The Initial Research

Whilst considering ‘The Coast’ my initial ideas included themes of food, the sea and fairgrounds. I began my research by looking into Allan Deas, Emily Hamilton and Charlotte  Farmer all of which had a connection to the themes I was interested in. 

I was especially intrigued by the use of materials Emily Hamilton used in her work and immediately I started recreating some of her illustrations. The work included either watercolor or acrylic background with the use of acetate and pen for the clean finish foreground. I felt that I could develop this into stitch too. To create the watercolor background in the digitally composed image I scanned a watercolored piece of card and dropped it into the background of a PGN file I had drawn on illustrator. Emily Hamilton has a unique illustrative approach to her work which is why I continued this hand drawn illustrative style into the digital version I made. My digital and hand made samples are shown below.

Allan Deas focused widely on fairground illustration. The contrast between Emily Hamilton and Allan Deas is shown through the difference of colour palettes. Allan Deas’ work is precise with the digital vectors. I wanted to push my digital illustration into a piece of work which showed the technical ability and understanding of the colour Allan Deas used. I feel i achieved this after recreating the illustration below. The colour drop technique linked well to Allan Deas work; colour drop allows for a neat, digital image to be created from a hand made starting point. I used acetate like Emily Hamilton to then scan and colour drop appropriate colours. 

Charlotte Farmer creates food illustrations, which is a sub-theme that I feel has a lot of potential fo development within the coast topic. Whilst continuing my digital illustration I also developed my hand made illustrations as I feel they can sometimes determine my digital work whilst being just as successful. Looking at Charlotte Farmers illustrations I decided to make my own through the use of calico, netting and coloured stitch. These bright colour pallets were the key to the individual quality of each sweet. My digital sweets were created with inspiration from Charlotte farmer using Adobe Illustrator. I was pleased with these and I will be sure to extend this further on in the project. 

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