CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

Contextual Influences part one "Kid Acne"

Kid Acne has been a big part of influencing me as his art work is visual stimulating, as his simple usage of line & bright colours. His involvement in street art weather that be legal or illegal  interest's me, ever since I visited his exhibition in Sheffield  (peace gardens) I have grown to love his style of work more and appreciate the stages which go into his work not just mindless doodles but hours of sketch book work. 

Seen as he is a local "celeb" (Sheffield), I prefer his work allot more to artist such as Banksy and Robbo as they are well known but there original art work is not able to see without travelling a wide distance, so having a local artist who inspires me, close to home its great knowing someone from our area has created such masterpieces.

His work can be found around sheffield city centre and in most case's found on legal walls around this area, the people of sheffield have grown to love him now, being given projects from the city council has shown that not all street art has to be illegal.

He started painting graffiti at the age of 12 inspired by its infite scale, colour and immediacy.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/immediacy
 He has spent most of his teenage years using the same DIY techniques which would input the rest of his life and has impacted most of his recent work and how he goes about creating his art.

He has a range of things on sale and if you lucky enougth you might even be able to get your hands on one of his first prints but may set you back a fair amount of money.

Things he has for sale online consist of  South York Mock up tshirts, zebra face comic books..

In his early career he started writing graffiti at the age of 14 much like the style of "King Robbo." Also at a very young age began to create Hip Hop music and has now acquired various albums.

His Art work is displayed around the world not just in galleries but on the walls around steel city andLeicestershire were he grew up, and one of his first pieces of artwork still is. (Shown Below)

Zebra Face is one of Kid Acne’s first published comic book, the book follows the story of two dimensional zebra faced action heroes with his diabetic side kick they fight through 2D areas of space. This Comic book sell’s for around £13.99 in the United Kingdom and can be purchased from various websites online

Kid Acne style is much like fine drawing they are very simple but look attractive, his style reminds me of the BBC program “Mighy Boosh” in the way that he is work is very quirky weird and mythical.

His work is inspirational, and the simplicity is great, you don’t have to be an amazing artist/drawer for yourself to be able to get noticed i like the line drawing effect and would like to add this style to my own work.

He has worked for various clients such as :

Clients Include Kenzo / Prada / Levis / Volkswagen / Brompton / Kid Robot / Warp Records / XL Recordings (http://www.kidacne.com/blog/about/)

Life Drawing

During class, we started the life drawing books. Being out of stock in the shop the next best idea given to the class was to create A4 black sketch book. I came up with the idea to bind the pages together so it was easer to add pages to my sketch book if I had ran out paper it was easy enough to add pages and a black book.

This book as been created to keep all of my drawing during our life drawings sessions, in the near future.

Work After Hours.

This idea came to me after watching the children's film Kong Fu Panda.

I decide to use adobe illustrator to do some sort of vector based work, much like what we have been working on in sarahs lessons. Imported into photoshop after to add colour and paint spallter effect. 

Uni Trip Manchester

Manchester University Trip, on this trip we visited an exhibition were uni's from around the world for Australia to Scotland attended. I was looking mainly for "Huddersfield" which did not attend as i was looking for lots more information on this Uni, However i did find Lincoln and Plymouth. Plymouth being the second uni I had looked at i was hoping to have a better talk with the members at that stand however they were very busy, and when they eventually got round to me, we had a brief talk about entry requirements and the specific course's i was interested in such as Graphic Design, and Product Design.

They was allot more uni's around which i collected infomation for to be able to reiveiw and look at in my own time at home, this will allow me to reserch into which will be the best place for me when it comes to decied/apply.

I enjoyed the trip and it gave me much more infomation on the area of university and an insight to what i would like to do further on in education.

Doodle Work Photo.

