Maisey Ashmead

To enable us to do this it was crucial we gathered a body of research, not only in the area of Editorial Illustration, but also other areas where illustration is used such as advertising, literature and clothing. The research helped me gain a greater understanding of the broad range and styles of illustration.






Title page
 Here i started mind mapping the first few ideas that came to mind when researching the brief 'Heart on your sleeve ' . The article was very much related to science and medical services , so i wanted to keep many aspects of my work technical .
I started experimenting with collage as it was an area in design id never really experimented with that much . i used found scraps of paper and magazines i thought didn't necessarily immediately fit together but when you read deeper into the image you could understand why they were placed together . I also wanted a muted palette as i feel the image would have been too distracting with alot of colour..


Activity :  Entopic Graphomania
Here we were asked to select a page from a random book and highlight words that related to the theme of our brief. This was an activity to broaden how we interacted the article into an illustration . i found this really helpful as it pushed me to look in other directions and approach the project in different ways ,
Because i was studying the technical side of the title i started drawing anatomical images of the heart in fine liner as i wanted one part of the design to have an intense amount of detail and be a focus on the piece .




I wanted to focus on the female figure as its an aspect i always explore in art and think its an important part of learning . The nude figure was important as many of the artist i looked at for inspiration used human figure  i their own collages so thought id like to reflect that in my own .

Project brief :

The opening project for the year is based on the environments around us while were studying in Weston .  We've been asked to explore the land and water using a range of materials and styles . The project will be challenging our idea about our perception of what drawing actually is and how we work with it .

Uphill : Monday 7th September 2015

We began the week traveling to Uphill - A boat yard, beginning our investigation here with observational drawings and recordings of sights that intrigued us .Our initial body of work will start in monochrome which we will later work into and develop. Personally drawing from life isn't how i like to work and found my work was a lot looser and sketchy compared to when i draw form photographs . I think being by the water where there's a lot  of movement around me , allowed this to be expressed in my sketches and showed some sense of freedom in my drawings .

Weston Beach : Tuesday 8th September 2015
On the Tuesday we spent the entire day sketching at the beach . I found from having more time to sketch allowed me to gain more precision with the placement of lines . I liked the linear aspect of the images i took . Such as images of the old pier i loved the decomposing architecture and collapsing framework , and was interested in the arrangement of old hotels . Later in the after noon we spent in a small coffee shop looking on the the sea front sketching where my work developed from small sketches into fine liner with incredible precision , which i much preferred to loose sketches the previous day .


Tuesday 15th September 2015
We spent the day down on the Bristol Harbor side in the rain . However i found the rain quiet relaxing and it added to the experience of our brief linking to water and land  . we had chance to explore the mud dock gallery and Alnofini while we were there , the mud dock had a birds eye view , viewing area which was great to sketch from and gather images . The part i enjoyed most was being able to get on the Mathew and sketch the boat while being on it i think it was a good opportunity to feel and view the boat in different ways rather than from afar like we'd been doing previously the week before. The rope hanging on the boat caught my attention most and i completed a small wrong handed sketch of it to really emphasize the texture the worn rope had . I will be focusing on enlarging this piece to A1 and working with different materials in order to create a larger version.
Monday 21st September 2015:
Adding colour:

On Monday we could finally start adding colour to our projects .I wanted to take my original illustrative fine liner drawing of the houses on the seafront and start working with them . First of all i started on a small coloured background id found in a newspaper that i was drawn to and worked over the top in black in and a stick however i found the lines to strong and there was too much space on the page as the drawing seemed wrong drawn up larger . I opted for an even bigger piece of coloured newspaper and started roughly drawing one of the buildings id selected out with my wrong hand to get a looser feel about it . i then later went over it with ink and a stick and let the ink drip down, thus made the image look like there was less space ad it felt more free than the small version id created first time in my book .


Thursday 24th September : controlled mess.

i started looking through my book and really focusing on what really stood out to me . I found i was really drawn to the mark making page we had to create i loved how free and messy it looked , but at that pointed i felt a bit stumped as i also really liked controlled imagery . I decided to actually try and control a mess . i started by blotting , blowing , scratching inks and paints together in random ways with colors that to me reflected the sea and land .  However to make the mess controlled i cut a really clean circle around it created mess within a shape .