Bugs and Birds
The third problem in d/i 2 was similar to the second except this time our subject matter was a bug and a bird. We got to choose the bug and bird, but we were required to do a little research and bring in examples of images that we found in books from outside sources.
We were allowed to use pretty much any technique that we could think up for this project when it came time to put the illustrations together. There had to be two illustrations again. One of the illustrations had to be an 8 x 8 square and the other one had to be a 7 x 11 rectangle. We were encouraged to show the bird and bug that we chose in their natural habitats and choose color triads such as: red, blue, and yellow, or orange, green, and purple ranging in all values for the final product.
Since I found out that I had a hard time working with paints and drawing in this class from the last assignment, I decided to try a different approach. I knew that I wanted to try a collage for this one, but I didn’t know how yet. I also didn’t have a clue about what kind of bird or bug I wanted to do.
I thought about owls for the bird, and some kind of moth or butterfly for the bug. I went back and forth for days thinking about what I wanted to do, looking at what my classmates were doing, and putting off going to the library to get some books on bugs and birds. In class, we were supposed to look at the work of several well known illustrators such as Eric Carl (the guy who made the famous caterpillar children’s books) and kind get inspired by their approach to illustration.
Subconsciously I think I was still hung up on the grid thing so I was immediately attracted to this one illustrator’s work (whose name has slipped my mind) who seemed to use simple shapes on a grid to make fantastic images. Once I sat down with my professor and discussed some of his work and then finally went to the library to get some books on bugs and birds, I started making some illustrations.
Composition has always been this mysterious lofty entity that I am having a hard time wrapping my head around. It seems like it’s full of rules that contradict themselves and some things working in some subjects but not in others. It’s always an uphill batter for me when it comes to making compositions. Here are my first attempts with the 7 x 11 board. One was with this random unidentified bird from my head and the other with a great horned owl, which I ended up settling with.
My first attempts of putting together illustrations were so sad. I wasn’t really inspired at the time and I think they turned out looking like bad episodes of early South Park:
I was really frustrated at this point in the project. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do. I didn’t know how I was going to make my color triads work and I wasn’t so sure about the owl or what kind of moth I would be using…
Time was running out though and it was time for me to make a decision. I ended up going with the owl, but I ditched the original composition that I came up with and after a few more Google searches I found this beautiful moth:
It’s called the Rothchillde or something like that. On second thought, I don’t think that’s what it’s called it’s just the family of moths that it’s from… But I know it’s from Costa Rica and it looks like it would scream bloody murder if you stepped on it… Probably has a face like those bugs in Silent Hill…
Either way, I found this bug and I liked the colors (primary color triad: red, blue, and yellow booyah) and decided to make an illustration of one.
I was really fed up with the cutting out scraps of paper, but I did want to make a collage and I liked grids. So I drew up a grid in Illustrator and printed a few out to make my illustrations on:
Hexagons are everywhere in design. People seem to use them when they want something to look cool, cutting edge and techy. Usually I just end up seeing a bee hive. But since I was using it only as a grid, I didn’t think I would run into that problem.
The problem I did run into was sore and sticky fingers. What I ended up doing was taking sheets of different colored construction paper and making all sorts of patterns on them with different colored acrylic paints. Then I cut out one triangle unit from the grid as a template (which was about as big as the end of my index finger) and proceeded to cut out little triangles of pattern filled construction paper one by one with an exacto blade. It was the most tedious thing I had done in illustration, but I was actually proud of my results this time:
I didn’t get a grade that was as high as I would have like because I put so much time and effort into these things, but the reasons I got the grades I did was because of a lack of interesting composition in the bug one, and not enough really happening in the bird one. I can see that now and will remember that good illustration isn’t simply an interesting technique.
