On the 9th Day...

you guessed it.... 9 ladies dancing !

On the 8th day...

8 maids are milking !!

Here are two robins i did today too,out of christmas spirit !

On the seventh day of christmas...

my true love gave to me...  7 swans are swimming !

On the sixth day of christmas ...

my true love gave to me ... 6 geese a laying!

Just a quick winter birthday card!!

Its my best friend's birthday today! Both him and myself are winter babies, and even more so for him as he is a December baby! Just recently ive been doing these styles of illustrations for the twelve days of christmas, so i thought i would do a special image dedicated to him for today! It wasnt meant to be so festive, but all the influences at this time of year and working on this kind of project really gets to you at the end of the day!
My friend means so much to me, its the least i could do for all the awesomeness that he gives me year in and year out!
Happy Birthday !

:)

on the fith day of christmas.....

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

... my true love gave to me ...  four calling birds ! 

On the third day of christmas....

My true love gave to me ... ! 3 french Hens....

Although in my opinion this is not the strongest of the 3 so far, I believe that the colours worked well together and they certainly do look french!

On the second day of christmas.....

my true love gave to me.... Two turtle doves!!! illustration number 2 !

The Twelve Days Of Christmas

Im working on the English Carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" .. to do one illustration per day for one of the each gifts given on each day of christmas..
Here is todays ... A partridge in a Pear Tree !

Hi ,

“The fundamental opposition in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is not between madness and sanity but between being trapped and free”

I would just like to know what your ideas of freedom and being trapped would be ?

These answers can be approached in anyway that you would like, silly, sensible, or fun.

I will be illustrating a series of concepts based on these ideas.

Thank you for your time and for doing this if you choose to .

Anna Brown

A.E.Brown-09@student.lboro.ac.uk

Faces for cuckoos nest. Abstractions

3rd November
This idea is based on pill capsules and the patients that were taking them, some didn't know what they were for.

This is based on one of my sketches... but developed into an abstraction with colour.

One flew over the cuckoo's nest competition , sketches

I've just uploaded some sketches for this book cover comp. " one flew over the cuckoos nest"

I am doing this as my first design brief of this semester and this shall also feed into my next project too... dealing with the concepts of being trapped and free, or sane or insane .

In my sketches...

(cuckoo represents the insanity and the wrong that shouldnt be there.. the cogs obviously meaning the workings of the brain etc... and also representing the factory/machine like descriptions that the book refers to. Nurse ratched trying to correct them like they are products in a factory line. Obviously with some patients treatments like electroshock therapy and lobotomy are used and break them rather than curing ) 

"Tribal pride"

This is something I didnt expect to work at all. i started making block colours, then working gradually up in layers and I didnt use any lines to start off with, no mapping out like i usually do , so that I could be more abstract. this is what it turned out into being . I also cropped versions for wallpapers so you can see the face better. will upload these to drafts .This is something i didnt expect to work at all. I started making block colours, then working gradually up in layers and i didnt use any lines to start off with, no mapping out like I usually do , so that I could be more abstract. this is what it turned out into being. I also cropped versions for wallpapers so you can see the face better. will upload these to drafts :)

A daily feature!

Today I got featured on shadowness.com http://shadowness.com/dailyinspiration/forum/daily-inspiration-192 with my new piece "I the pilot" . I wasn't expecting this at all !
So pleased and i have recieved some great feedback from artists :)
Talking on facebook about the start of uni again for my final year. Its going to be a big year this year, and a scary one!! Not looking forward to the dissertation but i have a topic to really get stuck into and which I think will be an interesting argument!
I shall update you on dissertation topic once I have mapped this out a little more!

Featured in seamonster database!

http://monstersandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/07/sea-dragon.html

The Pilot

"The Pilot"

I was inspired the other night by a german fighter pilot in ww2 . I came up with a sketch and followed through for practice. I have a thing for antique loooking images recently :)

"Smoked Fish"

just something simple i did today from just playing around with textures and aiming for a 1920's feel piece. with symbolic usage of the goldfish .

