return

Got back from New York City on Saturday evening! It was a tiresome and amazing experience. It felt so strange to see the city that is depicted in so many films and television programmes, it's almost odd to see that the city is even real. It's like visiting a place you saw in a dream and finding out that it's real. Cheesy right?

My highlights were: the Harry Potter exhibition in Discovery Times Square; John Leguizamo's one-man show Ghetto Klown at the Lyceum theatre (I LOVE him and it was hilarious); the NYC ballet performing Don Quixote; going to Serendipity3 for hot chocolate and cheesecake; and standing in the middle of Times Square looking at all of the skyscrapers. I have found a selection of the best of my 285 photos that I took while I was there, still need to scan in my disposable camera photos. (I got a fair few pictures of Coney Island on my disposable too, a place which I found haunting and really very depressing, the colourfulness seemed ironic somehow).

fisheye photos of Times Square

The most amazing café in New York! I highly reccommend it.

Skyscrapers behind Rockerfeller Center

fisheye of Rockerfeller and surrounding buildings

Fisheye of Rockerfeller Center (it was so tall that I had to use this filter to even get it in the frame)

The surprisingly amazing view from the window on the 11th floor at our hostel (westside YMCA)

Yellow cabs line up on Broadway

I really REALLY wanted a croissant in my hand. But I did not have one. Seeing it was enough to make me feel like Audrey herself though.

The street signs fascinate me!

A picture that captures the bustle of Broadway.

cool fire escapes.

More yellow taxis rush around Times Square.

In illustration terms, the feedback I got was... well, it was concise, to the point, and honest. Nobody is perfect. So I have a direction, or at least I think I do, in terms of what I should be doing and what I should ditch(!). I hope that at least for now it can lead me to a half decent end of degree show, and maybe a half decent mark to go with it.

New York, New York

picture from here

It is 2am, and I am struggling to find things to do. In half an hour I will walk down the hill to the coach - the coach that is taking me to Heathrow, to the plane. That plane will touch down in JFK. I am going to New York.

I am literally hopping - I've got spotify on with Frank Sinatra singing about that big juicy Apple that I am about to bite into.

If you can't tell, I'M EXCITED! MY flatmates have gone to bed so I am singing to myself while I wait. I am looking forward to so many things, I have waited such a long time to go to this place that I am also beyond nervous. I have lots of post cards to write to my jealous but excited-for-me friends! We are going to see some great people in the industry to get some feedback on our portfolios to help us grow and give us a great end to our degree.

I am not however looking forward to the weather that is apparently going to pelt onto the city - hoping that mother nature can sort out the storms! It won't dampen the trip in any way though.

Sorry about the lack of illustration here as I have nothing new since finishing/printing my current portfolio. When I get back (and after I post literally a thousand photos on here) I will be preparing to do my final year show, so I will make sure I share that final experience.

How do you say see you next week in American? oh right

see you next week!

x

Gatsby

And finally.

This is the last piece to go into my illustration portfolio all ready for our New York trip. This is a cover design for The Great Gatsby. I recently listened to the book on audiobook, read by Frank Muller, whose voice was so lovely to listen to and suited the story perfectly. I wanted to do the cover for this book particularly after hearing Fitzgerald's detailed descriptions of the characters, particularly Daisy whom I have represented on the cover itself. I did the whole book jacket for my portfolio, but I decided just to show the front here. I surprised myself with this one, because it doesn't stylistically match most of my portfolio but I think the pattern behind the skyline really helps to tie it in.

I'm getting excited about New York on Sunday, it's a little strange to think I will be there for a whole week, it still hasn't yet sunk in!

cover

Just in the process of finishing a book cover for The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Struggling a bit really. The concept here is that the title itself and the frame within it are slowly decaying to represent Dorian's fall and inevitable destruction. Would love to hear what you think!

old

Over the last few days I have been tweaking some of my old project work to get it looking a bit more presentable for my portfolio. This is the oldest piece that will be going in, it's a prospective poster design I did for the Edinburgh book festival. Originally it was just on a white background with some hand drawn type for the info as well as the letters themselves, but I decided to put in some set type to make it look a little more professional. Hoping it's good enough to go in the folder - I am off to get it printed some time this week so that it's ready to take to New York. Exciting!

cards

I did a few designs for some business cards last night, and put in an order from moo.com. I am quite happy with them, I feel like they are reflecting where I'm at with my work at the moment, but I only ordered 50 just in case I feel like I have better things to show in the future. The informative side of the card (top image) was definitely a good exercise as it improved my non existent skills in using adobe illustrator!

packaging

I decided to be a little more self-indulgent for my most recent project, in order to get something a little more personal into my portfolio ready for our New York visit in two weeks. This time I chose to do some packaging for traditional sweets. I used the themes of Victoriana and old-fashioned fairgrounds to evoke the feeling of old style sweet shops, and the fairground imagery hopefully brings to mind colourful innocence and fun. These images are intended to be labels that would sit on the front of candy-striped boxes, with the nutrition (!) information on the back. I'd love to hear what you think!