Adrian Everett Illustration Blog

Experimental Ink Work

2012-01-31T17:46:00.000-08:00

Some ink experimental sketches from working on my previous project.

This beast was based on a manuscript illustration:

This was based on a traditional Russian icon:

The Master and Margarita: Final Images

2012-01-23T13:04:00.000-08:00

These are some my final images from my project on The Master and Margarita. The images represent my own personal take on the novel, rather than attempting to show the narrative in a direct way. This probably won't be my last post featuring work from that project as I've got a lot of it on the 'to scan' pile.

Images drawn using Concentrated inks on watercolour paper, scanned and assembled in Photoshop.

One Day Workshop

2012-01-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

These images are part of a one day workshop from my project on The Master and Margarita.
The task was to produce a series of A5 images developed from storyboarding visual descriptors.

V&A Student Illustration Awards 2012 Entry

2011-12-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've submitted some of my work to the V&A Student Illustration Awards, which you can see on the V&A site here.

The images (which I'll post below because a blog post just isn't a blog post without images) are from my current project, but the ones I selected are more related to my research than the actual storyline of the Master and Margarita novel, because everything is in storyboards and up in the air at the moment.

The colours in this one weren't this garish when I pressed save in Photoshop, I swear.

Shoebox Project

2011-12-13T00:22:00.000-08:00

These illustrations are part of a mini-project we were set early on in the semester. The task was to create a 3-dimensional narrative within a shoebox and to produce a series of illustrations telling the story. We then had to set up a pop-up exhibition in uni, whi is all quite a lot to do in just a week. My projects ended up being a million miles away from this in terms of style and content, but I liked the images I produced in it anyway.My shoebox was filled with a mix of 3D cut-outs and some illustrations from an old biology textbook.

The Master and Margarita: Two Day Book Project

2011-11-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

This week we were set a two day book project by visiting illustrator Maureen Valfort to create book spreads and a cover combining our existing illustrations with type. These are the spreads we were asked to create using digital type, I tried to pick extracts from the novel The Master and Margarita that fitted well with the images.

Some More People of Moscow

2011-10-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

These are a continuation of me studying the photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson for research. I've tried to make them a bit looser and done the ink blob portraits thing that is a bit of an illustration student staple, but I've tried to make it my own.

This second set is a bit more of a worked up version of the faces, but I'm not sure if I prefer the simpler ones.

The People of Moscow

2011-10-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

As part of my project based on The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, I've been looking at some of Henri Cartier-Bresson's amazing street photography, in particular the from the book The People of Moscow. The portraits I've been drawing in response to the photos have started to shape the style of my project so I thought I'd post them up here to give an idea of what I'm up to.

Follow Me Maidstone Exhibition Photos

2011-07-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

These are some photos taken at the Follow Me Maidstone Exhibition in June at the County Hall, Maidstone. All the work has been produced by second year Illustration students at UCA Maidstone, given a loose theme of transformation. There were around 30 illustrators in the show, so this isn't everyone's, just a little sample (if you squint you can see my book in there).

You can find out a bit more about some of the illustrators taking part, blogs etc. at the Follow Me Maidstone website produced for the event.

Paper Dragon!

2011-06-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

This is just what I've been messing around with for the past couple of days. Its a paper cut-out / collage dragon, loosely based on the Ouroboros thingy I drew back in college. This is meant as part of a larger project I'm working on over summer, which I'll explain if I get anywhere with it (it's one of those bad ideas that my tutors always laugh at when I explain to them).

Edgar Allen Poe - 'The Lake'

2011-05-28T20:42:00.000-07:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More illustration

So for everyone who isn't coming to the Follow Me Maidstone Exhibition this week, this is my final book in digital form. I'll take a few pictures when I get it back from uni, because it looks a bit nicer as a concertina book than it does in digital form.

Artist's Statement:

Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, The Lake, describes a remembered place from his childhood, and his own connotations of death that he associated with it. Through an abstract narrative based on a similar location from my own childhood, I attempted to recreate the feelings and mood described in the poem. The location featured within my book is Embsay Reservoir and the surrounding moorland.

Obsession Project Work: Edgar Allen Poe - 'The Lake'

2011-05-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

These were designed to illustrate Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Lake. The landscapes are based on the countryside in the Yorkshire Dales. Eventually some of these are going to be incorporated into a concertina book, but at the moment, they are quite initial and I will probably work them up to give a bit more contrast.
(They aren't really that red, that's my awful scanner.)

