Robert Johnson- A little background knowledge

Robert Johnson, May 8 1911- Aug 16 1938. (Speculated dates) 

Robert Johnson was born in Hazlehurst Mississipi to Julia Major Dodds and Noah Johnson.
  Julia's husband Charles Dodds had had a dispute with white land owners and was forced by a mob to leave Hazlehurst. After around two years Robert was sent to live in Memphis with Julia's husband who had changed his name to Charles Spencer.
 Circa 1919 Robert rejoined his mother in the delta area near Robinsonville. After school Robert married 16 year old Virginia Travis in Feb 29. Virginia died in childbirth shortly after, surviving relatives of Virginia said that this was a divine punishment for his decision to sing secular music.
  Around this time, Son House (a fantastic and world renowned blues musician) moved to Robinsonville to be close to his musical partner Willie Brown. House remembered Johnson as a boy and recalled he was embarrassingly bad on the guitar.
 Not long after this, Johnson left for Martinsville close to his birthplace in Hazlehurst possibly in search of his natural father. The next time Johnson appeared in Robinsonville it seemed he has somehow acquired miraculous guitar playing skills and techniques that people had never seen or heard before. It is said this is because Robert Johnson had sold his soul to satan at one of two possible crossroads I have narrowed down from many. (lots of people say it was at a lot of different crossroads, I have narrowed it down by reading where the most likely people to know have said.).
   While living in Martinsville, Johnson fathered a child with Vergie Smith. He also married Caletta Craft in May 1931, in 32 they moved to Clarkside in the Delta. Here Caletta died in childbirth and Johnson left to pursue his career as a walking (travelling) musician.
    From 1932 until his death on Aug 16 1938, Johnson moved from town to town between cities like Memphis and Helena and all the surrounding areas in Tennessee and Arkansas, sometimes travelling even further to places like Chicago, Texas and New York.
  He recorded 29 songs between 1936-37 for the American Record Corporation, which released 11 78rpm records on their Vocalian Label, and one after his death.
   He is known as the King of Delta Blues and his music has inspired and continues to inspire musician and blues fans today, some notable musicians that sing the praises of Johnson and also recorded some of his songs are Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and the Allman Brothers.
   Johnson died on Aug 16 in 1938 making him the third member of the 27 club after Alexandre Levy and Louis Chauvin. Although the cause of his death is unknown, as is the location of his true grave, it is speculated that Johnson was flirting with a married woman at a local dance whilst staying with friends near Greenwood, Mississippi. One opinion is that Johnson was offered a Poisoned bottle of whiskey by the woman's husband, which he accepted, drank.. and fell ill dying three days later.
Another opinion is that the poison expected to have been used would of killed him much sooner than he died.. and on his death certificate it is written that he may have died of Syphilis.

This knowledge is a mixture of mostly, things I already knew having being interested with Johnson for a few years.. and information from the RobertJohnson foundation website.

Level 5 HE Assignment Brief - Illustration Concepts for Commercial Audiences - Non-Narrative Illustraion

For this brief I have to choose a musical artist from a list given by our tutors, and through a self initiated 'concept' I have to represent the music and the artist.
I have to research the artist, album and market and build my own conceptual ideas around my analysis and solutions.
      (research my chosen artist thoroughly, build my own conceptual ideas around them and discuss how my outcomes and processes relate to my chosen artist)

I must document and evaluate personal progression and evidence of theoretical enquiry, technical skills development and commercial viability.
      (basically, document and explain my progression of how my processes change and improve for this specific brief, also explaining and documenting my research into the specific subject.. and explain how it commercially viable in a modern market?... I think..)

This must all be supported by a final conclusion and description of my overriding concept in my journal.
    (so a written final conclusion is needed to explain my overall concept and the journey that brought me to it.. on my blog)

The artist and album I have chosen for this brief is: Robert Johnson - King of the Delta Blues.
(I chose this because I am a huge fan of Johnson, his music and his mysterious life has fascinated me for years. I will not struggle to keep inspired, I will stay passionate and enjoy this brief!)

