conceptual drawing

OVERVIEW

AIMS OF THE BRIEF

1. The development of illustration based problem solving/communication skills
2. An exploration of the scope for illustration applications in industry

OUTCOMES

Requirement:
1 × feature illustration
150 × 120mm
1 × spot illustration
50 × 50
Both CMYK

All back up work (research, ideas generation & refinement, and process exploration/WIP shots)

IMPORTANT INFO

Project 1 Deadline (formative feedback): Friday 9th Feb (PM)

Final Module Deadline: Friday 10 May at 4.00PM

other important info such as timescale, marks worth, format to be done in

RESEARCH

ORIGIN

To begin with I did a careful read of the article, going over it multiple times and highlighting key areas

After reading the text, I re-watched a podcast which felt tailor-suited to the topic:
Jon Stewart & Ian Hislop discussing Trump & Murdoch.

From the interview, Ian hislop likens Trump's situation to the story of "The emperor's new clothes".
This seemed an ideal starting point to research.

He also made reference to the show "Succession", a dark satire of the Murdoch family,
and another piece of media I revisited for research.

Trump's mug shot (2023)

Rupert Murdoch (2012)

Judge Engoron, The key judge in one of Trump's many court cases

Some strong visuals of "The emperor's new clothes"

stills from episodes of "Succession"

Artist research

Ralph Steadman

Moose Alain

James Gilray

Inspiration board

IDEAS

In response to my initial research, I generated several sketchbook pages of initial ideas

the 3 ideas I liked the most

DEVELOPMENT

After a successful round of idea generating, I took to developing the first 2 that i thought worked the best:

caught orange handed

Rupert & donny

now finished with a refined set of 2 images, I took them to the digital workspace to give them a brief splash of colour and see how they looked on a page

I initially tried this method of colour- with flat tones, but was unhappy as it didn't reflect the tone I wanted the image to have. So i tried using some softer brushes that emulated a more watery effect.

frist set

the result draws closer...

Reflecting on my first set of drawings, I knew that I could develop them further, however I didnt want to do so until I tried fleshing out a few different ideas. The first I tried was going back to the idea of "The emperor's new clothes"

my lovely old boss

As an ex-emploeyee of Sky, it was truly difficult to draw my old boss in such a sinister light, After all, working there, I found that behind all that sinister, corrupted, immoral Australian flab, there was surprisingly, in fact, a really rich man who paid my bills.

Thinking of you Rupie! hope you sleep well knowing it's your money thats paying for these drawings xoxo

A familiar face

After developing the earleir ideas, I went to fleshing out my earlier concepts more. I took the approach of "less is more", as suggested in feedback, and discovered, sometimes one head is better than two?

Sharpening knives

Then revisiting my trump and Murdoch piece, in response to feedback I made some subtle changes.

Spot the difference!

Silly mistake

At thsi stage, I did as any good illustrator should, and re-read the brief, only to find I had got the dimensions the wrong way round, and my piece was actually now landscape.
I cropped the image, and while it still kind of worked, it could no longer be left as it was.