Vector Image

This was another part of our experimentation work. We had to pick a photo of our chosen band or artist, that we had to 'vectorise', this meant by selected the four main colours of the image and drawing around those using the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. >>>

First of all I uploaded my chosen image of The Wanted and made the image a more easier picture so that I could draw around the outlines of the figures and the facial details. I firstly had to selected the four colours that were the most dominate in the image. The colours were pink, white, black and green. 

Once the colours were picked out, I locked the colour layers that I would not be using at that time, and started drawing out the details of that colour layer I was on. After a while I managed to get the idea of drawing the shapes and lines, and it became a lot easier to complete. Once all the shapes and lines were in place, I added different colours so each different part of the image. 

Above are the step by step images that I took to add colour into the vector image...

After I had finished with drawing around the facial  details, different clothes and adding  many colours to each section of the band, I wanted the background to still incorporate the original back ground, but i added a lime green layer just in front of it. I took the opacity slightly down so that you could see the definition of the image. 

All in all after getting the hang of the idea of creating a vector image, I do like mine image as you can tell it is definitely hand made and quite unique in a way. However I don't think I would want to make another vector image again.       

Stitching

Another part of our experimentation work was to look at PULP the album cover. This is the Pulp album we had to re-create, in the style of stitching. The first thing we had to complete both making our own 'PULB' inspired CD cover, we had to take photos of each other making different poses and shapes so we could then draw around them. Here are images of myself trying to pose for the camera. 

These are the two photos that I used to start by stitching CD cover. To make the image into a silhouette, I drew around the figure with the pen tool. After that i collected some images off of the internet of some fabric materials. Once I had collected the fabric style materials, I then uploaded the images into photoshop to make them be the main part of the figure. Then after making the fabric materials the figures main  body, I later added a bold colour out line to make the silhouette more dominate. One of the last thing I did to complete my CD cover, was make the word BAND out of sequins. I did this by uploading a photo of a sequin into photoshop and created a bush stamp out of it, making the word BAND. The final thing I did to complete this was to make the background a two tone colour making the top left hand corner a dark purple, descending into white on the bottom right corner.

In my opinion I like what i have created using me as apart of the re-created design. I also like that I have learnt to use the Photoshop tools better as i have proceeded with using the application. 

    

Album Artwork Analysis

COLDPLAY - X&Y

The band are called Coldplay, who are know worldwide for their songs such as Fix You, Vida la Vida, Paradise and Every Teardrops a Waterfall. This is one of their albums called X and Y.  X&Y is the third studio album by British the rock band released 6 June 2005 in the United Kingdom via the record label Parlophone. When I first saw this artwork I thought it was a little bit boring and confusing trying to work out the shape on the cover. The CD cover uses a lot of colours to entice potential buyers to get the album. In my opinion I wouldn’t really consider looking into too much detail of the album cover because I like that band. However if I didn’t like the band, the unusual artwork my catch my eye in the shop because of the colours and the strange symbol in the middle of the page. The target audience for this cover would be any body how loves the band or that who is interested in the complex drawing on it.  I also love that the artist name is spread all over the page to get them noticed, I feel its all about the symbol in the middle that actually makes the name of the album in a code 'X and Y'. All in all the design is quite unique and maybe more for people who like the band to buy the album. 

The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button

The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo composed of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method. Their music is the big beat circuit, which is basically dance music. When I first saw this album art work I likes the look of the way it was set out with the name of the album being the centre of attention. I like the use of colours because it isn't to fancy or over the top to look at. I like the way there's a fist pumping in the air, to look like the band have power or when you listen to the music you want to rave to it. Also the use of an outline of a face is a good idea to use because where the words for the album title, they have been used to shape a 'brain'. The target audience that this band are for is for people that may like dance music or possible because they like the cover, because it is quite different to any other CD cover.  All in all, i really like the use of colour used, and the use of imagery.

BECK - THE INFORMATION 

The Information is the tenth (and seventh major-label) studio album by American alternative rock musician Beck, released in October 2006 on Interscope Records. People that would this type of genre of music would be people who love Beck or alternative rock music. In my opinion, when I first saw this album artwork I was a little confused because it was just the bands name in block letters. Then once I opened up the CD case I found lots of stickers. The main reason behind the stickers is to make your own individual album cover using the stickers of the bands songs. The use of stickers may resemble childhood memories to create your own world as such. Another feel I get from the cover is a retro style, using very bright colour stickers images and the use of graph paper is another childhood memory from school. In my opinion I like the concept of the idea but when you first look at the cover, personally I wouldn't want to by it.

THE SHINS - CHUTES TOO NARROW

The Shins are an American indie rock band from Albuquerque, New Mexico, formed in 1996. The album Chutes Too Narrow cover is quite artistic in the way that there is a lot of illustrations to show the songs that are in the album. The look of this album is quite cartoonish using simple images to explain the song titles. However, for a indie rock band I don't think the cover suits that type of music, as I feel it looks to childlike. Or maybe that's what the artist wanted to achieve with this cover. The use of colours are quite good because there is only a few colours picked out, but there is just too much colour in my opinion. I do like the why that the artwork has been laid out because it isn't the normal CD booklet that you would normally get in the case. 

