I WISH I'D DONE THIS.

PDP (Professional Development Planning) is a aspect of the course where I'm required to complete several tasks about other artists and prep for getting a job via the use of my blog. So far I've done all my contact reports and a piece titled "Thing's That I Have Learned". I Wish I'd Done This, is a short piece of writing about an image I've seen that makes me wish I'd made it. Pretty self explanatory really.

 

There's a lot of work out there at the moment that makes me think I really need to pull my finger out if this is the sort of competition I'm going to be up against soon. Even more then that this piece in particular makes me think I really wish I'd made that. The sort of illustrations that usually grab my attention (for the time being) are digital pieces made up of different textures, hand made brushes and subtle colour schemes that make me question myself as to how they've been made. To be a bit different I decided to write about a painting.

 Thoughts of the Future was the first piece I'd seen by Lindsey Carr that made me wish I'd done it but to be honest I wish I'd done almost all of her pieces. Carr paints using incredible skill that captures detail effortlessly in a way that also gives character and personality to the animals she creates in her almost all of her paintings.

 I became fascinated by this piece mainly because of the huge attention to detail. One of the main things that stand out are the hairs on the monkeys head as well as the folds and stitches on the garment that make it look so realistic. I'm a huge fan of photo-realistic art but only if its done in a way that a camera couldn't.  The reason I like this painting so much is because it does exactly that, even though its not quite photo-realistic. The style of the piece reminds of me of old Victorian natural history books that have incredibly well illustrated images of various plants, animals and birds. The blank expression on the primate’s face gives the impression of death and taxidermy. With the flowers and foliage being arranged in such a peculiar way almost growing out of the head I could picture something like this to feature in a cabinet of a museum, in a glass jar filled with formaldehyde.

 When it comes to my work I tend to avoid working in a realistic way, as I don’t feel confident enough to achieve the standard I want. Instead I simply the things I draw especially figures by using harsh/straight shapes and lines through digital media. However when seeing work like this I’m always inspired to push the degree of detail in my work further and try to achieve a more realistic look.

 When looking at the piece it’s made me come to realise that lighting pays a huge part in making an image successful. Getting the balance of light and dark right can give the impression of depth, create texture as well ad different surfaces and make objects look three-dimensional. It helps that Carr has the ability to paint realistically but with the added bonus of using tones so well she achieves a quality that looks like you could reach out and touch it especially as I mentioned before the folds in the cloth. I’ve taken this on board when making my latest illustrations for the 8x8 brief where my main focus was to play with lighting to create depth to my piece. Even though I work purely digital I think its important to look at other methods of working and try to learn from them so I can use similar techniques in my work.  

 One of my classmates showed me the work of Lindsey Carr about a week ago but if I had discovered her before now I would have definitely liked to email her as part of my contact reports. There isn’t too much info on the web about Carr other then she’s a painter and occasional toy maker that lives on the south west coast of Scotland. I think after building up confidence through contacting other artists over the past few months I’m going to get in touch with Carr as I want to know much more about what inspires her and why she paints the subject matter she chose’s.

There's definitely a lot to learn from a piece like this and it's really inspired me to paint more in my spare time. The only way to get better at it is to practice and its evident that Carr has had a lot of experience.

ONE.TWO.THREE

Below are three pieces of advice I've been given/heard over the past year that I feel has helped and inspired me in my work from various faces around the world.

ONE.

 "Use the internet to your advantage" Kevin Dart

After hearing this from Dart it made me reflect on if I was using the internet for its full potential. I came to the conclusion that I wasn't ha.  It's opened my eyes to the amount of opportunities there are on the web to promote yourself and collaborate with other fellow artists through the means of social networks as well as getting in touch with design companies/agencies/publications. I think I ignore some sites like YouTube/Facebook/Blogger in the sense that I don't always use them to their full potential and need to realise how much I could benefit from then. In the modern age we live in I think it's important to take advantage of every possibility opening and I sometimes forget this and distracted.  Even though it sounds obvious, I'd also pretty much overlooked the fact that it's so easy to communicate with other people around the world so effortlessly. I've started to take this advice on board over the last few months by making myself a CargoCollective (online portfolio) and a Twitter account. I'm not the biggest "tweeter" in the world but I'm finding it dead useful for keeping in the know with whats happening in the art industry, upcoming exhibitions and things like limited edition art prints/underground competitions etc.

