Illustration Review

Illustration Review

Week Three:

Over this week i illustration i was introduced to many new techniques behind illustration and i was suprised to dsicover that the media can be varied in illustration,whearas i believed it was purely pencil beforehand.I enjoyed the process of developing observational skills this week, alongisde the experimentation of mark making. 

I was also interested that illustrators often have a message to express and often create very interesting and thoughtprovoking work alongside the traditional book and leaflet illustration styles.An example being David Hughes who has worked with the name of Sandy Turner to create childrens illustrations aswell as the typically crude style of his.

After researching llustrators and going through the process myself, i hae learnt that illustration is much more personalised and expressive as fine art and that although it is used in an everyday environment, it is none the less art.

I have been really inspired by this week, because i love the idea that everyday illustration cna be a means of portraying messages to an audience in a much more subtle and sophisticated way. I created a set of postcards inspired by owl observations and collage. I used graph paper to contrast the free linesof the drawing in comparison to that of the linear lines. Moreover i really liked how interlinked graphics and illustration are,therefore if i choose either one i could easily incorpurate the other into my project.

Silvia Pelissero

                                     Silvia Pelissero

This work of silvia pelissero's caught my eye because of the very captivating images of women. It appealled to me because it could be classed as both fine art and illustration which i happened to really like. The colour pallettes of some of the works are breathtaking, with very bold and varied pallettes, which are put together in such a way that it doesnt clash or look poorly designed. Moreover, the works all show a focul area of the eyes, which really interests me: in one of my life drawing sessions last week, during portrature i focused on the eyes therefore i can relate to her desire to focus on the eyes. The eyes are a very important aspect in how the face is portrayed and as a method of portraying emotion, which is why these works all show different emotions through the use of focusing of the eyes and the colour pallettes used. Overall silvia is both an illustrator and artist which i why i choose to look at her, because it allowed me th explore the concept of differing mediums in illustration.

Sophie Turner

 

Sophie Turner in FLY BY NIGHT by Craig McCarthy

This illustraion by sophie turner was interesting for several reasons. One being that as i am currently doing life drawings and the process you have to go through to create a proportional tonal life drawing therefore interested me in how this woman had been drawn so well and how the foreshortening of the women worked well as the central image to the poster. Moreover, being a nightclub flyer was also interesting because i have previously assosiated illustraion with children book covers,therefore this particular illustraion is very different to my expectations of illustraion. Moreover it interested me due to its links with graphics, with the use and developement of typography. Finally, i like simple colour pallettes, which is why the black and white colour palette of this image was interesting because sterotypically posters and nightclub promotions are very bold with their colour choices:therefore i thought it was an original interpretation of nightclub promotion.

David Hughes

                               Illustration

David Hughes:

David hughes work is inspirational because he often uses symbolism to create a message behind his work, with quite crude and shocking images. These two pieces were  particularly  interesting and eye-catching because he used iconic people. The Queen image was interesting because of the gun illustration. It is small therefore you cannot see it initially but after glancing over all areas of the image you notice it and it then becomes a very shocking image, which is also unique and thought provoking. The first image also has  minimalistic symbols of planes on it which helps develop the underlying suggestion of terrorism. On this piece he has used a stereotype to shock people, because it is an unofficial, subjective stereotype in which could be negative.Whether he uses this type of work to portray his own opinions or to challenge the opinions that others hold is not quite clear, but either way he is using his work to challenge the stereotypes that people hold which is both clever and meaningful.

Graphics Review

                                                                  Graphics

Week Two: Graphics
This week we covered the question of what graphics can involve and i was supirsed to see how much scope there is within graphics and how fine art based it can be if that designer desires it to be so.
I found this week very interesting for different reasons, one being that i was inspired by many of the comtempory designers that are producing work,partically black and white colour palettes aswell as being able to see the transaction of graphic change through the years, the coke advertising being an example. It is such a divererse area of art which i like, because i feel it would allow me to really explore the use of typography to portray a message. 

