Rick Deckard:
"In the irregular light, the bounty hunter seemed a medium man, not impressive. Round face and hairless, smooth features; like a clerk in a bureaucratic office. Methodical but informal. Not demi-god in shape... overcoat."

Shutterstock complete

Shutterstock from Emanuel Santos on Vimeo.

Went to the booth with Adam today to record the lines for the video. I fiddled with the timing of the slide of thumbnails in order to sync more neatly with the sound of the music track which was taken from this site: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/the-jazz-piano

Having completed this, I have now finished the brief.

I think that this has been an enjoyable brief to complete, perhaps mainly because of the screen printing aspect of it. I set out to make a series of images that were relatable to others through the nature of the story they told, but also illustrations that were quite personal to me. I think that screen printing the images was a perfect way of showing my art school story.

Once I began doing heavier research into the concepts behind the archetypal stories, I feel that my images gained more weight and I felt a lot more confident in what I was doing with them. I think that the idea of telling stories is incredibly important in every image, and surely this brief has helped me exercise that skill to apply it to other illustrations that I produce.
I think if I take the principles of image-making that I've learnt with this brief (while also keeping in mind the modernist principles I developed in COP), I can really push the intrigue of my illustrations a lot further.

Shutterstock video test

Test video from Emanuel Santos on Vimeo.

The password is password


Adam is helping out with the voice over for the video:

[Title appears: THE UNIVERSITY STORY]

ADAM: The three prints encapsulate snapshots of the familiar experience of art school.

[THE QUEST appears and develops as thumbnails]

ADAM: An applicant’s interview means our hero must quest to a new city and face treacherous weather. He is armed only with his portfolio.

[COMEDY appears and develops as thumbnails]

ADAM: An ensemble cast join our hero to a lecture, potentially hung over, bored or just inattentive.

[VOYAGE AND RETURN appears…]

ADAM: After our hero’s voyage, he returns home a graduate, but was it worth it? Has been fundamentally changed?

[COMPOSITION appears]

ADAM: Formal subdivision is used in order to achieve compositional harmony between the three prints

[Nice photo of prints pans]

[End]

Shutterstock all printed

Finally got a good set of prints of the Shutterstock images.
I originally had all 6 screens (3x2 colours) on one big screen, which was causing problems with maintaining pressure. I exposed the last two blues on a smaller screen and had absolutely no problems with printing.

Will try and stick with smaller screens next time - this has cost me a lot of paper and ink.

Now to do the 30 second video

Secret 7" - Max Richter again

It's past the deadline, but I had the idea for this image in my head and thought I might as well make it and format it in the relevant dimensions. I think it works well for the song anyway as being submerged in water is pretty relaxing, just like the song.

Printing Shutterstock

Spent the day screen printing my images for Shutterstock, but had some pretty disappointing results overall. Certain prints came out okay, but I don't feel the registration is good enough to be submitted for a D&AD brief (except for the portfolio image on white cartridge which turned out well, apart from the bleed along the bottom edge).

Some really big problems with the blue colour for the third image meant I have to postpone printing it till later.

I really liked how the prints were looking on the off white somerset so I bought some more sheets, but had more difficulty printing on it the second time round:

Lyndon said it could be due to the texture of the paper - I would like to get a complete set on the off white stock, but I'm not sure if the payoff is worth the effort and money when the prints still look quite nice on Snowden cartridge.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

This is my final brief for OUIL603, producing a cover illustration and three inner illustrations for Philip K Dick's 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?".

I've begun re-reading it and, as I did with War Horse, am taking notes of points in the novel which are interesting and may be worth illustrating:

• Ch.1, pg.13 - Sheep control panel
• Ch.2, pg.18 - J.R.'s living room (with a window outside visible)
• Ch.2, pg.24 - J.R. holding an empathy box
• Ch.3, pg.25 - Rick walking down animal row
• Ch.3, pg.27 - Rick looking at Nexus data files
• Ch.4, pg.34 - Landing on Rosen Association rooftop/seeing the owl
• Ch.5, pg.40 - Rick testing Rachel Rosen
• Ch.8, pg.68 - Rick about to leave
• Ch.8, pg.68 - Entering Polokov's apartment
• Ch.8, pg.73 - Polokov's head explodes
• Ch.9, pg.78 - Luba Luft's room
• Ch.11, pg.101 - With Luba in the museum
• Ch.11, pg.109 - Rick is given VK test
• Ch.13, pg.117 - Roy and Irmgard appear
• Ch.14, pg.121 - Roy's metal frame
• Ch.15, pg.127 - Animal row again
• Ch.15, pg.129 - Roy and Iran on elevator "...Together they moved nearer to god"
• Ch.16, pg. 141 - Rachel Rosen
• Ch.17, pg. 153 - Sitting in a car with Rachel while she smokes
• Ch. 18, pg. 161 - J.R. in tomb world
• Ch. 22, pg. 178 - Rick holding toad (draw from above?)

An interesting thing that Ben mentioned was how sci-fi takes inspiration from surrealism as well, so consider how my work can honour this.

Shutterstock all images finished

All the images are finished - now just to figure out the right colours and print, then begin thinking about making the video of my progress which will be quite challenging.

I tried several different colourscapes but am most happy with keeping it simply red and blue.

Researching

I've started collecting research into the planets of the solar system. This research is coming from the Otherworlds Exhibition, the Planets book I bought there, and various other sources from the internet I've discovered. I will eventually distill this information down into the most interesting/relevant bits to include on the material I produce.

Less representational planets

Off the back of yesterday's note taking which took me up to Saturn, I've begun to start making imagery that reflects the planets more in terms of their characteristics:

Two facts that really stood out to me were the fact that Mercury's temperature fluctuations between day and night are the most extreme of any planet. This is due to its lack of atmosphere to stop heat during the day, and therefore inability to contain it at night. I'm trying to show this with red and blue sides for day and night.

The other fact is that Venus' atmosphere of sulphuric acid clouds is so thick that it blocks out 80% of all sunlight. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to depict it quite dark and simply, with only the significant variations in ground level being visible.

I tried translating these to larger paintings, and while Venus has turned out pretty well, Mercury needs a lot of work.

I also did a "cubular" Venus. It looks pretty cool.