TWO.

"Do not seek praise. Seek criticism" Paul Arden

 I bought Paul Arden's "It's not how good you are, It's how good you want to be" sometime last year and it's been nothing but help in how I work. It's a book on how to succeed in life and includes an insight to the world of advertising with facts and pearls of wonderful wisdom. This one really stuck out to me amongst others and has helped a great deal. A typical situation for me when working on a brief is that I box myself and don't let people see my work until near the deadline thus leaving little time for improvement. I've learnt that it's important to get a fresh and more importantly honest opinion on you're work before it's too late.  There's no benefiting from polite compliments when what you sometimes need is harsh brutal criticism. From this you can get the full potential out of your work and push yourself to get better final outcomes.  

THREE.

"Don't get drunk of others work" – Me

Over the course of the last month when working on the 8x8 brief, I've come to realise that there's a point where you need to stop looking at other peoples work and focus on the your own.  I feel that I'm just starting to really understand how I'm most comfortable in working and that "my style" is slowly becoming evident in my latest pieces of work. Looking at too much artist influence has started to become a problem for me as I feel like I'm getting "drunk" off too many different styles and aesthetics. When I do see work I admire I tend to try and work in a similar method combined with my own process but its too evident that their work is making too much of an influence and my work changes depending on who I've looked at for that particular brief. I now limit myself to looking at others when working and its obvious that my own style is starting to appear and my work is slowly becoming consistent.

8x8 FINSIHED.

On Friday we had a meeting with the MMU creative writing course leader to discuss our work created for the 8x8 short stories that we've been working on for the past few weeks. We find out on Tuesday which illustrations have been picked to feature in the printed publication so fingers crossed. Overall I was pretty happy with how it went in the meeting and my final outcomes. I feel like I'm starting to get to grips with working in digital media and progressing from project to project. I'm still wanting to push myself by making more textured dry brushes on photshop to give a hand generated look but at the moment I'm struggling to do it without it looking dead sketchy and as if it's been done on paint ha. Both my images look much better on screen as when I printed them out to show the client the colours seemed to loose their vibrancy and almost melt into each other. Kind of guessed this might happen with it not being the best printer and me working in RGB on here. Need to tweak this if I do get picked as I'm wanting the teal highlights from the monitors and lights to really stand off against everything. My spot illustration isn't uploading so I'll make sure its up later.

YMO - RYDEEN.

This is the amazingly, addictive song that me and Jord have decided to use for the Music Live brief. Seriously though once you've listened to it once you'll be hooked.

MICHAEL SIEBEN EMAIL.

This is the third and final post where I've contacted various artist I admire via email and asked them a series of questions relating to the big bad world of the industry. It's been an absolute pleasure to hear back from artists that have inspired and influenced my work and how I go about producing it. I was pretty amazed when I heard back from Michael Sieben as I thought he'd be too much of a big shot to reply but I was proved very wrong indeed. Brief background on Sieben. He's an American illustrator based in Austin that studied at the university of Texas receiving a BFA in Studio art in 1999.  Since then he has been a founding member of the Okay Mountain Gallery, set up a skateboard company and worked with Thrasher Magazine, Adidas, Toy Machine and Volcom to name just a few. Anyway, back to the "interview". 

1. How did you first get into illustration after finishing university?

I was actually doing a little bit of commercial illustration while I was still in school - doing spot illustrations for the Austin Chronicle which is the city's weekly art and entertainment paper. After graduating I just tried to do as much work as I could which basically meant doing a lot of work for free for friend's bands or small skateboard companies. I had a full time job for many years after graduating and I'd do my art stuff at night after work, which included making paintings, working on my website, making zines, organizing art shows, etc. Basically I just tried to immerse myself in art and tried to do everything I could think of to get my work seen. 

2. Other then illustrating what stuff do you do like doing?


I like skateboarding, I like to go swimming, I'm a big fan of camping, I like going to thrift stores and staring at old crap, I like reading, watching movies... normal stuff.


3. What really inspires you when coming up with ideas for your work, and do ideas come reasonably easy or do you have to rack your brain for hours on end?

I just try to keep a sketchbook around all the time so that if I think of a concept I can jot it down or make a crude sketch. Later when I'm trying to think of ideas for a painting or a commercial project I revisit my sketchbook(s) and see what's still funny or interesting to me. 

