A screen print I've wanted to do for ages and finally did. The print has quite a few subtle details, like the kid looking over his shoulder towards the past instead of the future...
I really like the format and the meaning of the 4-color CMYK process in my work so will hopefully do a whole series of those. Already have an idea for a next print also around the theme of 'looking back'..
Heart-warming flash animation by French artist Avrillon Ghislain. The color palette and cute character design are lovely, and I like the that touch as to the format of the video. Have a look at his blog, his work is striking.
The first exhibition in The Medium Is The Message series is finally open for submissions, for LCC students only! The only brief is that the work needs to be non-digital print and should revolve around the theme of Lost Knowledge, which is completely open to interpretation. Our first poster, 2-color screen print:
- designed and printed by the exhibition panel and friends -
So I have been way too busy recently: briefs, exhibitions, my newly acquired title of Padawan under the Jedi Master Marjo and drawing and drawing. Hence the absence of daily postage. Among all those things I have been doing are a couple of competitions I found inspiring.
Art of Nurture: Lloyds TSB
The idea was to reflect sustainable relationships, so I created these entities who live in a hive and work together to make it all work as it should.
Bold Creative: The Day
This was a graphic novel/comic book competition in which you had to represent this *given* conversation between two friends around the theme of HIV. I wanted to make the characters anonymous and the surroundings uncharacteristic to reflect how this could happen to anyone.
if you study graphics or illustration, my most serious piece of advice to you would be to stop looking at my stuff for inspiration as soon as possible. if you want to be genuinely inspired or influenced by what i do, then look outside the tiny and insignificant bubble that is contemporary illustration. watch films, read books, look at other forms of art and design, learn about what's going on around you - anything that takes you outside illustration. despite of what your tutors may tell you, as an illustration student, referencing and studying other contemporary illustrators' work is not only going to damage your own work, but it will only help to homogenise and water down illustration as a whole. there is a big problem with illustration students at the moment - they are spending too much time referencing and copying other illustrators' work, and this will end their career before it has a chance to start. i'm only stating the obvious here, but as a student, you should do everything to make sure your work looks nothing like anybody else's out there, otherwise it will never be noticed, and you might as well get a job in mcdonalds.
i and most other working illustrators i know generally go and see a lot of degree shows, and anyone referencing other contemporary illustrators tends to be seen as ignorant and a bit second rate and crap - nobody wants to see the same old, but we all love seeing things we've never seen before, it's what moves this industry forward. as a new graduate, it's your job to move things forward, and by referencing other illustrators, you are doing the opposite.
Yeah, it's time for this kind of post... So I've recently been drawing a lot, filling at least three sketchbook pages a day for the last month. My drawings are always very (if not 'too') expressive and I am influenced by the slightest event happening to me, from frustrations to inside jokes throughout the day. Due to my personal lack of artistic background I've never learned another way of drawing (I am however currently taking life drawing classes which will hopefully allow me to accumulate a minimum amount of technique). Anyways, besides my everyday life I have stumbled upon artists who express their emotions in a similar illustration style.
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
by Jhonen Vasquez
So yes, his inner demons are apparently more bloody than mine. the expression remains the same however. By exponentially exaggerating a specific emotion I tend to arrive to the same sort of illustrated outcome. The comic is itself really interesting to read through, but definitely not for the weak-hearted.
Tim Burton
For me, this is where it's at. Already booked tickets to New York in order to see his retrospective at the MoMa. I hadn't been in contact with his earlier work before I took a copy of The Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy into my hands. His illustrations are simple, beautiful and expressive, everything I want mine to be. I am also currently in a 'stitches, masks and pins and needles' phase, which his work seems to satisfy perfectly.
Nobuo Uematsu
I'm not only influenced by visuals. I have recently started listening to those beautiful piano tunes I had once heard while playing through my Final Fantasy collection. I've had those melodies in my head for the past few days and I guess their melancholy affects me.. But yeah, absolutely amazing piano pieces by Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu... I would recommend to find the pieces individually in their full length, but here is a short collection of the most beautiful ones:
Beautiful work by Illustrator and Designer Gabriel Moreno. Even though he has worked a variety of big clients his work keeps its identity, which isn't an easy thing to do when working around a brand of the likes of Coca Cola.