Tuesday 21 December 2010

Jean Shrimpton number 2

This is my image of Jean Shrimpton re-vamped and had photoshop treatment!
As I was sitting at the computer with this image infront of me, I thought to myself what could I do that makes it come alive? Something simple but yet effective and I just chose a colour, put it in the background to see how it looks...
I really like it. It reminds me of a poster from the 1960's, which isn't a bad thing!
Even though there is the rather bright colour one can still see the beauty of the ink wash that I produced in the hair etc.
This is one of my favourite images that I have done this year, so far, and it is going into my portfolio!

Steven Stipelman- Fashion Illustrator

I am extremely excited about meeting Steven Stipelman!
I have been lucky enough to be told that the Professor of Fashion Illustration is giving a talk and a class about this subject! This is my passion and am over the moon to be meeting him.
It's on my birthday so what a wonderful day I'll have!

3 Other Images and Small Evaluation.

Here are some more images that I did before my final 3 were completed.
The first one didn't need anymore work doing to it so I played around with the text, what font/size/situated etc. The other 2 are not disimilar to my final ones but maybe one can see what I changed...
The 2nd one, for the hot sun was, in this case, a huge coffee ring, continuing Meursault's love of coffee, but for some reason it just doesn't work as well as the cigarette burn. I do like where the text is situated but for the final piece I decided upon putting the text at the bottom of the image so one can see the whole image.
What's wrong with the 3rd image is the guillotine. It is not my best drawing and doesn't fit in with the other 2 very well.
I have really liked this brief. It has been a challenge, but a good one. I enjoyed the story, which always helps, and now am introduced to a great and gifted author.
As I have said previously, I would have liked more time on it but with the time I have had, I think that what I have done is good. One image inparticular...
I don't know for sure if these images are good enough to enter the competition, I shall see when I get my marks back.

Cover and Spine




For the front cover and spine I have decided to go very plain and simple, straight forward. As I think the main character is.
The front cover is layers of old paper which I mentioned in the previous post with cigarette burns and white coffee rings, repeated over and over again.
The spine has the exact same thing, with the paper and a piece of masking tape situated under the name of the author and title.
I am rather pleased with the outcome and think it fitting well with the nature of the story and the main character, Meursault.

My 3 Final Images for The Outsider


Here are my final 3 pieces for the Outsider book.
I had some fun with these images, I got to draw with ink a lot, which I love to do and also go onto Photoshop. My aim was to produce a number of images really quickly on Photoshop, just like I did by hand and to see what I came up with.
The 1st image, the cigarettes in the ashtray is my favourite. I had an idea in my mind that I would illustrate this as Meursault constantly smoked throughout the story at 'strange' times and thought this was interesting to his character.
I love to work on different and random pieces of paper and with photoshop that is easier for me to do. I draw everything by hand and then play on photoshop where I uploaded a number of old/tatty/diguarded paper.
The 3 of them are on paper which gives a rustic look to the images.
I also picked out how the main character drinks white coffee all the time so I decided to put these two things together- an ashtray surrounded by constant coffee rings.
I think this is the strongest out of the 3...
The 2nd image illustrates the time when Meursault shoots the man and is very aware of the heat around him and the sun, beaming onto him. So here comes the paper, with dried tea on it, to give the effect of the sand. The water at the bottom is actually Algerian water over the top of graph paper. On the right hand side there are 4 small bullets that stand for the 4 shots Meursault takes at the man.
The main thing in the centre is a cigarette burn. I thought this would be perfect to in-corparate his passion for smoking, and the burning of the sun.
The 3rd image is based on the last part of the book (I have tried to even the illustrations out) when Meursault is told that he would be 'decapitated in a public place in the name of the French people.'
I wanted the guillotine to be the main object within the image, as the others have all got one main object in them. I spent 2 days drawing/ painting and using ink to produce the perfect guillotine and out of the pages I completed, this seemed to be the one which worked.
The guillotine is such a strange thing. It is rather an elegant piece of machinery but has such horrible consequences! I took my images from old fashioned ones and what would more likley be used in that age in Algeria when the book was sent to print. ( The author does not specify when the book is set so I went by the publishing date.)
This guillotine I hope, is rather intimidating as it's black, tall and up close to the viewer. I think this is what I wanted it to look like but to be honest I would have liked more time to adapt it and maybe get it looking better.
But on the whole, I am rather pleased with these images and how they have turned out.


Wednesday 8 December 2010

More covers for The Outsider...



