As Holly Golightly would say, 'Quelle night'. I don't know what it is, but whenever sibling and I imbibe Costa coffee simultaneously, at the Poynton chain, we both end up not sleeping all night. I think she's still awake anyway, since I heard someone walking round her room next door (if not, we should probably be worried?). Find this weird, as I never had trouble sleeping after going to that cafe with Amy, or Holly, or Rick, or anyone. Nor with any other coffee. This is the third time this has happened and I don't get it -.-
Anywayyyy, earlier Sarah (Bailey to friend) reminded me I have a portrait of her I have yet put up. But I was a bit reluctant to do any more work on it 'cause I thought I'd done quite a poor job of the sketch bit. This was the original portrait I did for you Sarah...
Tbh I didn't find it very easy to copy from, since you don't usually have that expression it was pretty hard to get a likeness, I sort of made up your mouth on it...lollll
So after a couple of hours of lying awake and a visit from Sarah (Mills the sister, haha) to see if I was still up, realisation dawned that I was probably not going to be able to sleep. So have spent the last four hours a) looking through recent photos on Facebook to pick a new one to copy b) sketching it and c) digitally painting the hell out of it :)
Sorry I picked one where you're clearly in the middle of a club and possibly drunk, but it's a good on for getting a likeness :D mehhh trust me, I'm an artist.
I've had a few people ask how I paint on Photoshop. I basically take a photo of my pencil drawing, 'cut out' the centre image and put in on a background, blend with the Smudge tool and then use Layers to colour with the Brush tool. I can play with Filters and stuff but for drawing I haven't really done that yet.
Soooo there you go, hope you like it lovely!
Another thing - our next Illustration degree brief was emailed to us today. Our summer project isssss...to start a web blog. Lololololol DONE
Only part of the brief is that as well as drawing, I should include posts about things such as 'art exhibitions', 'illustration/design book reviews', 'current editorial reviews', 'reviews of fiction novels you have read', and other such creative updates. Besides regular work of my own ofc.
So bear with me, my nonexistant fan base, you will now be hearing a some of my opinions on stuff.
I think I'll start with a few of my favourite illustrators and artists.
Teagan White
http://www.teaganwhite.com
http://teaganwh.tumblr.com/
Teagan White is an illustrator/designer from Chicago. She works with typography, fine art and illustration, and I first found her work on deviantart. She has designed for musicians, major clothing companies and other clients such as Coca Cola, Nike Global, Target and WIRED magazine as well as tonnes of others. And she's only a year older than me and in her second year studying Illustration at university.
How amazing is that? Apart from being so verrrrrry jealous, I'm just in awe of her drive and style. I first noticed her gorgeous drawings and delicate pen work, and then she stuck in my mind purely because I was so taken aback she had achieved so much so fast. Teagan White is a major inspiration to artists everywhere. Nuff said
Sam Weber
http://sampaints.com/
Probably my favourite modern artist and illustrator. He's won loads of Illustration awards, such as the Gold award from the Society of Illustrators and the Spectrum Annual, and he deserves them all ^^ there's not a single painting of his I'm not in love with, and though I'll never reach his standard he's my major inspiration to be an illustrator. That picture up there is from the House of Mystery DC comics.
The sort of field Weber works in - mainly publishing and editorial work - is definitely my dream job. I guess that for the most part, freelance illustrators produce whatever is asked of them, usually basic graphics for marketing and advertising or something equally dull. Whereas Sam Weber has got to the stage where an author and publisher would trust him his pure talent and imagination to design a whole marketing campaign cover. For someone as novice to the industry as me, that's mindblowing.
Olly Moss
http://www.ollymoss.com/
http://www.moss.fm/
You're probably familiar with Empire magazine? I was turned onto it by my dad in Year 7, and have read it monthly since. I know I should now, while studying Illustration, subscribe to a design zine rather than a film magazine...hmmm. Anyway, Olly Moss has a page in certain issues, and what he does is design his own poster for an upcoming film, mostly with one concise image, like that one above. He does work for clients like the New York Times and Urban Outfitters apparell, but that's where I heard of him first.
I found the sharp learning curve from Fine Art A Level to Illustration degree quite unnerving. One thing I struggle with is the sudden involvement with original ideas and personal style being valued as much as the effort put into the image making. I've always drawn what's right in front of me, or dreamed up images or patterns. I'd say an expert in finding the relationship between visual language and the subject matter is Olly Moss. It's like he looks at the motifs and details hidden in the film, and comes up with an answer all of his own working out.
Of course, that sort of thing requires intuition but also practice. Which I'll hopefully crack on with in the near future.
Nearly done...
William Blake
1757 - 1827
In English Literature A Level, we had to study Blake as our 18th century poet. I didn't really take to his poetry on first inspection, and even now I'm not so keen on it. But Blake will always be such an influence on me for several reasons. Firstly how much time and effort he put into making those minute paintings out of copper engraving. Look up how they did it, it's so cooooooool. Secondly, he was an outcast, awkward autodidact and had modern views on religion and faith which I immediately felt a resonance with (except the outcast autodidact bit maybe -.-) And thirdly, how he saw his writing and his artwork as one, and presented them in his signature style. Probably inspirational to many illustrators. Plus I put it entirely down to Blake (and Mr. Hoyle, best teacher I ever had?) that I got an A* in my English Lit A Level. So I have love for the old crazy guy for that too.
René Magritte
1898 - 1967
Belgian surrealist artist. I am looking at a huge framed print of this very painting, L'Empire des lumières (of which there are several versions, this one being the one painted 1953–54) right now, which I have right opposite my bed that I bought straight after first seeing it, at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in my early teens (13/14? mehh). Still my favourite piece of art ever! I love surrealism, it's like fantasy art based on subverted reality, rather than make-believe or mythology. Not that I object to that sort of thing haha (All the best art would be made better with a dragon. For the most part).
Seeing his work in Venice changed my life, made me want to be an artist.
Harry Clarke
1889–1931
Irish book illustrator for the works of Hans Christian Anderson and Edgar Allan Poe and others, also a designer of stained glass windows. Also a fan of Aubrey Beardsley, who was from a similar time and had a similar art deco style. Beautiful ehhh? No fancy shading or colouring, just hundreds of perfect little marks on paper. Drawing at it's most stripped down and yet also it's most eyecatching and decorative! Encouraged me to learn to be an illustrator. Also made me want to doodle.
And finally God, whose clients include humankind and the universe in general. Who I believe made our art before we did, gave us a world of history and beauty for inspiration, and art to break and reshape the laws of physics and rules of society.
Aaaaaand it's most definitely the morning now, I'm off to have breakfast.
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