Teapots?

A topic that isn't portraits... teapots? or owls?

I'm not sure why I'm choosing these subjects to make work around, but as long as I have images to work off then it will be ok hopefully!

Some inspiration

Below are some artists that feature in making me want to try these new techniques and styles;

Josh Cohran.

"his work is commmissioned by a diverse group of clients in editorial, advertising, publishing, broadcast and the web. Josh also teaches an illustration class at the School of Visual Arts and occasionally fills in as art director for the NYTimes Op-Ed page." 

I have linked this image because of the use of colour, applying it to only sections of the image. If this image were only the outline I would be able to relate it to my work quite easily but this artist has taken the image a step further by adding colour.

Course Catalogue cover. Drawn with a ballpoint pen and acrylic paint.

Luke Pearson

"My name is Luke Pearson and I’m a freelance illustrator and comic book artist from the UK.

I have produced work for clients such as Nobrow Press, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Channel 4, Preloaded, Wired, Radiolab, Gosh! Comics, Weezer, Margaret London, Playstation 3 and Little White Lies magazine." taken from http://lukepearson.com/info

Luke's use of shape is key in all of his images. He uses solid colour to create the image, and usually works with colours in teams of three or four. The skill that I want to pick up from Pearson is how he relies on shape, not line. I am too reliant on line.

Kate Gibb

Kate Gibb works with photos and layers of silk screen prints, she uses the screen to apply colour in a very effective way. Her colour combinations work incredibly well, I could learn a lot from the way that she applys colour. I am now following her blog http://kategibb.blogspot.com/ . She has different blogs for different processes but this one is entirely made around screen printing. 

Nick White

"Nick Combines Found Imagery With Drawing & Painting To Create Myriad Surfaces Of Faces, Eyes, Pattern And Texture. Motifs Mingle With Symbols And Signs, Plucked From Their Original Contexts, In Unexpected Combinations. He Makes Books And Drawings And Animation And Films." taken from http://www.thisisnickwhite.com/info.html

The image below really appeals to me because it is almost as if the colour and the black outlines could be completely separate. But they compliment each other well.

Locust Music - Plan B Issue 13

Sister Arrow

"Sister Arrow is an artist and illustrator working with drawing, painting and animation. Her inspirations include nature, metaphysics, sci-fi, primitive life, caves and Japan. She is the creator of an imaginary pygmy cultivar super-race called Sumo Babies. Working with themes of preservation, display and discovery of hidden information, often in reference to ethnobotany, her new paintings and prints explore theories of the 4th dimension, wormholes, and the quantum world." taken from her website http://www.sisterarrow.com/PAGES/INFORMATION.html

This particular image from Sister Arrow shows perfect registering between the colour and the black outline. I'm not sure if I want to perfectly aline my colour with the outline yet but I think it is worth experimenting with because this image looks perfectly clean cut and finished thanks to the exact line and colour work. It says that this is a risograph print, I have no idea what that means so I would like to find out as so far I haven't disliked any of the other print processes.

Terrarium
A3 / 2 colour Risograph print
For Landfill Editions.

The work I want to be making.

The work I currently make is safe, I make it because I enjoy it but I also realise that I stick to certain trends because they are where I am comfortable. I tend to stick to black and white, I tend to stick to portraits, I tend to keep my work minimal and stay away from deep technical details.

So...

Over the next 6 weeks I want to break those trends! I want to learn how to use colour successfully, using a variety of medias (water colours, pen and ink, print room and digital). I want to start using the print room and see how much detail I can add using different layers and techniques. And I want to make these images based around a subject that is not human portraits.

First Tutorial- ILLUSTRATION

THE FUNDAMENTS OF ILLUSTRATION

- drawing - line work, mark making
- shape - full shapes/ solid, relationships, form composition
- texture - quality, depth
- graphic elements - photo, typography, visual elements

REFERENCE - existing object - photos, real life etc

Experience, how you respond to your reference. Translate your ideas

VISUAL DEVICES - your relationship with the visual world

Make finished pieces, small or large. Completed illustrations.

Composition, design principles - relationship to the page
                                                 form
                                                 position

CHURN OUT THE WORK!!! at least 7 full pieces of work per week

TONE OF VOICE


Make work that feels honest.
Try lots of different stuff
GRAPHIC IMAGE MAKING

REFINE- do everything lots of times