Courtney Lane - Visual Arts

Luis Rojas is a freelance digital caricaturist from Venezuela

Denis Zilber is a freelance artist and visual storyteller with over 12 years experience across a number of platforms.

Zilber has worked on Children's book illustrations, video games, board games, film and animation character design, advertising for magazines, etc for several big name companies such as Dreamworks, Penguin books, GQ and Nickelodeon.

He now also travels around the world teaching illustration alongside his freelance work. several prominent digital illustrators Denis Zilber as their inspiration.

Sergio Edwards is a Freelance illustrator and art director from Chile. Edwards started his digital art journey in high school when he developed an interest in visual effects. He then went on to study advertising and 3D art and took photoshop classes at university before becoming a full time freelance illustrator.

Photoshop is still his software of choice and he uses online tutorials and takes knowledge from his previous experience with 3D art to create a 3D effect to his own work using rendering and lighting. He also uses his experience in Advertising to add colour theory into his work.

Yao Yao Ma Van As is an art director, painter, illustrator and animator based in Los Angeles.

Over the years she has worked at Disney TV Animation, Warner Brothers Animation, Rick and Morty, Stoopid Buddy Studios and Starburns Industries.

Yao Yao has illustrated several books and became very popular when a series of her digital illustrations went viral, This is how I found her work.

The series is called The Joys of living alone and illustrates the 8 years she lived alone with her dog Parker before getting married, it shows the moments of joy you experience on your own that are often overlooked.

She has talked about how much she loved living on her own and you can really feel that in the images she makes.

This artist uses a Wacom graphics tablet to create her work and you can really see the difference in styles she experiments with and how her work has developed over time, some pieces are quite two dimensional and cartoon like, some are more realistic and some have more of an oil painting feel to them.

Glasgow Southern necropolis - Gorbals vampire - 

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Staffa - Argye and Bute - Inner heberdes - Fingals cave

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Dundee - Strath Martime and Orkney, Shetland, Faroes - The stoor worm and The nine maidens of Dundee

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London and Liverpool - Spring heeled Jack - 

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Dumfries and Galloway - kirk maiden - The ghost bagpiper of clanyard bay

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Anglezark moors/Rivington - Boggarts, Brownies, Owd Hob, Ullerts, Morgan La Faye 

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Pendle hill - Witches -

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Aldershot Baracks - spring heeled Jack

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London Tower - The ravens and Bran the blessed/the giants head

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Hambleton hills north Yorkshire - Nothallerton/Osmotherly - The cursed boy

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Brompton cemetary - Trinity church - Lincolnshire - Tom Thumb

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Devon - The beast of Bodmin moor

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Tool for creating footprints

Suffolk - Holy trinity church - Blythbugh - Black shuck

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Southend - Essex - Ratman of Southend

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Mitchell Grafton is an American ceramic artist. He creates and sells unique sculptures, tea pots, jugs, etc

His work usually includes surreal faces and animals in fun colours and glazes.

He also asks his audience to send him ideas that he can make so his also quite interactive and he’s never shirt of ideas.

Mitchells work is quite steampunk and abstract. I chose him to research because his style is modern, surreal and comical, I’ve been following it for many years.

Raqib Shaw is a multifaceted artist who creates colourful and intricate paintings, prints rugs and sculptures that on first glance are beautiful and eye catching, they draw you in but once drawn in the subject matter is much darker than first expected.

Drawing influence from mythology, Iconography and religious stories and practices from both the Eastern cultures and Western, signs of hinduism can be seen in people with blue skin like Hindu gods Vishnu and Shiva and people with animal heads like Ganesh, I wouldn’t say these images represent any single god as there are 33 million Hindu gods many of which have animal heads or are blue.

There is also clear influences from Satanic religions and Christian religions such as dead animals and scenes of vast amounts of food representing gluttony and a skeleton staring into a mirror which shows pride.

All of this is displayed in paintings created with metallic enamels on embossed metal plates with gems, gold and glitter running through it.

I was lucky enough to attend a Raqib Shaw exhibition a few years ago at the Whitworth Gallery and it’s a very immersive experience.

The curator told us that Raqib wanted his space to seem like a living room with walls covered in a heavily patterned wallpaper which looks perfectly innocent from a distance until you get closer.

The wallpaper depicted twisted, pained looking trees with evil looking fairies and pixies climbing in amongst the branches.

There was a heavy persian rug in the middle and places to sit and at one end a bronze sculpture.

It looks like a fight scene where everybody is the same person, they have bats heads and their genitals are mouths with fearsome sharp teeth.

Favio M.G is a Mexican visual artist who works on large scale street art murals around the world.

