Exercise:Viewpoint

 Client visuals

Based on the requirement to produce visuals, or scamps for a client prior to actual art work, the exercise now is to choose a theme, either festival, morning after, summertime or workshop. Then photograph, crop and draw thumbnails from sections in different formats to find a viewpoint which best expresses what you are planning to illustrate.

I chose the theme workshop as a challenge. The mundane and everyday things found in a workshop or basement could be an interesting theme and as we have been doing so much work around our house, it seemed an interesting theme to try.

stacks of wood

workbench in repose

toolbox

I looked a different ways to capture interesting aspects of the images. Using 2 l-shaped pieces of card, I cropped the most interesting ones into different shapes.

from the sketchbook, different aspects

In the end I decided  I preferred the workbench hanging on the wall. It symbolises workshop to me. and the fact that it has its own place to hang, shows a permanence of place. 

Changing viewpoints certainly was an excellent exercise and I enjoyed seeing the 'mundane', or things that you would not normally look twice at, in a new light.

Redone to a larger format, I think this would
work very well as a watercolour with washes
of grey and rusts contrasting against the
aluminium and wood bench.

Project: Diagramatic illustration

In order for the viewer to 'read' a diagram it is essential to create an image which if both simple to follow and graphically pleasing to the eye. The exercise is to diagramatically illustrate either making a cup of tea, playing an instrument or getting to my house.
To start it was important to research other diagramtic illustrations to understand how they work.

Because my house is located in a little village I jumped at the chance of illustrating a little map to show not only where I live, but show the village at the same time. Initially I thought of doing a full colour map as the village is surrounded by beautiful ochres, but on reflection, the house is the subject not the village. Also I felt the drawing should be pencil rather than done on the computer to reflect the antique quality of the area rather than a modern feel. As the instructions were to do a visual without words if possible, I thought I would do a drawing similar to the road trip illustration, but without all the detail.

My first attempt including thoughts of what I needed to include

Without making any comments, I took the map around to some friends and family who were all in agreement that it was not only easy to follow, but they also enjoyed the simple visual aspects of the map. Even though it is primitive and plain, I like it and decided not to change it as I was not sure how to improve it other than giving it a new frame. 

suggested viewing/reading

Thea Brine

My tutor has recommended looking up the works of Thea Brine and I must admit I found her drawings absolutely wonderful. They depict everyday life in its simplest form with a hint of humour and parody running through the themes and drawings.
I believe I can create a number of drawings like this in my sketchbook which I will update later

Project: Abstract illustration

Relying on marks, colour and structure, the assignment is to communicate an idea or story using abstract medium and colour. With the choice of 4 musicians, I decided on the Gypsy Kings because of the energy of their music.
I downloaded the 'best of' and listened to it several times. I also did a search on the internet and found some of their old album covers that use an abstract format. The first two didn't do anything for me but I liked the last two, especially the last one.

As I listened to the music and started drawing, I felt there was a definate red energy, images of flamenco dancers, stomping feet, guitars and trumpets. Some my first drawings reflect that energy. Unfortunately I felt they didn't have the abstract feel I was looking for.

I quite liked the idea of the little singer who doubles as a guitar, so I decided to have a go in Illustrator and see what happened. I'm still working out how to use the tools and find the drawing a bit daunting at the moment, but the only way to learn it is to use it, so here is the result.

I asked for some feedback and got a negative on what it represents, so decided to try to do a representation of the other drawing which to me represents movement and energy of the music. However, I quite like the little guitar king, especially as it has lots of energy, music and colour.

So here is the illustrator file. I enjoyed the drawing and using the colour, but could it make a CD cover? I'm not sure. It's definately abstract but I do prefer the guitar king.

Two Other Artists I Admire

I was cruising through the Folio illustrator site and was blown away by two artists who's work although completely different, really resonated with me. Anne Sharp paints in Acrylic. The attention to detail is amazing. This is what I would love to achieve, but wonder if I would have the patience to put in so much detail. It's so perfect.

The next artist, Brendan Kelly, is a portrait artist who is very well know, but he is still an illustrator and his work is fascinating. I visited his website and looked through his sketch books of which there are pages and pages, both portrait and landscapes of the various places he has visited on holiday. I am sure I will be back time and again to look at his watercolours.

I wont be posting for a while as I am moving right after I get back from my holidays. Yes, the big move, Dubai to France.

Illustrators of interest

My tutor, Penny, has come back with some great comments and some good ideas to improve my work. One of the three of the artist she thought would be of interest to me is
Kareem Ilia. I think because of my work in exploring and painting where we experimented with cut outs and colour. Kareem does a lot of cut out with watercolour wash,and I quite likes his use of paper layers in the first image. His work is so simple and so beautifully executed. Although focused mostly on fashion his list of clients internationally is extraordinary.

Two other artist suggested are Gez Fry and Roy Litchenstein for comic book illustration. I have always loved Litchensteins work and saw a number of his paintings here in Dubai during the Art Festival (Wham being one of them). I was surprised to see he was part of the surrealist movement, as I thought of him more as a contemporary.. very modern and exciting.

I thought this was a pretty great description of his work: The ironic Lichtenstein who takes soulful subjects and paints them with cool' by David Sylvester, American Vogue September 1969 and this one:

'Is He the Worst Artist in the U.S.?', Life Magazine January 31, 1964 - For some of America's best known critics and a host of laymen, the answer to the above question is a resounding YES. A critic of the New York Times, hedging only a bit, pronounced Roy Lichtenstein "one of the worst artists in America." Others insist that he is no artist at all, that his paintings of blown-up comic strips, cheap ads and reproductions are tedious copies of the banal. But an equally emphatic group of critics, museum officials and collectors find Lichtenstein's pop art "fascinating","forceful", "starkly beautiful". 

reminds me of the 70's using Letraset

UK-born but now based in Japan, Japanese-British artist Gez Fry applies both hand-drawn and computer-generated techniques to his anime-inspired style. The influence of several big manga artists, such as Masamune Shirow (of ‘Ghost in the Shell’ fame) can be seen in his work, as well as those from traditional Japanese art periods such as Ukiyo-e. I chose a few of the works I really liked including a beautiful sketchbook pencil drawing. 

Image Development Poster

I chose the image of the two boys and decided as they were in the lake, it would be great to give it a watercolour feel.
As I now have my new Wacom tablet, I was eager to try out Painter and Photoshop to see what I could achieve. I'm still learning as I go, so it was very time consuming and I have to look up a lot of tutorials to find out how to get the effects I was looking for.

The watercolour was interesting, but dull and not
really exciting enough for a poster 

I decided to brighten it up with an acrylic rendition
but still not happy as it's still not what I had in mind.

At last, after much messing around I got what I wanted. It's still like a painting, but has a lot more definition. The fish in the headline were an afterthought, but their relationto the story made it a bit more fun.