ASS 1 - Project 1 - The Practise of Illustration

Research - World of illustration ‘who’s out there and what are they doing?

Britney Lee

       Britney Lee is an illustrator I have been following for a year or so now. She is an artist based in the USA who works for Disney. As well as animation for Disney, she also creates her own art with the use of paper. She creates art by making characters out of paper and making prints of them to sell whether its calendars, on t-shirts or other stationary ideas. As well as this she also sells originals if people are really into her style. For Disney, she has helped to create the sisters Anna and Elsa in Disneys Frozen film and many more. I am attracted to her style as her characters stand out. When I look at the work I can see her talking through her work and I love her use of colours. She knows what colours work together really well, whether its to create a mood or make you feel like you know the characters personality. I love her ideas and how she has got a graceful imagination which seems so beautiful and effortless as though she just knows what the viewers want to see.

Here below are some of my favorites of her work:

Pictures below from https://www.instagram.com/britsketch/?hl=en

As you can see here above she also creates paper sculptures too!

      I love her use of paper and how she builds up the layers and looks at composition to create great artwork, that is very appealing and happy. From looking at her Instagram and other areas on the internet, Britney Lee is definitely at her peak in maturing into a well-known illustrator. As well as getting a dream job, she also has her own business selling prints of her illustrations. She is currently at the stage where she knows her style and what she wants out of it. Her work is handmade as well as digital and at some point mixing them both together to create great artwork. I think by looking at what she has accomplished and is doing now, I would say she is a mix between a narrative illustrator and a contemporary illustrator because her work tells stories to the viewer and has a modern look to them.

Emma Ross 

Website https://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/EmmaRios/view

Emma Rios is an illustrator, set designer and stylist whose image-making skills aren’t only to be found on the flat page. As well as illustrating with pen and ink, she also builds pictures, scenes and sets for her clients using paper and a variety of props.

Some of her work is shown below:

Images from Website https://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/EmmaRios/view

     Emma's approach is really different and I love her idea. She creates sets built out of paper and then works with a photographer to capture them, ensuring the use of light and shadow brings out the three-dimensional aspect of the work. Where she does use her drawing skills for a client's project, she works with ink. Her main style involves cutting out and constructing scenes and silhouettes, but Emma also does the traditional drawing and likes to try a new style every year. Most recently she’s been looking at styling food in bizarre ways. I think she is a really interesting illustrator and I love how her use of paper has created a unique style of illustrating. I would suggest her style is more suited to fit in the persuasion and identity category of illustration as her style is unique and you know her work when you see it, making it great for a big brand to advertise with hew work.

Shishi Nguyen

Images from : https://www.behance.net/shishinguyen

     I discovered Shishi whilst looking for some cute illustrations. I just love her style and her characters. It makes me want to get in to testing out water-colours and see what I can create when using that medium. I love the gentle colours and a sense of fragileness within her illustrations. I think water-colours create a whole new atmosphere and mood into your work. Shishi's work fits into a children illustration genre as her work is light and happy and she has done a few children's books already.

Lorraine Nam

Images below from: http://www.lorrainenam.com/

   Lorraine Nam creates work that I am just in ore of. Her work with paper is just amazing. What I like about her work is that she talks a lot to the viewer through her illustrations to get the message across. They are clean cut and very easy on the eyes to understand. She likes to use a lot of pink for the backgrounds of her scenes. She also does video animations using her paper art to tell stories. I think her art is fantastic for editorial and advertisement illustrations.

Linzie Hunter

Images below from http://www.linziehunter.co.uk

     Linzie is someone I know from Linkedin. I feel I needed to write about her as she is super at typography. She has worked with many companies and is well known in the industry. She has worked with typography for so long it has become so natural to her.  Her work is bright and easy to understand, she makes typography look fun and her compositions are great too. She recently worked on the map of the UK (above) which was for a biscuit box in Marks and Spencers. I think she is in the right field with her illustration for product packaging. I am on a mission this year to learn more about typography so I will be deffo looking up to Linzie for inspiration. 

David Sossella

Images below from: https://www.behance.net/david_sossella

    Davids Behance really is really useful, not only does he show his finish illustrations but he also breaks it down to show you how he got there. From his sketches to choosing colours, to the final illustration with the text. His work is very fun and interesting to look at, with the ideas he creates. He works mostly digital and of a vector style to his work. His illustrations are more of a style that I would use for learning in textbooks and news. I think he would do great in an animal fact book. You can check more of his work on the link I have put above but I just wanted to show how much hard work is put into creating a single illustration. I do want to have a play a bit more with digital now that I have had a taste to see what I can work with in the last year. Maybe I can create a paper texture in photoshop, I'll have to do some experimentation.

