If I wrote my very own Manifesto of Design...

If I wrote my very own manifesto of design...

I would highly recommend that you learn to manage time

Learning is a privilege

To savour with a zealous edge

Criticism can be good

It will help, or so it should.

Set yourself some principles, live by them come rain or storm

Sometimes it is better to have an ethos than conform

Inspiration comes from others

Young and old, strangers and brothers

Hearing, touch, sight, smell and taste

Don't let one sense go to waste.

Adolf Loos famously said: 'Ornament is just a crime'

But if it is justified, it can be a grand design

Take the time to read and play

Learn a new thing every day

When you research, if you're in doubt

About a reference, leave it out.

Notebooks are a splendid thing, to make a note of all you see

Rummage through the lost and found, keep things you no longer need

Listen to the client's will

Make your project fit the bill

Read the brief a hundred times

Until you see between the lines.

Good ideas are all around, you could find them anywhere

From the latest Stagmeister, to the oldest Rupert Bear

Don't let provocation phase

Let the simple things amaze

Go to places on your own

Step outside your comfort zone.

Manifesto poem written by Cherry Pie (2011)

Bernice Myers

Bernice Myers is an author and illustrator... unfortunately I wasn't able to find out much more information about her than that!
However there is quite a lot to say about her work which is both fun and beautiful. I'm guessing that she works on textured surfaces such as canvas, or maybe she texturises the surface with a gesso... then she uses mixed mediums such as paint and pastels mainly, with perhaps a little bit of colouring pencil?
Her backgrounds are generally very simple, comprised of only a gradient or sometimes even nothing. This is definitely something that I can try to take on board in my own illustration as I have a tendency to flatten my images by trying to include too much detail into the background.

Digi-Art

Here are the final pieces I came up with after experimenting with photography. I layered them up with textured paintings of mine and played around with opacity levels and artistic filters on photoshop. These are both going in the exhibition on series that I shall be participating in. This will take place in France over the Autumn.

Experimentation

I have been experimenting with layering photography and drawings/paintings this summer, here are some of the results:

Love lies bleeding

This is a story I am currently writing/illustrating for my niece who has a rather unhealthy obsession with princesses. Last time I went to stay with my sister and her family, I took along a princess book that I had to read to her every night at bed time, so I thought I would try to make my own one and see whether she's just as keen on it!
Here are some of the illustrations I'm working on. I am trying to keep a fairly consistent style going...

The Rihanna Saga

Some of my friends and I have a constant joke going on involving the singer, Rihanna and her apparent psychosis which she gives the impression of in some of her songs.

So, as a joke I have started making a series of comic strips recounting the adventures

she has when she meets my friends... she ends up putting most of them in hospital!!

Anyway, here is an example of the illustrations I am doing for it! 

Goodnight And Go

Illustration of the song "Goodnight and Go" by Imogen Heap.