Out of of the CD's that I have analysed I like the look of The Shins album because it is cartoonish and different to other covers. I like the concept of Beck's album by creating your own cover. Also the colours in The Chemical Brothers album are quite simple. But the album that i like the most is Coldplay's album because they're the type of band i would normally listen to, despite not really like the 'X&Y' cover.     

Rob Ryan

More experimental work we were to complete was too make a Rob Ryan inspired piece of work. Ryan's work consists of cutting out images and texts into scenes. His mind must be very imaginative to create such intricate designs just using a piece of card and craft knife. Out of all of Ryan's designs, these four are my favourites, because a lot of time has gone into making them perfect and look as detailed as possible. 

To take Rob Ryan idea's into hand I tried to design my own stencilled design using my band I chosen to make the album cover for.

First of all I opened up a photo of the band on the computer and printed it out. This is the image I decided to pick of The Wanted, because I wanted to make a Ryan inspired stencil using the bands silhouettes. Once i had printed this image out of the boys, then traced around their bodies and 'The WANTED'. Also  making sure I joined the text to the image so when I cut round the words they would be apart of the same paper as the image.

Above is the final out come of the tracing paper design and the card stencil. I really like the final outcome of the design as it is a new way of creating artwork that it simple to complete, but can be a bit tricky, for cutting around such small parts of the image. All in all i really liked this experiment because it was a simple idea but was very effective.

  

  

Stencil

Another way we had to experiment with our chosen band or artist, we were creating the song of the summer album for, we had to make a stencil. We had to make a stencil by using a photo of the artist, and then turning the image into a black and white threshold image. Here is the original image and the threshold image. 

After making the image turn into a threshold picture, I then printed the image out. Then I had to decide whether to cut out the white bits or black bits. I decided to cut out the white parts making sure I made bridges. Bridges are basically lines that join parts, of what your are cutting that may be lost, together to make the image 'whole' or 'in one piece', to make it look like the original picture. 

This picture above is what the stencil looked like after cutting out all of the white sections of the image, making sure it had enough detail showing in each band members face. After cutting out the white parts with a craft knife, I then decided which colour paints and paper I would use. My final choice of coloured paper was white and black, and paint was blue, pink and white. White paint on black card and then blue and pink paint on white card.

The steps I took to complete this task was by placing the stencil on the coloured card and type in down, so that the image would not move while I was painting the image. Once I had place the stencil on the card, I then painted onto the image with a sponge, lightly sponging it up and down so that the paint would create an even layer on the page. I repeated sponging the paint onto the page twice. After letting it dry for a while. I repeated this process for the of colours. 

THESE ARE THE FINAL TWO OUTCOMES... 

This blue and pink image, was much easier to paint, because it only need one layer of paint each. I really like the boldness of the royal blue and the lightness of the pink. Another reason why i like this stencil is because of the definition you can still see of the bands facial features. 

With the black and white stencil, i prefer this the most out of the two. The reason behind this is because of how powerful you can see the definition of the hair line and the eyes are so clear you can see each individual member and can tell them apart straight away.  

Threshold Image

 Here is the original image that I used to create this presentation.>>> 

Another experiment using our chosen artist or band, I had to make a image involving two different colours and the threshold of the original. I firstly I had to changed the threshold on the photo, making sure there was enough detail showing of the artists. After that I chose a the colour blue to use for the band skin colour then I chose red for the background, to give a good contrast between the both. 


In my opinion I like this because it is quite different to just turning the image into  a black and white image then adding colour. I like that the threshold just add the right definition to the figures and isn't to over the top. It is just quite simple, but it works.         

Typography Image

For the first part of our experimental work we were to design a typography image using our chosen artist or band. We firstly had to adapt the original image by using photoshop, then had to make a two tone image of shadows and highlights, to turn the image black, white and grey. Then we had to make a text stamp of our choice, I chose one of The Wanted song lyrics. Once making the text stamp I had to 'stamp' the text on top of the image in different brush sizes. After that I merged all of the layers together to get a text and image picture, then i added a rainbow colour effect to the picture. I then went over the figures with the brush tool so that you could the definition of each band member.

In my opinion, I really like this experiment because it shows the creative side to each individual and their chosen band or artist. I like the use of the colours and the outline around the band. All in all I do like this outcome.     

My Artist - THE WANTED

As part of our A2 project we are going to be designing our own song of the summer album, I chose a the band The Wanted as my artist as choice. The reason why I decided to pick this artist was because of their songs they have on both of their albums: THE WANTED and BATTLEGROUND! I want to create an summer album that consist of some songs that are of both of their albums and some new songs. 

Bille Jean

To further research into of different styles of drawing things, one artist that captured my eyes was this Billie Jean work. 


The drawing was designed for the 30th anniversary of the Nike Vandal shoe. Around this time wearing sports shoes were consider only as sport trainers not for fashion. This particular shoe was called VANDAL. The artist has designed a picture of lots of things associated with the shoe and that period of time, such as:

• Basketball
• PacMan
• Lots of scribbles

The image was created by using a Biro pen and lined paper, which is a unique effect. I assume that you would normally find this image      on a billboard or in a magazine that teenagers would look at and would be interested in. 
the whole reason how wearing the trainer as a fashion shoe was because of the basketball player Michael Jordan started to wear them for everyday occasions.

AS-A2 Project