FMP: Current Inspirations

To get into the "fairy-tale mood" I am going to look at a variety of inspirations; from illustrators, artists, and wedding invitations (although these invitations would be shown in a separate post). Anything that has that fairy tale feel to it really!

Amy Brown - http://www.amybrownart.com/

Amy Brown had a strong influence on me a couple of years back when I was at secondary school, so it was no wonder that my mind instantly drifted over to her paintings when I decided to gather some inspiration. In fact, I still look at her paintings every now and then, and I had done some fairy paintings myself last year:

 I just loved drawing little delicate fairies because of the childhood memories they bring with them. It has been ages since I last drew one (since October!) so I think it’ll be nice to go back into it.

Now going back to Amy Brown: she began painting fairies (of faeries) in 1992, but didn’t take it as a career path until much later. What I like about her the most is that she sticks to traditional methods of painting all of her, well, paintings, with watercolour rather than relying on a computer.

Another aspect that I love about her paintings is how dynamic most of her characters are, and this Fire Dance Faery is a perfect example. It was in fact the first painting I clapped my eyes onto years ago, so I wanted to bring it up to analyse it and help me figure out why I liked it so much.

As I said above, her characters are very dynamic. This faery’s hair flows with her, forming a sort of wave as her arms are stretched out behind her as if she is leaping elegantly out of the flames that is her dress, as the ends of her skirt are falling off like the flicker of flames. Her feet are pointed downwards and are clothes in ballerina slippers, further enhancing the elegance. This also gives off the impression that the faery has lept from the ground and this "shot" is captured while she was in the air. 

Despite all of the dynamic movement I have to say that the wings look rather stiff, and perhaps it is because Brown wanted to draw attention to them. There is something about those wings that is so different to the typical see-through faery wings we see on Tinkerbell, for instance, and it completes the fiery character because of the rich, red colours.

I find that because of all of the rich colours and the dynamic movements, that Brown was right in leaving the background white so that we are wholly focused on the character. The golden border instead fills the page in a subtle way and makes her appear more 3D as she is painted to go before it. This reminds me of the Art Nouveau style where borders are another way to enhance the painting.

Conclusion: I am in love with this painting; especially because of the colours she used and the way she drew her character. 

Here are some of her other paintings that I really admire:

 

Overall conclusion: Her use of colour is simply mind blowing, as in each picture she has used a different colour palette to set the mood. The detail in the clothes and wings are very intricate, and there is more of an emphasis on them. I also like how she mixes in some aspects of Art Nouveau and I later realised that it's because one of her inspirations is Alphonse Mucha!

Jan Pienkowski - http://www.janpienkowski.com/home.htm 

Jan Pienkowski was born in Warsaw, 1936. The war meant that he spent most of his time travelling as a child: from Poland to Austria, then German, and then Italy before settling in England in 1946. This marked two new experiences for him – he went to school for the first time and also began to learn English. During years studying in London and then Cambridge he managed to fit in poster and stage design during his spare time.

Later on he began to do illustrations and became well known after winning the Library Association Kate Greenaway Medal in 1972 for his silhouette illustrations shown in “The Kingdom Under The Sea” by Joan Aiken’s and again in 1980 for his “Haunted House”.

Although Jan Pienkowski has done many book illustrations, it’s the silhouette ones that I find most interesting (although Meg and Mog is pretty cool too!) I had always wanted to do silhouettes but I didn’t really think of it until now, so I wanted to take a look at one of the best illustrators for it.

What’s amazing is that he had illustrated a book called “The Fairy Tales” in the silhouette style! So I think I might have a look later on…

What surprised me at first is that even though they are silhouettes, I could tell what each creature was and what gender the people were. This is because of how much detail everything is in such as the body shape, hairstyles and little tufts to show that they are set in a forest with a grass-y ground. He probably drew everything as an artist normally would and then filled them in black to achieve such intricate detail.

Speaking of detail, there is just so much to see within these silhouettes! Take the trees for example; we can see almost every branch and could tell what kind of texture the tree had because of this. When I was looking at these trees I then saw all of the birds and squirrels perched on the branches, and I think that by making the trees in the background a light grey gives the illustration a sense of depth. So instead of using line thickness to determine depth he used colour… Interesting! 

After looking at these trees, the house and the animals I then notice the rabbit underground! I wouldn’t have noticed this because of the fact he used a lighter colour to go against the silhouette, but now I can see the detail in the roots and how he shaped the burrow to make it look realistic. 

So there is always something to look at within this illustration, just like a film where there is always something different cropping up every time you looked back at it. 

The silhouettes bring out the colours of the sky and the light inside the house, as these colours wouldn’t be so dramatic if he had coloured in everything else. The gradient in the sky is very soft so that it gradually gets darker and has been blended in perfectly – it reminds me of watercolour paint being blended together because of how “soft” it appears. What I like most about the sky however is that he painted the clouds in purple instead of the typical white that further enhances the fairy tale atmosphere because of how “magical” the colours were. Whenever I think of purple and blue I think of magic, so the colours he used brought about the right connotations! 

I’m really intrigued on how he did the stars because they look so white against the colour of the sky, and they almost have that heavenly glow. This sets a calm and beautiful atmosphere because of the stars shining upon the couple that just had a child brought into their lives. It shows harmony, happiness, and kindness all by the appearance of a few bright stars in the sky. The animals surrounding the house to witness the moment reminds me of the birth of Christ and this then further supports the idea that this is a harmonious moment of a kind couple who have possibly been waiting years to have a child. 

Conclusion:

This illustration is simply breath taking and I’m amazed at how much detail is within! There is always something to look at and the colours really show up against the black silhouettes. I simply love the detail he used to create texture in the trees, the roof of the house and the ground because it really creates the right atmosphere. 

Here are some of his other illustrations that really create the fairy tale theme (possibly being from his The Fairy Tales book!)

 

Overall Conclusion:

Like I mentioned above, the amount he puts into detail is amazing! I think I would love to use silhouettes in my design because it really brings about a magical atmosphere and I love how the colours stand out against the black.