putting it all together. I was asked to make it playful and full of colour. I played around with trying to colour code each class but it became too much of a mish mash… So I decided to keep it simple. Three colours- Pink, Black and White- just like the company logo. 
This way the photographs didn't get too lost amongst garish colours...




Work In Progress- trying to figure out where things are going to go and how to format the text and imagery. The design came together pretty quickly...


Adding the final touches...


Ready to print! The inside and outside of the brochure.


Format and design of the front and back of the brochure.