Wine Label Proposal Project - Part 2 - "Sexy" Label

To re-cap my previous post (Wine Label Proposal Project ),  over the course of the next few weeks I will be working on 2 wine label concepts for 5th Road Estate Wines. The owners of this company will be choosing the labels they will print from a variety of artist and I hope that my pieces will be among those selected.

For the first label the clients have asked for a 'traditional' composition. I
The second concept needs to be 'sexy'. The clients have a secondary line of wines that is mostly shipped to Las Vegas. These labels will incorporate a word representing 'sexy', and are to be
classy not trashy!

So to start, as always, it began with ideas -- here are my thumbnails. 
For the 'sexy' label I'm going to use the grape-stomp concept (2nd row, far right) and incorporate the word 'Strut..."

My first step was to delineate my image area on to watercolour paper. I made the dimensions double the size I will need for the final output of the label so that it will scale properly and let me work with a high-resolution image. Once that was finished I sketch my concept using blue non-reproduce able pencil so that when I scan the final painting my lines will be harder to see. (Sorry that it's already hard to see; I took this image with Photobooth :s)

Next, I began painting in my background colour using a wet wash. I also painted a base colour on the woman's legs.

Then on to the dress. I applied a couple layers of red to the dress, each time letting the paint dry some, to increase the colour's saturation.

For the barrel I added little detail to detract attention from it. It's an element to enhance the composition but it isn't the focus. I repeated the wet wash technique and made some brown bleed into the background.

Subtle details were added simply to increase understanding of the object.

It was brought to my attention that this concept might look better if the woman was at a different angle. So I repeated the above steps and created this:

After scanning this I retouched the colours in Photoshop.

Next I brought that image into InDesign to add my text. There you have it. The blank grey area on the right will allow the client to incorporate their wine information into the design.

Wine Label Proposal Project

A new project has come up, and it's going to be a good one! Over the course of the next few weeks I will be working on 2 wine label concepts for 5th Road Estate Wines. The owners of this company will be choosing the labels they will print from a variety of artist and I hope that my pieces will be among those selected.

For the first label the clients have asked for a 'traditional' composition. In the past this meant classic vineyard scenes painted in traditional mediums, but the clients also expressed that isn't exactly what they want. With my concept I believe I've captured 'traditional' without being usual or common.
The second concept needs to be 'sexy'. The clients have a secondary line of wines that is mostly shipped to Las Vegas. These labels will incorporate a word representing 'sexy', and are to be
classy not trashy!

So to start, as always, it began with ideas -- here are my thumbnails. I wanted an image or images that related to wine, but stayed away from any form of landscape scene. For the 'traditional' label I went with the Wine Barrel concept shown here in the middle of the top row.

For the 'sexy' label I'm going to use the grape-stomp concept (2nd row, far right) and incorporate the word 'Strut..."

I also wanted to incorporate wine itself so I used it as my medium. I painted with a watercolour style, but used a Merlot wine.

I deliniated my image area onto watercolour paper then started by scattering wine drops on the page. I used a large brush and over-saturated it with the wine so that I could let it naturally drop onto the page without any help from me.

Next, I didn't like the contrast of the spots against the white of the paper so I began to lightly lay a wash of wine on top of the entire area.

Now I switched to a thinner brush and painted in the detail of the barrel. I started with the wood grain then moved to shadows and the spout.












I let this dry over night the scanned it into
my computer.

As per usual, I then colour corrected my scanned image. I balanced my levels, added an S-Curve, added more contrast using a 'hard-light' blending mode on a Duplicate Merge layer, and finally applied a Reduce Noise Filter and an Unsharp Mask filter.

On to the Final Touches. I created a new Photoshop document and specified the dimensions I would need for the final printed label. I then placed my retouched image into this document.

And here is how it looks in it's current state! 

Illustration Friday, or Monday rather -- Fluid

Good morning everyone! I had a busy weekend this week so I apologize for the late post. I feel my excuse is justified though -- I became a first-time aunt on Thursday! Welcome to our family baby girl, Emerson Joy!
Last week's word was fluid; I wanted to communicate that without tacking the easy route of illustrating a liquid. Instead I focus on 'fluid' meaning elegant, graceful, not settled, and able to change.Change is beautiful isn't it? Creepy-looking caterpillars become butterflies, children become adults; change allows us to reach great heights.

The artist that I took my inspiration from for this piece is Nick Hufford. The objects in this are the only things defining space. They aren't placed in a setting, the create the setting. They aren't placed in front of a background, elements of a traditional background are general shapes forming around the focal points (ie: the single cloud behind the building, or the water below the gondola not flowing past the length of it.)

Here are the concepts I generated. Again, I didn't want to take an easy route and use water as my focus, but the idea had crossed my mind so I jotted a few of those concepts down too to get them out of my system. I chose to develop the bottom left concept with the kite.

I transfered my template onto watercolour paper. *Clever moment -- I used a 'fluid' medium to create this piece! I started by sketching my elements lightly with a brown watercolour pencil. I then laid a wet-wash over the whole thing using Orange Peeko Tea.

I let the wash dry then in the areas that I wanted to stand apart from the background I added more tea simply by painting it over those areas.

Next, to add detail to the kite I used brown watercolour pencils.

I then scanned my painting into my computer on a flatbed scanner and began making edits in photoshop.

Next, I brought my edited image into InDesign to clean-up the edges and add the word 'Fluid'.

This piece was a lot of fun to create, and now I'm back on track to do this week's Illustration Friday. It's going to be a tricky one; the word is Capable.