His project Curiot has been running for thirteen years and is often the focus of his murals.

 Curiot centers around Favios interpritation of Mexican Folklore which is very important in Mexico as organised religion (namely Catholicism) was only introduced to the country in the 1500s before and after then Mexico was very spiritual. 

Over time myth, folklore and religion have combined and this is what inspires Favios work. 

Over the years Favio has displayed his work individually in Germany, México  and the US and collectively in England, Germany, France, Australia, India, US, Sweden, Taiwán and México.

He has also painted murals in Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Tunisia, India, USA, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Germany and Spain.

For my professional context project I knew right away that I wanted to work on a site based project, growing up in the countryside I’m very comfortable outside.

I also knew wanted to focus on folk lore stories, I’m from Lancashire, a place that has a long history of folklore from hobgoblins to witches and being the daughter of a writer I was always told stories and fables about the weird creatures that lived on the moors.

I wanted to look into other tales from all over the UK as I love traveling and exploring and this was a perfect excuse to do so whilst also discovering mythical creatures that I’d never heard of and their origins.

My research mostly centred around mythical creatures, what they looked like, their characteristics and their location as I was limited with where I could travel to and wanted to get an idea of what I was looking at and for when I got to the site and the kind of work I could make whilst there or take from there to make back at my studio.

Quentin Blake is best known as Roald Dahls illustrator and has been an illustrator for over 67 years. Much like whilst Dahl is not considered a literary genius in the writing world he’s still a very famous, successful writer and a household name because his style is so unique and the same goes for Quentin Blake.

Blake is not known for his complex talents but his style is his own and when you see one of his illustrations you know exactly who’s it is. Quentins contributions to the art world are not widely acknowledged enough, he helped bring art into the modern mainstream and into many childhoods, he is also the only illustrator that has a knighthood (even Roald Dahl himself never had one)

I discovered these illustrations whilst reading Roald Dahls revolting rhymes (as every serious adult should do) This is a collection of silly poems in response to folktales they include Cinderella, Jack and the beanstalk, Snow white, Goldilocks, red riding hood and the three little pigs and they basically poke fun at them and in turn so do Quentins illustrations in response to the poems.

I guess you think you know this story. You don't. The real one's much more gory. The phoney one, the one you know, Was cooked up years and years ago, And made to sound all soft and sappy just to keep the children happy. Mind you, they got the first bit right, The bit where, in the dead of night, The Ugly Sisters, jewels and all, Departed for the Palace Ball, While darling little Cinderella Was locked up in a slimy cellar, Where rats who wanted things to eat, Began to nibble at her feet. She bellowed 'Help!' and 'Let me out! The Magic Fairy heard her shout. Appearing in a blaze of light, She said: 'My dear, are you all right?' 'All right?' cried Cindy .'Can't you see 'I feel as rotten as can be!' She beat her fist against the wall, And shouted, 'Get me to the Ball! 'There is a Disco at the Palace! 'The rest have gone and I am jealous! 'I want a dress! I want a coach! 'And earrings and a diamond brooch! 'And silver slippers, two of those! 'And lovely nylon panty hose! 'Done up like that I'll guarantee 'The handsome Prince will fall for me!' The Fairy said, 'Hang on a tick.' She gave her wand a mighty flick And quickly, in no time at all, Cindy was at the Palace Ball! It made the Ugly Sisters wince To see her dancing with the Prince. She held him very tight and pressed herself against his manly chest. The Prince himself was turned to pulp, All he could do was gasp and gulp. Then midnight struck. She shouted, 'Heck! I've got to run to save my neck!' The Prince cried, 'No! Alas! Alack!' He grabbed her dress to hold her back. As Cindy shouted, 'Let me go!' The dress was ripped from head to toe.

