Final Poster

This is my final poster, which has taken on the criticisms I received from crit.

Online Exhibition Piece

The piece I have done for the online exhibition is pretty much the same as my poster, however I have proposed some interactive elements for it. I have also changed it from portrait to landscape and made it more like a timeline, so it would fit better on a web browser. The interactive parts would be to click on each artist to bring up a window which gives more information.

History of XL Poster, in more of a timeline form than my poster.

When clicking on an artist, it brings up an info screen about the XL event, as well as a profile of the artist.

Crit Feedback

 

This was the first version of my poster, which I showed at crit. The style I used for this poster was similar to that of Ralph Steadman and Jim Shaw, using a sketchy style making it look like it was drawn on paper. 

The feedback I got was mostly positive, praising my drawing style used n the picture, and like the was the poster was laid out. Main criticisms of this poster was that the lines are not clear enough, it is a family tree or a time line? More details in general should be added to the poster, such as making the artists stand out of the poster more. There should also be more artists added to the poster, showing the whole history of XL recordings. The XL Recordings text is also unnecessary, and a suggestions given would be putting the XL logo in the bottom-right of the poster.

Photoshop Drawing Techniques

For all of my drawings I used the same technique, which involved using a sketchy, blod outlined style like that of artists I looked at.

I would start by drawing the outline, whilst looking at the reference picture. I would shade parts of the outline to add more depth to the outline and the picture overall. The brush used for the outlines it a thin, pen brush at around 50% opacity.

My shading was done with a completely different brush, and the shading style I have gone for is a light sketchy style to make it look like it was shaded with a pencil. The brush is one of Photoshop's default, which is like a paintbrush-like, but gives a sketch-like effect when set at a low opacity.

The background is done in the same style as the colouring of the main image. I used this colour as it was the background colour of the album which the original image was from.

Illustrators - Ronald Searle

Ronal Searle is another cartoonist, similar to Jim Shaw. Again, this is another artist that uses a lot of bold, black lines in their artwork, and this work in particular show it to good effect. As seen by these pictures, his art is very cartoonish, which is not the style I am using for my pictures, but the colouring style itself is like the one I want to use in my own pictures, whilst adding a bit of colour to my pieces.

Illustrators - Jim Shaw

Jim Shaw's art is mostly a black/white style like Ralph Steadman, but his art style differs as it is more realistic than cartoon-like. Much of his art is done on different surfaces than just paper, for example he has done many art pieces on walls.

Illustrators - Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman is a cartoonist, whose art can be described as "distorted, splattered, and gritty". The main thing I like about his art style is the used of black and white, where he uses a lot of the black outlining as shading, whilst adding some colours. These pictures in particular have a papery background, adding to the gritty nature of his drawings. When drawing my picture, I shall try using bold outlines and a gritty, sketch-like style.

Timeline of XL Events

I have looked up the dates for each of the events listed on the brief, and listed them chronologically for reference.

1990 - XL The First Chapter rave compilation is first album release on XL. 
1992 - 10,000 ravers still make it through to XL’s Popham Airport rave, despite police attempts to roadblock the event. Prodigy and SL2 headline.  
1997 - Banned Smack My Bitch Up discussed during Prime Minister’s Question Time.

2000 - Fuck The Pain Away by Peaches becomes a defining track of Berlin’s burgeoning electronic music / arts scene later dubbed ‘Electroclash’. 

2003 - Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner wins Mercury Music Prize. 

2003 - A mysterious John S. O’Leary pops up to sing the chorus on Electric Six’s disco flavoured smash hit Danger! High Voltage. 

2005 - The White Stripes play the Amazon Theatre in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon. 

2006 - Richard Russell and Joby Talbot produced avant garde orchestral Aluminium album pays tribute to the White Stripes, and is turned into Chroma, a ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House in London. 
2006 - Vampire Weekend come third out of four at Columbia University Battle of
the Bands, their first ever gig.

2007 - Radiohead In Rainbows pay-what-you- want release direct from the band.
2008 - As an escape from the music industry’s long lead times The Raconteurs release their second album Consolers Of The Lonely within a month of announcing it.

2009 - M.I.A. performs at Grammy Awards while nine months pregnant.

2009 - XL Recordings wins Music Week Best Independent Label Award. 
2011 - Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.

2011 - Drake samples the Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx song Take Care

2011 - Tyler, the Creator performs at MTV’s VMAs and wins Best New Artist award. 

2011 - Gil Scott-Heron passes away.
2012 - Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The Universe wins Best Album at the 2012 Q Awards.

2013 -  Adele Skyfall wins Oscar.

Looking at Rock Family Trees

I have been looking at the style of Rock Family Trees, which is a book originally created by Pete Frame. I have been looking at these because I have been thinking of making a poster that incorporates many artists of XL Recordings, and putting them in the style of a family tree or time line would work well for this.
 
Looking at the way these family trees are constructed, they are completely based are around text, and he uses different typographic styles to give the family trees n artistic style, rather than just being information on a page. They are set out in a way that the there is no leftover space left on the page, filling it up with his own stylised text and adding informative text to some of these family trees.

Changing Concept

After getting feedback from my concept arlier in the week, I have decided to change my idea as I wasn't too happy with how my mock up posters came out, and my teacher felt that it wasn't stong enough as a concept yet.
I have decided to change my idea to incorporate all of XL Recordings' history, rather than just focus on a single XL artist.
Ways in which this can be done could be like a family tree, or a timeline of the events.

Poster Compositions

These are two poster compositions I cam up with which didn't invole The Beatles posters, but rather focused on the "old and new" theme that I have come up with. The first poster brings together the art style of Sandra Suy, and mixes it with the art style of the 1960's psychedelic posters. The second poster is a contrast of colours; using the monochrome style of her album covers with the colourfulness of the old 60s art.