Illustration Friday -- Popularity

Happy Monday everyone! I'm sorry that I didn't post an illustration last week; I was otherwise engaged with a lot of other great projects which I hope to post soon. I've been working on T-shirt designs, Ticket concepts for a Cold Proposal for Universal Republic records, as well as some design work for a student-run Long-boarding Club at McMaster University. Anyway I'm back in the 'IF' saddle and this week's word is popularity. Last week I had hoped to work with charcoal as per Ben Stahl's illustration seen here.

The style he uses generates an uneasy feeling of mistrust. This is kind of what I feel when I think of popularity. Think back to high school; there were always those kids that everyone wanted to be friends with, but those were often the kids that very few people trusted. You were never sure where their loyalties lied or what there motives were. I believe that they too must have, at times, wondered who their true friends were and who was just playing the game.

Here are the concepts I've come up with. I'll keep going with the paparazzi concept. Having a cluster of lenses thrust in the viewer's face, paired with the grungy charcoal effect that Stahl uses, will do a great job of communicating the feeling of tension and suspicion.

For this Album cover I'm going to draw the elements separately and the compile them on the computer. I drew my 2 paparazzi on separate pages in pencil first and then began rendering with the charcoal.

I then scanned my images to begin processing them digitally.

I took the scanned images into Adobe Photoshop and began editing them.

I did some general colour correction, but also greatly enhanced the contrast using Curves and a High-pass filter with a Hard Light blending mode.

Next I began multiplying and arranging the paparazzi using Photoshop.

I also used Photoshop to isolate one lens to use for the CD graphic.

Finally, I took these new images into InDesign and added text. I used a bold sans-serif font to communicate confidence and I used a deep pink colour to 'pop' against the grayscale images behind it. I also included an semi-transparant charcoal coloured block behind the text to make it even more legible.

Illustration Friday -- Forward

Well hello there blogging community, so good to see you again. This week's illustration word is forward. I'm really excited for it because 'forward' has the potential to be very poetic, and I'm just that kinda girl! This week I'm taking my inspiration from Walter Wyles. This image has a monochromatic feel, but the focal point is in contrasting tones. The main scheme is cool blues and the focus is in warm orange tones.

These are the concepts I've come up with. My interpretations of the word went from, Fast Forward, to Pay it Forward, to No way but forward, then finally pushing/moving forward. The concept I'm going to continue with is the one on the second row, first on the left. I was listening to Snow Patrol's "Lifeboats" and it made me think that sometimes life gets rough and scary and sometimes you need to swim out farther in it to get to safety. You have to push into the heart of the problem before you can fix it or ride out the storm.

To incorporate Wyles' style I'm going to use a monochromatic blue harmony but have the Life Preserver a contrasting orange. I'm also going to use a wash effect, similar to what you see in the lady's dress, and use watercolours to do so!

After I transfered my template onto watercolour paper and sketched out my design I began applying my washes. I Started with a pure blue pigment wash, then applied a wash where I had mixed the blue with a small amount of black. On the sky portion of this piece I mixed violet, blue and black to contrast slightly against the water.

Next I applied a very watered-down orange wash to the life preservers.

I then added shadows to the Life Preservers by mixing orange and blue, its complementary colour, to neutralize the orange creating a realistic shadow hue.

After the details were completed I scanned the image into my computer for digital retouching and to add the text.

Finally here you have it! I really love the eery feel to this piece; the calm before the storm. Watercolour is my favourite media so I was really excited to work with it on this :)

Happy weekend. Cheers,

~ Jen

Weekly Illustration -- Twirl

This week's Illustration Friday word is twirl. Instantly I began imagining pictures of elegant, romantic waltzes with a flutter of motion and emotion. I searched for artists with a style that fit the visions in my head and I came across Bradshaw Crandell. In this piece, the wispy pastel marks in the background make me think of a soft breeze, and they help to highlight the beauty of the woman. I will be using chalk pastels in this next piece to create the soft feel of movement.

The concepts for this piece popped into my head like rapid fire. Luckily my hand was fast enough to capture them. I really like the font style I created in the 4th thumbnail, but I think the layouts in the 6th and 7th thumbnails are better.















I've decided to pursue the concept in the 6th thumbnail, and to begin I made a linear draft on regular bond/printer paper. After I did that I transferred that image onto watercolour paper by rubbing graphite on the back of the bond paper then tracing my image on top of the watercolour paper. It's like making a carbon-copy when signing documents.

Next, for the background I made a light watercolour wash using browns and greens.

Using my linear draft as a guide, I began applying colour with my chalk pastels. Most of the blending I did with my fingers, but for the tight spots I enlisted the help of a Q-Tip cotton swab. 

Now that the pastel is down I need a way to keep it from smudging. There are special coating sprays that you can purchase from art supply stores, but I've learned there is also a much more cost efficient solution...Hairspray!!

To add the title of the 'CD' I use Adobe InDesign CS5, but before I do that I need to do some colour correcting to my scanned image. Often when you scan an image you get some colour casting. Also if there is anything on the scanner bed (My brother's dog gets hair everywhere) this will be transferred to your image so it needs to be removed. Here is a before and after image from its original state to its edited state.

Finally I put the image in 'frames' in InDesign which cleans up the edges, and I add text using the Type-On-A-Path tool furthering the feel of movement.

This was another really fun illustration. I'm loving that I can use a different medium each time, and that I can work with my hands instead of relying on the computer alone. 

Until next week, Cheers,

~Jen