Postcard drawings

So - the lost art of sending a postcard. The tackiness of collaged photos of Skegness or cartoons on a bit of card aside, sending a postcard is about sharing a moment in time with someone. Where you're somewhere else and want to show through words and images what you're experiencing. Or the less romantic view - sending it out of social obligation.

In my series of postcards, I wanted to focus on the quirkier tourist places around Bristol - not so obscure that they're only known to locals or not so touristy that it doesn't fit with the label's independent ethos.

Speaking with Alastair, his stance was to remove the tacky aspect of sending a postcard, so no "from Bristol with love" sentiments or saucy seaside puns (or estuary in Bristol's case). We agreed that it didn't need much explanation, if anything just a small mention on the back.

Locations:

Cranes by M Shed, Harbourside

Birdcage walk, Clifton

One of the city farms - not sure if Windmill Hill or St Werburghs would work better visually.

I've already worked on a few drawings of the cranes:

One thing I wanted to try with this project is to have a more expressive way of drawing as my style is always the same (and I'm not a huge fan of it). I tend to stick to fineliners and detail. For the time available to me, maybe it's best that I keep to what I know.

Something that will impact the visual style I go for on these postcards is how to overlay the vinyl and the animation to not distract from the drawing. As the animations are filmed under very bright light, I did wonder if UV ink could be used and the animation isn't visible to the naked eye, however Alastair pointed out that I was already being very ambitious trying to pull an illustration and animation together to look nice visually.

I have found a few styles that I would like to work with, but as I mention the animation may influence the final design:

This kind of digital collage could be a nice way to add a more 'messy' style into my drawings.