This is main and my groups doodle piece, we were handed an A2 Sheet and to mindless doodle on it after this it was switched around the class for other people to work on. I liked this idea of people adding to your work, however when people cover of something which you liked is disappointing but the exercise was was about mindless doodles. Sticking to one primary colour our group chose red. after break we were handed a different strip to work on individually, I used such techniques as adding lots of mixed media such as brown paper, layering. All considering composition and colour. Image below  

Peter Clarke

Born on the east coast of austrailia, it was whilst working in Australlia he decided to take his photography up for a job. Peter quit his job and travelled the country, discovering remarkable places and meeting some incredible characters.

Teaching Him self everything he knows, Peter refined his skills camera work with medium format film cameras, taking landscapes on film,Peter trys and controlls the light whiten his work building suspense and a feel for the image.

He is always searching for that perfect landscape photograph, the one shot, that single moment in time. Some of his pictures which we spir of the monument can be sold for a large amount of money.

Some people choose to record their life by writing a biography, some choose brush strokes, Peter has chosen to record his time through the lens of a camera, capturing that special moment in time, his place, his feelings all go into a specifc photo at that time.

 Laura McCaffertery

Since graduating in 2003, McCafferty has earned herself quite a reputation. Her work is a blend of traditional craft and contemporary, documentary-style illustration. There is not allot of research around the Internet for this artist but from want I can gather, she has worked from some top end company's only doing freelance work. Her own website located at :

http://lauramccafferty.com/

Show cases some of her work from the past years to the present, and her design Illustration work. Again I like the simplicity of this artist very smooth looking colours and simple line drawings nothing rather complicated. I have noticed that she mainly draw's household items weather that be because she works from home a lot or that the texture and look of the items interests her.

Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman is a British cartoonist and caricaturist, he is well known for   his work all over the world however he is best know because of his work with Hunter S. Thompson and American author.

He was born in Wallasy, Chesire in the United Kingdom and attended Ysgol Emerys were he gained his passion for art. Moving onto higher education he soon had attended such colleges as London College of painting and East Ham Technical College.

Working as a freelance artist in the 60s he gained various experience from companies such as Punch, Private Eye, the newspaper Daily Telegraph, The New York times, and finally the rolling stones.

He is well known for his political, social caricatures and his cartoons for picture books so examples shown below:

I like his style of illustration, and the fact he use’s quirky quite disturbing images some times, he is very unique and his drawing style of using fine lines and black and white images makes the image stand out. Also he tends to use primary colour which is red you can see this in and around his work.

Roger Kastel

 The Creator of Star wars, jaws and doc savage movie posters.

He worked and live in New york, he began his career as an artist while he still was studying at school. He later on in life joined the navy during the Korean war, after finishing the war, he returned home to continue his career as professional artist doing freelance work for various companies. He was creating story boards layouts and mechanical to further his knowledge.

Photoshop and photomontage.

Photo montage the process used to either put various images together to create one individual image. This can be done with various techniques using a scalpel and glue is the most common way of creating this specific type of art work artist such as Sean Hillen still create images like this.

Photoshop a digital format of cut and stick can be used to "photoshop" or photoshop someone into a picture, again taking various images and blending them together, to create a photomontage digitally.

Dan Luvisiart

An artist which found from the "Top 50 photoshop Artist."

He is a Digital artist and Concept Artist, he work is really modern with  a variety or colours and shade to say there mostly digital images they are very detailed and abstract particularly the Batman image which is shown bellow.

http://www.designscollage.com

Stencil Work.

Today at home i deiced to start work on some stencils this is one design were a cat/pickahu is wearing sunglasses. I drew the image into my A5 sheet which is viewable in my folder, then enlarged the image cut out using my scalpel, and began to spray. Outcome i think was good however still room for improvement 

Corey Barker.

 

Cory Barker graduated with a degree in illustration from Ringling School of Art & Design, he again has worked within the industry for a while now, he mainly works in the graphic design area and works from a Variety of things mainly illustration, large format printing (vector), and commercial.

He use’s adobe programs such as Photoshop Illustrator as he has had many years of experience with these programs.

This picture “Freestyle” was a freelance peace of art, using curves you can see the use of vectors instead of bitmap. This picture has been used various times in other students blog’s as there is not much information on the Internet. The use’s of colour in the picture is great the contrast and clash using colours can change the feel about a picture you can see the various curves in the image for example the blue and green splash’s in the background.