Reflet on my findings of current illustrators.

    I discovered that not all illustrators are suited to all genres. It depends on the style and your interests and then how you can make your work fit into that genre. You can be in one or two but not all, as then I feel you have to have so many different styles to suit each. I am glad I have done this research as I have not really had the time to look at what others are doing, but doing so has inspired me more with my own art and what I could achieve with hard work and dedication.

Research point Reflect on your illustrations

  From having a look at the work I have produced in the last 10 years I have picked out some of my Favorites below. Under each one, I have put my reasons as to why and at the end will reflect and discuss further my future in illustration.

  I did this sketch a good few years ago now, but I still look up to it. I think it was my best ever sketch I have done when sketching from the real world. It was a manned wolf at a zoo and I decided to take my sketchbook that day and draw some of the animals. I think I captured him very well with his long legs, he was such a beautiful creature to watch. One of my best art memories. I used a pencil and used marks to capture his details. 

    These two illustrations were for a children's book about a police dog. A writer got in touch with me and has seen my art and he had written a series of books. He asked me to do a few images for his stories and then he sent it round to publishers to try and get them published. I really liked my photoshop images that I created. I hand sketch them out and scanned my work in and then worked on it in the software. The writer was very pleased and it's currently still ongoing to get a publisher. 

   As well as Paper as a medium I like to use I really have a thing for crosshatching and mark making. I experimented here putting the two together to create a small illustration. I really liked the outcome and I want to experiment with this further. I think its something quite unique. Most paper artists just make details up with paper but I like the idea of creating the shape of an object from paper but then also putting line detail on to it. 

    This is the final artwork I did for the oil painting course I did. I had so much fun! I didn't get the best mark as I really struggled with oils and learned they are not for me but I created this amazing 3d textured piece using cardboard, wood, leaves and more. It was to capture the texture of the fire log that I was looking at. It really interested me because of the layers and details. I think this was my start in enjoying building up layers to create 3d Art. I loved the colours I managed to capture and I really did have so much fun. I think of it as my first masterpiece. 

    When I discovered I enjoyed playing with paper, I began to experiment. I had fun ripping up paper into different shapes without cutting it neatly and creating characters. Using this technique was really fun to do and I used my imagination a lot here to create something I saw with the paper shapes I had ripped up around me. I do want to do these again as I think they're very different and unique and perhaps experiment further with them to see other ways I can come up with using paper in my artwork. I also loved the texture of paper when It was scrunched up and as you can see with the fish illustration above it worked really well to create the texture of the sea.

Assignment Four in Illustration 1 was the beginning of where I took my paper illustrations seriously and decided to pursue this as my style of illustration. One of the exercises was to create a children's book cover of the world as you can see above I created a world with animals around it and ants going up and down on the sides of the branches all made out of paper.

      I think this was a very big achievement as there was a lot of work put into it my tutor pointed out that I could have done my composition a lot better which maybe I could have by creating more thumbnail ideas to get a better idea. Even though this was pointed out I still think that it is a strong example of my talent creating artwork out of paper. I really like how paper gives the whole image a very different style to it something that is unique and different to digital art I think it has more of a softer approach and is interesting to look at.

I also enjoyed breaking down an object and change the image to what I could see within it. I first sketched my pet rabbit and made it so simple so you just had the simple shape form. Then I used this to create a college and from the college, I sketched a character which I could see. It ended up being a rabbit of Marilyn Monroe and I had such fun just experimenting and exploring, how I can see things from objects. I also created a mosaic of my rabbit and really enjoyed just giving it a go and being creative.

I also created these two 3D Whale and octopus illustrations for a charity. I really enjoyed using creased paper for the backgrounds and the colours I chose work well together. They are now in the charity's office hanging proudly on the walls.

    In Assignment Four Illustration 1, I did character designs, where I created two different characters in different angles and made them out of paper. This was another new found experience to push myself further into looking at doing children's illustration. My designs came out really well of my characters and is definitely a way forward in which I want to create children's books. I just think the style is very different and I feel excited about it which means to me it's a very good thing to be doing.

   In Assignment Five Illustration 1, I felt that I had reached an even further level of my creativeness in paper art:

     The editorial illustration I created was something I myself had to sit back and be wowed by what I had created here. I used the Shoebox and created the scene of a romantic Paris moment. This has to be one of my favorites as the finished illustration looks perfect. I really started following the proper process of researching a lot doing a lot of thumbnails, checking colours, looking at fonts more and I really think it paid off. I did a really good job here I love that I used a limited palette of colours but created a strong piece of work.

