I have always been a big fan of hand drawn typography and after finding this course I thought it would be a great way to try and improve my skill set. Since graduating University last year I have found it really hard to be self diciplined enough to continue my illustration in my spare time. I think having something to work toward and gain feedback from other people like myself should hopefully push me to explore different areas of my work aswell as improve my lettering.

I chose a quote that I instantly fell in love with "All good things are wild and free". I have experimented with illustrating this quote before but thought it would be interesting to see how this new project will compare to my old one.

I have started off with a list of words roughly going over a few themes I would like to incorporate into my piece.

All good things are wild and free - image 1 - student project

Inmy first moodboard I have chosen to look more into compositions and lettering that I like. All good things are wild and free - image 2 - student project

For my second moodboard I wanted to look more into decorative type and vintage colour pallets. I think this has helped me narrow down a few of my favourite styles as well as colour palletes that I will be exploring later on in this project.

All good things are wild and free - image 3 - student project

After looking at my research I then went onto picking the word from my quote and exploring different ways that I could present it. This is what I have come up with so far.

All good things are wild and free - image 4 - student project

All good things are wild and free - image 5 - student project

Before I want to go any further with the composition of my piece I think it would be better for me to experiment with more lettering and fonts. Now that I have gathered enough inspiration from my moodboards and vintage type I have gone on to start experimenting with each individual letter. All good things are wild and free - image 6 - student project

After looking at different ways I could write the words from my quote I then went on to looking at compositions. This is something I have always had trouble with.

All good things are wild and free - image 8 - student project

All good things are wild and free - image 9 - student project

More thumbnails of compositions:

All good things are wild and free - image 10 - student project

After looking at all my thumbnails I chose a few compositions that I liked and recreated them adding a lot more detail and refinements. This was my first attempt at finding a certain style and composition I was happy with.

All good things are wild and free - image 11 - student project

My second attempt, I am leaning more towards this design as I feel the "All good" and "and free" in the same style ties the whole piece together nicely. I also thought it might be interesting to add an intricate boarder as this is something that came up a lot in my floral research. I would love to hear what people think :).

All good things are wild and free - image 12 - student project

I wanted to start to finalize some of my sketches so I could start to visualize what it would look like at the end. I am very far from finished and there is a lot I would change still but I am happy with the progress I am making. I feel the free at the bottom is very stretched, so this is something I will take into consideration when redoing this piece. But overall I am happy with the composition and I quite like the decorative boarder which goes very well with the theme of my quote. I am unsure about the "All good" text at the top and unsure whether to add a drop shadow in, if anyone could give me advice on this that would be great, thanks :).

All good things are wild and free - image 13 - student project

Now time to ink :)

All good things are wild and free - image 14 - student project

I have done a quick coloured version but I am far from happy with it. I think I need to play around with colour pallets more and maybe play around with how it looks with the boarder.

All good things are wild and free - image 15 - student project

All good things are wild and free - image 16 - student project

Still not sure on colours. Also now that I have looked at my old version with the border I really like it now. I think I may incorporate these colours into my vectored version next. Even though I don't like the colours in this one I think it looks a lot more clean now that I have gone on to vector it. I can't wait to get started with textures!

All good things are wild and free - image 17 - student project

Charly Clements

Greeting Card Designer and Illustrator

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