Ann Marie Perez

Here are some videos of me flipping through my sketchbooks, I wanted to include these to showcase any missing pages that weren't featured on my blog as my sketchbook is a really important aspect of my process. As I stated at the start of this blog, my sketchbook acts as a nature journal for me to document my observations which I can later go home and work into finalised pieces of work. I have found this process to work really well for me and can confidently say that this has helped me thoroughly develop my working method into something that allows me to produce refined works. Developing this working methodology has also enabled me to  cement the connections between observation and artwork, which is what I set out to refine.  

 A competition has just been launched by the publishing ground Jehane that I am going to be taking part in along side applying my portfolio to various other industry awards and competitions such as the AO1 World illustration awards. I have included a screen shot of he briefs details however, it essentially involves creating a piece that is made using black and white line art to be published in a colouring book to help raise awareness of endangered marine life and the environmental struggles are oceans are facing. Although the brief was only launched today, I have already began to make a start on some rough sketches to get down my ideas. This brief is very relevant to my authorship topic and I want to ensure my entry reflects the work and ideas presented in my CP3 and Authorship units. I will be continuing to work on this brief and other competitions into Unit X.

 These poster/ print mock ups were edited and digitally collaged on photoshop. I wanted to create various different versions with subtle changes to the composition to demonstrate a variety of designs based on my final idea for the piece. Although it is not visible on the blog, this version has a small white area around the image to act as a boarder. I think that this would look really nice as a printed poster as the image doesn't go all the way to the edges. I personally prefer it when prints are formatted like this. This piece also features text to demonstrate my ability to consider text as a part of the final design and to suggest how I would incorporate it. Although subtly noticeable, the background to all of these images is a painted background I made and digitally edited to change the colour to a light green as I didn't want it to be just block white.

Below are some example mock ups I made to demonstrate how my work would appear on a book cover jacket. The two illustrations where selected from my portfolio and I feel that they appropriately fit the covers.

These are the two final versions of the collages after I edited them on photoshop.  The first version is the original collage with the background and foreground layers digitally separated which took quite a long time but made it easier to further edit in the long run. I was then able to edit the background separately and turn down the opacity to make it less clear. This trucks the eye into seeing the background as being pushed back into the scene. I think that this version works a lot better than its original counterpart as more depth and distance was achieved. Now that I have this digital skill in my repertoire, I will now be able to appalment the same process again in future projects.  The second version was digitally enhanced on photoshop by toggling with the levels and curves feature that the software offers. I like the slightly moodier atmosphere created in this version and this really changes the tonality of the work.

 Here are some shots of the development of my collage: I later decided to change the design of this log as It looked a little too bulky with that front section. I instead opted for a more smooth shape that fit in better compositionally within the image. Now I am starting to built up the shapes of the mushrooms. So far I am really liking how varied the shapes are and I feel this is really communicating the variety of species that can be found in the forest during the mushroom season. I am also being careful of where I place each of the different colours so ensure that the piece feels balanced. For example, the lighter cream tones are spread out rather than all clumped together in one area of the piece. This aspect of the design is always something I am very aware of and like to take into consideration to ensure the piece is exciting and busy.  Here is a better view of the paper I created to make the mushrooms with. For the red toadstools, I used masking fluid to block of the ar...

 Below is The background made for my collage. I decided that I wanted the background to be painted as this is the method that works best for me like in the outcome for the listening project. In hindsight, think that the background might need to be slightly lighter to show that it has depth and distance from the collaged pieces in the foreground. However something like this can be easily rectified on photoshop - especially as I have now practices and developed my skills with the software. I have planned to do a few versions of this piece. Here are some additional textures I made for this piece as I realised I needed some more brown tones to have enough for all of the the trees and mushrooms. Further sketchbook planning and finalising my design. Recent collage experiments that are unrelated and my mock-ups flattened to demonstrate how the design and composition will translate to a 2D image.

These are some images from my 3d mock up of the forest collage with all of the mushrooms. I decided to do this as this approach mocking up the final art work was very successful in the listening project. This again this allowed me to imagine the collage as if it were slip into different layers like a pop up book or a theatre stage. Doing this gives me a better idea of the final overall composition and layout of the piece and how well each layer will interact with pone another and make dynamic use of the space.

This image is an edited version of my collaged fieldfare. I ended it digitally on photoshop to lower the green line that used to be higher above the birds head. Compositionally this works better in making the bird stand out an bringing the piece together as part of the tail is sticking out of the collaged background too.

This was a small experiment I did this afternoon where I developed on of my drawings in a needle felted scene. Crafts make up a large park of my practice and I would consider myself more of a general maker than an illustrator as the things that I put together - mostly chopped up bits of paper and glue - become the illustration. Here I wanted to demonstrate my ability to be experimental within my practice and play around with another form of image making.  

 Below are some pages from my sketchbook that I liked. I like these pages as they act as my own nature journal where I can make note of my observations.

 Today I attended another photoshop session with Maisy where we went over any loose ends from last weeks session. during the session, she taught me how to change colours in photoshop which I did to alter the colour of this collage to make it look like the sky was in the background. I did a couple of versions, one with a cool toned blue and one with a warm toned blue. I personally thing that the above image looks better as it is softer and leans into the gentle pallet created into the rest of the collage. I also decided to keep the texture that was created on the paper of this section even though it was previously soil. I chose to do this because I felt that it gave a nice effect of clouds in the sky.

For all of my collage works, I really enjoy making my own patterned paper to cut out from. I utilise a variety of techniques and materials to get different colours and textures. I like how varied the textures can get as it works well when creating busy scenes within nature. These papers that are shown below are going to be under within my forest collage that I have planned. In the image at the bottom, I demonstrate how I achieve some of the marks with different found objects or brushes. Working this was is rewarding as I enjoy being creative and experimental.  

 Here is a plan for a 3D piece that I wanted to create that feels similar to the listening project piece I created where you could peer into the piece and see different layers to the drawing. Under the plan are some photos I took of the final version.