I began the week believing that graphics was not going to be enjoyable and that it would be scale driven drawing exercises, which infact was the opposite: i was given the task of writing with my left hand aswell as scripting with a stick and ink,infact quite the opposite to my expectations.

We were also given an example design process that a graphic designer would have to go through to create a draft for a deadline, which was useful as it allowed us to see graphics from a employment perspective and how graphics can be used as a means of money and work as appose to educational projects and for own enjoyment of designing.

Overall i thought this week was very interesting and i would definately consider graphics as an option to specialise,however i feel i would have to further explore the concept of composition within a poster and the mimic and developement of typography.

Graphic Desigers

Graphic designers inspiration

                 Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones

This work caught my attension, whilst flicking through the graphics magazine 'eye', and although it could be considered as a cross genred piece due to the use of digital/photographic manipulation i thought i would still blog about it as the tone and composition of each individual image of Unkles erotic box was so inspirational and beautifully designed.As the article states it is much more than a cd cover, its an 'artefact that are more like artists books'. These shocking yet liberating images make design all the more exciting as it pushes boundaries and creates debate about the work, which i think is a very important aspect in creating art. I personally like black and white image, which is why i really connected with this work, it uses tone in a different way to many other black and white based art work, by creating both detail and shape.



                                    Barbara Wojirisch

This work of Wojirisch's is very interesting due to its subtle use of tyography, which is why it was of interest to me. I really like the idea of disjointed typography, and potentially using the background,coloour or shape to instead portray the meaning of the design and its intentions.As appose to being written so boldly across the design. Both pieces are very strong due to their subtility, making them very beautiful pieces of design/artwork.


                                                        Coke Avertising

In a graphics magazine in the library, i saw an article about the change in coke advertising over the years which provoked me to research and explore the different branding that coke has undertaken. The first three adverts are very vintage, with women being the centerpiece of the posters selling point. The use of colour is also clever in portraying a very sophiscated image for coke, with the red white and black colour pallette. Which is very different to the 4th advert which has a contrast between black and 6 or so other colours to create a very eyecatching image.The 2nd 3rd and 4th image are similar in that they have only a small amount of typography on the image, yet it is successful because the audience still instantly know that it is a coke advert. These branding posters are very crisp and well designed with the audience in purpose but as you can see by the 4th, the colouring has changed to match the much more varied target market, with the name being shorted to 'coke' unlike the others that refer to the product as 'coca cola'.

                                                    Anthea Hamilton

This piece by Hamiltion is not what i would normally divert my attention towards because it is too commerical, however i thought i would comment on it as i do like the design of it as a branding piece. The use of symbols and shapes is very well thought out here to create a well branded image for the olympics. Moreover, as a sports branding piece it is very crisp and modern unlike many others that use too many overbearing bold colours and create hectic images. This creates tranquility and peace which is why i see it as being succesfully designed, it is an originial piece and works well as a promotional piece.

6 Graphics Comparison

                                          Graphics


Week Two: Graphics Artist Research

 Stefan Sagmeister:

This work of Stefans really caught my eyes as being bold,shocking and disturbing, which is what i liked about the piece. Art and Design that is captivating for one reason or another is realistic and meaningful, which this piece is. It creates a visual for the typography, which really works in initiating the interaction with the piece, which therefore then draws the viewer in to read the meaningful typography beneath the image. Moreover, the colouring on this piece was clever in further drawing the viewer in.Overall this was a succesful piece.

Wim Crouwell:
                                                 



This poster by Wim uses space well to create a focal point to the poster where the key information is displayed. The minamalistic design works well with the colouring to arouse questions about himself which influences people to want to know more, and is therefore advertising his own exhibition successfully.I also like the typographys angular feature as it is very crisp and modern.This piece is very different to that of Sagmeisters in that it is purely based on the colour, composition and typography whearas sagmesiter also uses image to attract an audience, in a shocking manner.



