Sunday 13 May 2012

Scott McCloud (final)

Scott McCloud

 Finally I have chosen to write about this artist in more detail because I have an interest in graphic novels of which inspired me to start drawing in the first place ( I originally wanted to become a graphic novelist) but also that he hasn't gone with trying to draw to please the audience alone but instead please the audience by going beyond & testing the boundaries of comic design itself. He has experiemented with interactive comics & released many help guides for young new comers to the comic industry.

Zot!, by Scott McCloud

 The illustrations of his comics are quite simple compared to those of bigger companys such as Marvel & DC however I think the comic is quite well put together as the text, tones & actions give the comic so much more depth that the audience can easily engage with the characters. The flow of the story is very well portrayed & the emotions that McCloud shows within the illustrations come across well especially the anger of the top right panel. With a bolder, capital typeface he understands that this will create an intimidating feeling towards the audience, this is complimented with the dark shadows of block colour around the character's eyes. This is a vital area to make intimidating because the eye contact is the main way the audience interacts with the character. The use of this contrast between the whites of the eyes & the shadow makes the character's expression that more intense.

 I would like to take ideas from his comc style & practise the use of tone to portray a character's emotion. I may experiment with this other the summer.

Pete Fowler

Pete Fowler

Fowler is most definately my favourite out of all the artists I have researched for this project. I as an illustrator can relate to his style the most with his psycadelic inspiration, think lines & bold colours. His artwork mostly consists of strange creatutes which can be comical & you can really get a sense of the depth of his character design within each one.


I love how clean the linework is in this piece, the smoothness is that you would expect from a vector piece so I am going to assume that it is! I love how the lines all flow together smoothly & that everything is spread out evenly. The piece being perfectly symettrical I feel helps the illusion of smoothness throughout the piece. I feel in the future I will experiment with making my work more symettrical so I can query whether this creates the same illusion for my illustrations too.

The bold use of colour also create a strong contrast from the lines to make the image really pop out. The use of colour is necessary as if pale colours were used they would be washed out by the intesity of the linework unless the lines were toned down to a light grey.

Ian Pollock (final

Ian Pollock

To be honest Ian Pollock isn't one of my favourite artists I have chosen out of the 4 of them. The reason I chose him eas because his illustrations were somewhat surreal which is what I like to incorperate into my own illustrative style. However, even though I also enjoy working in traditional media, Ian Pollock also does however he used the tools very differently.



This is a pretty comical image & like I said he does have it's surreal aspects. However what I would really like to focus on is the line work. It appears that the artist has used a dip pen & ink for this lineart as the lines are very sketchy, varying from heavy to fine & the lines don't connect. In areas such as underneath the scooter,the ink has blended into the area of shadow which creates a more intense contract.

This line art also suits the method & media of colour of which being water colour. Instead of being clean & previse with the strokes, he has been more expressive. Lashing of colour to produce depth works well however he has still kept the colour within the lines.

 I would take inspiration from this messy style however I think I would slowly die on the inside as I have been aiming to be as clean as possible with my lineart through all my life drawing.

eBoy (final)

eBoy (Chosen artist 1)


The reason I chose to write a more detailed post about eBoy would be that the complexity of his drawings remind me of my personal illustrations as I love to include a lot of extra details that cause the public to double take, you can not see everything with only one look at the piece. Furthmore the choice in colour is vivid allowing the image to feel more "busy" giving it a greater sense of depth. These pieces are very imaginitive & with a simply, pixel style they can pull it off without making it feel cluttered whilst maintaining a high standard.



bike repainted

by Andreas Stokbro

This is a great example of how flexible the designs of eBoy are. They can be applied to many forms of merchandise because the design is so complicated. With other artwork you may be concerned if it was placed onto a bike even though it wasn't designed to fit the frame because the image would be cut up & the audience wouldn't be able to interperate what it was. However because it is so busy it gives the same effect of a pattern. It looks great on said product & I especially think it would be excellent as a wallpaper.
Rio Wiggle

Rio Wiggle

 This is amazing! I love how despite the animation is so simple, due to the complex design of the drawing, it makes the animation look complex too! I can see that this is constructed using 3 - 4 seperate layers of which the artist have moved the layers (except the background layer) side to side which would only take a few frames. This is looped over & over so this couple possible be a high resolution gif? Afterall it has allowed me to copy it straight from the site. I really love the use of gradient to shade the statue but also I really love the heart ballon as it's simplistic but it stands out to me. The use of red on white has probably created the contrast of which grabbed my attention. I can honestly say I would enjoy looking at this for hours & am probably going to purchase Pixorama for myself!

Saturday 12 May 2012

Ross Collins

Ross Collins

Collins was born in 1972 Glasgow where he remained to study at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1994 he graduated from said school with a First in Illustration. But impressively he also won the MacMillan Children's Book prize which presented him many oppurtunities & kick started his career as a children's novel illustrator.

He spent 2 years in London taking advantage of said oppurtunities however he missed his home back in Scotland & returned where he now spends his time continueing to illustrate/write children's novels & create animation character development.

Awards include

'Dear Vampa' won the
2011 Scottish Children's Book Award
White Raven Award 2012 (Germany) for
'When I Woke Up I was a Hippopotamus'
'Billy Monster's Daymare' won the
2008 Royal Mail Book Award
'The Elephantom' was shorlisted for the
Kate Greenaway Medal 2007
White Raven Award 2003 (Germany) for 'Busy Night'
'Alvie Eats Soup' gained an Oppenhiem Award. (US)
Blue Peter Book Award Nominee
Young Hoosier Book Award Nominee
Scottish Arts Council Book Award 1999
'Supposing' gained a Blue Ribbon Award (US)
the Scottish Arts Council Book Award 1999
and was a nominee for the Blue Peter Book Award
and the Young Hoosier Book Award

Winner of the 1994 MacMillan Prize for
'The Sea Hole'.


Reference
www.rosscollins.net/
[All electronically accessed & submitted]

Sara Fanelli

Sara Fanelli

Despite being born in Florence in 1969, she moved to London to study at the Camberwell College of Art & then Progressed onto the Royal College of Art of she graduated in 1955. Fanelli is both an artist & illustrator however is best known for her work on illustrated children's novels which were so sucsessful that they were published in man languages & have won her awards. Theseawards include winning the Victoria & Albert Musuem Illustration Award, a D&AD Silver Award for a poster design in 2003 & finally for a postage stamp in 2000.



References

www.sarafanelli.com
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Fanelli
[All electronically accessed & submitted]

Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud


McCloud is a very well know graphic novelist who has revolutionised comics & began producing them proffesionally since 1984. He he best known for:


Non Fiction books such as his Understanding Comics which was produced in 1993. The book is 215 pages long which is a comic about comics medium & is translated into over 16 different languages. Reinventing Comics was published in the year 200 which takes a more controversial direction in terms of comics which focusses upon how art can be revolutionary, aswell as insights to culture & technology. Making comics was produced in 2006 to help new comers by explaining story telling techniques. This proved popular & resulted in the Making Comics 50 State Tour aswell as the Google Chrome comic.




References
www.scottmccloud.com/
www.scottmccloud.com/5-about/index.html
[All electronically accessed & submitted]