Front magazine

Bill Presing

Shane Glines

Ashley Wood

Chris Sanders

Ok, this next piece will feel almost like a confession.. I like women.. I also really like artwork focused on women.. usually the curves or their body or the just the sex appeal that they show…. This is why I enjoy the work of Bill Pressing, Shane Glines, Chris Sanders, Ashley Wood and many more.. but I’ve always thought people would see me as a pervert if I created any artwork like this.. like it was a prepubescent urge to draw dicks and tits on everything…

but my point is.. I occasionally buy magazines like FRONT… originally this was just like any other lads mag.. reviews on products like a boots catalogue, film and gadget reviews and the usually splashing of boob in between.. then one day they did an issue that saw 2 models face off against each other in the Chav vs. Emo issue.. it was their largest selling copy apparently and ever since then, they have been a more altrnative lads mag.. stil covering the same sort of thing but catered to a different audience.. my sort of audience.. the point im trying to get to is… within this magazine they feature illustrations by Mr.Gauky and Matt Skiff… both who have an alternative appeal in their work.. so maybe if I set myself up as a freelance illustrator I could approach them and be involved in the magazine somehow.. but more recently has seen the addition of Albino Raven aka Glen Brogan who has a very comic book cartoon inspired style.

He again creates characters to act and pose in his editorial pieces for the magazine but this time with a slight hint of realism as the characters aren’t distorted/deformed too much compared to some of my previous references... but following his blog I have also found a tutorial showing how he goes about creating his work from concept to finished piece. I love seeing artists original sketches... this is a stage in which I need to filter out the crap faster than I have been doing… but I also love seeing how Brogan adds colour to his work… This is something I’ve recently been discussing with a friend and my tutor… they both believe I should look at colouring my black outlines so that the black isn’t too heavy in the piece... but for 2 different reasons... Abby first thinks that it gives a more cartoon like appeal and also softens the image and colours… where as Ian thinks that it wont look cartoony but instead will make certain elements stand out more by balancing the colours around the image. Anyway, back to Brogan… despite my recent work taking on a more extreme colour palette as I was told my originals were too realistic, I feel I could’ve developed the realistic colours to more muted tones, possibly of a similar shade like Brogans and still completed a successful piece of work.