Under the bridge

I was given the short story clled 'Under the bridge' to read. The brief stated we had to produce two final images. I started to look at bridges and finding one that would fit with the theme of the story. I then decided to stencil the bridge to give the final image an urban look. First I used spray paint on my stencil, the images i was left with was a little fuzzy so I tried stenciling using an air brush. I went on to reverse the bridge picture. The story is quite dark so I wanted the viewer to read the image as being a night time scene. There is also a river in the story which shows in the image because the blue bridge looks like a water reflection. 

The other image I produced was of a playground setting of which I was influenced by Aude Van Ryn. The image represents a scene in the story. I used a metaphor the writer used as part of my imagery. 

Benjamin Lande

I e-mailed Benjamin Lande with afew questions and heres what he had to say... and another thing, want that whitechappel t shirt, going to see them live at the end of this month.

How did you go about starting your career after you BFA in illustration?

I did work for free for a few years while working various part time jobs. Once I had a decent portfolio I began charging bands for artwork until it became a full time job.


Is there any illustrators you are particularly interested or influenced by? Who is you favourite?

80's skateboard artists like Pushead and Jim Phillips really paved the way for crude, bright, obnoxious artwork I am interested in. Right now I am really into Alex Pardee's work. I read that you are interested in horror movies, old skateboards, 80's action figures.


What other influences do you have?

I've studied an insane amount of art history, so the classical influence is always going to be there. The darker and weirder stuff is definitely the dominate influence and inspiration though.


You've produced work for a lot of bands, how did you get into that?

I've always been obsessed with punk and metal music and the interesting artwork involved. Naturally I began to do it for fun and after years of building contacts it became a full time job. The internet and myspace have spawned thousands of bands and made the world a smaller place so I owe a lot of credit to that too.


The characters used in some of your work are very unique, how do you come up with them?

A lot of times I will just start with a nose or an eye. I also like mixing different parts of animals that I find interesting. I dont do a lot of sketching. I like to jump right in and see where the piece goes.


And finally Do you have any advice to give to me for when I graduate?

Figure out what the perfect outlet for your work is. It may take years to get off the ground, but if you network and do something unique with your art people will notice.

Aude

Jessie Ford ^

I looked at Aude Van Ryn during my 'Under the bridge' brief.

I found looking at the layouts helped me a lot. I used these images in my Critical Studies presentation. the first image above inspired my park setting I produced for the brief.

The white boxes reminded me of a hopscotch.

another person I looked at and used in my presentation is Jessie Ford. Her work reminds me a lot of Aud Van Ryn [The figure and scenes are very similar] but she works mainly with print.

I used this image as it remind me of a park and as I was producing a park setting I needed inspiration on how other illustrators would put a park scene together. 

http://www.heartagency.com/html/aude_Frameset.html

Otto

Otto has been working as a freelance illustrator since 1991 and mainly works with clients in editorial but also advertising and book publishing. He likes to produce a choice of roughs before deciding on a final artwork, he says a piece can take between up to 3 hours  or several weeks. He talked to us about how advertisements in newspapers can take attention of his illustrations and he showed us some of his books and told us the stories behind the pictures. He had been using an old coloured photocopier to get the effects he wanted at the time.

He was born in Germany but studied graphic design in Bristol and illustration and screen printing MA in London. he takes a lot of his inspiration from German and Polish posters, film posters, sci fi and horror. I really like his style of working and his illustrations are really outstanding. His website is really good and displays all his illustration work, past and present.

http://www.ottoillustration.com/

Tracy Kendall

A lot of Tracy Kendall’s work is very organic she uses things like feathers, leafs and plants and she often will take inspiration from things such as paving stones or book stacks, of which she has gone on to produce work from. One of her most famous prints is her knife and forks wallpaper. From then she went on to printing on lampshades too. she says her wallpapers are just strating points and are often element already in the room and covey a strong design concept. one which interacts with an interiors identity, but without dominating it. 

She explained in the lecture that she rarely uses colour and will often use text. She talked about her fascination with her sister’s handwriting and how it was used on a wallpaper using stitch as apposed to printing. She has produced a lot of work using sequins of which she took inspiration from a 1920 dress. Another wallpaper design by her I really like is covered in real jigsaw pieces, which I have used as one of my example pictures.

she says her wallpapers probably looks so different because she is not trying to mass produce anything. this is a point I agree with.  This is a strong point as no one wants the same wallpaper and her designs are so unique.

Her hand produced graphic range started in 1996 with a large scale design intended at first for her own kitchen, after this she designed a floral. Both designs were spotted by Isla Crawford in the same year. Isla Crawford featured the prints in 'English Elle Decoration Magazine' more and more magazine started to feature her work and people began to order them. she has been selling her graphic designs ever since

danna tartt

This is my version of Donna Tartts book 'The Secret History.'
I am happy with the outcome but if I had to re do it I would probably take a diffrent aproach, as aposed to link between the elements of crime and education. I think the white paper shirt looks interesting and I like the way the paper has scaned in and looks 3D, shadows have fallen the same places they would do if it were a real shirt that someone was wearing, without me having to play around on photoshop too much.

underfoot

Heres some of the work I produced for the underfoot brief. I did not submit the yellow worms with the green line but i thought it worked realy well. I enjoyed this brief and I am realy happy with the final outcome. The insect idea was broad so it was easy enough to come up with concepts.