Samantha Landells

When watching the new Willoughby animated movie I was completely immersed and inspired by their beautiful craftsmanship. Due to this I wanted to explore it further to understand better what makes their animating style so appealing and how this could relate to my future work. Style: The Willoughby movie is made to look handmade and very textured, it has components which relate its visual style to that of traditional stop motion animations. It combines the use of bright saturated colours and dark cooler tones to truly emphasise the different emotive responses to particular environments, such as their home. Concept: The movie is based on 4 young siblings who are trapped in an unloving relationship with their neglectful parents. When a mysterious baby arrives on their doorstep it stirs the children to lure their parents away in order to become orphans however, the results are far from what the children expected and they end up in search of their parents only to be let down o...

Following my indpedent research into various cute illustration artists I was inspired by the work of @pigeoncraftts to create my own animal character. I think I could improve this design by merging it with my research into cute liquid characters as seen by the artist @catface.exe and really take the illustration a step further. I feel it could do with a lot of work as currently the level of contrast between elements appears severely wishy washy and boring. I feel increasing the contrast would greatly benefit this design as well as by incorporating a lot more shadows and highlights to ensure the design is no longer as flat. Another way I could improve this design would be to consider the inclusion of secondary characters if I do go ahead with the exploration into a glass style. Regardless I really love the charm of this character and feel there is a lot of potential in his basic form and colour palette.

----WARNING THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS IMAGES WHICH SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND TRIGGERING AND UPSETTING ---- VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This subject matter is controversial and is meant in no way to offend anyone. I HAVE NOT made this post because I am at risk, but rather to raise awareness and attention through striking imagery. Please take the time to read the description below to find out more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- During this stressful time of the pandemic of Covid-19 quarantine has been in place for some time now and it is having detrimental effects on many people's mental health. During this unusual and completely unique event it is easy to slip into negative habits and for some those have clear physical repercussions. I wanted to use my artwork du...

As a break from my idea generation in order to help me de-stress I created a quick doodle of an octopus, merging various brushes to create this stylised effect. Although the design is very simplistic, I appreciate it's charm. If I were to take this design further I would work on improving the background as although I like the colour I have chosen I feel it is far too plain to truly enhance the design. Strengths: I love the fluid motion of the design, it truly captures the lively nature I was hoping to emulate Weaknesses: I feel the texturing on the octopus could be improved Opportunities: This would be a very sweet base for a project into the exploration of how to create repeating patterns Targets: Clean up the design a bit and research how to create repeating patterns in order to experiment with my own using this design.

Coming back to my poppy design I realised that during my development process I had not incorporated the extra petals I discussed during the creation of my initial experiment. Due to this I returned to my design to see how their inclusion effected the aesthetics of my design and I found they helped break up a lot of the negative space whilst making it more easily recognisable that the blurb was on top of a larger petal rather than a random blob. I made sure to keep their colouring consistent throughout to support this factor even further and overall I am extremely happy with the outcome. I feel like the inclusion of such a minor component has really helped elevate my design further.

Once I completed the initial development of my poppy silhouette concept I decided like my initial silhouette illustration of Willie and Tom, to take my design further to see just how far I could enhance its design and whether or not this would be the design I would choose to use as my final submission for this module. I am much happier with my design following these adjustments, I was influenced by the artist David Frankland who designed the cover for the current 'Goodnight Mr Tom' with his use of colour block shading on his silhouettes. I found the exploration into this method rather interesting as I have never before based the detailing around the areas there would be shadows rather than actual refined detail, so it was a new process for me but I really enjoyed it. I feel that the style influenced by Frankland really suited the overall aesthetics of this design and made sure my overall illustration appeared refined rather than over encumbered. I was happy with the colour ...

Following my research into the book 'Le Trone De Fer: Les Dragons De Meereen' I wanted to further explore my use of composition and layout by using a feature relevant to the story as the window into the second environment within the silhouette. To do this I decided to use poppies as my main element considering they are used for remembrance for both the First and Second World Wars. I felt this was a nice way to commemorate the true events of the time period which have been fictionalised into the story 'Goodnight Mr Tom'. I tried to keep the detailing to a minimal as I wanted the emphasis to be on the centre point of the design. I feel this experiment needs a lot of work to make it look attractive enough to be used and sold as the cover for an actual book, but as a starting point I find it very interesting. It takes a new look on layout which I have not yet explored and has made me problem solve various issues such as making sure the inner character silhouettes wer...