These are two of my favourite book covers for Albert Camus' The Outsider. I love how dark they are, which the story is.
I don't know who made them, that is further research that I must do, but even so, they are remarkable.
My favourite is the top one.
From other covers that I have last seen, they are nowhere as... dark, as these two.
The top one is great. I love the black background with the red drips of paint, which resembles the blood that Meursault has produced when he shoots.
One can't see a figure of a man on the cover but one can see he's there and I can't make out what the face, if infact it is a face, at the top of the page.
The bottom one is very disturbing. It screams out death and sadness.
Now I have seen these previous covers, it gives me an idea of how dark I can go when designing the cover.

Albert Camus' The Outsider




For further research for this project, I have decided to look at a few previous book covers for The Outsider.
These 2 are rather plain, rather boring. I don't like the 2nd book cover as I don't think it tells one anything about the story, and as I am sure that I am not the only one, I prefer a cover that gives some insight into the story.
The first one is rather plain but I do like the simpleness that this one has.
I really like the limited use of colours that has been used and what looks like, old papers printed on the book.

Traditional meets digital


This is another image of a figure I produced a couple of weeks ago... I was pleased with the outcome of it, but felt like it needed something else. So I headed to photoshop and tried to come up with something that was half decent.
(This is before I spent the day infront of the computer and tried to teach myself the ins and outs of the programme!)
And what I came up with was this. A plain pinkish background that sits comfortably next to the figure.
I realise that it doesn't take a genius to do this basic act on photoshop, but I think that because it's simple, it does add an extra depth to the final image.

Business card and bag

Here are my 2 images, which I am very pleased with, for my business cards and for my object.
The other day, I sat quietly at college, on my own infront of the computer on photoshop. I am known for not being photoshop's biggest fan, but whilst on my own, I managed to teach myself and have become very much more confident with it.
So, here are my finished images, which are done in the tradional way of hand drawing but touched up with the wonder that is photoshop!
I just hope that they look as good on the bag and the cards!
We'll see...

Cigs...


As mentioned in other posts in this section, I am looking at cigarettes and matches, as Meursault smokes an awful lot in the story by Albert Camus.
So here, is images of cigarettes, some done by hand and then rotated etc on photoshop, which I quite like to use.
He drinks a lot of coffee, white, which I have used to paint the filters on the actual cigarettes, which looks quite good.
The big image on the right hand side had been dobe with ink and water, not one of my favourites, but I do like the shape that I have created with it.

First page of research


For the first week of being given the competition brief, I set about doing some written research on the auther and the story and thought it a good idea to post a page on my blog, as I have seen other illustrators doing so.
My intention, as I hope one can see, is to turn my written research into art.
My thing at the moment, which I love working with, is actual materials, for instance, tea and coffee... so this page is cluttered with liquid and ink.
My sketch book is filled with pages like this, but am obviously not going to show it all as I will be scanning in for a very long time!

Tina Berning- 'esque'


This is a simple sketch I did not that long ago...
It's done on old paper and mounted onto a black background. I quite like this as it shows that I can just draw fast with a pencil and able to produce a rather good image.
As the title suggests, it is rather Tina Berning inspired, not intended, but is how it has turned out...

Jean Shrimpton...


During my drawing 'marathon', I produced this image taken from an image of Jean Shrimpton.
It is just made with ink, straight on paper.
As one can see, I love how the ink has made texture marks on her hair which I think adds something.
I had never worked like this before, ink straight onto paper before, and this was made after about 10 drawings later when I was extremely comfortable using my brush.
I just proved to myself how once one produces lots of drawings, there is always one that comes out best!

Inspired by Tina Berning


Earlier on in the year, I, as mentioned in other posts, kept on drawing everyday. One of the images I produced was this one, very influenced by Tina Berning.
To start off drawing, I looked constantly at Berning, which is seen here, and I started to get my own style which one can see in other posts.
This image is done on tracing paper made with ink mixed with water. I really like working with tracing paper and ink as the paper is flat and doesn't let the ink and water soak in straight away so I was able to create this effect with the drips.

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Cigarettes and the Guillotine









As I have mentioned in my previos posts, I am focusing on the objects throughout the story, the first being on coffee, and throughout the story, Meursault smokes an awful lot.
With this in mind, I want to illustrate this. So I have been looking for ways to draw cigarettes and ashtrays, taken from photographs and not illustrations that already exist.
These two at the bottom are quite realistic to draw from and I really like how one image is taken from the side and the other from above so one can see the used cigarettes inside the ashtray.
I realise that this isn't the norm to be drawing this, and in a way is rather crude, but the story is so direct and Meursault doesn't care what anyone thinks and does it anyway, which I supose is what I am doing...
The last part of the story has Meursault executed by way of the guillotine. I was not that familiar with this, how one looks etc, so I researched what one would look like at the time the story was published and if one was different to what one uses in Algeria, which is where the story is set.
The bottom one is French, a rather old one and the one above is quite, if I may say it, a nice illustration of one. It captures the mood of what it is used for and the composition is rather interesting.

