Sorry I haven't blogged, my parrot got in the way.

Wow so I've been MIA for a while, I'm fairly certain I haven't blogged since around last summer. Whoops? As the title indicates I've been fairly busy. Between extra hours at my "real" weekend job, babysitting little cousins and yes, buying a miniature parrot that needs constant entertaining and likes to eat sketchbooks. However! I'm now a third year student aka final year before the dreaded jump into being "professional", taxes, kissing my beloved student discount goodbye and what not as so will be blogging like there's no tomorrow.

Meet Bixby

Possibly the worst pet for an illustrator

So as I said I am now just over half way through my final year *gulp* and so far I'd say this year has lived up to the expectations of higher stress levels.
For the last couple of months I've been refining my illustration technique, an alternative for my printing method and also altering my design and thinking process. It's been tough, many curse words said and after numerous rants (and even a few stray tears) I hopefully have it cracked. maybe.
I realised that I had previously been drawing up my ideas and finals in a way that didn't reflect my chosen medium of linocut printing and so I've spent the first semester altering my methods whilst trying to complete the projects.

Here's a peak:

Now this year we had to come up with our own briefs, and so I won't disclose the details for this just yet so they may not make sense out of context but all will be revealed soon enough.

Half finished rough inked with indian ink 

Taken into print

This is for the competition project "Picturing time", I chose to work with the quote "Time sometimes  flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail but man is happiest when he does not notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly".

This was for the penguin book cover competition for "The Big Sleep" but it got rejected by my tutors at feedback. 

The Big Sleep definitely caused me some grief, my initial idea was thrown out by my tutors just before assessments and so I redesigned it (i'll probably post it later). But it was a learning experience and will probably still go in my portfolio.

So like always any feedback or comments are welcomed. Until next time!

Dissertation? What dissertation?

At the start of the summer, I vowed to be organised with my dissertation and not leave it until last minute. .
I tried, am still trying but in the meantime here are some illustrations i've been working on . . . ah the art of procrastination!

Experimenting with graphic linework an watercolour.

Wizard of Oz inspired illustration - continuing experiments with linework and limited colour.

Latest illustration Chief of Fun.

Definitely becoming more comfortable and happy in my style of work ... or maybe i'm just telling myself that to make up for the lack of dissertation I have! Any feedback welcome!

*Sidenote*:

I also completed my first (sort of) real world commission, a good friend of mine is aiming to complete a 7 day trek in aid of Parkinsons UK this October. I've done the poster for him and would be incredibly grateful to anyone who could help him along on this incredible journey for an extremely worthy cause. Simply visit rjhughes.co.uk/ to find out more or donate.

Finding a sense of style

So as I've previously said, this summer is about trying to find a consistent style that fits into my natural ability and media i'm using. I've posted some things i've been doing but it seems that my "style" keeps changing although i'm starting to see reoccuring patterns coming through. With working in print I will be working with quite bold, graphic illustrations and so I've started to work in a more pattern/shape way that I really like the look of.
Here's some I did earlier:

Gal

Guy

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - MacMurphy.

Frog

WIP

So like I said, I'm really happy with how these are turning out, I'm concentrating on shapes, shadows and shadesand think it works quite well. The only problem I keep thinking is that I haven't tried this style with any background illustrations, only portraits or similar. So that's my next challenge, I want to get a slightly more relaxed style of this for quicker drawings or full illustrations.

Like always any feedback is welcome!

Putting an end to procrastination . . .

And so the dissertation research begins . . . finally!

As I've previously mentioned, my dissertation topic is around the way that printmaking is seen by the younger generations. my actual question is whether printmaking is still seen as a relevant medium by younger illustrators. So far I've managed to track down some books and some quotes that I can debate but I also need some opinions and so hopefully that's where YOU come in. I've set up a few questions around the area, the majority are yes/no with the option to expand your answer and I would be extremely  grateful if you could take a minute or two to respond to them. It doesn't matter if you have an art background or not, are a practising printmaker or not, the broader range the better! So help me out and be happy knowing you've made a poor, struggling student smile :) Thanks! (In advance).

Printmaking in the modern age questionnaire.

Summer style

So since I last blogged, we had second year assessments (I passed) and am now an official third year student! SCARY!
As well as my dissertation (which I'll be blogging about at a later date) I have dedicated this free time to starting some personal projects and working on my "style". So here's a little update of what I've being doing with all this time off so far. . .

I started by looking around for some inspiration as to how I wanted to work. Primarily working in linocut I liked the idea of using patterns because I think that it shows up well in the print media but also has the ability to work in pen and ink for finer detail or shorter deadlines.
I drew inspiration from the likes of Swoon and Lynd Ward (who I've blogged about previously) as they work in the same media, but here are some other artists whose style I particularly like and want to try to draw from:

Kakofonia

Andreas Preis

Si Scott

Luke Dixon

So with these artists and styles in mind I began to sketch a few things like birds, other animals and tried some portraits to improve in that area too:

Crow study style test

James Dean Style test

Tiger style test

 I liked the way that these initial sketches had turned out and couldn't wait to try print in this way as I haven't really done anything particularly detailed with linocut. So with this in mind I began to do some more sketches and doodles with the possibility of taking it into print in mind whilst drawing it. This meant working at a slightly bigger scale, considering where bold black areas are and the contrast of the image, something I need to get into the habit of when working in linocut!

