Other Artists

Quick notes on other artists (who inspire and give me style envy) that I’ve been meaning to post for ages:

Anna Higgie

http://www.annahiggie.com/paint.asp

Interesting use of colour, line and texture

Fine line work and intricate pattern of drawings contrasts with bright blocks of colour in wall paintings.

Also beautifully elegant art deco style drawings with fine detail and soft colour palette

http://pinterest.com/pin/173318285630030921/ reminiscent of

C. Hérouard

http://pinterest.com/wingsart/c-herouard/

´Boudoir art´ from the actual art deco period, slightly twee but skilfully done

Drew Christie

http://www.drewchristie.com/im-gonna-be-on-the-radio-tonight/kexp-radio-station-roadhouse-greg-vandy-postcard-by-seattle-artist-illustrator-animation-drew-christie-2011-2/

Lovely rough, scratchy drawing and text. Lively, unpretentious, very handmade and deceptively simple

Funny, crude animation, wood blocky prints

Eum Hayoung

http://www.lemonadeillustration.com/work/?page=1&artist=24&name=Eum_Hayoung&cat=1&id=22

Luxuriously graceful and polished digital fashion images, invoke nostalgia

Walter Vasconcelos

http://illoz.com/vasconcelos/?section=portfolios&gallery_id=518

Fantastic layering of textures and collaged elements, I love them all: the muted colours, the surrealistic way he mixes styles and divides the page, such an image collector

Mark Bender

http://www.benderillustration.com/

Beautiful, bold, painterly graphics with cubist elements, complex mix of colour and subtle but effective use of texture

Owen Smith

http://pinterest.com/hardnuttocrack/owen-smith-s-art/

Slightly remeniscent of early Lucian Freud portraits (eg https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrzjxo4rKBgEtaT1lbMMhYJhHbuvxzcWQwWkzYMYNPtM20YvbPzQ), in their cartoonish, hyperdetailed way, they have a fifties feel

Dale Phanos

http://www.drawger.com/dalestephanos

Extraordinarily well observed, skilful and detailed photorealistic digital portraits with a caricaturistic twist.

Really interesting notes on his approach to his work on his drawger blog (especially the Billy Gibbons piece showing sketches and ideas)

Brian Grimwood

http://www.briangrimwood.com

As featured on the OCA site

http://www.weareoca.com/fine_art/study-visit-to-see-the-master-of-illustration/?utm_source=Student+Body+14%2F08%2F2012&utm_campaign=ad20e81842-E_bulletin_4_October_2012&utm_medium=email

Lovely range and mix of styles, materials and techniques, strikingly simple and fluid and inspiring in terms of digital drawing potential (I want a tablet!)

Guillermo del Olmo

http://guilledelolmo.blogspot.com.es/

I found this tiny and darkly striking illustration in a Sunday supplement

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge5uvMq9uAkOIpCyIUVdha0GlXeOlkDLNFomyxBdaEiyBndH1OKeirCoS0hU6pe4DzmXTxLMRNyPDVsQgp6dkOQg5zOtDZ6y6vewGW8KhIcBs_LkgqSpLeiWSYUWrt1MNK7KPvkQZO0R8/s200/1D.jpg

his acrylic paintings have a quick roughness to them which lends them a liveliness, as does his great ability to ‘capture’ light and texture

His digital illustrations have a looseness and painterly quality too

Exercise: Museum posters

I chose to visit the Clock Museum in Jerez for this project because it sounded interesting, time seemed like a theme with many possibilities and according to the website it contained over 300 pieces meaning there was probably something to appeal to all age groups.

http://gospain.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=gospain&cdn=travel&tm=4&f=11&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=13&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.elmisteriodejerez.org/english/clocks/introduction.html

The museum is also called the Palace of Time (Palacio del Tiempo) and it turned out that it was only open for guided tours at prearranged times and while I’d be allowed to take photos there wouldn’t be time to do any drawing there. I told the guide about my poster project and she said she’d email me info about the museum and asked if I’d send her the finished poster (she didn't get in touch).

I made a spider diagram before I went and having sorted the photos into the categories: child, teenager, adult, mechanisms and general I made notes on my ideas and a few rough sketches.

The tour through the museum was set out as a ‘journey through time’, the clocks being 17^th,18^th, 19^th century and primarily from France, England and Italy so themes of time travel and geographical travel spring to mind.

In all honesty there probably isn’t much in the museum that would appeal to teenagers and children but here goes:

Child

I selected these images from the collection

 Interests www.buzzle.com/articles/list-of-hobbies-interests.htm

•  computer games /cartoons
• sports
• reading
• musical instrument
• pet
• horse riding
• collecting stamps/badges/postcards etc 

Teenager

I selected these images from the collection

Interests http://www.blurtit.com/q619498.html

•          music
•          fashion
•          arts
•          texting/ social networking
•          friendships
•          opposite sex
•          celebrities
•          films

Adult

I selected these images from the collection 

Mechanisms

Museum Logo

I wanted to make ‘a family’ of posters using  a different exhibit and time related phrase for each age group, linking them with a single clock / mechanism image (which I thought would be of interest to all ages) and the museum name and logo.

The phrases also had to work in Spanish, so I used an online Spanish-English dictionary to double check my list then drew some thumbnails and line visuals in pencil. 

I then used photoshop to make coloured line visuals by collaging some of the photos I took at the museum

I thought the time travel themed poster would probably appeal to the widest audience as well as a general adult audience so I finished this one, making a vector drawing of the museum logo and a rocket in Illustrator, using the latter as a template to cut out a segment of clock mechanism.

On reflection:

I like the finished poster and as I said above I think it could appeal to audiences of all ages, but don’t think I did a particularly good job of designing child and teenager specific posters because

1. I was fixed on making a set of three posters
2. After my visit I assumed that the clock museum didn’t have much to offer them even though
3. I don’t know enough about what appeals to them
4. I wasn’t disciplined enough to make more drawings of the exhibits

I think it works in terms of clarity although the mechanism photo I used for the rocket isn’t really of high enough resolution. I’d like to redraw the rocket by hand and add a cartoonish element. I was thinking of doing it initially, then decided to have a go at a vector drawing, then saw some animated intros for TV programmes featuring rockets (Heston Blumenthal and Dara O’Briain) and was re-inspired. I think it would give the poster a warmer, more humorous and child friendly feel.

One of my (adult, Spanish) friends saw the posters this afternoon and said ‘Ooh, what’s that? I’ve never been there I want to go!’ which is a good sign.