The Lake

In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less-
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.

But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody-
Then-ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.

Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight-
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define-
Nor Love-although the Love were thine.

Death was in that poisonous wave,
And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining-
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.

THE END

Some Works in Progress

2011-04-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

Now that my essay is more than the title I thought I'd upload some of the things I've been working on over the holidays for my Obsession project. The painting on the left was inspired by a poem by Edgar Allen Poe, I think. Apologies for the terrible phone photos.

Obsession Project Work: Graves

2011-04-23T13:02:00.001-07:00

So these are some initial drawings from the direction I'm hopefully going to take forward to my finals. The first set of graves are drawn from life in Maidstone Churchyard. I used an expensive looking carbon pencil for these, which gave strong blacks and didn't smudge much.
The second set were drawn without reference using a spongebrush and inks. The spongebrush was probably a bit too big for small scale drawings.

Obsession project work: Collage

2011-04-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Some work from my current project. There are a few different strands going on here, but the first two pieces are based on the papparazzi harassment of Britney Spears and the last two are based on the noir Film the Maltese Falcon.

UPDATED - Penguin Design Award: One Hundred Years of Solitude Book Cover

2011-04-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

This is the final design for One Hundred Years of Solitude, submitted for the Penguin Design Award. I tinkered around with the background a bit, and added some enlarged elements from the pattern.

Penguin Design Award: One Hundred Years of Solitude Book Cover

2011-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

*Please see updated bookcover design here*

This is my current design for the Penguin Design Award for Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. I picked up on the idea of the Golden Fish as a motif in the story. The background is done in watercolour, taking inspiration from portugese painted tiles.

Mr Trebus from A Life of Grime

2011-03-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is a collage portrait of Mr Trebus, a hoarder on the BBC domentary series A Life of Grime for my current project on collecting and obsession.

Political Mutation and Evolution: Artists Book Project

2011-03-20T11:25:00.001-07:00

This was an elective project in the first year of Illustration. We were given the theme of mutation and I chose to look at social and political change as a more focused subject.

The text I used for the book was created using words taken from an essay on the Civil Rights Movement, which I rearranged to give a new meaning. These were accompanied by mark making images that were meant to give an abstract representation of the text. The book form itself took inspiration from the terms convergent/parallel evolution and was designed so it was only possible to view one half of the book at once.

The finished book (I tried to give an idea of the book and how it works so I hope it makes sense):

Some sample pages from the book:

Biography Project: Jean Cocteau

2011-03-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

This was the first long term project (15 weeks) we were set in the first year, so I've just picked out a few sample images. The task was to create a 24 page illustrated book in response to the life of a well known figure, which in my case was Jean Cocteau.
These two images are some experimentation with media/style from my sketchbook:

These are some selected images that I ended up using in my final book:

John Steinbeck's Johnny Bear, Book Cover Project

2011-02-20T14:25:00.000-08:00

This and the following posts are (probably) all going to be from my degree course in Illustration at UCA Maidstone.

This was the first project we were set in our first year. We were asked to design a book cover for John Steinbeck's short story Johnny Bear. I chose a grammarphone as the cover illustration as it fitted in with the period of the book and also the character Johnny Bear speaks through repeating snippets of conversations he has heard around the town.

College Post 8: Mixed-Media Personal Work

2011-02-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

This is the last of the work that I did while at Leeds College of Art (unless some more turns up somwhere), all personal work. The first two images were created when experimenting with layering up backgrounds and illustrating over the top. The first was on the sole of a shoe and the second on a t-shirt.

This image was created in response to a piece of photojournalism about the conflict in Georgia, the newspaper in the image is in the shape of the country.

The final image is an illustration of the musician Devendra Banhart, made out of Redbush tea.

College Post 7: Digital Work

2011-02-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

Some more personal work done digitally while I was at college. The third image was for a Contextual Studies journal and the final one was for a mini project to design a set of stamps.

College Post 6: Mixed-Media Paintings

2011-02-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

A few paintings I did while at Leeds College of Art, though not really linked to any projects set.