More cups...



One of my favourite illustrators at the moment is Alice Tait and whilst on her website I saw this image, the second one. She has such a delicate way of working which incorparates beautiful water colours. She paints everyday objects and puts them into lovely compositions.
These here are tea cups but I supose that one could drink coffee in them!
The image above this one is just as nice, but I am not sure who the artist is which is a shame as I believe that such a wonderful piece of work deserves a name!
I love just how the page is full of cups and sources in all different colours and patterns. Some are rather detailed and if you look closely there are some which are just simple.
Looking at these two images gives me an idea for my own work which gives me some inspiration.

Coffee cups...





For the competition brief, I have decided to look at the objects that occur throughout the The Outsider, rather than the figures. I wanted to move away slightly from the body etc as I feel that I have worked on them enough at this time, for instance with my last project. That does not mean to say that I shan't be drawing them as I in my own time, say if I'm doodling, figures are what I love doing.
So, during the first chapter of the story, Meursault's mother has just died, and it's safe to say that he is not grieving in the usual way, and sits down in the room where his mother is in the coffin and he has a cup of white coffee and a few cigarettes. This I feel is rather important as it shows what kind of person he is.
I took the liberty to have a look at some coffee cups, very simple I know, but I want my illustrations to be that. Clean and simple, straightforward as this is the impression Meursault has these points.
The bottom two of the cups are pure and simple shapes that I want to convey and the one at the bottom is my favourite. It is from the Victoria and Albert Museum, part of their range and I think it's beautiful. The patterns on it are lovely and I am in two minds whether to have patterns on my own image. But, as I have mentioned before, the story is very simple and straightforward, and I think that maybe too detailed.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

REPLAY Fragrance ad, Stina Persson



This annimation is for Replay, a fragrance.
It is just wonderful and how I wish when I did an annimation, it looked like this!
Check it out if you can xx

Monday 22 November 2010

Thoughts for layouts and exhibition space.

Tina Berning

Stina Persson



Julie Verhoeven


In a few weeks, we are having a little exhibition and I was thinking of some ideas of how I can exhibit my work.
So I turned to my 3 favourite illustrators for some inspiration...
Julie Verhoeven has her work in a kind of haphazard way. I'm sure it's not, but it gives that impression. I really like how one is 'inside' the work, where you have to climb in and out. My work at the moment is drawing after drawing and this would be an exciting and interesting way of showing it.
My first thought of how to exhibit my work was to take a leaf from Tina Berning and Stina Persson's book- to have my work framed. But I would have my frames different sizes as my drawings come in different sizes and shapes.
I don't know how much space I will have to exhibit so I supose I shall play it by ear.

Competition Brief.

The project that I am working on at the moment is for a competition.
The competition is to illustrate a new cover, spine and 3 illustrations for Albert Camus' book, the Outsider.
I am near to finishing the story and I am rather enjoying it. (Which is a good start!) I have never read any of Camus' books before, but I certainly will be doing from now on.
To start myself off, I thought it best to research a little on the author.
Albert Camus was born on the 7th of November, 1913 and died on the 4th of January, 1960. He is half French and half Algerian and as well as being an author, he is a philosopher and journalist. Camus is most famous for the story The Stranger, (which is infact often translated as the Outsider.)
The story is about a young Algerian man, (who is a French citizen) named Meursault. He is a rather strange character, who is rather hard to figure out by the other characters in the story.
The story is set out in 2 parts and the first part is really about losing his mother. People are quite taken aback about how he is affected by this. When he hears that his mother has died, he can't cry and when he sees her body in the coffin, he does not appear to be sad. All he does is sit in the room, smokes a cigarette and drinks white coffee- this later is held against him.
Part 2 is about how he comes to kill a man, and when asked to explain why he has done such a thing, he says he was bothered by the heat and sun light. He then is arrested and is sentenced to death- I have not yet finished the last few pages so I am looking forward to how things turn out.
At first, I was worried that this story would be hard to illustrate in my style, but as I read the story, it is rather easy as I have images in my head that I could and will illustrate.

Henry Moore

Henry Moore. Tube Shelter Perspective. The Liverpool Street Extension. 1940-1941.

