Tote bag print

Today I am on photoshop again trying to create a print to go on the tote bag that will hold the sketchbooks. I've played about with one so far but obviously I want to try and come up with a few to give myself some options. 

After placing my imagery onto the canvas I started to play about with the hue and saturation levels and they look pretty jazzy. 

Today I am...

Today's agenda is to real work digitally with my illustrations as its way overdue. I want to have my front and back covers sorted and done ready to be printed in textiles when I get back after christmas as that is what I want to leave myself to do in the week we have when we get back. I will have everything I need to make the book and will work on this then. but for now I'm just going to play about with layouts and such while I have the use of photoshop and the tablet.

I've been trying out different background tonal colours as well and they look pretty cool :) 

I've also played about with layering up the leaves over the bugs and it's made it all come together really well. 

Photoshop

Today I have finally started the long process of making my book... I have, what I think at the minute is the background imagery for the outside covers which consists of layered up leaves. the effect is actually quite cool and has turned out better than I expected.  After converting to CMYK colour it was easy enough to begin copying the layers and placing them on and under each other. 

I then went onto adjust the levels to brighten it but will probably revise this at a later date asI do not want to overpower the beetles. 

A post to help me figure stuff out in my head

As it stands I have very little time remaining to complete just one book,  let alone the six I had originally planned on. I suppose It's good I started with big ideas as I now have a very good foundation to take this idea through as my minor project. 

I feel I want to create just one REALLY good product for this hand in and then just build it up and up until the actual open call. This new time frame will allow me to create a bulk of products and will allow me to focus on this idea for a longer period of time. I want to sort the branding out a little bit before the hand in to give an idea of what style I am going for. 

So... yeah, One book for hand in but after that I will basically take over the world of children's sketchbooks. 

Lino and progression

Although not completely sure whether or not I will actually be using these lino cuts I thought it would be a interesting route to go down even in terms of textures. Regardless of the fact I might not use the full cut I may still employ this method to add even more of a textural quality to my work. I have also been thinking that I may have set myself  bit too much of  mammoth task in terms of I really do not have the time or money to produce over five sketchbooks before the deadline date. therefore I have been thinking more and more about taking this through to my minor project next year. 

I also went out and collected some leaves, as I have decided I will be having a layered up leaf background ( slightly muted colours) with my insect illustrations layered over the top as I feel it will give the product an interesting look.