Thursday 9 December 2010

Dialogue ignites change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqkvftkRLaQ

I have been researching into neighbour disputes for the Dialogue ignites change brief. Most people I have interviewed said the disputes are still ongoing or they or the neighbour had moved out thus solving the problem. I have been looking into mediation as a means to help people to start talking again and have come up with an idea for a mobile unit that can go direct to the conflict.

Monday 22 November 2010

Jean Julien







Jean Jullien is a French graphic designer who lives in London. He studied graphic design in Quimper before moving to London. He graduated at Central St Martins in 2008 and the Royle College of Art in 2010. His practice ranges from illustration to photography.

Simple shapes and bright colours really make his work stand out, I particularly like the above comic strip "The House" as it is plays around with shapes taking the viewer away from the conventional comic strip format. At 1st you see the over all shape of the house then read what's going on inside......really clever idea!

Supermundane








Supermundane is the pseudo name of London based multi disciplined creative Rob Lowe, who is a graphic designer, illustrator, typographer and art director. He has been described by Grafik magazine as "The king of the repetitive doodle". His work has been published and exhibited world wide.

Andy Miller








I have just come across the work of Andy J Miller who originates from Indiana USA but now lives and works in the UK. He has an interesting hand drawn quality to his work which is similar to various illustrators I have been looking at recently.

Jim Medway





Last year I was really fortunate to attend a lecture by Manchester illustrator and comic creator Jim Medway. He gave us a brief insight into his world of comics and the artists that inspired him like Georges Remi. He also let us look at some of his sketchbook work which was really cool and made me wish I had the nerve to sit in a public place and draw people without feeling self conscious.

Jim also works closely with schools passing his knowledge on to the children, and in some cases introducing them to a whole new world of expressing themselves by creating their own comic strips. These sessions also serve as an important tool for children to tackle issues like bullying in a safe and fun environment.

The wonderful work of Jim Medway can be viewed at


Friday 19 November 2010

Peter Callesen





It's hard to imagine these sculptures were made entirely from a single sheet of A4 paper. They look amazing, but they also look fragile and easily disposable.

Thursday 18 November 2010

Paper Cut Experiment


I decided to try a paper cut experiment whilst I had some time on my hands this week. I wanted to do an illustration of a cat sat in the kitchen. I think I overcomplicated things by trying to bend the back into a kitchen counter but I still like the results I got with the shadow of the cat.

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Burgerman Mural

Ben Frost Mural

Sketchknots


This is an amusing little animation from Jon Burgerman that reminded me a bit of Nick Parks "Creature Comfort" films because of the recorded voices it uses. It starts off with an artist trying to think up an idea for an urban art painting then goes off on one.....the random ending made no sense to me but it did make me laugh.

Simone Lia






Whilst browsing through Tom Gauld's Website the other day I came across the work of Simone Lia. Simone graduated from the University of Brighton in 1995 where she studied illustration, she then went on to do a masters at the Royal College of Art in London where she met Tom Gauld. They later formed Cabanon Press and the rest is history.

I really like the varied line in her work and the bright flat colour pallets she uses, in contrast to Tom Gauld there is little or no shading which gives her work a certain charm.

Sunday 5 September 2010

Exposing the invisible



I have just watched a really interesting lecture on Ted Talks by Nick Veasey.

Nick uses x-ray machines to take pictures of anything from large machinery, nature and normal everyday things.

I was shocked to find he is literally suffering for his art because he has been exposed to radiation on two occasions, but despite the dangers the results he can achieve are truly outstanding. He gets under the surface and shows us the beauty and complexity of anatomy in a way we have never seen before.

The painter and the pendulum

Tom Shannon is an artist who merges science, nature and art together to create fascinating works of art.

He uses a pendulum with an elaborate remote control device to control the flow of the paint on the canvas once gravity takes over.

He first started experimenting with pendulum painting back in the 1970's.

Tom Shannon: The painter and the pendulum | Video on TED.com

Seasons Animation

Here is a short animation I collaborated on entitled 'Seasons'. We used oil paint on glass and used cut outs to create the changing season.

Exquisite Corpse


Here is a piece I did for a brief last year called the Exquisite Corpse.

For the brief we were asked to form a small group and pass round pieces of paper which we each wrote an adjective, noun or verb. These words would then form the basis of our corpse or Le Cadavre.

The words I chose for my corpse were:

  • Rapidly
  • Dead Rat
  • Hammer
  • Nicely
  • Bouncy
  • Hat
My inspiration came largely from Lou Beach an amazing collage artist, whose artwork can be very surreal much like the work of Terry Gilliam.