I really wasn't that interested in Henry Moore's sculptures, which I had to study in college, so was strangely put off by them. But one evening, I was watching the Culture Show on BBC 2 and it was all about art in the Second World War.
One artist that came up a lot was Henry Moore's drawings of air raid shelters, or in this case, one of many tube stations that was used as air raids, Liverpool Street.
Ever since seeing these images, Moore has become alot more interesting to me than before.
He has captured the cramped conditions that people had to cope with, with hardly any room to move and also has captured how dark and depressing these places would have been.
I really like how Moore has sketched the people. He hasn't used much detail but used shape more than anything. They appear almost ghostly and a shadow of their former selves.
The people look sad... which of course they had many reasons to be, but the artist has decided to capture this as they seem, but many artists draw and produce works that show the people in the war happy and ready to fight.
There is a sense of innocence and sadness which Moore has captured with the use of colour. The main colours used are black and shocks of white and yellow. The more one looks at this piece, you feel like you are being pulled into it, it is rather haunting.

Stockport's Air Raid Shelters



On the 5th of October, myself and a friend of mine went to the Air Raid Shelters in Stockport. I have always wanted to visit there as I am so interested in the Second World War. I visited when I was at school, (quite sometime ago!) and wanted to visit again.
My friend and I decided to go in whilst we had the afternoon off.
When we entered, the women told us that there was a class in at the beginning, where you go into a small room where the introduction is... I know a lot about the war, so we were asked to start in the main shelters and have the introduction at the end, which was no problem.
The second photograph shows you what you see as you enter the shelters. Long dark tunnels, only lit up with a gas lamp.
The atmosphere is strange. It is dark and eerie and full of history.
We were the only ones in the tunnels at that time and one couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive as one finds it hard to believe that hundreds of people at that time were sheltering in it whilst the Luftwaffe planes droned on above. It is so cold and damp, but one has to remember that that didn't matter as one had no choice if you wanted to be kept alive!
The tunnels carried on for miles, and some were boarded off for one reason or another but we walked for a very long time around them.
We entered where the warden slept, a little room, damp, dark, hardly any room whatsoever to move in and also went in the nurses station which still to this day had all the equipment in it that they used.
We also entered the toilets, some for the women and down another tunnel was for the men...
What shocked me was how many bunks were lined up on eachside of the tunnels. (Some were just benches if one was in there for a few hours.) There were about 3 beds ontop of the other, which were damp and extremly narrow... but all in all, it catered for what it was for.
Being there, just gave one an inkling of what life was like during the Blitz and how lucky we are not to have lived through it.

Thoughts and ideas for my entrepreneurial object.





As I am in the first half of my third year, we have been asked to produce our own entrepreneurial object.
I admit, when we were first given this brief, I was rather nervous as I have never been asked to do anything like this before... but after some thought, I am feeling rather good and have started thinking of some ideas.
At first, I was thinking of something simple, for instance maybe a calender. But when I read over the brief again, the object needs to be personal and something that shows who we are etc... so I have decided to make a bag, after seeing and researching the above.
The 3rd bag is done by the fashion illustrator David Downton. I recall that he produced them for M&S. Years ago, when I first saw them, I thought then what a good idea it was- everyone would see it, it would promote oneself and is a great object for the enviroment.
The other two are done by Julie Verhoeven, another favourite illustrator of mine. The second bag was done for Mulberry... this isn't a favourite of mine, but the idea is there.
The first one is done again by Julie Verhoeven. It is an illustrtion, done by hand, on a plain paper white bag for Selfridges. It is so simple but yet it is quirky and catches the eye.
Even before I saw this image by Verhoeven, I had thought about doing something like this and now the idea seems more concrete.

Stina Persson...Again


It is no surprise that Stina Persson has appeared again on my blog... and with a beautiful illustration.
I find that everytime I go on the computer, the first website I go on is Stina Persson's.
This image stood out to me because of the block colour, (black) and with the shocks of faint colour on the woman's face, which I think is tissue paper.
Even though there is hardly any detail on the body, except a block shape with some drips, one can tell exactly the pose she is standing in.
One other thing that I adore is the detailed faces that appear, through the bold colour... it looks effortless, but I know that she has probably spent a long time on it!

Vivienne Westwood illustration

When I was studying at college, I spent most of my time studying fashion, and the designer that popped up most of the time, was Vivienne Westwood.
But now that I am studying illustration, I have taken an interest in the illustrations that are made for Vivienne Westwood and her products.
This image above is a poster that was designed for an exhibition of hers. I am having trouble finding out who designed it but none the less, I do like it.
It is not often that one finds an illustration nowadays that is done by hand in a traditional way. It really remind me of how I used to sketch, very in detail... my images now are a lot more 'free'.
The limited colour adds depth to the image- having a very detailed image, the one colour simplifies it and brings it alive.

