Part 1: The History of Illustration
Exercise details:
The purpose of this activity is to explore how illustration has evolved over 50 years. In the first part of the task, one of six (listed) notable Illustrators has to be chosen and explored, then followed by a contemporary Illustrator whose work I like. The task then requires an illustration to be drawn in the style of each artist, selecting similar subject matter and using similar media.
Exploring the work of the Illustrator, Edward Bawden:
Of the six artists listed, it was Edward Bawden's life as an artist, and his illustrations, that I wished to explore in more detail. I was drawn to the visual character of his artwork. Bawden was taught at the Royal College of Art between 1922–6. After graduating he worked for Curwen Press and many other publishers. During this pre-war period Bawden produced a large variety of commercial illustrations, leaflets, posters and advertisements. During the Second World War, he gained a commission as a war artist for the British Army. His wartime watercolours were painted in various Europe countries and the Middle East. Post-war, Bawden gained a great deal of his recognition as an artist, illustrator and graphic designer. (Tate Gallery, 2016)
I think that Bawden's style is extremely expressive and bold. Many of his illustrations still have a contemporary feel to me, and I do not think a lot of his work looks particularly dated. The bold and fresh lines plus blocks of colour are a pleasure to look at. For example, one of his famous Illustrations is the linocut, Brighton Pier (Jerwood Foundation, 2016):
I very much like this artwork. Certain aspects of this artwork captured my attention. For example, how the domes of Brighton Royal Pavilion have been included in the scene (even though the Pavilion is a considerable distance away and unrelated to the pier). Why did he do that? I think it is because those domes are recognisably associated with Brighton and are a landmark. Perhaps without them, we would be looked at a pier and the Brighton association wouldn't have been as strong. Visually, he then seemed to balance it with the structure on the right-hand side, this frames the scene and gives a much stronger composition. The strong diagonal line through the central panel, leads the eye down into the pier and the image. The lines and blocks of colour are bold and interesting. I'm curious how the sense of perspective is deliberately 'wonky', i.e. the near side of the pier.
In the following artwork, Covent Garden Flower Market (Jerwood Foundation 2016), I again see that bold use of perspective, plus strong line and colour. I think that Bawden is fantastic at taking the complexity of a scene and reducing it down to simple shapes and blocks, all the while retaining atmosphere and a sense of place.
A quick brainstorm on his style gives me the following keywords and key points to reflect upon:
- Linocuts
- Perspective
- Bold and expressive shapes
- Stripping down a scene so that it focuses on the essential character, shapes and composition of a subject.
- Expressive touches of colour (which tend to have a focus of attention).
- Illustrations of locations, retaining their character, mood and sense of place
Own illustration in the style of Edward Bawden:
- Reduce the visual complexity of the photograph
- Draw blocks of colour in an attempt to mimick Bawden's linocut
- Draw obvious geometric shapes
- A slightly distorted sense of perspective
Media used: Indian Ink and Coloured Ink on Bristol Board.
Just for experiment's sake, I then took the sketch into Adobe Illustrator and I vectorised the photograph. Below:
I have my mixed thoughts about the image above. On one hand I quite like the watercolour style that is the outcome; the colours are now pleasingly solid and there is a loose expressiveness to the colours in the sky and the sea (sea in particular). However, the vector conversion seems to have created a fuzzy and blurry quality to the final outcome which, I'm disliking more-and-more as I evaluate the image.
As a final note:- a friend said, "that looks just like a postcard". I suppose it does!
Exploring the work of the contemporary Illustrator, Gabriel Moreno:
I spent some time reviewing a wide range of work from contemporary illustrators. I was struck by the immense variety of work, styles, media and application/use of imagery. I picked out Gabriel Moreno because I was drawn to his fascinating style of drawn portraiture and expressive use of colour overlays in those portraits. In the image below left, called Flower (Gabrielmorenogallery, 2016), I was intrigued by his delicate and flowing line. In the image below right, called Irune (Gabrielmorenogallery, 2016), I like the way that the artist has overlaid other image and colour over the face. These images seem very typical of Moreno's style.
