Studio Brief 2: 'Greetings From...' - National Park Research

Research

Specifying my idea early on was really important as I tend to take my time with making decisions, unsure if i am making the right choice or a huge mistake. Having decided upon American national parks as my theme across my postcards, I was able to begin researching into the parks themselves, picking up on keys features and looking at actual national park postcards and advertising.

The use of reference material at this stage is also important because i have never visited any of these parks myself and I need to get a good idea of what each one looks like. I think this material will also help inform my colour palette choices when creating the final artwork. It also helps to have pretty pictures for inspiration - I hope my postcards do these locations justice!


Yellowstone

Location: Mainly Wyoming, but Montana and Idaho also
Key features: Grand prismatic spring, "Old Faithful" geyser, Tower Falls, Petrified forest
Scenery: Volcanic, green and fertile. Full of wildlife, specifically: eagles, wolves, bears, elk, bison, moose and cougars
Activities: Geyser watching, hiking

Reference images:

Geyser "Old Faithful"

The Grand Prismatic Spring

The Grand Prismatic Spring and setting 

Yellowstone Cougar

Yellowstone Lake and mountain scenery

Yellowstone Lake and surrounding trees

Tower Falls

The Grand Canyon

Location: Arizona
Key features: red canyon, cacti, heat, Colorado river, sky walk, Havasu Falls, rock formations
Scenery: Natural canyon formation lining the Colorado river, sandy, desert-like, vast
Activities: Hiking, rafting

Reference images:

Grand Canyon Sky Walk

Typical scenery

Cacti

Havasu Falls

Canyon detail

Canyon rock formations

Colorado river

canyon skyline

The Great Smoky Mountains

Location: North Carolina and Tennessee
Key features: Misty mountains, forests, winding road running through the park which is how most tourist explore it, peaked mountains called "chimney tops", mouse creek waterfall
Scenery: Colourful and vibrant with changes in leaf colour through seasons, dramatic, misty, high up, dense forest
Activities: Drive through, swim in falls, hike

Reference images:

Misty skyline and setting sun

Mouse Creek waterfall

Skyline (colour reference)

Forests and mountains in autumn

Forest in spring/summer (colour reference)

Skyline

Yosemite

Location: California
Key features: Half dome, towering red woods and sequoia trees, tallest waterfall in North America "Yosemite Falls', Tuolumne Meadows 
Scenery: rocky, green, flowers, lots of water (lakes, waterfalls etc), granite is everywhere
Activities: rock climbing, hiking

Reference images:

Sequoia tree example

Sequoia tree example

Sequoia tree example for reference when incorporating into artwork

Lake and granite

Famous half dome

Lake and granite at sunrise (possible colour reference)

Advertising
Whilst researching into National Parks, i thought it would be a good idea to find some examples of current advertising for the parks. essentially, that is was my postcards will be doing in a way and i wanted to see how other illustrators have approached this. Using Pinterest again I was able to create a board just for this and inspirational reference imagery.

 

 

 

 

I have noticed that all of these poster/postcard advertising examples seem to focus on one main element from each nation park to showcase. This approach may be something to think about for my own postcard designs as pinpointing one element may have more impact instead of trying to fit all elements into one.

Thoughts
After conducting this research, I feel i have a good idea of possible elements to include in my images. I feel a lot more confident about my choice in theme as well and feel that i have an great opportunity to create some artwork fitting of amazing national park scenery. I want to visit all of them!