Visual Research

First bits of research for my 7x7 story brief...

The basic story gives the impression of a Film Noir-esque setting, both in time and the situation described. The cast compiles of just 2 members: a male - to which very little information is given, other than he is wearing a coat, tie and shoes and a female whom we receive a few more details about, such as the colour of her hair and eyes (redhead and green), the dress she is wearing (white and brown paisley mini dress) and that she is wearing knee high leather boots and fishnets.

a few of the details very early in the story have thrown me a little when trying to place where abouts it is set, for example, the story starts with the female character reaching for a set of keys with a keyring... it describes her nails as manicured in the style of 1930's fashion and film... which with the choice of words suggests it is more modern... as they are manicured "in the style of"... but the general idea/feeling of the story does give the impression of film noir 1930's/EARLY 40's. However in the same sentence, we are told the keyring has a picture of a pin up girl on it, which almost immediately makes me think more of the mid to late 1940's/early 50's typical pin up styling (e.g. Gil Elvgren).... the kind of thing you'd associate more with WWII and painted onto the noses of planes. Also... the female characters footwear is described as "Vintage knee high leather boots...", but is that vintage for the 1930's or an incorrect use of a modern day term for what was high fashion back then and not revivalism?

ok rant over...

I am yet to dig out any classic Film Noir movies (purely because it may be a waste of time for research) but I aim to view them in order to gain a greater understanding for the situation pictured in the story, a strong confident female character who has fallen for a fella who doesnt return her sentiments and is using her, leaving her broken and emotional... (I am assuming theres always some sort of arrogant male lead who is a bit of a womaniser, and a femme fatale co-star who appears cold but also vulnerable)... any suggestions?

because of the word pin up, I did jump to the typical image you'd expect to see.. Gil Elvgren's work... His work was more about the erotic tease and not about just plain nudity. Sex appeal and fantasy were the main focus whereas nowadays the internet is flooded with porn and the element of mystery has been lost. A lot of models nowadays remain in their underwear but there is still a lot on display and being laid out bare in front of the audience reduces this air of mystery and appeal to know more and to see more... wondering what is under that extra layer is what keeps the audience enticed...with a shirt falling off one shoulder to reveal a little more flesh but still covering enough so that the surprise isnt spoilt...

However, after thinking more about which specific era the story was set in, I started trying to research 1930's pin ups with a film noir aspect to them...

Rita Hayworth seemed to be the big name that came up, famous for the 1946 film 'Gilda'... who was also a redhead (and a blonde at some point) like the female character from this story...

The story pays particular attention to the male character's fetish for the female performance and wearing of gloves... as well as her attire.. so I basically went off what the words conjured images of in my head...

The description of knee high boots and fishnets reminded me of Sally Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre from the Watchmen comic and film (played by Carla Gugino).

The idea of a temptress and performer brought me to Jessica Rabbit, possibly one of the most sought after fictional characters...

this is my initial research into developing an idea of the female character... ideally I should do this for the male character but with having only a small description given of his attire, I may have end up silhouetting the character or not including him in frame at all... we'll see..

I have more stuff to add here but shall have to wait until my next post.. :)

editorial 2

im not going to do my usual ranting speech crap.. so i shall stop this sentence now..

recent work for editorial brief, based on victim/survivor stories and descriptions of their encounters..

tourettes:

avalanche:

frostbite (+colour variation)

contour drawn elements

I personally really enjoyed this one, purely because my ideas seemed easier to achieve via contour drawing. It was more enjoyable working this way rather than on the computer but my drawing seemed to be the main criticism ( as well as my colour choice)... but very little positive was said.. so I dont know if i have succeeded on some aspects and failed in others, or if its all a waste of time...

I turned to contour drawing for two reasons, one so I could remove any kind of over thinking on my behalf and second so I didn't worry about style or anything and could just create elements for the compositions...

WTF

Rant no. 247

contents:

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intro

main rant

cry

summary

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the shit

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I've re-written this intro about 4 times now, not knowing how to start it or word what I want to say..... but long story short, I dont feel like I am progressing/developing and I'm starting to feel like I'm being left behind and as if i'm just tech support for people who dont quite know how to use photoshop and illustrator...