College Project 5: American Gods

2011-02-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

This was done as a response to our AS Fine Art final project at Leeds College of Art with the theme of Links and Connection. I ended up doing a book cover project for Neil Gaiman's book American Gods. I came up with two concepts for the cover, based on two separate sections of the book.

The first, was based on a section of the book where one of the New Gods appears in the form of Lucille Ball from I Love Lucy starts speaking to the main character, Shadow.

The second concept, which became my final piece, is a more abstract idea of Shadow, and his journey through the novel.

College Project 4: "Bagvertising"

2011-02-13T10:45:00.000-08:00

This was a competition brief we were set over the summer for Leeds College of Art, which I actually ended up winning. We were asked to produce a bag advertising a promotion for an existing brand, taking into consideration the environmental impact of bags. We had to produce one safer option and a more 'out there' design. I chose the comic book shop Forbidden Planet, with a promotion where if the same bag was used for their next purchase the customer would receive a discount. The idea was to minimise the impact of bags used by customers and to also encourage repeat purchases.

Safe design:

'Out there' design:

College Project 3: Leeds City Council

2011-02-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

This wasn't a live brief, but Leeds City Council asked our class to design a poster and informative leaflet to give to restaurants about the new Scores on the Doors hygiene rating system, using their existing brand identity.

College Project 2: Brand Extension

2011-02-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

This was a project we were set in the second year at Leeds College of Art. We were asked to take an existing brand and create a new product to fit in with their existing range. I chose to make a pack of trading cards based on the Beast Quest book series, aimed at children. The Beast Quest logo is theirs, all other artwork in mine.

Maquette of Point of Sale unit for both the books and the trading cards:

Samples of the cards:

Update Post

2011-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

I've recently rediscovered this blog, so I thought I'd start updating it with some of the work I've done since starting with the work I did whilst studying Graphic Design at Leeds College of Art between 2007 and 2009.

The first project I'm uploading was a live brief competition with a local dance company called Momentum Dance. They didn't end up choosing my work, but here are some of the illustrations I used in my proposed promotional material:

Unity - Ouroboros

2007-12-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

Ouroboros by Theodoros Pelecanos, 1478

Context: 'The Ouroboros, also spelled Ourorboros, Oroborus, Uroboros or Uroborus (IPA: [ˌjʊərəʊˈbɒrəs]), is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. It has been used to represent many things over the ages, but it most generally symbolizes ideas of cyclicality, unity, or infinity. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations. More recently, it has been interpreted by psychologists, such as Carl Jung, as having an archetypal significance to the human psyche.'

- Wikipedia

Actual meaning:
The symbol of the Ouroboros has meant many things to different cultural groups through the centuries. In its earliest form, it was a mythological metaphor for the cyclical nature of life, that is a reminder that everything is born and then dies (and in some cultures was then born again). In medieval times, such as when the image by Theodoros Pelecanos was created, a more alchemical view was taken of the Ouroboros and it became more a symbol than a myth.

What the piece means to you:

This piece has little personal meaning to me, however I see the symbol mainly to represent unity and as a was to illustrate how things tend to end up back where that started in one way or another. In a way, it also represents life and death (and rebirth) as a unified being and I think that this is an idea which is quite interesting.

Materials used and how they compliment meaning:
As this was an illustration in a medieval text book, I would say this could have been created using one of two methods. The first method would be to hand render it with drawing inks. The alternative would be to have created it using some form of printing press. Baring in mind the level of technology available at the time, I think it would most likely have been hand rendered, largely down to issues of cost and practicality.
As a positive note, the materials used help identify this illustration as a symbol rather than a drawing by creating clearly defined areas of flat colour that give the image a completely 2-dimensional nature. The use of the black keylines ensures that none of the original details have been lost over time, resulting in an image that is still clear today, though the colours may have faded and become less saturated.
Overall judgement on the work as a piece of communication:
This example of the Ouroboros is in my opinion, showing its age. While the symbol of the Ouroboros has been successfully updated to fit into more recent art, and the symbol itself has been given a modern edge (see below for examples), this image will only really be appropriate as an illustration in a medieval text.
The piece looks very flat and lifeless, and looks similar to crude cave paintings.

My Response

I created my response to the Ouroboros symbol using a 2B pencil on plain paper. The reason I used a graphite pencil instead of drawing inks is that I wanted my response to have more realism than Theodoros Pelecanos' representation of the Ouroboros.