4. Its evident that you have a clear, confident working method and technique when producing your work, did you develop this "style" or did it come naturally?

My illustration style developed over many years. It was definitely a conscious decision though. I remember when I was younger, I really wanted to come up with a mode of illustration that wouldn't require me to sign my pieces. I wanted people to look at the work and know immediately who had drawn it. It took many years to get my work to the point that I felt like it was really my own and not just a mash up of my favorite artists. Patience and practice.


5. A lot of your work includes strange little characters and animals that are quite sci-fi/comic book esq looking. These are all cool themes to be illustrating giving a lot for the imagination to play with. Is this what attracts you to them?

I never made a conscious decision to draw characters, it's just what I've always drawn since I was a kid. But I like that people make connections with the characters or are able to see themselves in the work. I don't know if you get that same connection with landscapes or abstract work. 

6. When making illustrations, whats the amount of time you typically take to complete them?

Most commercial illustrations that I do (if it's just a single illustration) are finished in 1 work day. But often there's lots of time spent up front doing sketches and talking with the client. But as far as the actual drawing, that happens fairly quickly.


7. Do you prefer to work on your own or in a studio with other artists around for example with Stacy Lowery working on Roger Skateboards?

If I'm really in the thick of it (in the middle of a project) I prefer to be by myself in a quiet environment. But for projects like The Internet Shack I work with other people in a studio and I love the interaction and the sharing/morphing of ideas. So I guess I prefer to be able to work both ways depending on the project. 

8. You've worked with a lot of big names such as Adidas and Volcom. Is there any particular firm you really enjoy working for more then any other?

My favorite client is Roger Skateboards. Which isn't really a client since I co-own the company. But I love the freedom of literally being able to do anything I want to do without somebody giving me the thumbs down and telling me to try again. Roger pretty much ends up being the landing pad for all of the ideas that I know nobody else would want to touch.


9. How did you get into working with Thrasher Magazine?


In 2002 (or maybe 2003) a friend of mine told me that Ed Templeton was going to be at a Fugazi show in Austin that I was going to be attending. My buddy suggested that I bring some zines for him (since Ed's a zine collector.) I felt really weird about it since I didn't know him, but I thought I'd be stoked if some random dude gave me a bunch of zines, so I brought a handful of zines with me and gave them to Ed after the show. He brought them back to California with him and showed them to Michael Burnett (Thrasher Editor.) Burnett contacted me and I started doing some freelance work for the magazine. After about 6 months he (Burnett) called and asked if I would be interested in joining the Thrasher staff. As corny as it sounds, It was seriously a dream come true. I started reading Thrasher when I was 12 years old and the opportunity to be a part of the magazine means so much to me. I still get really stoked when I think about that phone call.

10. How has the art scene changed in America since you first became interested in creating artwork?

It's definitely gotten way bigger since I graduated from college in 1999. There are so many more artist run spaces and so many more opportunities for artists to get their work seen now then there were ten (plus) years ago.


11.. Last but not least, what advice would you give to aspiring designers/illustrators?

It's totally cliche, but be patient. For most artists it takes years before their work becomes recognizable or marketable, so use those years to practice your craft and to refine what you're doing.

F*CK YOU.PAY ME.

2011/03 Mike Monteiro | F*ck You. Pay Me. from SanFrancisco/CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

Some good advise from working designers in the real world. Definitely worth a watch.

MUSIC LIVE.

So for the Music Live brief (create and install an illustrated interpretation of a music track to adorn a series of connecting glass panels at the studio of Music) me and Jord have decided to team up and collaborate to come up with some ideas for the brief. We've sort of decided to choose a track by YMO called Rydeen. Immediately we felt that it reminded us of our childhood playing side scroll games on the Sega such as Streets of Rage, Altered Beast, Golden Axe and watching Power Rangers. With this in mind we though it' be pretty cool to come up with some ideas to maybe use pixelated imagery and use the glass panels as one continuous image like a sidescroller. After listening to the music repeatedly there is a clear Japanese feel to it mixed with retro electro so we decided to go down the roots of using Japanese technology - robots. This links into my 8x8 work as I've already been looking at different types of analogue technology that could be used in conjunction to this. Below are a few images we collected as a starting point for inspiration of our illustrations. We're each going to design one robot (from different p.o.v's) and make them look as though they've having a massive 2D fight.