Assignment 5: Say What You (Don't) See

For this assignment, I will chose a saying (below), and create an illustration that contradicts my chosen saying.

Sayings:

• Good things come to those who wait.

• Money can’t buy happiness.

• There’s more fish in the sea.

• The grass is always greener.

• Don’t judge a book by its cover.

• They lived happily ever after.

• The early bird catches the worm.

• What you see is what you get.

• A leopard can’t change its spots.

• Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

• Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

• Actions speak louder than words.

• You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

• Children should be seen and not heard.

• Crime doesn’t pay.

• Many hands make light work.

• Money makes the world go round.

Process

I approached this assignment differently than any other assignment I have done previously, whilst I was drawing one evening I ended up just drawing one of the prompts. I was quite happy with it, but knew that I should never stick with one idea so I ended up drawing another illustration. I was just experimenting with different angles at first for the second illustration and after colouring it up; I made sure to get feedback see which one was the best.

Feedback notes

Video process

Fonts

Final work and thoughts

As the illustration was evolving, I started to play with the idea that it would feel quite like a children’s book illustration, I wanted the illustration to fill soft and warm so that the meaning would contradict the illustration.

When I think of the statement a “leopard can’t change its spots”, I think of it in a negative way describing people who never change and since this illustration is meant to be about contradiction I wanted it to be an opportunity that people can change if they work hard and think positively.

Evaluation

This brief was with intention to contradict a common saying and at first I had a bit of difficulty deciding which one to do and ended up thinking quite morbidly with some of the sayings which I didn’t want to do.

The initial idea was to use the saying “and they lived happily ever after”, and producing sketches of two people fighting, or two graves— but I felt like I wanted to make a more uplifting illustration.

I was lying in bed thinking of the assignment when I thought of the leopard painting it’s fur/skin so the next day when I ended up having spare time drawing, I came up with the original composition and ended up liking it. Again, I knew it was best to explore at least another idea so that I had the opportunity to make the final decision or implement one aspect of that style into the new illustration.

I wanted to try a different style of illustration with a different medium, hence doing this one digitally rather than physically, and it ended up being a lot of playing around with different brushes and techniques that are provided by Procreate. The final result ended up in a watercolour style which was enhanced by the watercolour paper texture that I applied on the canvas with layer adjustments.

Because I didn’t do the way I usually create my art for the assignments with thumb nailing sketches colour thumbnails I feel like maybe this isn’t the strongest illustration I’ve done because it feels too much of a good thing that I was able to produce this illustration.

Overall, I am very happy with a result it’s light it contradicts the saying and also so without being so morbid, I also really like the textures and the brushes used through the digital medium.