This recent project has really gotten to me... I struggled for days trying to finalise my ideas and then to make them, but I spent more of my time worrying about how to make them, how to make them look and feel and in the end I fell back on my knowledge of photoshop and illustrator to create some shit looking, cheap and nasty, tacky illustrations... none of which I feel any attachment to, except for the sheer amount of time I wasted on them...

now, Im not just being over sensitive, nobody was malicious or overly criticising of my work, but as I sat through everyones presentation during our critique sessions... i saw how people have started to develop their own way of working, their own styles... they all came up with interesting and differing ideas and all produced some great looking stuff... but when thinking about my own, I cant see any change in my work. I havent developed a new way of working... or drawing... i just rely on what i already know and I think it showed this friday.

I have ideas of drawing and creating characters as well as producing clean and concise vector images as I love the visual effect of it, but when I get the chance to... i fail at it... I want to create work that is unique and something that I can really call my own, something fun and possibly humorous but I dont know why I'm doing this... I feel like i should be taking some risks and trying new things, screen printing was one of these things and I love it... but Im not utilising it as much as i could...

I have had many a conversation with friends, peers and staff/professionals about the whole "style" thing and I know that it will eventually develop but I think i'm understanding why no one true/real style of mine is showing through... because I can mimic almost any style I see or because I've often been asked to recreate/achieve a specific effect or style means I'm becoming a mac monkey... someone who has no creativity, just the technical skill...

This is all really depressing for me, purely because I want to be employable when I leave the course... but at the same time I dont know what I want to do when I'm finished... I enjoy working in many different areas and particularly I like working in a studio environment, where I can bounce ideas off of people and develop new ones... being part of an art collective seems more appealing to me along with a little bit of anonymity, where I can pursue my own ideas but also as I dont like having ALL the responsibility... I wouldnt want any pressure on my shoulders... call it fear/cowardice/lack of confidence but strangely the idea of me becoming an art director was suggested a while back... maybe this is because I do enjoy looking at others peoples work or because i can be quite diplomatic when it comes to giving criticism but I cant exactly walk into an art director position straight out of uni can i! :/

Anyway....

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this is the bag of shit I produced.... (the brief was to produce a cover and 2 spot illustrations for an article looking at social networking as well as its application to business and the economy)

the first feels unfinished because I cut a few corners in completing it and then the 2 other illustrations not only look crap but were executed in an equally shite way...
I think they look like a kids drawings, something i might have made years ago and would now look back on and cringe at.... but instead I have the cheek to call myself an illustrator..

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I was going to add a lot of my sketches to this post but I dont want it to be soo long that they are lost at the bottom of the page and never seen by anyone... (see next post)

metabores

with the recent editorial and metaphors work, I've been looking at illustrators who work within these areas and others whose visual styles I like...

Tim Ellis (link)

David Semple (link)

Chris Garbutt (link & link)

Andy Martin (link)

Mick Marston (link)

Back in the 1st year, Jo showed me the work of Mick Marston for a project in order to get me using illustrator... now in 2nd year I feel like I have good grasp of the program and will be returning to Marston's work to start looking at character and shape. Although Marston's work looks like FreeHand vectored, smells like FreeHand vectors and tastes like FreeHand vectors... he has still managed to inject humour and character into his work... he's taken the best points in using digital technology but also stylized it and made it his own...

Also, since I have a passion/need to screen print.. illustrators such as Marston often have a background in other areas such as printing and it's great to see them still using this in their work. Rather than remaining on screen, the crisp lines and blocks of colour take on new life as they become tangible and printed onto stock.

I was also going to mention Stanley Chow whose artwork I really like, but I'm hoping to start filtering out artist's whose work I just like on an aesthetic level when compared to artists who inspire my own work... I just keep worrying about finding my own personal style/visual language.

I specifically like how Chow depicts characters, proportion wise, and I think I could recreate it quite well... but thats all it would be... I could quite comfortably copy any style given to me but it will never look like my work...

Similarly I've been looking at a few more artists, in hope of inspiration and influence for my own work....

stolen from: (link)

"Chiquita's latest ad campaign imbues its audience with an instant sense of wonder. Using playful illustrations on stickers juxtaposed to the iconic Chiquita stickers, the product and brand become more engaging to the consumer—plus they just look cool. We got a chance to ask the Art Director,DJ Neff, some questions about the process of making bananas (even more) fun"

These character are fantastic, in the way that they capture individual personalities but in that they are fun... the are enjoyable, playful and as mentioned above... 'cool'. I love stickers but what really inspires me about these is the limited colour palette... obviously taking reference from the previous/exisiting sticker colour scheme but I'm starting to notice some patterns in what I like...

more to follow in the next couple of days... ;)