Shoreditch Tattoo Studios

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Jess Claxton

I wanted to look in tattoo studios in Shoreditch to see how they branded themselves. I found about 7 tattoo studios that are situated in Shoreditch and looked at how their websites looked and any logos they had and to see if I could get any inspiration for my own designs.

Good Times Tattoo

I liked the style of this website as it is fairly plain and simple, and I believe fits well with a Shoreditch, hipster feel. Although it is very simple, I like that it is still very obvious what it is for.

Cloak and Dagger Tattoo

I am not a fan of this studios title/logo but I do like how the website is laid out, with the large image in the centre, with the options across the top.

Fifth Dimension

I do not like the logo for this tattoo studio, or particularly how the website is laid out. I do like the idea of having a photograph with some text next to it explaining a bit about the studio, and I think that this may be something I use in my own.

Prick Tattoo Parlour

I really liked the design of this website, especially the faded image at the top with the logo overlaid.

Seven Doors Tattoo

I think that this website is fairly boring, although I do quite like the logo. It is quite simple but I definitely prefer the Good Times Tattoo simple layout.

Shall Adore Tattoo

I liked this welcome page to the website as it is very simple and introduces the viewer to the company. I also like the band across the top that has all the headers on and think that this will be something that I will use in my own designs.

Nine Tails Tattoo

Although I don’t like this website design, I like that it links to the style of the tattooing that they do. I’d like to design a website that reflects the style that High Seas Ink use in their tattooing.

I’d hope to use some of these features in my own website design.

Feedback

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Jess Claxton

As suggested in my feedback on what I had done so far, I looked into how children react to grief and whether this is different from adults. I found that children don’t necessarily go through the five stages of grief, although they can display all the stages, and they can be seen as being happy and playing as though they have “gotten over it”. Below is a list of ‘normal’ emotional responses to grief from children.

1) Sadness

2) Anger

3) Irritableness

4) Guilt and self-reproach

5) Anxiety, insecurity and fear

6) Abandoned

7) Worried

8) Loneliness

9) Yearning

10) Helplessness and powerlessness

11) Shock

12) Numbness

13) Emancipation

14) Relief

15) Turmoil

Additionally there are physical responses although I will not use these in my book.

There are 6 thought patterns that can occur in children during grief. These are:

– denial

– confusion

– thoughts about the deceased

– sense of presence of the deceased

– difficulty concentrating

– nightmares

http://www.childgrief.org/howtohelp.htm

Grief

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Jess Claxton

When it came to drawing my story I found it particularly difficult to draw certain parts, for example the forest, so I thought it might be simpler if it focused more on the rabbits feelings rather than trying to explain his feelings through him getting lost in the woods during a storm. I wanted the story to be fairly straightforward so that young children could easily understand what was happening.

I wanted to find out more about how people feel after the death of a loved one so I researched into this and came across the 5 stages of grief. These are:

1) Denial and isolation

2) Anger

3) Bargaining

4) Depression

5) Acceptance

I thought that it might be interesting represent these stages in the book as it would help children learn that it is okay is feel any of these ways after someones death. Therefore I will incorporate these five stages into my story, ending on the acceptance, giving the story a happy ending.

Ideas

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Jess Claxton

Although I had moved on from the original story idea that I had, I still wanted to keep it on the topic of death. I got some inspiration from this illustration from Duncan Beedie, which I posted in this post.

I thought that it might be interesting to use animals rather than human characters, it would also be easier for me to illustrate. I came up with a simple story line that focused on two rabbits, one of them dies and it sees the other one becoming lost in the woods during a storm, which links back to my original idea. The story would resolve with the rabbit finding his way out of the woods where it is sunny again and full of colour.

I wanted the characters to look cute so the children liked them but I wasn’t sure at all how to draw them. I googled illustrated rabbits and found various images but many of them were incredibly detailed and far more complicated than I would ever be able to draw. I then found this website. I liked the simplistic way that the rabbits were drawn and wanted to see if I could use a similar style in my illustrations, although I would like to draw the rabbits so that they are recognizable as individual characters, so there must be something different about each rabbit.

I drew out (half) a storyboard to plan out the illustrations that I wanted for my book.

From here I could then start drawing the real illustrations that I would use for my book.

Initial Story Ideas

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Jess Claxton

Firstly I tried to come up with a story for my book and then develop the illustrations from there. I found it quite difficult to come up with an actual story. I had parts of a storyline that I wanted to incorporate but did not know how to put this into a full plot. Initially, I wanted to write a story around inequality but eventually decided against this and focused on the topic of death and grief.

My first idea was to focus on a young girl with her parents. One of the girls parents would pass away and she would be followed around by a dark storm cloud, indicating her sadness. However, as the story progresses the cloud starts to disappear and it eventually passes, showing her becoming happy again.

These were my original notes for writing my story:

Beginning

Happy family – shows them doing things together

Middle

Her dad dies. She is shown doing all the activities she’d do with her dad but she is followed around by a rain cloud

End

The rain cloud starts to disappear and everything becomes brighter and colourful again.

This is the main character that I had drawn.

I found it quite difficult to draw people and ended up moving on from this idea, although I am not entirely sure why as I quite like it.