Planning PDF

Here are some screenshots of the PDF showing my planning and thought processes that I made for the planning deadline for the project.

Initial Sketches

I have drawn some pictures of Adele so I can compose my images digitally, and also sketched up some compositions ideas.

These two sketches are compositions that mix The Beatles's covers with Adele's. The first sketch is Adele's 19 cover mixed with With the Beatles and the second is the With the Beatles cover with Adele's portrait on it.

 

This composition uses the image of Adele singing, and the lines coming from Adele is the style of the 60s posters. The poster mixes the art styles of a modern artist and the psychedelic posters from the 60s.

1960s Psychedelic Posters

After choosing my theme of 60s meeting the present, I have looked at music posters from the decade. They are an iconic part of the 60s art movements, and would work well with the XL Recordings brief as they are related to music. As I like using colour in my artwork, the use of colour in these posters is inspiring for my illustrations.

Looking for Inspiration - Various Artists

As I am struggling to find inspiration for my ideas, I have looked up various artists and found work that I like, and I will use when experimenting with my posters.

This is some of Sandra Suy's artwork. The style used on the models is simplistic, and is contrasted by the colours used on the clothing. I like this style as it mixes realism with hand-drawn, and the contrast in the beige background and the bold colours used on the clothes works well.

Steve Simpson's artwork also uses a lot of colour, and her uses a cortoon-esque drawing style on his characters to make his pictures look unique. His work also uses a lot of typography, which he uses to good effect.

I looked at Julie Dillon's work because the subject matter of her art interested me, as well as the way she drew her pieces. She uses a lot of bright colours in the backgrounds of her pictures, which contrasts with the realistic style used on the characters.

The Beatles Ablum Covers

These are the two Beatles covers that were in the Top 5 simultaneously in the 1960s. They were "With the Beatles" and "Please Please Me". It could incorporate these into my composition, along with Adele's covers, especially sing the "With The Beatles" cover has very similar lighting techniques to Adele's album covers. Adele also had a monochrome album cover, so I could make a composition combining the two.

Details on Adele's Ablum and Single Success

"Adele has become the first artist since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums in the charts at the same time. Buoyed by her rendition at last week's Brit awards, the singer's newest single, Someone Like You, jumped 46 spots to become her first No 1 hit. That song joins Rolling in the Deep, which sits at No 4; on the album charts, Adele's first two LPs – 21 and 19 – are also at No 1 and No 4 respectively.
The last time an artist had top five hits on both charts, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was prime minister. It was January 1964: Britain and America were in the throes of Beatlemania, with I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You filling the airwaves while the albums With the Beatles and Please Please Me flew off the shelves."
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/22/adele-matches-beatles-chart-success

Looking at Adele's Album Covers

For my research, I have looked at Adele's two album covers that were in the Top 5. They are both similar in design, , using a dark background and focusing on the face of Adele. They also both share similar lighting techniques, which uses a large contrast between dark and light.

Initial Ideas

For my poster, I have decided to use the event "Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.", as I have came up with the idea of mixing the past with the present, or to mix Adele's and The Beatle's album covers together to make a poster composition.

For mixing old and new, I was thinking of looking at artists movements from the era and looking at some artists from today that I like the art style of and mixing them into one composition.

Brief

The D&AD Brief I am looking at specifically is the XL Recordings brief, where the task is to illustrate an A1 poster around an XL artist.

"Illustrate a significant event, or series of events, from the history of XL Recordings, from the selection below:
Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner wins Mercury Music Prize.  
M.I.A. performs at Grammy Award while nine months pregnant.
XL Recordings wins Music Week Best Independent Label Award.
Adele Skyfall wins Oscar.
Drake samples the Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx song Take Care.
Radiohead In Rainbows pay-what-you-want release direct from the band.
The White Stripes play the Amazon Theatre in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon.
As an escape from the music industry’s long lead times The Raconteurs release their second album Consolers Of The Lonely within a month of announcing it.
10,000 ravers still make it through to XL’s Popham Airport rave, despite police attempts to roadblock the event. Prodigy and SL2 headline.
Adele becomes the first artist since The Beatles to simultaneously have two albums in the Top 5 and two Top 5 singles.
Richard Russell and Joby Talbot produced avant garde orchestral Aluminium album pays tribute to the White Stripes, and is turned into Chroma, a ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House in London.
Tyler, the Creator performs at MTV’s VMAs and wins Best New Artist award.
A mysterious John S. O’Leary pops up to sing the chorus on Electric Six’s disco flavoured smash hit Danger! High Voltage.
Fuck The Pain Away by Peaches becomes a defining track of Berlin’s burgeoning electronic music / arts scene later dubbed ‘Electroclash’.
Richard Russell and Nick Halkes’ Kicks Like A Mule rave outfit release The Bouncer via Tribal Bass Records.
XL The First Chapter rave compilation is first album release on XL.
Gil Scott-Heron passes away.
Banned Smack My Bitch Up discussed during Prime Minister’s Question Time.
Vampire Weekend come third out of four at Columbia University Battle of the Bands, their first ever gig.
Bobby Womack The Bravest Man In The Universe wins Best Album at the 2012 Q Awards. 


Celebrate the artist and highlight their seminal moment(s) in a way that engages and communicates to your audience.


Consider the broad context in which illustration operates in the 21st Century.

TARGET AUDIENCE: Music lovers.

MANDATORIES
An ‘illustration’ for one A1 poster. One ‘illustration’ for an online
exhibition. The spec for this is open – it could be static or moving and the size, etc. is up to you.
Document and show your research and how you developed your ideas."