Japan zine: progress

Working my way through this project, I’m finding something quite interesting. Due to me complete lack of practice when making scenery, I lack any defined style or approach to making these works. Visually, what I’m making is so varied, and often not up to a standard I expect. This really is a trial and error exercise, and I must admit it’s quite nice to get lost in this experimentation.

The research conducted will also be impacting this, Im now more conscientious of image quality and variation, encouraging me to create diverse imagery for this project.

Take these two works in progress for example, they both were created with different purposes in mind, and it feels great to stretch my legs like this. But more importantly, they aren't boring or frustrating me like my last batch of work. Slowly but surely Im finding a direction. Im also coming to terms with the idea that I don't need to settle on a process, that as an illustrator I want to have a diverse skill set. It feels good to have that never ending goal ahead of me, rather than the rut I was in.

-Reflections on process

I did something somewhat out of character, having finished the above pages of the zine, I came to the conclusion that they weren't good enough and started over again. I started with an old habit, trying to force a clearly failing image into working, but its time to change that. If I am going to improve and address the issues with my work, I need to be able to throw away projects and start again for a better result. This is essentially what happened with my Mt fuji and shaded area pieces (especially the fuji work).

To improve the shade scene specifically, I had to use point perspective. This is a skill I've never really honed, due to the extra effort it takes to achieve it. i always understood the benefits of accuracy that come alongside it, so thankfully pro create made the process that bit easier, having a perspective guide system in place and grid line brushes. I feel this time lapse of one of my pages (a Japanese market) showcases the use of this method most out of all my current works.