Inspirational Illustrators

At this moment of time I have decided to go down the illustration route, and this is mainly due to the fact that I have more knowledge on the matter than I do with photography. Because of this I would need to look at editorial illustrations to find a style suitable for my ideas, and to also provide inspiration.

But before I do that: What is Editorial Illustration? To put it simply, these are illustrations that are normally accompanied by text or represent a certain article to make it easier for readers to understand it, as it’s sometimes hard to “picture” a subject without an image to help give you a little push.  

Lotta Nieminen - http://www.lottanieminen.com/

Originally born in Helsinki, Finland, Nieminen studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and the Rhode Island School of Design, and is now a freelancer based in New York, U.S.A.  

Nieminen has done many editorial illustrations, and after browsing through a few of them I found this one that was part of a series "Suez Environment". Suez Environment is "a French utility company which operates in the water treatment and waste management sectors." ( quoted from her website). 

This illustration here is a perfect example of her style; she uses flat colours so there is a lack of perspective, and yet the way she places specific elements (like the hill) creates some sort of depth. The characters within her illustrations are quite simplistic so that their facial features aren’t really obvious, which is a style that is reflected in Impressionism where painters like Monet would focus more on the light and shading than facial features. 

What I also noticed is that she has used a texture so that it looks slightly grainy and less “flat”.

I’m not really good at doing backgrounds so I really admire the detailing in hers, despite the lack of things such as shading. She has paid a lot of attention to tiny things such as the windows, lines in the buildings, and even the little "turrets". 

From this example I can also assume that she uses Illustrator, and I really admire her for that because I’m not that good at vector images at all!

The things that I have pointed above are reflected in all of her illustrations; her flat colours, lack of perspective, characters with no faces, a lot of detail in buildings... Here are some of her other pieces. 

Conclusion:

What really caught my eye was that she used a grainy texture on all of her illustrations. This could be something I could use in mine to create more, well, texture! I like the way she has drawn them in Illustrator to make them appear more detailed than they actually are.

The only problem about taking Niemenen as an inspiration is that she doesn’t draw faces, which would be a problem for my project. 

Joe Ciardiello - http://www.joeciardiello.com/

It was this image that caught my eye as I surfed through some editorial illustrations; the reason being was the crisp line work. I am a big fan when it comes to line art, and when I saw this piece my eyes were immediately attracted to the sharp and overlapping lines. It reminded me of the line technique where one would draw on the page in biro without having the nib leave the page. This gives off a very sketchy impression, but because of how neat the finish is it doesn’t look too cluttered or messy.

There is clearly an emphasise on the character’s face, because it is so much larger than the rest of the body (as the length of the face should be equal to a hand). 

There is a lack of emotion drawn on the character’s face – well, it’s “main face” – but as our eyes venture into the illustration a bit more we notice that there are other face interlacing into the main one. The one on the right looks particularly angry, and this could show that behind the emotionless mask this character is suffering in silence.

This allows us to investigate the main face a little further, and this is when we notice the intricate and thin lines that shape the wrinkles on the face. We notice the bags, the slightly pursed lips, and the “sad eyes” that go downward slightly at the outer corners. So even though this face first appeared emotionless, further investigation shows that this person is suffering.

It is not only the face that reveals their suffering, but also the way the illustrator has positioned their hands. They have folded across the character’s body and are clenching the elbows, as if trying to protect themselves or form a defensive stance. The shoulders are slightly hunched which supports the idea that the character is trying to make themselves appear small and weak so that they are submitting to the audience/the other person.

Conclusion: There is a lot of power in this illustration, especially because the illustrator has incorporated emotion into the character. The heavy contrast between the lines and the white background allows us to focus more on them so that we can see all of the details within. I could perhaps do a line drawing for these reasons… Hmmm.

Here are some of his other pieces:

 

Overall Conclusion:

Even though Ciardiello has done some coloured illustrations, I much prefer his black and white versions because the coloured versions sometimes wash away all of the details in the line work. 

Christoph Niemann - http://www.christophniemann.com/

If there was ever a more powerful design than this then I’d be amazed, because it happens to be one of the most meaningful designs I have ever seen without it being too “pushy” towards the audience.

The main reason behind this is the simplicity of the design; there aren’t any complicated patterns in the background or a high amount of detail safe for the words on the paper used to form the military machines. The black background allows us to focus on these objects.

