Life Drawing

Life Drawing Class

My friend who studies Fine Art at Leeds Uni invited me to go with her friends to a life drawing class at the pub-why not??

I have only done life drawing once before. What I remembered was the instruction to try and use strong dark lines to show muscles and strength and thinner rough lines to illustrate light and softness.

15 min drawings x4

 25 min drawings x2

Study Task 3 Applied Illustration

FUNCTIONAL IMAGES

'The Banana' album cover of for the Velvet Underground is an interesting piece of functional imagery. 

It was a silk screen print designed by Andy Warhol which importantly gave his 'stamp of approval'. He used a very simple image of a banana but very controversially used its connotations to make the cover erotic through the use of an erect banana alongside an evocative instruction saying 'peel slowly and see'. This revealed a bare banana underneath. This turned out to be a nightmare to make because the sticker had to be hand stuck and so it was dropped after a year of the original release (which was 1967). It is a very simple piece of illustration but it is striking and there is such a strong message associated with it. At the time this album cover was ignored but now it is iconic and regarded as a critically acclaimed cover.

This is another functional image because it is promoting a gig. It combines eye catching imagery with information of the date, location, band and time in a very visual way. It includes the iconic album cover that all Doors fans know and love but has created in within an art nouveau style. I feel that this poster is greatly inspired by Alphonse Mucha (an art nouveau artist)- The use of layout with the curved edge over his head, the plants creating up the side in the mark making style used and the swirl as a border. 

This summer I went to the Alfonse Mucha museum in Prague. I found this poster very striking. Mucha made 2 promotional posters for Job cigarettes. I think that this image is very clever-so many layers to it. This is a functional poster as it promotes the cigarettes but also is a beautiful image. He builds up the background pattern through the logo of the cigarettes. The smoke from the cigarette also evokes into her hair as if her hair is a cloud of smoke. This feature of her her, according to 'Alfonse Mucha' written by Sandra Mucha was referred to as 'Much's Macaroni'. Because it is art nouveau style that lady is depicted as beautiful and glamorous and furthermore promotes smoking. 

This is another example of an applied illustration- a book cover. This book is all about how going to war changed peoples lives. I think that this lino cut is beautiful. I think that it really creates atmosphere of war (the grey smudges). It is also very subtle by putting the figures in silhouette and looking down/facing away. The use of lino cut is very impacting because the roughness of the lines and their directions furthermore insinuates distress and tension. Also the use of 2 colours is effective at creating a solum mood.

This is an example of illustrations being applied to a product-in this case clothing. I came across Alina Zamanova through a flash print sale in which I bought a print. She is a predominantly a fashion illustrator. This means that a lot of her work is extremely expensive to purchase even though her product are very cool- I think Rhianna has worn a piece of her clothing!

This is very clever because it is making plain, boring knitwear interesting through the application of one image. Therefore she is taking her own twist on the consumer fashion. They also are not beautiful images-perhaps making a statement on feminism and identity.

Here I like the layout of this image. It originally had multiple figures but here she has made it fit the back of the coat. I think the limited use of colour is gorgeous and the striking block colours contrasting with thin line details.

I like that here the image fills the whole of the body suit in a very fun and colourful way. This image is not only promotional of the clothing but could arguably be a piece of art work in its self as a photograph due to the face paint and the original piece she is lying on.

This is another example of above in that her artwork is the background and the dress.

Thought Bubble

THOUGHT BUBBLE

Went to thought bubble last weekend. It wasn't like anything I had ever been to before and I didn't know what to expect at all. Comic books and that whole spectrum of art had passed me by/i had ignored it but I thought it would be interesting to learn about it and respect it as an art form.

It turned out to be 3 different venues which had lots of different illustrators and comic artists displaying their work. It was crazy, there were so many different styles all in one room and there was soon much to take in.

I have to admit that there were a lot of styles which didn't interest me but there were also some excellent things! Of course I made some purchases although it was almost impossible to chose:
'A Collection of Nouns' book and poster by Colin Mayhew and Kerry Venus (Mild Peril Media)

'A Collection of Nouns' book and poster by Colin Mayhew and Kerry Venus (Mild Peril Media)
Here there is a lot going on however it deliberately busy so that you have to physically search for the figures. It is also amusing because almost all of their privates are covered up- almost! This is focusing on detailed mark making and it is just so alive! 

