My idea & Character Design Research
I have thought of an idea for the first brief. The brief has asked for an object to tell a story, however I have thought of several objects, kind of. The idea came to me when thinking about the ugly cropped jeans my mum made me and my sister wear (at the same time) when we were kids, and it got me thinking about how whenever you look back at old photos of childhood you're always wearing hideous outfits that leave you thinking "Mum, why did you make me wear that!". This gave me the idea of telling the story of clothes we used to have to wear as kids by making cute illustrations of these clothes and scenarios into a little book/publication. I would include memorable ugly clothes and memories such as having clothes passed down to you that you hated, wearing the same outfits as siblings at the same time and mum buying clothes that just weren't cool enough etc. I am taking the object (childhood clothes) and using memories to add a narrative to them and tell a story. For research, I am going to collate images of me and my family as kids wearing these ugly clothes, as well as asking my friends for their photos and memories. I am also going to research the style of illustration I would like to use and also the style of which the book/publication will be.
After looking at some illustration styles on Pintrest, I fell in love with this cute minimalist style. I want the publication to be humbling, sweet and bring back good childhood memories that people can relate to, therefore I wanted to choose a really pretty soft and simple type of illustration and to also try a style that was new to me to challenge myself and try something different.
I found this drawing by Maya bee Illustrations, and fell in love. I love the simple style, I also think it's qiute child like which will fit with my theme. It is made using gouache paint which is something I've never used or owned. I could try and use gouache but was also considering usimg a gouache effect on my computer by drawing the illustrations digitally on my wacom tablet. This is something I need to explore, I could even use different media to make it look different and more my own style.
Maya bee has created other similar styled drawings which are also inspiring. I like that a lot of the drawings focus on showcasing the outfits as the main focus of my work will be the clothes.
Another artist I like is Kate Pugsly. She's an illustrator, painter and surface designer based in Chicago. .She creates art in a similar sweet style. I like the soft pastel colours and the simplistic style. These also look as if they are painted, and do not have any dark outlines and everything is very soft. Here are some examples of her work as well as a How-to-guide made for Flow Magazine.
Another illustrator I have looked into is Julie Morstad. She is an award-winning illustrator and artist living with her family in Vancouver, B.C. This style is slightly different to the others as she uses black fine liner for the drawing for the person and what looks like coloured pencils for the clothing. I liked this design because the child in the large sweater reminded me of been given hand me down clothes from siblings and they just don't fit right or playing dress up in your parents clothes.