In the "Ion Fiz" backdrop used during a Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, we see the same approach as just noted. Portraiture created in traditional pen/ink media, and then digitally manipulated into a final product:
Debutart.com, 2016
Debutart.com, 2016
Gabriel Moreno seems to have a particular interest in female portraiture and illustrations, and I found a telling quote in an interview:
"I would have to say it is the female body in rhythm with its gestures, the curvature of their necks, their mouths. I simply enjoy looking at a woman and drawing her. From that moment she can become as profound or superficial as she turns out to be." 2016
Certainly I find Gabriel's drawings rather tender and he always seems to capture an elusive feeling of femininity. I think this is an artist who is enjoying his subject matter and is relishing drawing the female face and form. He always has a photorealistic style and avoids abstraction.
Finally:
The purpose of this activity was for me to start to reflect on the history and development of Illustration. Although the scope of this is narrowly on two artists, I can immediately draw one simple and initial conclusion - the impact of digital media. The contemporary illustrator's approaches and toolkit is expanded as a result of digital technologies. All the traditional media is there for the contemporary artist to use, but with an important addition of creative software and digital techniques to create and enhance work.
Own illustration in the style of Gabriel Moreno:
For this artwork I wanted to mimic Moreno's workflow. First a sketch in ink or pencil, and then digitally manipulate. The final artwork is below:
The first stage was a drawing in simple biro pen. Although Moreno seems to prefer a photorealistic style to the face, I wanted to achieve an overall more "sketched" feel for the final piece.
My sketch is below:
I scanned in the drawn image and then took it into Photoshop where I overlaid coloured layers and manipulated the colour on those layers to achieve a gradient blue blend over the sketch. Different brush stamping within selections gave me the splash, flowers and polka dot effect. Finally, I took a duplicate layer and delete to just the hair, I then performed a hard-mix with the layers below in order to make the hair stand out in more contrast.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the outcome. The most important thing for me is that I enjoyed the two key phases: the sketching and I also enjoyed the digital manipulation. At each stage of the process I was closely looking at Moreno's style and trying to draw on it for my own inspiration. It was fun to mimic, but very important for me was not to try and be a copyist, rather to adapt a style and put my own creative choices into the mix. In conclusion, I don't think my image is strongly in his style, rather more inspired by it.
2nd artwork:
I moved on in wanting to experiment with a purely digital approach and try to capture something a little closer to the digitally manipulated look of Moreno's artwork.Here is the original image:
With the digital manipulation that I produced below:
This image was created in Adobe Photoshop, with the general steps outlined below:
- Take the original source image and create a posterised effect
- Tidy up the image and try to remove some of the pixelisation, and make the features more distinct.
- Overlay the floral pattern on the face.
- And experiment with different layer blends and drop shadow.
Overall I'm quite pleased with this 2nd image, my aim was to create something a little closer to Moreno's style and I think I've broadly achieved that. I probably like this 2nd image a little better than my first because the image seems more visually "relaxed" into its style; whilst the 1st image somes across a little aesthetically self-conscious and probably a little bit too much going on with elements that don't quite combine in harmony.
The style differences between these two illustrators is quite stark. Although there is the obvious divide in time and place, there is a very different 'feel' to Bawden and Moreno. There is more a dark and brooding quality to Bawden's work, and I'd also consider his work to have a more fine-art aesthetic and perhaps is a reflection of Bawden's traditional art eduction at the Royal College of Art. Whereas Moreno is 'light', 'playful' and welcoming in comparison; achieved with his focus on young attractive women. A thought occurs: how would Moreno's work change if he focussed on older women? How would the 'beauty' in his images adapt in the mind of the viewer with a change of style?
Imagery:
Bawden's work as an artist is wide ranging. In fact, his production of watercolours seems to have been quite profilific, but it is his linocuts which seem to gather the most critical attention and acclaim. A skilled artist and painter, who also seemed to have expressed his creative talents on a wide range of commercial illustration commissions. Bawden's body of work is wide in scope across art media, styles and content.
In contrast, Moreno's artwork has an extremely narrow focus. Moreno is an artist who has his own very specific personal voice, style and production method. This compares starkly to the wide ranging body of work from Bawden. Perhaps this is an interesting question to explore... Do successful contemporary illustrators have narrower bodies of work and media used, compared to those working decades (or even centuries ago)? Or indeed, is the conclusion the opposite? That the range of media and artistic methods available to the contemporary illustrator has never been greater, and more widely applied?
