REALISATION: Blog entry 14

REALISATION: Blog entry 13 

Today I went to the garden centre to have a look at some of the bird feeders and packaging;

While at the garden centre, I found some recyclable feeders! and this has given me an idea, to do all the packaging for a range of recyclable, customisable bird feeders and seeds (for the urban sparrows). This is something that parents can do with their kids (customising) each pack can have information on how this attracts birds and helps the conservation effort...I think this is a really cool idea, but I need to do more research into recyclable/DIY bird feeders and houses/nest boxes.

 This is just a simple box and string, complete with food - made from recycled materials, can be used again, it's cheap. Would be really easy to make some of these, possibly using my  pattern on the feeder as well as the packaging?

 I also found this! I think this is brilliant! Its, cheap and simple, and uses recycled plastic bottles, they can be customised...I think a range of products like this, and some others (possibly 3 or 5?) could be a good out come to have for this project - or at least one aspect of it.

I think the project will split in to 2 parts - house sparrows and tree sparrows; urban and rural, the two RSPB projects (project house sparrow, and the friendly farming initiative) each will have its own set of things. the recyclable feeders will be for the urban sparrows, targeted at adults and their children in cities to try and persuade them to create a better habitat for house sparrows.

I bought one of these feeders to get a better look and try it out for myself (now I'm wishing I had also bought on of the box feeders too, maybe I'll go back tomorrow and get one..will possibly buy a couple of things from amazon later..)

Any way, I bought one for myself, and just fannied around drawing on the bottle just as a little experiment.

So! To do now;

-continue experimenting - pattern, textures, etc.

-research diy/recyclable bird feeders

-research product design (get some books from the library)

I also have to finish the first draft of my PPF by the end of the week.

REALISATION: Blog entry 12

CONCEPT PANEL - notes

• Visual communication - what message are you projecting??
• What am I doing as an illustrator?
• Market research? RSPB visitor statistics?? - look into this
• Think more about your methodology - criteria to follow
• More research into sparrow symbology/history/folktale? - do this this week
• Photographs - natural textures, pattern, camouflage; research and experiment
• Plan my time more - make a calendar/schedule
• Audience - aim at parents to reach children??
• get in touch with the RSPB for more information (e-mail addresses on website!)
• Branding...will I have a logo? RSPB logo?
• Leaflets for campaigns?
• Project out into the real world - testing!?
• Circles - natural form; reasearch/experiment with
• Build up more work, more experimentation
• RSPB news article; critisim for how they spend their money (find this!)
• Flocks/flight pattern/migration - research and integrate into experimentations!
• resesons for red list status - how the everyday person has made an impact, and how to stop this - may have more of an effect on the audience? - research this!
• Balcony gardens - city centre (give nature a home spin off...)

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Concept panel went so much better than I expected today, and it's given me the boost I needed to get going with my work again! I have so many little things to experiment with and ideas to get down. I think tomorrow and possibly the day after will be a day of hand generated experiments and sketchbook scribbling at home, also possibly some research and blogging. I also have to get the first draft of my PPF to Tim by the end of the week, so I can do that Thursday, and maybe Friday. Looking forward to getting back into this, and getting it done!

REALISATION: Blog entry 11

Tutorial:

- Pattern by Mel Buchanan

Pattern by Mel Buchanan - Pinterest

This pattern make a pattern out of pattern, goes with some of the things that I have already covered. can use images of patterns of sparrow/the city/ farmland, to create a larger pattern using the shapes of the birds...

- Camouflage! Do more research into this

Natural pattern, colours, domestic/urban setting

- Route of the words? Symbolism? sparrow research

- Focus in on the sparrow. There are two types of this common bird - one urban, one rural, work on just this

- Project no Longer fits all of the red list, just focusing on the conservation on the sparrow

- More on William Morris!

- Craft!

-Agrarian Society...

- Adapting to environment

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After my tutorial, I went back to Pinterest to look some things up and ended up adding more to my boards, looking for ideas..

Pinterest Board

Pinterest Board

Image found on Pinterest

I also found this on Pinterest - this is what I need to be aiming for with my work. It looks so much cleaner and better than mine, but very similar. I need to work more on this way of working, and refine it! Get it up to this standard. This has also helped me answer the question of eyes and legs! (something which I have had difficulty trying to make look right..

Also, breifly started looking into camouflage, found a couple of really cool boards..

Pinterest

I also remembered the hunting camouflage pattern (it's on some of the clothing we have at work) here's a couple of examples from google..

This has got me thinking if/how I could possible create something similar themes around the city/urban sparrows..? Possibly working into a pattern similar to the one at the top by Mel Buchanan...?

REALISATION: Blog entry 10

I've been struggling lately to make work, and to make work at all that I don't hate - today I did some stuff that I don't think is completely horrible...

Sketchbook experiment

This first one, I took inspiration from Hella Jongerious' work (Blog entry 4). I didnt like it when I first did it, but now it's growing on me slightly. I think this might work out better if I tried it in photoshop, Im sure, but while I'm experimenting, it might be worth a shot.

Sketchbook experiment

I also tried other ways to incorporate a more fitting pattern into my image..

Sketchbook experiment

These seemed to work quite well, so took it to photoshop to start playing with it there. this is ok..I kind of like the water colour ones better, but it was only my first attempt. I'm also not sure how well this shows that it is a sparrow...with my other older stuff it was easily identifiable (that was the point). I also need to think about how this could work with capercaillie....

Photoshop experiment

I also managed to get little bits of my PPF done; I wanted to get started on this as I think it will help me get my concept pane power point together a little better. It's hard going though, I'm in such a slump with my work, I don't feel like I've made any progress the past few weeks. I have a tutorial Monday, and with how far I've come I'm not sure it's exactly going to be any more help. I have no time next week to do much of anything with my work either, so I need to get the worst of it out of the way this week. Tomorrow I really need to focus on getting my concept panel stuff out of the way and done...

REALISATION: Blog entry 9

Experimentation - Capercaillie

Add captionExperimentation - Capercaillie

Experimentation - Capercaillie

Experimentation - Capercaillie

Experimentation - Capercaillie

Experimentation - Capercaillie

Experimentation - Capercaillie

This is just some brief continuation of my experimentation with this idea. For this one I've been thinking more along the lines of a logo (although this would be something that is also part of the main pattern). I think these work better than those of the sparrows, but mainly because the capercaillie has a more recognisable shape. 

There is still a lot more to experiment with with this idea;

-full pattern overlay

-emulsion printed backgrounds

-other types of printed backgrounds

-working into photos by hand (? sewing, painting, drawing)

-different variations of image

I also still want to continue to experiment with how simple my designs are going to be, and I need to work on refining the birds them selves too.