   During the last year. I have found other ways of using paper and I discovered creating Paper Dolls. I really enjoy creating them and I'm still experimenting with them. They are expanding my paper style and something I do want to venture more into in the new year.

These two illustrations I created above were made out of paper and also using real feathers to create these 3D birds. I loved making them and really enjoyed using the feathers. The colours and compositions work well together and are appealing to the eye.

     The Dodo Illustration I created for the exercise: Packaging Illustration in Illustration 1, was just so fun to do. From doing the proper process - research, thumbnails, font and colour choices it made my packaging illustration become the best it could be. My work is becoming a lot more precise and neater as I am developing along the way.  I do really actually believe that this would make a great illustration for a packet of biscuits. I would even buy them myself I love the limited palette of colours and the ways I have looked at various compositions to get the best out of my idea.

   As well as doing my degree I've also been doing my side business which is Paper Pawtraits. I wanted to add this in as this has helped me to experiment a lot in creating different techniques to make 3D animals. Here are just some of them below:

   I like the idea of using small bits of paper to create an essence of fur around the dogs or cats. I also like how I am now creating more depth into my illustrations and also achieving textures of fur when using pens and pencils onto the paper with more confidence. It has been a good part of my new business as not only am I getting enjoyment out of giving people artwork that they love but also I am gaining experience and my paper illustrations are getting stronger every time I do one.

Final Reflection and Future

Above are just some of the pieces of art that I have enjoyed, ideas I want to explore further and where my style stood out.

What do your choices say about your developing voice as an illustrator? 

I think my choices show that I am still developing and experimenting to make my own voice. I know which mediums and ideas I like the most which I feel is a good start. I now need to use these and experiment further to discover how I can mix them together. They are:

• Working with paper
• Creating 3D art
• Seeing shadows and depth in my art
• Line art and mark making
• A natural medium such feathers
• Animal art my most popular to draw
• Playing with colours

How do you see yourself developing in the future?

    I see myself becoming successful and I am very driven as I love what I do. I see myself experimenting with paper more. Perhaps creating videos with movement with paper to tell a story or create a whole scene a bit like Wallace and Gromit but made out of paper. I want to also learn to use water-colours, create more digital art and improve my perspective and typography.

     What sort of projects are you interested in exploring and what skills do you need to develop? 

     The motion videos would be a good idea and perhaps I need to develop my filming skills. I am also interested in projects for children books, stationery. To develop further in this area I need to look at what different age groups are interested in to appeal to them. I am really keen this year in developing my typography and perspective as these are my two weaknesses which I want to practice so I then feel more confident in these areas too.  I want to use digital software to not only make illustrations in but also to edit traditional work. I like the idea of using a bit of both. 

Research point - ways of recording and reflecting on your own visual language and the work of others through sketchbooks

   I do collect a lot of visual images for reference and Ideas I do this mainly on Pininterestest. It is really good as you can create folders and put images into categories. Here below are just some of my links to my folders:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/animal-characters/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/composition/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/text-in-illustration/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/human-characters/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/paper-art/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/colour-application/
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/GemmaMlees/watercolour/

I will always be adding more images as I go along and also adding new folders of ideas and topics. I have also got sketchbooks full of my own draft designs and Ideas:

I really enjoy getting inspirations and ideas to help me along the way and to refer too when I am in need of ideas.

Having looked through my collections I notice that is shows what I like to illustrate. I enjoy drawing animals a lot. I have recently started to draw people as I have in the past found they are quite hard to do and I felt I had a barrier which I could not get through but now I am building up my confidence and enjoying drawing characters of people more. I realized that I am more of an artist who likes to draw cute characters and designs. I noticed looking at my Pinterest where I have pinned colours I have chosen a lot of pastels such as pinks and blues. I love the colours of a pink sky and candy colours. This is a good visual common thread as I can clearly see what colours I am attracted to and I dont think I have noticed before so I will deffo be using this  as a referance in future works. The Paper art pins I have gotten over time is a really useful board to see what other paper artists are up to and also it gives me ideas on how to use paper in different ways.

I think I am attracted to a  style which is cute and happy. I think my style is aimed from children to young adults. I think it shows I know what I like and what I want to explore. I also think my pinned boards show exactly what I am about and what I want to achieve. By doing this research is has really helped me to see where I am as a developing illustrator and what my next steps are:

• Continue with paper art and see where I can take it. 
• I want to learn using watercolours to do illustrations and then how I can use that with my ideas and style. 
• I also want to improve on my typography - maybe take on a short online course as a boost
• Practice and become more confident in using digital software
• Practice perspective
• More sketching from life to improve my human drawings and also get ideas

I am realising that I have come a long way and now is the time to tidy up areas which I need to improve on and learn for myself to discover the best I can be and showcase.