I have been asked to produce ONE of each of the following:

PACKAGING.
CD
or
12"Vinyl.
(likely to go for vinyl because it is more suited to Johnson's era)

EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION
Fashion Editorial
or
Interview Editorial
(more likely to pursue the fashion challenge as Robert Johnson is pretty dead, so an interview editorial will be difficult as there where no recorded interviews with him.)

A PRODUCT
Apparel
Home wear
Ceramics
Greetings card
Stationary
Toy
(not sure where to go with this, will put much thought into it..apparel is sticking out to me at the moment because vintage style dress is somewhat in fashion and i can imagine a modern take on 1920-30's delta dress style... but yeah not sure..i'll put more thought into it)

ADVERTISING
A poster
This must be in digital and printed formats.
(looking forward to this, I would like to screen print my poster.. as it is something I have had no practise or experience with as of yet, though I know of its uses and importance in the industry and believe that screen printing is going to be 'right down my alley'.)

Narrative Illustration (changes to cover)

I decided to change my book cover last second because i really didnt like the one i had done. I felt it didnt look as professional as i wanted it to. i wanted it to be of less colour and more power. Luckily i had drawn a skull a while ago in pencil and had not used it for anything so far, so i used it to make a quick cover from what i had.. i am very pleased with the results and feel it looks how i originally wanted it too now . below is the one i had first.. and the one i have now changed it too .

Narrative Illustration (changes to final pieces)

 I have made a couple of changes to a couple of my final pieces, the ones that i changed i did so because i felt that they looked flat.


 For example, the image with the dead baby, after i had completed it i kept looking at it and something didnt feel right, what came to mind was that Rentz was hallucinating at this point, big time style... so i messed around with the hue/saturation and levels to make it look more psychedelic and scarey, with toxic blues and purples. see below...

This one i felt was way to dark, not muched was changed to this piece other than brightening it up to make it more visible and not such a strain to look at... i also slightly edited the hue and saturation to make the green colours more vibrant, i felt this was important as the toilet is described to be pure disgusting.. and i associate that kind of filth and grime with green colours.

Narrative Illustration (rentz image)

This piece is different to the rest, as this one has a limited colour pallet of orange shades and tones.

The reason i did this is because i wanted at least one illustration, showing one of the characters high on heroin.. in a glamourous way, not in the vile way that i see it, but in the nice way the characters describe it.
The effects have been described as a warming feeling of peace that covers the body and brings on total relaxation and clarity. This is why i have chosen to do the whole thing with an orange pallet, because orange is a warm, calm colour.. and resembles the colour of the drug itself.

Narrative Illustration. (processes)

I'm now coming close to the deadline, so currently im finishing my illustrations so that they are fully realised, the right size in relation to the specifications of my copy of the book that i own.
I thought i'd shed some light on my process from a sketchbook drawing to fully finished piece.


So first of all i scan my image and email it to myself, then i download it and open it in photoshop.
I then use the magic wand tool to select everything except my line work on the drawing, and delete it all.

I then make a layer behind the line and start to colour it.

I do this by selecting sections in the line work as to not colour out of the lines, and use the brush tool to colour in the gaps.

Once i have laid down a basic flat colour layer, i then go back over the edges of the patches of colour adding tone with darker and lighter hues of the colour. 

Once i have finished colouring the piece, I add a water colour filter over the whole thing to smooth out the line work and tone work to give the piece a more smooth, finished consistent look.

Then i cut only the actual drawing from surrounding sketchbook carry on.

I open a new file in photoshop the same size as my book ( 19.7x12.9cm).. i use the rulers on photoshop to measure out my 5mm bleed, drag and drop my image into the new file and fit it to size... then its done.

Narrative Illustration, Rentz

Here are a few drawings showing my progress in development for my character Mark Renton from my first sketchbook on this project.
I feel that the representation in the film was way off, as Rents is described with scruffy ginger hair and a resemblance to footballer Alex McLeish shown below.

There is much more work on this character in my sketchbooks, this is simply my initial development. I did not spend as much time on my other characters as once I had decided I was happy with Rents, I had a basic face template that I wanted to keep for continuity, and I put this into practice on my other characters adding there individual features and changing the shape of the head etc where appropriate to give em their individuality's.