Influence..

Natsko Seki

Once upon a time..

Big Bad Wolf inc.

The manifesto for the collaboration.

I found a book on raining frogs, so I bought the book and thought I could illustrate over the text so my drawings are not always on a plain white background.

Adding my illustrations to a ready made background..

I decided to draw on pictures of landscapes I bought from a charity shop. Looking at my own drawings, I realised I tend to sometimes forget about what’s in the background, although I do think about the composition of the image. I think drawing on these bought images works well, and gives depth to my original illustrations. As well as providing settings for my illustrations that I would never have thought to use previously. I like the look of the combination of the line, and painting along with the original, found illustration.

Two people collaborate

Although my collaboration with the entire group has been fairly limited, I did work with one group member much more. I think this is because there was a much more obvious visual connection between our work as well as many more shared interests in similar ideas of narrative and story telling.

As part of our collaborative duos work, we photographed our work together by placing images together to attempt to form a narrative.

Influence..

David Gentleman

Love the line quality to these drawings.

Influence..

Oliver Jeffers

Exploring composition.

Its Raining frogs!

I used the artist Natsko Seki, from the ‘LOOKIE LIKEY’ project as a influence on these buildings. The combination of detailed line drawing and flat gouache, which I explored this combination in the following images. 

Influence..

Natsko Seki

A flat surface, with interesting use of composition and scale, with the small photoshop people. Really appreciate the detail and line quality in the drawings of the buildings. 

Its raining frogs!

After drawing some frogs  on the theme of ‘Fears and Phobias’, I began to do some reading and read of numerous tales of ‘raining frogs’ throughout history. These true stories have occurred in British towns, caused when a wind storm has passed over a pond or lake filled with frogs, picking them up and throwing them elsewhere.  I then started to illustrate scenes of ‘Raining Frogs’. I liked the visual quality of the frogs, as there are quite simple forms to draw but can allow for quite a lot of detail. And I have enjoyed experimenting with composition and how this conveys different narratives and different characterisation of the frogs.

Influence..

Luke Best

I came across this artist on Grain Edit, and liked the naive style.

Whats under the bed?.

Continuing with the creatures (which were beginning to look more like monsters) I created following the ‘exquisite corpse’ task, I considered the ideas of monsters. Monsters are thought to lurk in domestic settings such as under beds, in wardrobes and behind doors.  I briefly pursued this visually, after our groups communication began to break down and everyone’s work began to branch off.
After a tutorial, I decided not to carry on with the domestic monsters. Instead, I considered the idea of ‘What’s under the bed?’, fears and phobias.

No communication

Monsters?.

The group’s first collaborative task was to create an ‘exquisite corpse’.  Whilst other group members found the outcome to be aesthetically pleasing, I didn’t greatly appreciate the visual quality of the drawing. However, I did find the idea of combining different animals to make odd, unexpected creatures and so I used the idea behind the ‘exquisite corpse’ task and created my own creatures  initially through collage and then through drawings.

  Using the visual outcomes of the collages and hand drawing them to bring them back to my main area of interest: line drawing. Collage could be a good starting point for making work in future modules, as collages create images I would never expect myself to make through hand drawing. The collages are much more exploratory, and don’t have a sense of worry behind them, which some of my hand drawings may.

Collaboration..umm?

Not convinced by the title 'Monsters', but i cant say they has been much discussion in our group. I needed some influential inspiration, so i googled children's books with monsters in, and saw Sara Fanelli had made a book on 'Mythological Monsters'. 

Now ordered off Amazon, i am hoping to get some sort of inspiration..

John Stezaker at the Whitechapel gallery, London.

John Stezaker Mask XXXVI, 2007.

John Stezaker: Old film portraits, vintage postcards, cut and paste together.

British artist John Stezaker is fascinated by the illusion of images. Born in Worcester, and attended the Slade School of Art in London in the 1960s. Stezaker was a senior tutor in critical and historical studies at the Royal College of Art in London up until 2006.

Stezaker’s winning formula for the creation of his artwork is primarily collaging together two found, ‘vintage’ images, to create one new image with a new meaning.

Hoarding vintage film stills and studio publicity portraits from the seventies, he combines them with postcards to produce absurd compositions. By very skilfully and subtly adjusting and slicing separate images together, Stezaker creates unique new works with what appears to be minimal effort, yet the outcomes are commendably sophisticated.

  Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous movie stars with caves, or waterfalls, making images of beauty. Postcards of natural happenings, such as waterfalls, obscure the luxuriously lit faces of men and women, to allow unexpected windows on to the abstract landscapes of their minds. Postcards masking faces or hovering above them like ideas. His juxtapositions are not seamless, so that the eye is confronted by obvious disjoints that the mind has to resolve.

  This major exhibition of John Stezaker gives a chance to see works from the 1970’s to present. The word ‘surrealism’ comes to mind when looking at the exhibition, due to the juxtapositions of his collages. An interesting display of works, and a very well organized visual exhibition. The positioning of works in series force the observer to create a narrative across the series of pieces. The small pieces forces the viewer to walk up close, and engage with them up close, rather than looking at the work from a distance. By changing the distance in which these pieces are viewed, slows down the pace at which you walk through the exhibition. The white walls and the pieces spaced out. The atmosphere in the room was very quiet, and had a feeling of calm. The atmosphere made you reflective on the work you were viewing.

 

Brian Clarke- Works on paper, Saatchi Gallery, London.

Two Spitfires I. 2010

Table of Paint tubes, and caramel. 2010

This is a exhibition of Brian Clarke's unseen works on paper from 1969 to present day. The spitfire works were made especially for this show, and have a really interesting line quality about them. The fact only half a spitfire has been coloured in, is intriguing, fragments of line. 

"Brian Clarke is an artist of considerable achievement and his drawings are the point of departure for all his work; they give a fascinating insight into his artistic practice. Simon de Pury, Chairman of Phillips de Pury & Company. 

A week in London..

Interesting and insightful week, thrown in with the novelty of the underground tubes. 

Influence..

Jess Wilson

Experimented in the style of Jess Wilson, but found using watercolour on a large surface is difficult to control.

Camera Lucida Drawings..

Using the Camera Lucida to see the difference in line quality.

Creative Review

Creative Review- March 2010

Article about the ipad

I wasn't too interested in the article, all though i did read it, but the visual along side the artical grabbed my attention.

Transport

My ideas for the theme transport weren’t anything to do with the obvious. As someone who likes to illustrate I thought about the idea of a story, which contained some sort of transport. I.e.. A balloon, a parachute, a elephant. In my sketchbook I started by drawing some ideas, with the use of different medias.

After coming across the artist Julie Verhoven, and liking the quality of mark making she does, I came out of my sketchbook to try put some colour to the line drawing I did in my sketchbook.

Influence..

Julie Verhoeven.

I am not particularly interested in fashion illustration as a subject matter, but the engaging style of colour applied to this illustration is appealing, and has a childlike sensibility.