LMW

Christie Rider. Christie Rider is an illustrator who combines traditional and contemporary methods of design. One of the things that stood out to me most was the way she uses opacity and gradients so well in her digital work. It adds depth to the images and makes them look printed, even on screen. She also adds motion to some of her digital pieces which has given me a possible feature to add to my work in future as I hadn’t considered motion before. Half tone is often used as a printmaking technique to give the illusion of a gradient but I think its also an effective way to add different dimensions to digital work. 

Sarah Von Der Heide. Sarah Von Der Heide is another artist who's illustrations are largely collage based. I love the way some areas of the illustration seem unfinished or incomplete, it adds to the overall looseness of her illustration style.

Andy Gellenberg. Throughout this project one of my main focuses has been on facial structure and how to represent human features in alternative ways. I found Andy Gellenberg’s work while looking for contemporary artist who illustrate portraits of famous people in different methods other then traditional means. I would describe Andy Gellenberg’s style as digital collage. He has a multitude of styles but after a short period of time his work has become easily recognisable to me.

“Able to draw anything at all, Ben’s highly flexible style is organic, using Photoshop to layer together the elements he’s created using natural media. Drawings, marks and textures come together to form a complete image. For him, it’s hard to complete a line drawing – he likes to keep it loose, and leave something to the imagination.” (http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/BenTallon/view)

Fashion Victim is an independent streetwear clothing brand that mainly focuses their products on printed merchandise and graphic based apparel. I collaborated with Fashion Victim to create a run of graphic T-shirts to be used as a part of their clothing range.

 Items can be seen here: http://fashionvictim.bigcartel.com/product/original-hipster
http://fashionvictim.bigcartel.com/product/stoner
http://fashionvictim.bigcartel.com/product/first-mate
http://fashionvictim.bigcartel.com/product/madam

I experimented with creating digital textures from photographs I had taken. I wasn’t too concerned by the loss of quality when I cropped areas of the images because I knew I was going to be using the textures either as bitmaps or overlaid with multiple other textures/colours.  Image taken at the London Imperial War Museum 

Chelsea Pensioners Home - King Charles II statue. While in London I visited various places that had figure statues. My style of illustration when drawing characters is to separate the facial and muscular features with line art in a similar war to topographic mapping. Some of these statues gave me an insight as to how the human figure is formed also the heavy shadowing on the metal figures highlighted muscle separations even more. I experimented with creating digital illustrations with accurate facial structure. This one was based on the King Charles statue I photographed in London. I find that by repetition of illustrating human features helps me better understand the correct positioning and shape.

“When we first picked up a pen or pencil and started making marks on paper, we began with line. Whether self-taught, through trial and error, or guided by others, we learned how line defines form, creates structure, divides a frame, traces contour, creates tonal variation (cross-hatching, for example) and leads the eye from one part of a work to another. Initially a mechanism for getting outlines onto paper – identifying edges – we begin to applaud lines for their own merit: celebrate their presence…whether a quiet flick of charcoal on paper or a streak of graphite.”

Minimum Monument - Néle Acevedo 

“Minimum Monument is an urban art action in public spaces, created by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo. Since 2005, Azevedo has been setting up her Minimum Monument in several countries around the world. 

The project is a critical reading of the monument in the contemporary cities. It consists of thousands of ice sculptures that are taken to central places in cities and with help from the passers-by, are left to melt. The sculptures are tiny men and women, 20 cm tall.”

After my trip to London I started looking at other artists who had created pieces of art that were ‘Temporary’. Néle Acevedo uses moulds to create hundreds of figures in a seated position and arranges them on stairs in public areas. She has also created pieces by using stencils to paint straight on to concrete pavements similar to how a street artists would work. As the work fades and debris gathers around the images they start to look weathered and aged despite being there for such a short period of time. Urban “Spawing” - Néle Acevedo “The intervention was carried out at Getulio Vargas Square (Porto Velho – RO) on November 14th and 15th, 2013 and prepared together with local artists at the Ivan Marrocos Culture Center workshop.” 

“The construction of the Madeira river plant destroyed the waterfall where the fish spawning used to take place. Then the idea of bringing the fish to the city was brought up. We considered that the idea of piracema embraced all the issues related to the deviation of the river, the construction of the plant and the occupation of the ground at the left edge of the river.” 

As I was crossing though Trafalgar Square I saw various street artist using chalk on concrete to create beautiful murals and illustrations. I spoke to one particular artist who said he had been working on this piece for 4 hours. It was quite shocking to me that someone would work for hours on end on their hands and knees creating a stunning piece of work just for it to be washed away by rain or walked over at some point. There is something special about seeing a unique piece of art being created and knowing that the only evidence that will be left of that work is in the form of a photograph.

London - Imperial War Museum. While on a trip to London I visited the Imperial war museum. I knew my final pieces were going to be heavily texture based so I wanted to get inspiration from some of the ephemera from different eras of war. What I found most interesting was the dulled out colour schemes of the vintage war posters and propaganda imagery and some of the textures created naturally by the effects of ageing, this also applied to the metals and fabrics on the war machinery and memorabilia. From the pictures I had taken at the Imperial War Museum I began creating simple bitmap texture packs to be used as part of my FMP pieces. I think having a selection of my own textures is important as I don't have to worry about finding royalty free/non-copyright images to use for my work.

Sketchbook work for negotiated major project. I was mostly sketching facial features and different character heads leading up to creating my final pieces. By repeatedly sketching faces, I was able to get a feel for how the structure of the face is formed and also experiment with different types of anatomy proportions. I experimented with continuous line art to help me figure out interesting ways to draw a rough human face quickly. This also showed me what effect exaggerating certain features of the face, such as sunken cheek bones, has in terms of mood and facial expression. My aim wasn't to draw these characters anatomically correct but more just to get a rough idea of how the face is pieced together.

“Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work, from her covers for The New Yorker to her books for children and grown-ups. She is as wonderful, as wise and as deliciously off-kilter in person as she is on paper.”

“Christopher Nielsen’s weathered surfaces take inspiration from vintage design. Tin toys, Mexican wrestlers, Route 66, Matchboxes, Medical Charts and Indian Goddesses all jostle for attention amongst the flotsam and jetsam in his flip-top head. These scratchy retro images have been adopted by wineries, zoo’s, radio stations and fish mongers from around the globe. He toils by lamplight in a warehouse studio in Surry Hills, Sydney surrounded by Pez dispensers, Chinese masks and several other odd illustrators.”