Cristiano Siqueria 

Cristiano Siqueria is a illustrator from sao paulo Brazil, however his artist name which he goes by is CHRISVECTOR.

He has work from some prestige's companies some of his images will be shown below, he first turned into  professional illustrator in 2005, he has worked for magazines, comics, and even fashion companies. 

In 2011 he won a life time award for creating various comic prints award was given by clio.

The Image to the right is a picture vector illustrated  version of a football player named Messi an Argentina football player, you can see by this image that some of his influences happen to be comic and that he adds this style to his work this is known by looking through his prints which are located at http://www.urbanarts.com.br/Artistas/CrisVector.

Working for companies such a Nike, has given him a repetition in the industry so he has been given the recognition he will be widely known around the world.

This is a Tshirt design created by his self for the company NIKE, the image below is a small thumbnail which i have acquired from his own website ( Like Below ).
This image has a real nice feel to it the fact his shirt is ripping off gives the effect that he is moving at a great speed. The contrast between the black white and purple makes the image stand out, and the reptile look on his arms give the feeling of mesh.

Jonathan Wong.

Jonathan Wong is a 21 year old male he is a graphic design and illustrator. He has worked for some top end companies such as “3” a phone company which is renowned are the world. Studying in Ireland, Limerick art school and design he is soon to graduate this year with a high grade.

I quote from his website: http://cargocollective.com/artofwong#1229931/Info

Design has always been a big passion of mine, ever since I was young. My primary goal in life is to make a living doing what I love, and that is the hope with art and design.

I like this image as its really stands out, the contrast between the blue and white and purple the colours clash however it makes the image stand out. We naturally  focus on the image in the middle which happens to be the 3 logo. The Brush strokes naturally make the viewer focus along this line. The whole image is meant to focus on the flexibility side of the 3 company, you can see the work written in calligraphy text at the bottom. I like how the brush stroke in case the 3 logo.

I like this artist, as he designs modern contemporary artwork which is stylish but sleek. He is young but still very respected within the industry from working with some pretty modern and well known companies.

Vector Graphics.

Vector graphics or vector work, is not made up pixels it’s made up of paths which can be moved around using the each point. Normally at the end of the vector and at the start of the vector we can change the way they are moved around from different angles and rotation. This allows images to be blown up twice the size of a normal pixel image. For example using a Bitmap image blowing it up to A2 will make the image pixelated however doing this using a vector, will allow you to blow the image as big as you like.

Some professional programs which can be used:

Adobe Illustrator: Professional standard   program which allows you freedom with illustrating.

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby is my second artist I will be researching.

Early stages of his life he was involved into street fighting and he said it sooner became his second nature.

Growing up in the suburbs or NYC his desire was to get out and make something of his life. 
Drawing essential got him out of the poor part or new york. He began to self teach himself drawing . Falling right  into the industry he now has designed comic books for some very big names in the industry to this date.

Kirby Began, his career not in comics but in other media were drawing were used to convey a story or a mood or feeling. One of his most success was Captain America which to this day is still used in various comics and film some people say that it’s a memorial of his work/life.

He has won various awards in his life time such as best pencil artist in the world this was awarded to him in 1967. Some of his achievement and awards listed below as found from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kirby#Awards_and_honors)

• 1963: Favorite Short Story - "The Human Torch Meets Captain America", by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Strange Tales #114^[92]
• 1964:^[93]
• Best Novel - "Captain America Joins the Avengers", by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, from The Avengers #4
• Best New Strip or Book - "Captain America", by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, in Tales of Suspense -

These are just some of his life time achievements, which can be found around the web.

His art work is different to Kid Acne has he use's more complex designs in his work, compared to Kid acne because his drawings are simple, they use to different styles one is a graffiti artist and one is comic book pencil drawing artist. Id my opinion Kid Acne art style with the less detailed and line drawing is far better as they have a weird intellectual feel towards them.