Monday 8 November 2010

2 more pieces.


These 2 images are more or less finished. I drew the girls and then played around on photoshop, adjusting the colours etc. I have put the bare drawings on paper that I have manipulated, for example, fried the paper or burnt it etc. Producing work this way puts me in mind of the great Tina Berning, with old paper behind it.

This one at the bottom, is just eyes, nose, rosey cheeks and mouth. Very simple and yet I think is effective. This image, may be a good one to put on a business card or something of the like... I ll have to think about it.

More of my work...

I adore working on paper, just pure and simple paper, whether it already has other sketches on etc. This image was one of about 10 that I produced one afternoon.
I love the fact that I hardly spent any time on it at all and yet the finished image is probably one of my favourites.
In the past, I spent far too much time on one image, afraid that the 'girls' were not pretty or beautiful enough. But with this 'speed' drawing and creating, I am not as precious with them than I have been.
The reason I like this one is the limited colour and the random materials that surround her.
Also, I like the way I have drawn it, with pen and ink. You get this lovely scratchy effect, like when people 200 years ago wrote.
This woman is not beautiful, she is missing her limbs... and the look on her face, she doesn't care!

My Work x


This year has been an exciting one really, as I have seen how my work has changed, for the better in my opinion. I am alot more comfortable with my style of working and feel confident with how it is moving on.
As is said in previous posts, I am a huge admirer of Tina Berning and Stina Persson, an with their help, I have become a lot more confident.
These 2 images were done by hand, no computer influence with them, but may in the future adapt them to make them look more professional. The bottom image was drawn from a picture in a catalogue. I just looked at the image and then interpreted what I saw with ink.
I love working with fluid lines, mainly with ink as one gets a beautiful and simplistic finish.

The image at the top is one of my favourites.
I spend time drawing everyday, whether if it's in front of the television, where I will keep on drawing until I produce something good, or if I sit at the table/desk and think about it, sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't. I much prefer to sit in the middle of the floor, with all random papers, inks and even tea or coffee to use on the paper to get different effects.
I can often produce 10 drawings and sketches a day and yet only maybe 2 or 1 will be worth keeping.

This is all a part of learning and I am enjoying creating my own style and experimenting with other materials.

Monday 1 November 2010

Stella Im Hultberg

I was just browsing on line, looking at some art by Egon Schiele, and this illustrator/artist court my eye.
I have never heard of her before, and just by looking at one of her images, like this one, reminded me a lot of my own work!
The drawing looks so free and I love the use of materials that are in it... the tea staining, the ink drips, very like my own work... Stella is someone I will be looking out for in the future.

Thursday 30 September 2010

7x7 image


This is the final image for the project 7x7.
Myself and Jane worked together and created this 'weird and wonderful' creation!
It is not how I usually work, but Jane and I have such a different way of working, that we thought that if we collaborated, it my work well or completely not work... luckily for us, our different styles of work go well together!

Vogue

Who I would love to work for would be the almighty 'Vogue!'
I was on their website the other day and saw some fashion illustrations on there. A couple featuring David Downton and Jason Brooks.
For years now it has been a 'dream' of mine to illustrate for them!
I have looked at alot more industries and illustrators for my PDP which are in a little black book instead of them being on the blog.

Green Eyed Over...


I came across Egon Schiele a few years ago and he has been, and still is, one of my favourite artists.
As I have said in previous posts, I adore Tina Berning's work, and I came about this piece the other day and it immediately reminded me of Schiele's work.
Maybe she is inspired by him?
There is evidence on both how the lines are so similar- thin, flowing and both in black which gives it a harsh but yet gentle outcome.
Berning has used more colour on hers than the original of Schiele's, but both are very limited to colour.
I would love for my work/ drawings to be as good as these, and that is why I am 'green' with envy!

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Catwalk...


Alice Tait, as I have said in a previous post, is a rather new illustrator that I have come across. She has a number of styles to her name, (as have I), some include pen and ink and water colour. I was browsing through her website and came across this image.
Of course it grabbed my attention as it is fashion related. 
I love how when one uses water colours, you can get such a different outcome with them. You can make accidents when using them, for instance, letting the water colour drip, or one can miss out some things, i.e. the faces or details with in the body.
Even though there has been bits in the 3 figures which are missing, you still can get the overall image and still appreciate what they are trying to do...