Skull style test

Owl style test in linocut

 I finally took one into lino, experimenting with different papers and colours and combining the dark lines of lino with adding white in certain areas. I'm quite pleased with how it came out and can't wait to continue to experiment with other images.

Magpie Colour style test

Red Panda Colour style test

So I've moved onto looking at how to use the patterns and bold blocks of dark lines that you get in print with a watercolour finish. Like I said I'm pleased with where my style is going and look forward to pushing it further throughout summer.
I'm currently turning my focus away from an animal subject to figurative and portraits in this style to see how it works and will post my results at some point! (Really this is just a procrastination exercise away from the dreaded dissertation but shhhh it's still productive!!)
Hope everyone's having a lovely summer! and any feedback etc. is always appreciated . .

Money or morals?

 Before I came to university, I never really considered any legal or ethical implications of a career in illustration. Last year, we had two lectures that were about design ethics, and for me, it was a bit of a wake up call. Although I did at the time believe that it didn't necessarily have much to do with myself as an illustrator, in hindsight, I realise that post-university, I may be challenged with a brief that infringes on my morals. We all have things that we feel passionately about, whether it's something we think should be stopped or something we think should be accepted. It's important that we don't back down from those morals when faced with the challenge of money or morals. Obviously it's easy for me to say this, but I'd like to think I'd stick to my guns.

During creative futures, I went to a talk by a childrens illustrator who, although her style of work wasn't the way I work, and her work ethic wasn't necessarily similar to mine, I respected to work that she creates. She worked abroad by creating reading books for children in Africa, something that is making a difference.

For me, the best thing about my an artist is that we have the ability to communicate a message without barriers. Visual communication can break the language barriers that can hold back important messages, and so as well as thinking about facing moral dilemmas when accepting jobs, I'd also like to actively seek out jobs for this reason too. I have certain things that I feel strongly about, and have ideas as to how I can channel those feelings through my artwork, and so in the future, I hope to be able to create work that has a meaning to it. If there's one thing I could do by the end of my illustration career, it would be to create work that resonates with someone, makes someone think twice or even inspires someone. I realise that to some degree that's all that most people want to be able to do, but I definitely want to be able to say that I put my skill to good use over purely aesthetic reasons.

Branching from this, one of my favourite printmakers, Kathe Kollwitz, defintely inspired my want to be able to evoke something within an audience. As soon as I saw her work a few years ago, I immediately saw the emotion that she put into it. It wasn't until I began to seriously consider print and researched it that I linked her to it, but the way she uses the medium to convey the message and emotion that she wanted to, specifically her feelings towards the war that dramatically effected her life. She created a response to the First World War, in which she lost her son, to depict the grief that loved ones were left with post war. For me, this is what having an artistic ability is all about, being able to effect others with your work, although it would obviously be ideal to be able to make a living off of it too.

Kathe Kollwitz, Hunger.

Kathe Kollowitz, above and below two woodcuts from her series Krieg (War).

Fresh printmaking

As a follow up to my dissertation post, I wanted to do a post that briefly summarised my reasoning of picking my chosen subject, as well as some influences I had in getting there.
Since I started experimenting in the Print medium, I've discovered that it is predominantly linked to fine art, whereas I approach the medium from an illustration perspective. I'm not saying that there aren't successful illustrators who practise printmaking, but they tend to be outnumbered by fine artists. It also seems to be a medium that can often be overlooked, something I'm guilty of until I realised the error of my ways!
I've mentioned numerous times before in my blog that for me, print just seems to fit; something I find difficult to expand upon but i'll try. I started with print after being advised by my lecturer that she felt it was a media that would suit me and I should try it; so I did, and fell in love with it! For me, the fact that printmaking has so many options definitely appeals to me, that you don't necessarily have to be limited to one technique. I also like that print can be experimental, that you can stumble across an effect accidently but it works for the best. With print, I find myself wanting to try every technique, experiment, combine them and see what they can be used for and what they can't. It's a medium that i'm still learning but from what i've got at the moment, I think it's one i'm going to persue.
So hopefully my dissertation will help push this interest further and maybe even reflect into my work.

Here's some of the work I've found whilst conducting the initial research for my proposal:

Hans Alexander Mueller:

 Although there are many exceptions (above and below being two!) I tend to think that many woodcuts/Lino can look dated when looked at in a modern sense. I love it when I find one that is timeless, a true sign of a master printmaker.

Lynd Ward:

AJ Masthay:

Although I haven't really ventured into colour yet with print, I think the  above example is incredible, to the point where it is almost unrecogniseable as a linocut. I like how Masthay creates such powerful images in all his work, something I aspire to do in the future.


Nick Morley:

Nick Morley may be better known as LinocutBoy, all his work is lovely and changes the way that print is often used. In the above example I particularly like how all the lines have a purpose, they're not just pieces that were left behind by the cutter but add to the detail of the face. I'm interested in using patterns with linocut, something that stemmed from seeing this image.

Wolfbat Studio:

Dennis McNett and wolfbat studios create very powerful images, obviously alot of wolves are featured, and like Masthays work, they can go to the point where it can be overlooked as a print. I think that just goes to show the skill in which these printmakers have, to be able to work the notoriously difficult medium in a way that makes it look flawless.

I think this goes to show that although I may not have discovered the style in which I want to work in print yet, I'm gradually taking bits from prints that I see and trying to apply them to my work.