The paper used to create military weapons and machinery is in fact newspapers with articles on income and tax.  This could show that tax can cripple an individual almost – but not quite - in the same way as a war would, but in a more personal sense. High taxes leads to debt that an individual couldn’t possibly get out of, so for the rest of their lives they’ll be struggling up the money ladder in order to pay off everything as well as looking after their family.

Conclusion: By having an overall simplistic design allows us to focus on the words written on the machines, and these words explain the story behind the whole illustration. This shows me that words can really “set the scene”.

Here are some of his other pieces I liked:

 

Overall conclusion: I like the cartoon-ish feel behind his illustrations because although they may appear “childish”, there really is a deep meaning behind them all. 

Alice X. Zhang - http://alicexz.deviantart.com/ 

Although she isn't an editorial illustrator I thought that she deserves to be mentioned. There is such an explosion of colour in Alice X. Zhang’s work, and even though she does her painting digitally the brush strokes mimic those found on traditional oil paintings.

Her main focus in almost all of her pieces is the characters, and instead of using lines to define their features she uses strong shadows and vibrant colours.  The way she shades is so accurate that the characters are brought to life and are so vivid from the background that they really do look 3D without that plastic feel to it. This is because of the strong and hard brushstrokes that could be achieved without using the smudge tool, and it appears she uses an overlap of brushes to blend the colours instead.

What captured me the most in this painting are the character’s eyes; they have been painted almost as if they are reflected off the firelight in her hair and the flag, with just the right amount of shading and lighting. The strand of hair that passes over her eyes makes her more mysterious, as if she’s peering at the viewer in the crowd like she knows more about you than anyone else. It’s a piercing gaze, but not an overpowering one. The way her eyebrows are shaped softens her appearance.       

If I hadn’t have known that this piece is for the film “Les Miserables” I would’ve guessed that it was about rebellion by the way Zhang has painted the flag; it is tattered yet appears vibrant because of it’s strong colours. This could portray the people of France during the revolution - that even though they are bent under the country’s harsh rules, they are still strong.

Conclusion: In my opinion the colours complete the piece, because they bring such a fire to it overall that my eyes can’t help but look at it. The girl’s eyes contain so much power and innocence and it reflects the musical’s theme.

Here are some of Alice Zhang’s other pieces that I liked:

 

Overall Conclusion: Overall her pieces contain a lot of expression, and despite the rough brush strokes they look completed. Another thing I like is the way she uses colour to emit a particular emotion in her pieces, and I would love to try this out as I aim to do a powerful illustration like she does.

Jason Chan - http://jasonchanart.blogspot.co.uk/

 Jason Chan is a concept artist as well as an illustrator, currently residing in California, United States. His talents range from film to print, and even video games.

The thing about Jason Chan that was so mind-blowing was that his illustrations looked nothing like they were drawn pieces, but photographs. I know that he is not specifically an editorial illustrator but I just love the way he illustrates!

I had actually seen his work before – the cover illustration for King of Thorns – but never knew who the illustrator was. So you could just imagine what I felt when I found out who the artist was for such an amazing cover. When I looked at his website I noticed another illustration that I had been inspired by when I was into manga at the age of 11 – his angel piece. 

This angel piece is actually perfect as it’s exactly what I’m hoping to do for my editorial image. I love the way that he has blended the character into the background with the help of some textures and clouds, their edges bordering the image in a more interesting way than just placing the character in a typical “frame”.

The colour scheme he chose is quite unusual from the stereotypical angel piece; he uses green, dark blue, slight hints of pink and grey instead of white, light blue and gold. Even the halo looks as if it’s a ringlet of barbed wire than gold light! If we look back at Pre- Raphaelite images of angels they all have long golden hair with a white halo, and Grecian-style dresses (or perhaps Roman), but Jason Chan went against all of that and made his angel have short hair, barbed halo, and don a simple vest with marble-like texture. This marble texture is reflected in the background, which has some scratches on it to look as if the stone itself has been scratched and this could emphasise the rebellious nature of this angel. 

The facial expression of his angel is hidden from the audience to show that she wishes not to engage with anyone else, or that she’s thoughtful and in her own world. Her hands are placed behind her back and this produces a connotation of her being a prisoner, and this is supported by the image of barbed wire as her halo. 