Production:
One surprise has been to discover how large some of Moreno's artwork are; the scale of the drawings are extraordinarily big. The surprise of this makes me reflect on my artistic experiences and experiments on the Drawing 1 course; I remind myself to always be expressive and experimental in my artwork, and to confound expectations in what producing Illustration should be, and needs to be.
Comparing and constrasting the two illustrators:
Style:The style differences between these two illustrators is quite stark. Although there is the obvious divide in time and place, there is a very different 'feel' to Bawden and Moreno. There is more a dark and brooding quality to Bawden's work, and I'd also consider his work to have a more fine-art aesthetic and perhaps is a reflection of Bawden's traditional art eduction at the Royal College of Art. Whereas Moreno is 'light', 'playful' and welcoming in comparison; achieved with his focus on young attractive women. A thought occurs: how would Moreno's work change if he focussed on older women? How would the 'beauty' in his images adapt in the mind of the viewer with a change of style?
Imagery:
Bawden's work as an artist is wide ranging. In fact, his production of watercolours seems to have been quite profilific, but it is his linocuts which seem to gather the most critical attention and acclaim. A skilled artist and painter, who also seemed to have expressed his creative talents on a wide range of commercial illustration commissions. Bawden's body of work is wide in scope across art media, styles and content.
In contrast, Moreno's artwork has an extremely narrow focus. Moreno is an artist who has his own very specific personal voice, style and production method. This compares starkly to the wide ranging body of work from Bawden. Perhaps this is an interesting question to explore... Do successful contemporary illustrators have narrower bodies of work and media used, compared to those working decades (or even centuries ago)? Or indeed, is the conclusion the opposite? That the range of media and artistic methods available to the contemporary illustrator has never been greater, and more widely applied?
Production:
Gabriel Moreno at work
Edward Bawden's studio
Sources used during this exercise:
Acqua Colonia No 4711 (2016) 4711.com [Online]. Available from:
http://www.4711.com/index.php/en/acqua-colonia-136.html [31st October 2016]
http://www.4711.com/index.php/en/acqua-colonia-136.html [31st October 2016]
(2016). Arts Illustrated.com [Online]. Available from:
http://www.artsillustrated.com/gabriel-moreno-artist/ [31st October 2016]
http://www.artsillustrated.com/gabriel-moreno-artist/ [31st October 2016]
debutart.com (2016) debutart.com [Online]. Available from:
http://www.debutart.com/artist/gabriel-moreno/ionfiz-mercedes-benz-fashion-week [31st October 2016]
Edward Bawden's studio [photograph]. Retrieved from:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/5e/34/a3/5e34a33d321af7675bc5acbd26038a5c.jpg [31st October 2016]
gabrielmorenogallery (2016) gabrielmorenogallery.com [Online]. Available from:
http://gabrielmorenogallery.com/product-category/limited-editions [31st October 2016]
Jerwood Foundation (2016) jerwoodfoundation.org [Online]. Available from:
http://www.jerwoodfoundation.org/collection/16/brighton-pier [31st October 2016]
Gabriel Moreno at work [photograph]. Retrieved from:
http://blog.directoryofillustration.com/wp-content/ uploads/2015/07/11154576_931669116855225_3259155810031780349_o.jpg [31st October 2016]
Tate Gallery (2016) tate.org.uk [Online] Available from:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-bawden-707 [31st October 2016]
http://www.photos-public-domain.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/red-floral-print-fabric-texture.jpg
http://www.debutart.com/artist/gabriel-moreno/ionfiz-mercedes-benz-fashion-week [31st October 2016]
Edward Bawden's studio [photograph]. Retrieved from:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/5e/34/a3/5e34a33d321af7675bc5acbd26038a5c.jpg [31st October 2016]
http://gabrielmorenogallery.com/product-category/limited-editions [31st October 2016]
http://www.jerwoodfoundation.org/collection/16/brighton-pier [31st October 2016]
http://blog.directoryofillustration.com/wp-content/ uploads/2015/07/11154576_931669116855225_3259155810031780349_o.jpg [31st October 2016]
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edward-bawden-707 [31st October 2016]
Sources of free/Creative Commons digital images used in my Moreno inspired artwork:
http://7-themes.com/6952752-portrait-barbara-palvin-fashion-model-girl.htmlhttp://www.photos-public-domain.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/red-floral-print-fabric-texture.jpg
Comments
Post a Comment