She ran out in her underwear, And lost one slipper on the stair. The Prince was on it like a dart, He pressed it to his pounding heart, 'The girl this slipper fits,' he cried, 'Tomorrow morn shall be my bride! I'll visit every house in town 'Until I've tracked the maiden down!' Then rather carelessly, I fear, He placed it on a crate of beer. At once, one of the Ugly Sisters, (The one whose face was blotched with blisters) Sneaked up and grabbed the dainty shoe, And quickly flushed it down the loo. Then in its place she calmly put The slipper from her own left foot. Ah ha, you see, the plot grows thicker, And Cindy's luck starts looking sicker. Next day, the Prince went charging down To knock on all the doors in town. In every house, the tension grew. Who was the owner of the shoe? The shoe was long and very wide. (A normal foot got lost inside.) Also it smelled a wee bit icky. (The owner's feet were hot and sticky.) Thousands of eager people came To try it on, but all in vain. Now came the Ugly Sisters' go. One tried it on. The Prince screamed, 'No!' But she screamed, 'Yes! It fits! Whoopee! 'So now you've got to marry me!' The Prince went white from ear to ear. He muttered, 'Let me out of here.' 'Oh no you don't! You made a vow! 'There's no way you can back out now!' 'Off with her head!' The Prince roared back. They chopped it off with one big whack. This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said, 'She's prettier without her head.' Then up came Sister Number Two, Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!' 'Try this instead!' the Prince yelled back. He swung his trusty sword and smack Her head went crashing to the ground. It bounced a bit and rolled around. In the kitchen, peeling spuds, Cinderella heard the thuds Of bouncing heads upon the floor, And poked her own head round the door. 'What's all the racket? 'Cindy cried. 'Mind your own bizz,' the Prince replied. Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds. My Prince! she thought. He chops off heads! How could I marry anyone Who does that sort of thing for fun? The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty slut? 'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!' Just then, all in a blaze of light, The Magic Fairy hove in sight, Her Magic Wand went swoosh and swish! 'Cindy! 'she cried, 'come make a wish! 'Wish anything and have no doubt 'That I will make it come about!' Cindy answered, 'Oh kind Fairy, 'This time I shall be more wary. 'No more Princes, no more money. 'I have had my taste of honey. I'm wishing for a decent man. 'They're hard to find. D'you think you can?' Within a minute, Cinderella Was married to a lovely feller, A simple jam maker by trade, Who sold good home-made marmalade. Their house was filled with smiles and laughter And they were happy ever after.

Shawn Coss is an Ohio based freelance artist who first came to notoriety with his comedic web based comic series called Cyanide and happiness.

Coss is also an ER nurse and comes from a medical background and one of the reasons he is such a popular artist in his own right now away from the web series is through a separate series he created on instagram that went viral called Inktober Illnesses.

In the series Inktober illnesses Shawn Coss posted an ink drawing for every day of October on his Instagram, these drawings where dark characters in his signature style but they each based on a different mental illness.

Since then Shawn Coss has released several Inktober series including ones based around Phobias, obscure illnesses, horoscopes and the one I decided to focus on for this project: Disney princesses.

As a young father of two Shawn has (as most parents can probably relate to) watched Disney films far too many times.

So he channeled his annoyance into his art and created these alternative Disney illustrations in his usual dark, creepy, grungy style.

The characters faces don’t really have any features and this takes away their identities, their limbs are skinny and gaunt and the objects around them look rotten.

I find this style quite reminiscent of Tim Burtons style and wonder if he was a possible influence here.

I made a bottle of grans blood but I left it at uni during lockdown. this was on the lid of it, it’s a granny skull made of polymer clay and painted with acrylic, the glasses are actually made of glass. I covered the bottle in a layer of not very good air dry clay which then cracked so this was pretty much the only part of the bottle I actually liked.

I did want to remake the bottle however learning from my previous mistakes.

The inside of the bottle is filled with red dye mixed with water and clear baby oil, because oil and water don’t mix as long as you don’t let any air into the bottle you get this cool lava lamp effect. 

I sculpted the grannies skull around the cork of the bottle and made the glasses out of little glass lenses that I sometimes use for eyes. What I didn’t account for was the cork swelling when it went in the oven so I had to sand down the cork to get it back in the bottle, I had to fill the bottle with the dye and oil then put the cork back in and hot glue it in place, I painted it gold and wrapped it with string to hide the glue then painted that too. 

I made this label on photoshop, I wanted it to look like a typical wine label but wanted to sneak some sinister clues in so made the Bad wolf wines logo and named it Sang De Gran which is French for Blood of Gran.

I printed off the logo, cut it out and glued it on but it being white made it stand out when the grannies head top looked so old so I sponged on a brown acrylic was which also helped it adhere to the bottle better and then I cleaned the paint off the glass.

I’m actually really glad that I left the original bottle in my studio because I think this one turned out so much better despite the trouble with the cork, it’s my favourite thing that I made for the whole project.

This was the first photoshop poster I did It is actually built on top of a photo from the woods at Pendle hill which at the time I didn’t even think about but now I think about it, It’s pretty ironic that I chose a photo from a site known for witch trials when Red riding hood is based on bzou trials.

I combined the original story of her being naked and saving herself from the bzou and the newer version were it’s a wood cutter that saves her so I have her naked still but instead of drowning I wanted her to be killing the bzou with the axe that is used to chop wood.