Seamonster Feature and near win!

I recently entered a seamonster competition on shadowness.com .  I unfortunatley didnt win first place however I was considered for it. I was Shortlisted by the judges and I'm very pleased at just getting noticed and catching their eye.
I have also been featured here > http://monstersandbeasts.blogspot.com/2011/07/sea-dragon.html < at the seamonster database :) .

Here is my seamonster :
The sea dragon hides at the depths, and camouflages well into its environment down at the coral reefs. when it surfaces, it leaps and dives scaring the people on the shore. It would be hard to defeat this fast furious deep sea creature. 

Snake Kiss

Okay well, bordom lead to me doing a digitial piece, hopefully will be entering this into the Imagine Fx rising stars competion for august.  I was just playing around looking for new experiments I could have with textures and I came out with this ! (click on it for full view)

Enjoy! 

Rift Competition

"Gaea" collossus for the Life Rift. She uses her hand that is a wild willlow tree to sweep enemies to the ground, then uses her club ( a tree trunk ) to whack down upon them to defeat them. She stands tall amoungst the trees. She blends in well to her enviroment and any hit she strikes has massive destructive damage.

Created in paint tool sai and photoshop , looking at nature and tree's for influence and the idea of mother nature being life.

Interactive map of Japan for Children

Ok, it is all pretty much there now. I'm early finishing this final piece which is something that does not happen often. So now this is done I can polish up all my other works that have to be submitted for Friday the 5th.

Anyway, here we are .. some of my images of Mizuki on her noodle dragon in search of the Makura Gaeshi, to find her pillow that he stole.

It is all now in a webpage form, but I will upload the images of those seperatley when it has had its last

polishing

Torii Gates - Kyoto

Mount Fuji

Makura Gaeshi sneaks into the house

Flying of into the Japan moonlit sky

Makura Gaesha steals pillow

Mzuki- lantern festival Yokohama

More to come soon!

The Japanese Map... "The Map Project"

This is my image that will be turned into an interactive map on a children's web page. I will place in location spots so as you can click to see that area on a separate page. I will be creating the web page area around it as this is only the small interactive element. It will not be full screen...

I used fairy lights and layered photos of them to create a population density and then the clouds are made from watercolour and neocolours ..  

More to come soon, watch this space!

Makura Gaeshi - The Map Project

This week I have been experimenting with my designs for a Makura Gaeshi , a Japanese spirit that steals your pillow in the night and moves it to the bottom of the bed. Only Children can see them, they are known to be mischevious and sometimes have a rainbow glow to their eyes.

The map project which I am doing at the moment focus's on maps, and I had chosen to do Japan and focus on its culture and folklore's and it's story telling. I looked at studio Ghibli for influence into storytelling and came up with a crazy idea that would appeal to children. This would give the map a narrative to aid the visuals . The idea is that a small girl is sleeping in her bed, finds that the spirit has stolen her pillow and has taken it to a location in japan.

The small girl wishes for magical intervention, she wishes she can fly but it doesnt happen immediatley, then she goes to the kitchen, makes a bowl of noodles and the noodles turn into a noodle dragon which takes her all over Japan to find her pillow, so as she can return to sleep.

The map will be interactive as it will be a web page on a childrens website. It will be educational as every location you visit will give information on that area or landmark.

Here are my designs for the makura gaeshi... 

"Makura Gaeshi - The Map Project-Japan"

Futher work for this project will be up soon!

Label Magazine Issue 12

The recent news of the possible ban of religious headwear such as the Burka has made it it into the news section in Label Magazine this week. I took on the illustration for the article, knowing that this was a sensative topic to handle, yet couldnt be avoided without raising some questions in the lllustration.

I wanted to focus on the eyes and show the beauty but at the same time not hide the worry in which these people are facing if this is part of their religious life in those countries. Illustrating an actual Burka was too literal, therefore thought a sensative way way was to use a pair of hands to make a frame for the eyes. This illustration didn't have to be complicated as the main focus were the eyes. Here is my end result. Done in paint tool SAI and Photoshop CS5.