Las Meninas: Swaps


Thumbnail sketches of ideas for my response to 'Ghost'.

I was playing with the idea of an adolescent going through the change of puberty and tried to capture how they might feel.

I decided to take the face from Ron Mueck's sculpture and fade a portion of it out to create a ghostly image and the other half of her face was meant to be a butterfly mask showing her transition from awkward adolescent to a beautiful young woman. I liked the idea of having her appear out of a cocoon like a genie in a bottle.


Las Meninas: Part 4

Ron Mueck

Ghost 1998

Fibreglass, silicon, polyurethane foam, acrylic fibre and fabric
unconfirmed: 2019 x 648 x 991 mm
sculpture.

This was the winning sculpture for our summer project and for me one of the most intriguing of the 3.

Mueck is a master of super realistic sculpture. Ghost depicts a 7ft tall adolescent girl who stands against the wall with the look and posture of unease.

Was she uneasy because she was uncomfortable with the way she looked?

Was it because she was made to stand there like a freak with everyone pointing and staring at her?

Or was it that she was going through the change of puberty and just wanted to get the hell out of there?

These questions gave me a good starting point for the visual response.

Las Meninas: Part 3


Reg Butler


Girl on a Round Base 1968-72

Bronze, paint, glass and hair
overall: 815 x 1575 x 1092 mm, 271.5 kg
sculpture

Butlers sculpture was one of a collection of 4 made in collaboration with his partner Rosemary and was taken from Francis Bacon's paintings of reclining figures. As in Bacon's paintings her face and body looked unusual and took on a futuristic appearance which wouldn't be out of place in a science fiction film. This piece made me feel slightly uneasy, I think because of the expressionless face and dead eyes.



Las Meninas: Part 2

Germaine Richier

Shepherd of the Landes 1951
Cast 1996 in bronze.

The Shepherds in the Landes region in the south of France used to use stilts to help them see over the areas of scrub and marshland where their sheep grazed (taken from the Tate website).

I found this sculpture fascinating! The shepherd took on an almost alien form like something from the film 'Close Encounters' the face was deformed and which ever way I looked at it it seemed to have a different expression. Many of Richier's work features characters that take on part human part animal form. "My figures are original beings. Original and independent - that's what sculpture should be for me" http://www.germaine--richier.com/

Thursday 26 August 2010

Julian Callos






My subscription to Design Daily News has introduced me to some incredible artists. This weeks favourite is Los Angeles illustrator Julian Callos.

He was born in the Phillippines and has lived in L.A. since the age of three. He studied at Otis College of Art & Design where he graduated with honours.

You can see his love of cartoons and comic books reflected through his work with a slightly surreal graphic novel look. The textures he uses for his backgrounds create an ideal canvas for his subtle colour tones.

Tuesday 24 August 2010

Las Meninas: Part 1

Unfortunately my blog has suffered for the last month, so I have a bit of catching up to do on the summer brief.

Ok, it seems like a lifetime ago now but on Sunday 11th July me, Katie and Kyle took a trip to the Tate gallery in Liverpool to choose a suitable candidate for the summer project.

I had never been to the Tate before so was excited to see what offerings we would find and I wasn't disappointed. There were so many interesting modern and contemporary pieces on view here. One that sticks in my mind was Antony Gormley's 'Bed', which can only be described as the silhouettes of two people carved into two horizontal bread walls that resemble beds. maybe I was hungry, but I remember wondering if the sculptor had eaten every single slice of bread to create this piece.

After exploring many of the rooms we found ourselves drawn to a room like no other. This room apart from the fact it had some amazing sculptures, also had a disco dance floor and a soundtrack to accompany our journey round the displays.

We decided as a group to each pick a sculpture we liked and then decide at a later date which one we would choose for the summer project.

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Fear of the dark



Some of my sketchbook roughs for a project on phobias, where I chose to portray 'fear of the dark'. My final image was screen printed @ A2 in black gloss on matt black card.


Mark Crilley

I thought it was worth mentioning Mark Crilley has been an inspiration to me over the last 2 years. The creator of Miki Falls has provided me with many enjoyable hours worth of online tutorials demonstrating his expertise in drawing and watercolour. I watched this video earlier today on how to draw a realistic eye. I was captivated as usual!




Wednesday 23 June 2010

Mimi Leung




I thought I would show some of Mimi Leung's illustration work as she has a really interesting doodle style.

I love the fusion of bright colours, shapes, crazy creatures and the energy that shows through in her work.