'Hell bound' by Alabaster Pizzo and Kayleigh Forsyth (Retrofit Comics)
Here i liked the limited colour palettes used (mainly the primary colours) but I bought this book mainly on the comical elements picked up of day to day life.

'The Troll' byt Martin Flink
Here I found that the illustrations within this book are absolutely beautiful. I am not a massive fan of the character design but the landscapes have extremely beautiful line work and skilled use of light and dark. This is also interesting because it is from a Danish artist but it is still accessible for me who can't read danish. He hasn't included works and only onomatopoeia which makes it accessible for all audiences-clever

'The Artist' by Anna Haifisch (Breakdown Press)
This book basically takes the piss out of artists - specifically fine artists. I saw it and just had to buy it- very funny. Also the character design is made up of scrawny figures which add comical appeal to it

We also came across a beautifully illustrated in coloured pencil book 'Libbys Dad' by Eleanor Davis (Retrofit Comics and Big Planet Comics) however there was only one copy and I lost the fight over it BIG REGRET...

The figures in this were miss proportioned which added character to them however the most striking thing about this book is the use of the coloured pencils. There is so much skill and depth included in each illustration it is so pleasing to look at. Also the artist has a great grip on layout and especially the use of space and when how it can make an impact.

It was also really lovely to talk to all of the creatives in the room. We spoke to Colin Mayhew who gave us advice on which ink pens he used 'Graphik' and that it had taken him ages to find the right pen. We also spoke to Alex Norris who talked about how lovely it was coming to events like this but it would be great if a billionaire came as there are so many nice things and nice people you want to support.

I have established that although it was a lovely day and crazy inspiring it wouldn't be a place for my work to be presented. I think it is an amazing thing to look at however if I was to have a stall next year or something my work would be massively out of place, however I know this wouldn't be the case for everyone on my course.

Louise Lockhart lecture

Louise Lockhart

Louise Lockhart came into uni to give us a lecture about her career and I found this really interesting.

She hasn't managed to get an Agent and has now tried and given up. She seems to be very independent and resilient though because she is a full-time illustrator and has been given some very interesting briefs and a range of them. She created her own "brand" called 'the Printed Peanut'.

I think it is really inspirational how hard she tried to get where she is now, through waitressing and doing work for free (which I know is what most illustrators have to do to get their name "out there" initally).

I really liked that she set up her own screen printing "studio" in her bathroom and I that she started to put her images onto products through Print all over me and Society 6 which I think is a cool way to feel like you have achieved something and push what you are used to.

Another cool thing she does is enter 'Secret 7's' which I had never heard of but has a competition for 7 singles for the album covers each year- she even won one! Album covers are something that would be AMAZING to do so I may consider entering this at some point...

She has had some really sweet commissions, for example Boden wanted her to make an image which was interactive of a sea-side scene.

She has also gone down a very specialist route through the use of Paper cuts. I knew about using paper cuts for layers of a collage and laser cuts (which is pretty much the inverse) but her paper cuts have a really nice quality to them and was rather inspirational.

She also has been collecting textures of basic things like letters through the door and book covers which she can then put onto her work through photoshop to add texture. This is a simple idea but very effective. She said she uses photoshop to add colour to her images as well.

Her interests are shown strongly through her work. She has a passion for shop fronts and food... She has also come up with some very creative ideas to sell like illustrated forfeits in a game of Pass the parcel. This is an aspect of where he work goes into product design.

She also uses Risographs in her work which again I hadn't heard of but they have a beautiful quality to them! They are digital prints which look hand crafted...I have also learnt that there is a place called 'Footprint' which prints these.

How full of life is this illustration! It really captures the music that they are creating, it is very colourful but with a limited palette so that the image doesn't look too chaotic! I would love to create something like this! I also love that nothing is flat colour, everything is built up of patterns/textures and even the blocks of colour, due to the risograph prints, are textured!

Her advice to us was to network with other illustrators throughout our careers by going to events like Print Fairs and meeting people.