Tsimp's Blog

Hello I'm Tom Simper, I'm an aspiring graphic designer and this blog is where I am going to display some of my work and thoughts about it.


I have noticed that stars in the media all seem to be making the same hand gestures covering one eye. To illustrate this I have compiled many images of celebs doing these signs and have created a design based around it. I have created two designs focussing on the eye as this seems to be the focal point of the stars in the 'industry'.

I used photoshop to create this image by drawing the outline of an eye on top of the celebs and manipulating the hues and shades until the eye was just visible through the images.

I used a similar technique with this image but I didn't crop around the eye, and I used a lighting effect  to create glare on the eye.

I have recently been experimenting with different printing techniques such as: Lino cutting and Mono printing. This inspired me to create a poster combining the techniques. The theme of my poster is the control that the music industry has over it's artists. I created Lino stamps of controlling hands and an all seeing eye to represent the controller, with Monarch butterflies and puppet strings showing the control placed upon the artist. I took a Mono print of Jessie J because she is an artist controlled by the music industry which is reflected in her lyrics and music video's.

I wanted to combine my new techniques with my current practice which utilises photoshop  so I scanned in my image. I then meticulously outlined the different elements in the picture, adding colour, creating shadows and shading and finally adding effects too bring it to life.

This image depicts Lady Ga-Ga being programmed by her handler which in this case is Joseph her dad. The leopard print clothes and ears represents the sex kitten programming, which is reflected in her music which is usually about sex. This influences her young and impressionable audience. The computer she is connected too is programming her and is making her into the already controlled artists that you see on the screensaver. I created this poster mainly from prints which I scanned in and edited using photoshop. The only imported image are the photographs in the back ground which have also been edited such as the cracking around Ga-Ga 's eye.

Skulls and Bones

During some of the life drawing sessions, I drew a skeleton and a skull. The skeleton is that of a human and allows me to study the body as a bone structure. The deer like skull intrigued me with its elaborate horns.

I started off by drawing the skulls shape and adding shading  by smudging certain areas with my finger. I then drew in the horns but with a grainy pattern on to show the texture of them. I smudged the horns to create shading in the same way. I wanted to add some colour to this design but just a little so I dropped some red ink onto the eye until it dripped slowly down creating a nice blood effect as if its bleeding from the eye.

I created this picture of a skeleton using pencil. I was focussing closely at the structure of the skeleton so that I got all of the bones in proportion and in order. I shone a bright light onto the side of the skeleton to bring out the darker areas of bone which I shaded with my finger to make it look more three dimensional and realistic.

Adventures of Worm - Childrens Storybook

I thought it would be fun to create a children's story book that would combine cartoon characters in a real life environment. Kinda like a live action/animation hybrid but in a book form.

Happy Tree Friends

I was inspired by the characters of the cartoon happy tree friends. HTF is a is a cartoon series that can be viewed on the internet. It was created by Mondo mini shows, and developed by Aubrey Ankrum.

I wanted to try to re-create some of the characters using different material to see which technique I would use in my book. 

I used coloured pencils to create this drawing

I used paint to create this image

The best technique was using computer software to edit an outline I drew on paper. 

Characters

I started to create my own characters a cat, dog, mouse, bird and worm:

Worm

Perry the parrot

Marcus the mouse

Buster the dog

Holly the cat

These are the characters I have decided to use in my story. I now have to create the environment for my story so I am going to take pictures on a camera:

For my first scene I am going to simulate Worm in his home. To re-create a worm in it's natural environment I dug a hole in my back garden, I then took a picture of the hole. The picture  I took has roots growing in the top left hand corner which looks as if there is a plant growing above it, which re-enforces the effect that Worm is underground.

A small mound of soil simulates Worm burrowing to the surface to meet Holly.

They will walk down this road.

They come across Marcus who has his tail caught in a mousetrap.

Worm will free Marcus and they head off to the beach together.

They arrive at the beach and start playing with a ball.

Still playing...

Still playing...

Ball goes in the water.

Worm swims out to retrieve but gets captured by Perry.

Perry flies off with Worm.

Marcus and Holly follow Perry back down the path.

They find Perry's nest.

Buster comes out of his house.

Holly and Marcus get rid of Buster.

They rescue Worm from the nest.

Now I have taken the pictures for the background I am going to  add in the cartoon characters. To make them more realistic to the environment I am going to create shadows and reflections to give the characters a sense of depth in their environment and to make it look as if they are actually in the scene. I mounted them onto a background and wrote a rhyming storyline to accompany it.

This is my final version of my storybook. I used Photoshop and illustrator to design and make it.