I took a look at his other illustrations to see what his style was, and here are a few of my favourites:

 

From this I can see that he pays a lot of attention to detail in nearly everything within the illustration; lighting, clothing, facial expressions… But his main signature style is the way he draws his characters, their faces in particular. They aren’t completely realistic, for their eyes are slightly bigger than normal that leans onto a more “manga-influenced” style. A key example of this is the image on the right (the cover for Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger).  

Conclusion:

To conclude, I really like how much detail he puts into his illustrations to make them look as realistic as possible, and yet there is an undeniable hint of fantasy in them. His angel piece is inspirational because it looks as if it could be placed beside an article. 

UPDATE - After-Feedback Inspirations
When I showed my initial ideas to my lecturers they both recommended me a list of illustrations that I could possibly draw inspiration from, so I went along and did some brief research on this list. I then found two more illustrators to add to my list of inspirations!

Ralph Steadman - http://www.ralphsteadman.com/

Ralph Steadman’s style is very similar to that of Joe Ciardiello (or is it the other way around?) although I find that there are less “messy” lines and more shading. The shading is lighter to create a softer appearance and it’s effective in this illustration to emphasis the soft texture of rabbit fur.

The expression on the rabbit’s face makes it look comical, mostly because of the way that Steadman drew the eyes. The pupil in the left eye is smaller to reflect the shock of being late, whereas the one on the right is large which makes the rabbit appear somewhat cute.

Another thing that makes the rabbit appear comical is the teeth and the structure of the face. Realistically the teeth wouldn’t be shown from that angle and if Steadman did want to draw an open mouth then… Where is the bottom half of the rabbit’s mouth? There are so many things that are “wrong” with this illustration yet Steadman has drawn it effectively and made these mistakes look comical.

The hands aren’t as important in the sense that they are extremely small, so small that I can’t even see them! This makes the viewer focus more on the rabbit’s garments than it’s body (as the feet are really small as well). Talking of garments, the one that the rabbit is wearing reminds me of those successful businessmen attending an important event and the hat kind of tops that connotation. The rabbit’s belly also reminds me of “beer bellies” and this shows me that this rabbit probably has an easy life just relaxing and looks after himself because the garments aren’t scruffy.

Conclusion:

There is a lot more to this illustration than I expected, such as the way he drew the character rather than the media he uses to draw it. I really like how he puts a lot of detail in the shading and the folds in the suit, and the expression is priceless! This shows me that not every illustration has to be perfect, and that there is a lot more character in having your own style without having to think, “oh wait eyes aren’t really positioned like that” or “you shouldn’t see the teeth at this angle”.

Here are his other pieces that I quite liked the look of:

Overall Conclusion:

Even though his lines are quite thin there is a lot of character in them, especially because of the amount of detail that he draws in his illustrations. What I like the most are the un-proportionate faces; they really do add character and a comical effect!


Giacometti

Giacometti also does really sketchy drawings, and I just love the way the lines overlap to create shading instead of just colouring them in. It gives the piece texture and although it appears slightly harsh it makes the face more 3D. He is perhaps one of the few artists that I looked at for inspiration who hasn't drawn strong, thick lines to outline facial features but instead relies on shading.
For example, the highlight on the nose really brings it out of the page as well as the deep shadows around the nostrils. Giacometti didn't need to draw a prominent line to bring the nose out, but relied on the highlight and shadows. To make it even more realistic the nose isn't extremely perfect (straight) and I could almost "feel" the bumps in it.
What I find most interesting is how the eyes are shaded in so much that it's hard to see the actual eye. This could be quite disconcerting because it's hard to tell which direction the person is looking because I can't see their pupil. During the Victorian times this was believed to be taboo because of the fact we cannot interpret the character's real emotions safe for the hint of a smile. 
All of the detail is upon the face, because as we move away from the face the shading and lines become more sketchy and loose, as the gaps between them widen. This means that the viewer would be focusing more on the facial features than the head, and it's hard to tell whether this person is actually male or female because of the lack of hair drawn.

Overall Conclusion: 
I really like Giacometti's illustrations because although it appears sketchy there is a lot of detail put into shading and the way the lines overlap. I would love to be able to create a "sketchy but perfect" appearance, but I have a feeling that this might be hard to do...



Conclusion of Research:
By looking at inspirational illustrators I am able to figure out what exactly I want to achieve in my illustration. I would love to try out the line styles that Ciardiello, Steadman and Giacometti have done in their drawings, and maybe try dabbing with colours like Alice Zhang to produce different emotions.