I put her in a red cloak because it’s quintessential to the story but also it’s her whole identity, she doesn’t even have a name in the story so I made sure the hood covered her face thereby taking away her identity and her age. It doesn’t say how old she is in the tale but gives the impression she’s a child and obviously I wasn’t going to show her naked and keep her a child so I’ve increased her age and made her a young woman instead.

I also made the bzou much bigger than her to make him scarier but also to show what a feat it was to defeat him.

This is a box I had that I wanted to build a scene inside of so I painted a scene of Red riding hood in some dark scary woods on the front.

When you open the box there’s a little scene of red riding hood in the woods inside. The trees are made of sticks from real tree, the leaves are fake moss and Red riding hood is polymer clay.

This is a picture I drew of Red riding hood walking through the woods but she’s walking up a staircase of books. The only ones that have titles are a book called The fearsome wolf, Bzou trials, Little red riding hood, fairytales and right at the end there’s one called Grimms

This is one of a series of drawings done in ink of Red riding hoods journey through the woods.

I wanted to use minimal colours and make her quite small to make her stand out and make it seem like a big journey. 

The original red riding hood is an Ancient French oral folk tale that was told to discourage children from wandering off and to enforce the need for Bzou trials.

Witch trials were thought to have been created by the church to force people into christianity and away from paganism, they took place all over the world but especially in Europe.

In France they also had Bzou trials which aren’t very well known about but they were the masculine counterpart to witch trials. It was said that some men had sold their souls to Satan and they were capable of shapeshifting into a cross between a man and a wolf (they were the first werewolves basically)

These men were accused of murder, incest cannibalism, rape, beastiality, anything bad people could think of really and if found guilty these men were publicly tortured, dismembered and killed.

So how does little red riding hood come into this? well little red riding hood is the story of a girl and a bzou and the story goes like this:

One day a mother sends her daughter through the woods to her grandmas house with a basket full of food for her and a red cloak to keep her warm. On the way through the woods red riding comes across a bzou who asks her where she is going? she tells him she is going to her grandmas house. The Bzou says to her you take one road and I’ll take the other and we’ll see who gets there first, Red riding hood agrees and sets off down her road but the sneaky bzou knew his road was quicker and he arrived at grandmas house far before the girl.

The bzou breaks into the house and kills the grandma, he eats her but not before draining some of her blood into a wine bottle and saving some of her flesh for later. Disguising himself as grandma the bzou climbs into bed and waits for red. When she arrives he says you must be hungry child, take that meat over there and cook it and we’ll eat it together. The girl does as she’s told but as she’s cooking the meat a cat wanders by and says you’re eating your grandmas flesh, the bzou tells her to take her shoe off and throw it at the cat which she does and they both share the meal. The bzou tells red riding hood to fetch the bottle of wine over there and they’ll share it which she does but a bird flies by and sings don’t drink the wine it’s the blood of your gran. The bzou again tells her to throw her shoe at it which she does and they share the wine.

The bzou then tells her to take her cloak off and throw it in the fire as she doesn’t need it anymore and she does so, then he tells her to take off the rest of her clothes and burn them as she doesn’t need them anymore, she again burns them buts starts to get suspicious of her grandma. She says to the bzou “my what big eyes you have” and the bzou replies “all the better to hear you with my dear, now why don’t you climb in bed with me” Red riding hood says “My what big ears you have” to which the bzou replies “all the better to hear you with dear” the bzou was getting impatient now and told her “now climb in bed with me” but the girl had worked out that this wasn’t her gran and told the bzou she needed to relieve herself, the bzou told her to relieve herself in the bed but she says no and that she’ll go outside and do it. The bzou not trusting her tells her to tie a thread to her wrist and he’ll hold the other end so he knows she hasn’t ran away but when outside Red riding hood ties the thread to a tree and runs away through the woods.

Soon the bzou realises what has happened and gives chase but Red riding hood comes to a river were servant girls are washing sheets. Upon seeing the naked girl and hearing her story they decide to help her and pulls the sheets tight across the river so she can climb across the river.

The servant girls knowing that there is a bzou chasing the girl know exactly what to do when he gets there and when he arrives at the river they offer to hold the sheets tight so he can cross but when he gets half way across the river the girls let go of the sheet and he falls into the water and drowns.

I kind of wanted to make Snow White look a bit evil like she’d been poisoned by the apple and it had turned her bad because much like Cinderella I’m not convinced she’s totally innocent in this, She did torture a woman to death.

I wanted to try a new style for this poster based off of two tattoo style called new school which and neo-traditional which both feature shading in layers with unblended gradients.

I also wanted to make a mugshot for this one too like I did Cinderellas dad, I had an idea that I didn’t follow through with to name and shame the men in fairytales that either did dodgy things or allowed dodgy things to happen.