San Francisco, A Study Trip.

Towards the end of March of which seems a long while ago now, our illustration group went on a trip overseas to Sunny San Fran, in California. We only had 4 days there in which we had two projects to do and gather as much information as possible to continue the projects over the easter holdiay.

My project which I focused the most upon was "Destination Conversation" where we had to collect  references of social exchanges, such as conversations you hear on the street.
Over all I was very overwhelmed by the sheer Joy that people spread into others lives, the way everyone appeared to be so laid back , joyful and so friendly.

Here are a few illustrations that I created that reflected how I felt about San Francisco and the chatacters I met there :),

"The Joy of San Francisco"
all the characters here that I developed composed together in a final image. The colouring and feel for the houses concluded how I was going to handle the final look of the characters.

"Drumming For Street Kids"
This idea was from a conversation I over heard in a cafe whilst doodling away. A woman was chatting about a chartiy that organises drumming events for street kids, to help raise money with the children for the children.

"The Sax Priest""
On the Sunday of one of my visits I went to a jazz church near Japan town, this was an experiance I will never forget! The atmosphere was so lively and vibrant and is nothing ive ever experianced in a church before. They sure know how to worship!

"The Joy of Soy"
I found engravings in the pavement all over San Francisco and  was amused particularly at one that read "The joy of soy". Just nearby from this engraving was a dog sitting on a bench, looking quite sad that he had been left outside the shop alone without his master. Images formed in my head of this dog lapping up the words on the pavement as if he would be much happier if the soy was real.

"Tim"
This is an illustration of a homeless guy called Tim, he struck up a conversation with my group of friends and myself, initally chatted about music and where we were from. He was so taken back at how we all wanted to draw him and that he had no issues with this and he relished the oppertunity to get to know us. He bagan to talk about how it is that kindness for him is the greatest gift, and the greatest power in this world. The power to make someone smile is the strongest thing a human can do, and that being kind is meant to be in human nature. If we forget to be kind then who are we? Are we human at all? He told us never to forget what it is like to be human. For a homeless guy he was so pleased to be where he was in life, he was happy, he had friends and enjoyed being part of the city in San Francisco. He was happy that was all that mattered to him.

 

First Blog Post - about me and "The Begining of the end... of injustice"

So hey there!
My name is Anna, I am currently studying Illustration and Animation at Loughborough university in the UK . I thought it was about time that I set up a blog as it's a savy thing to do to let people know what im up to with my work.

You can also find me on Flickr and Deviantart ( of which ill put up the information in my profile shortly).
One thing you will find with me as an illustrator is that I tend to have a few different styles. I am experianced in digital (CG) and traditional media's including crafting textiles, painting, drawing, and traditional animating methods.

So what have I been up to recently then?

Okay well, these past few weeks have been a bit manic with the work load. It's coming up to the end of this semester and assesment is looming.
I have worked on an animaton with other illustrators in my year about the injustice of sweatshops in thrid world countries. The animation was about  letting retailers know that people care for the situation and that in order to change their ways it was up to us the consumer to make a stand and say "we want fairtrade". The animation was getting across that you needed to make your favourite label count.

This is poster (left) is not the final image, as we touched it up more on the computers in studio to make it clearer. But you can see from this the idea for our animation. The camera would pan across following the stitchline, with sound effects of a sewing machine.
"Chances are..the person..who made...your clothes... was not...paid enough..to cover the costs...of simply living...is this ...fair?"

We then animated the fair label, to fly like a firefly excitedly going across the scene, creating a phrase as it passes to read " let the retailer know you care"
 The label then flew off to be joined by other labels that glowed and formed the shape of a light bulb. This initiated that in order to change, it was up to the mass of the consumer.

We are yet to tweak or edit the final thing, as from our critique we had, some of the lettering needs to be clearer still :)

Testing

testing =] haven't used blog spot before ;p