I chose to develop my previous silhouette design further to see how well it would work as a completed illustration. I really feel the final results are fit for purpose and define the basis of the story line in a beautiful yet subliminal way. Overall I am extremely happy with the results but I will continue to explore more designs before settling on a final piece. I completed research into multiple pre-existing book covers which used silhouetted elements within their work and I feel the next idea I would like to explore is having the main characters purely within the larger object rather than having their silhouettes as the main frame for the hidden environment. This would enable me to explore different composition styles and digital techniques.

Following the completion of my Sam Chivers inspired design I wanted to take an entirely new approach with my design so I began by looking at various book covers which used silhouetted characters with environments inside of them. I am really happy with how this initial experiment came out and I would like to take this design one step further to try and enhance its overall aesthetics. I am much happier with the composition of this design than I was with my previous experiments and feel this would be the style I would like to explore further. I really love the contrast between the two 'environments' and feel the darker tone foregroung really helps make the inner design pop. I would like to develop this design further and I feel this could be done by adding some detailing to the foreground so that it is more than just a plain background

Following the completion of my Hougomat inspired design I then attempted to create a slightly more detailed approach through the use of gradients within each of my elements like that found in Sam Chivers work. I used one of Chiver's images as the colour reference for the initial experiment I formed. However I found this seemed to appear slightly too cold in appearance so wanted to explore how I could convert it to a slightly warmer appearance. Sam Chivers: Style  I love how Chivers combines the use of minimal colour palettes, texturing and sophisticated line work in order to create truly immersive works of art that leave you wishing you could jump right in. He has a very futuristic style which may not be appropriate for the time frame of the book I have chosen to develop a cover for, however there are elements which I can take into my own designs, like his beautiful colour palettes or use of texturing to truly help humanise the illustration. Technique: I believe due t...

During my independent research I managed to find an upcoming event based around the illustration of food and gratitude. I really like the purpose of the theme and the projects intentions which is to use a daily component of life (food) to inspire creativity and self affirmation through forcing the participant to incorporate one thing that day they are grateful for. I feel this is a real feel good event and I feel it does not place extra stress on me alongside my university work as I can participate for however many days I find possible, which means I can use this task of self-gratification as a welcome break from my more stressful university projects. I feel as though, especially during this hard time with Covid-19 a challenge like this with clear yet basic goals and ambitions is a real mood lifter as it not only causes you to think more carefully about food preparation but to also take some time for yourself. By forcing me to be more prepared with my meals I am hoping I will b...

Following the hand in of my initial concepts I decided to return to my artist research, as I felt this would provide me with a lot more clarity and ideas on how I wanted my work to be presented. One of the artists I chose to explore was Tom Haugomat, I really like his use of clean lines and bright colours and felt this style would work perfectly for the creation of a children's book. I tried to use a minimal colour palette during the development of this concept. I much prefer the typography I have created for this design and feel it works a lot better against the overall style of the illustration as it is a lot rounder, however the use of two tones which are the colour of the clouds creates a level of consistency and interest. Tom Haugomat: Style: I really adore the way Haugomat uses colour blocking within his illustrations as it creates such vibrant and vivid environments. The palettes he uses appear to be slightly de-saturated so they do not overwhelm the viewer which is an...

Considering I had been given such a tight deadline to achieve my three book cover concepts I decided to explore the technique of digital painting after my deadline to ensure I didn't fall behind on my requirements. I do not feel this design worked very well however it was inspired by the earlier designs of the books covers where the style is more realistic. I am not extremely pleased with the overall results of this experiment as I feel my skill level is not high enough to accurately form an effective illustration using this technique, my characters appear slightly deformed and scary. I tried to capture the two main characters as though it were framed in a picture but I am not keen on the end results of this experiment.

For my new project I was tasked with completing the ended Penguin competition for Book Cover Awards 2020. I was provided with three books to research and develop ideas for their cover art. The book I decided to continue with following this research was Goodnight Mr Tom, a story about a young boy who is evacuated to the country during WWII to live with an elderly gentleman named Tom. I really loved the style of the current book cover so my initial ideas referenced this, I used a similar style depicting 3 different compositions which I felt accurately represented the book and it's story. My initial cover ideas were created to an extremely tight deadline of a single day so I made sure to focus on the main components rather than the minor details seeing as they would be worked on a lot more once I decided on a composition. Personally I really like the first and second compositions, I really like how the first shows two separate scenes whereas the second shows a more continuous co...