APP Home (AOI): Inspirational Illustrators

As this is an illustration-based project, the first thing I wanted to do was see what contemporary illustrators did. Were they working on a digital platform, or still used traditional media?

I’m a big lover of traditional art although recently I’ve wanted to try out digital. I have done digital before but I didn’t get that same satisfaction as I do with watercolour, but I’m willing to try it out!

Mood Board

I’m not too sure what kind of illustration style I’m going to aim for for this narrative poster, so I’ve started by looking for techniques adopted by other illustrators and artists.

Image sources:  Yang Fan http://jiuge.deviantart.com/; Joseph Ma http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JosephMa/view; Chris King http://www.chriskingillustration.com/; Andy Council http://www.andycouncil.co.uk/; John Howe http://www.john-howe.com/; Joe Wilson http://www.joe-wilson.com/; Tomislav Tomic http://www.theaoi.com/portfolios/index.php/artist-details?memberid=342; Flo Minowa http://flominowa.com/; Noelle Stevenson http://noellestevenson.blogspot.co.uk/; Sam Schechter http://sam-schechter.com/; Alice Macarova http://www.behance.net/macarova; Anna Ignatieva http://magnetica.ru/gallery/; Kailey Lang http://www.kaileylang.com/; Julian De Narvaez http://www.behance.net/juliandenarvaez; Nico Delort http://www.behance.net/ndelort; Rafael Alvarez http://www.behance.net/rafaalvarez; Sebastian Skrobol http://www.behance.net/skrobol; Alphonse Mucha http://www.muchafoundation.org/; Khao Le http://www.behance.net/moonyk; Rodney Matthews http://www.rodneymatthews.com/; DZO Olivier http://www.behance.net/dzo; Arthur Rackman http://rackham.artpassions.net/   


Analysis of Inspirational Illustrations

Joseph Ma - http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JosephMa/view

What really caught my eye in this piece was the sense of dynamism, which was emphasised by the thin white lines that arrows left as they flew through the air. This is melded in with the rush of cold wind and snow which only strengthens the dangerous atmosphere as the riders are not only running towards battle but in heavy snow; horses are falling all around the soldiers, and there is a appearance of panic in the white horse’s eyes (which happens to be the main focal point of this piece).
The illustrator – Joseph Ma – has created a sense of depth by placing each character at a different ‘level’, so that it almost feels as if we’re within the scene about to be crushed by the panicked horses. The two slightly obscured characters at the front are drawn so that they will be at eye level, and that we, the other character, are perhaps also on the ground so that we would share the same panic as the fallen soldiers would. Our eyes will immediately go to the centre of all of the characters – which happens to be the place where the arrows are directed – due to the perspective the illustrator has created.
What is also unusual about this piece is that none of the characters are breaking the fourth wall, including the dog that appears to be looking at something just over our shoulder or right besides us. This is quite unusual and is a technique adopted by some Renaissance artists, which makes the viewer become curious to explore the picture a bit more.
The colours are quite muted in the sense that the shades aren’t that contrasting or ‘deep’. This goes well with the overall theme of this painting being quite ‘cold’ and matches the atmosphere the characters are in. The red of the soldier’s cloaks are even more dramatic than they would be if the other objects had deep shadows, and immediately becomes one of the main focal points of the piece. It’s strange how the red in the surviving soldiers are more brilliant than those of the fallen, which could mean that the red is giving off these soldier’s strength in battle as well as how dangerous they are to their opponent now that they are acting upon revenge for their comrades.

Conclusion:

It seems that in illustration, characters breaking the fourth wall isn’t as dramatic as they would be on TV. In fact, it seems that the fact that they’re not breaking the fourth wall is even more dramatic because it both excludes and includes the viewer in the scene.

Here are some of his other pieces that really caught my eye:

Overall Conclusion:

I like his use of lines because I’ve noticed that – especially in digital fine art – artists tend not to rely on lines are much as they would do on colour. I feel a connection as it were with this illustrator because I too rely on lines rather than colour.


Tomislav Tomic - http://www.theaoi.com/portfolios/index.php/artist-details?memberid=342

Once again, one of the first things I noticed was the interaction between the characters. There is an obvious tension between the giant and the man, and the tension heightens because of the fact that the man seems unaware that the giant’s hair is slowly entwining around his legs, but we as viewers are unable to warn him. This reminds me of a technique used by William Shakespeare when the audience knows something that a particular character or group of characters don’t know themselves.
And yet when we look closer we can see the man’s eyes widening as he looks down, so perhaps he does know that he is being trapped and that maybe he is trying to hack his way through the hair.

