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!

quote

just uploading a section of my completed quote (this is for you hannah!). I'm actually surprised at how pleased I am with it, I got worried that it was totally not going to work and that I would hate it but I quite like how it's turned out. I think I've managed to bring together the important bits of how I work so that it shows me off well in the book.

more

so near yet so far. must finish this!

tea

Just a couple of the bits from my quote illustration, slowly trying to paint the separate pieces and build it all with the collage bits. Tricky!

Shakespeare

Happy Birth (and death) day William Shakespeare.