Alan Fletcher:

This poster by Fletcher is one of my favourite typograpghic pieces of art. I love the way the word is created to mimic the meaning, in a very intricate way. It is both simple yet overwhelming at once which makes it such an interesting piece to look,because the meaning is simple yet there is so much detail to it that its hard to just glimpse at it for a second. It takes minutes of observing to see every aspect of the design making it successful at conveying an idea. I also love the use of colour, it could have easily been spoilt by an overuse of colour or clash of colour, but instead only a small percentage of colour is used which makes it even more succesfully designed.It also provokes thought about the subject of the poster as appose to being a propaganda style subjective poster like that of Crouwells.Fletchers work is very different to that off Crouwells,because it is more detailed, the typography expresses the meaning behind the poster unlike that of crouwells typography.

Kris Sowersby: 

                             


The symetric feature of this poster is very interesting and uses shape well.However i do not like it half as much as that of Alan Flecthers and Stefan Sagmeister as it has no real depth and meaning behind the design, unlike their work. The colour pallette is bold and eyecatching, but i dont feel those colours were choosen specifically to portray a meaning to the Letter K.


Pep Carrio:
   

             

This piece is much more thoughtprovoking than that of Crouwells or Sowerbys, due to the lack of typography. The emphasise of shape and line creates an overwhelming image that really makes you ask yourself the meaning of the piece.Personally, it suggests issolation and confusion and has a very frantic manner but is also one of my favourite pieces because it is not sterotypical. It is personal to Carrio which is also what i really like about it. I also like that there is no third colour to it, making it all the more thoughtprovoking and original to other graphic designs that i have researched.



Noma Bar: 

                       

This graphic posters' composition has been skillfully created to make an image purely from an overlay of shapes.I like this work from Bar purely due to its symbolism and meaning. The use of the pound symbol to create the face suggests that the rich can afford luxuries, with the example of a cigar, creating a powerful message with minimul typography shows a succesful composition and design.Moreover i like the use of curves in the composition, making the image much more alerting and 3D.

Applied Arts Review

 
                            Applied Arts


Week One of Art foundation course at Chesterfield is complete. I began the course with Applied arts, therefore i looked at various artists related to applied arts, got my hands dirty in ceramics and got my metal on in the silversmithing workshop.I also began my 9 week course in Life drawing with Mik godley.

Overall it was a very 'hands on' beginiging to the course, but nevertheless it was enjoyable.
This week allowed me to the leanr many different processes, and introduced me to the idea of art being purposeful as oppose to decorative which i really liked. It was a very interesting explortarty stage within the course but im not sure it would be an area in which i would specialise. For the simple reason that i dont like the process of manipulating metal.

Here is an image of the begining process of my metal box which we had to create during our silvermsithing induction.

Another image of my box as it processed on, on the metal you can see various techniques such as knealling,punching, freelance drilling and burning the metal.

Here is an image of one of the pieces of metals i  did during my induction. I burnt it to take away the titanium casing of the steel. I then used a hand drill to create the pattern by allowing the drill to run freely across the sheet of metal.

As part of the applied arts project i also had to experiment with clay, soe of which where hand buidling techniques such as making pinch pots,slab building , coiling and was shown wheel based work such as throwing.  Here are some images of my pinch pot and coiling.

 During this week, i was introduced to several applied artists, some of which were presented to me by the lecturers, others of which i researched myself.

Whilst focusing on silversmithing, our tudor group did a project on a artist of our choice, of which i choose Vicki Ambery-Smith,an architectural jeweller.Vicki Ambery-Smith's work was very interesting because the concept of architectural jewellery is original and provokes thought around the contrasting idea of something so strong and robust ( e.g. a building) being transformed  into a piece of jewellery which is often seen as temporary and associated with fragility and elegance. This idea in itself creates a very exciting piece of art work.

Other artists that i looked at were ceramicists,including Lesley risley,Simcha even-chen and Judith Davies. All fo which were inspirational in that they displayed work that was simply more than just a bowl, but insterad works of art themselves, which was how i had not envigaged ceramics before.Instead i had seen it simply as a process of creating a functional item, which could be decorated.