The colours used reminds me of watercolour because they have that ‘soft’ appearance, and this is a deep contrast to the situation displayed. This ‘softness’ makes the piece appear more ‘fairy-like’ because we don’t necessarily understand the underlying danger in fairy tales, but only the outcome of when the man defeats the giant. This reminds me of Arthur Rackham’s work where he uses shades of brown and cream in his paintings:

Much like Joseph Ma, the shades aren’t that contrasting as the main colours of each object which further strengthens the soft appearance of the piece. When I looked at his biography I realised that I was right in saying that he was probably using traditional media: he uses pen and ink.

Tomic has created different textures by using numerous shading techniques, for example, the ‘scratches’ on the rocks and the speckles on the trees. This was all done by pen (I presume), which is something that I like to achieve as well.

Here are his other pieces that caught my eye:

Overall Conclusion: 
Tomic also uses lines in his drawing but they’re not as visible as the ones that Joseph Ma uses in his drawings, and this is because the lines are a similar shade to the object. For example, the lines around the giant’s hands are a dark shade of cream instead of black. This is an interesting technique that I would love to try out!


Khao Le - http://www.behance.net/moonyk 

Khao Le has created a very soft appearance in her artwork and it’s mostly due to the soft shading and the cloudy textured background. This is a large contrast to the other art pieces I have analysed (as they are a lot more detailed) and yet she has managed to include all of the important aspects: the child’s expression, his paintings and how they float off the page. This is quite possibly his imagination that’s lifting these pages.
The way she has drawn the child reminds me of the manga style, although there is a lot more ‘realism’ in this in the sense that the child is anatomically correct and that his eyes aren’t overly large. However they are large enough to portray innocence and this idea is supported by the ideas floating off the pages.
There is an overall magical aura in this piece and this is mostly due to the way the drawings are, well, drawn. Their texture reminds me of that of chalk and this is another sign of the youth as it brings up connotations of when I used to draw on the ground in chalk.
The way she had done the lines reminds me of those done by Tomislav Tomic, as they are just a deeper shade rather than being black. This also helps the image appear softer because everything’s blended into the main colours and therefore have that ‘delicate’ feel.

Conclusion: 
I really like different textures produced (the cloudy background and chalk-like drawings) as well as the composition of the floating images. I’m hoping to produce a collage of all of the stories, and this gives me the idea of doing all of these stories so that they float above London.

Here are her other pieces that really caught my eye:

Overall conclusion:
I really like the composition within her paintings as they’re not strict and ‘flow’ a lot more than the other illustrations have looked at. These remind me of the ones in book illustrations and have that fantasy feeling, as they’re not tied down to reality.


DZO Olivier - http://www.behance.net/dzo

Olivier is one of my most inspirational artists and this is mainly because of how incredibly detailed his illustrations are. It’s amazing to see how one medium could produce so many different textures by the use of shading techniques, and also thickness in the lines.
It is not only his skill in ink but it’s also his skill in story telling that really caught my eye: his pieces are so incredibly detailed that even though the characters within are separate. Olivier has drawn them so that they’re all connected. There is always something to discover and this piece in particular (called “Gaia’s Calling: Biofusion 2”) is a perfect example of what he does. He has also included a little description about it:

“This design is a complex composition that agglomerates several ideas. 
Each item tells a story. If you pay attention to every detail, your imagination tell its own story.
I created this design in this way. As a compact story!”

Even without knowing much about Gaia (which means “Earth”) the viewer would get the gist of this piece quite easily due to certain signifiers: the religious aspects are entwined with science, so this piece could portray the amalgamation between the two ‘opposing sides’. For example, one of the blindfolded angels has a planet in its orb, there’s a skeleton with two heads praying, and a serpent on a tree.

Yet with all of these different signs there is a definite feel of death surrounding the illustration as a whole, and this idea is supported by the next quote Olivier included:

“It is a sad thing to think that nature speaks and mankind does not listen” – Victor Hugo

This then throws a whole new perspective to the illustration and instead the viewer would focus on the laves that forms the foundation of the orb, and the roaring bear that wears some sort of armour with a clock by its side. This could represent the fact that time is ticking and still mankind does not realise the damage it has on nature.

Conclusion:
Even though Olivier has coloured his illustration it doesn’t hide how intricate the lines are, which is quite unusual for such a heavily detailed piece. This could be due to the fact he has used muted tones rather than bold, ‘shouty’ ones.

Here are some of his other pieces that I liked:

Overall conclusion:
As I have mentioned before, Olivier’s use of colour doesn’t detract any attention away from his detailed images. However they might be a bit too detailed and are a bit ‘creepy’, which isn’t what I hope to aim for in my piece. However I would love to experiment more with ink and pen after seeing his work!


Overall conclusion of research:
After having a look at all of these illustrations I am inspired to continue my work with inking, and shall experiment by using ink and micron pens so that I could figure out which media is best to work with for this project.
Each illustration has a sense of storytelling and I would like to research into this further by looking at storyboards so that I could compare the two.