I like Kirby’s work because I enjoy the marvel and DC area and style of comics like I have said before I enjoy the simple drawing more. This is because it looks more cleaner however I respect what the charter Captin america stands for. Some of Kirbys drawings are still used to this date, to lead by example.

Saul Bass
Saul Bass is a jewish-american graphic designer, but is very well known for his motion pictures and title sequences.

He studied, Art at a top arts student league, and then moved into Manhattan attending classes at Brooklyn College. He has been creating title screens and logos for various companies shown below, his clients are normally well respected companies in and around the world.

One of his other design related, work consists of movie posters from the poplar film the shinning (1980)  this type of art interest’s me as, most movie posters give a feel about the film or a specific mood.

The obvious differences from Kirby and bass are that Kirby is more of a comic illustrator and bass creates more modern and stylish sleek designs. I prefer Kirby as it is more drawing style and there is a sense of freedom when creating the character for the client. However I respect the idea behind movie posters and logos.

In conclusion to this piece of work I can now determine which style I like best which is Kid Acne style of line drawing, also I can realise the differences thought out illustration, such as comic artist and street artist. Some obvious differences between the three artist are:

Kid Acne:

·         Street Artist

·         Comic Artist

·         Graffiti artist

·         Line drawing

Jack Kirby

·         Comics Artist

Saul Bass

·         Motion picture title sequences

·         Movie Posters

·         Logo’s

Now I can see by the bullet points which artist did what and how they differ for example Saul Bass differed to Kid Acne as one focus much more on the movie side of media, and one is more line drawing comic illustration.

Kid Acne (Sheffield Exhibition)

This weekend I took a small train trip to the steal city, to go and see Kid Acne's Exhibition,

they exhibition named  "Killing Your Darling."  

Killing your darlings is a motto used by writers to describe the process of cutting cherished characters and scenes. 

Looking through his sketch books (Black Books) though the glass container at the exhibition.

A quote written on the side of the book explained he had kept every book since the age of 14. Seeing his drawings improve was incredible, many of the books were pencil line drawings or ideas/notes being able see his skills improve was out of this world, seeing some of his major art work progress from and idea into its final piece was great.

We were not allowed to take any photo's in the exhibition which was rather unlucky but the exhibition is open in-till the 23rd of October and is located in the city centre for further information you could visit the website link below.  Also I have included a video which shows you the opening night and around the exhibition.

http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/millennium-gallery/exhibitions/current/kid-acne-kill-your-darlings

Jonathan Glazer

A 46 year old English film director, watching through some of his most recent adverts and music videos, they all tend to have humour  added great watching material, adding black and white gave the video of different feel however when he used colour the colour correction and sepia gave it a stylish and sleek, warming feel to it.

Horse's & Surfer's 

This music video was great the conventions and shots made the video intense to watch, the close up of the lead characters face gave tension to the video, there was so much detail in the close, being able to see the man's facial features.

Black and white style gave the video an old style feel to it, with a modern twist "The Surfer"

The idea behind making giant horse's jumping and crashing through wave's with the surfers falling of and the horse stamping on the made it feel rough and i think the demographic for this music video was male influenced.

Some shots which worked well was when all the horse's were put into perspective  with the surfers showing how little and insignificant humans can be compared to the giant mammal.

Odyssey.

Jonathan Glazer's Odyssey's Levi advert.
I liked the idea behind the advert video, it remind me of "Twilight" when they were sprinting up the tree's, and smashing they way through walls, some of the variation of shots when panning left to right and the wide angle shots gave the advert a mysterious and weird feel to it.
Dark Colour correction with a different style of tint each time the break into a new scene 


Stella artois


Blur -Universal 


Jameriquai - Virtual Insanity  (1996 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) Limited)

Tim Burton 

Street Art. Illustration Friday (Hibernate)

My Idea for  illustration Friday for the word "Hibernate" has been inspired by one of the most famous street artist known as "Banksy".

His street art has given me the inspiration to come up with my idea which is, A small bear maybe a cub  standing up with an angry/ferocious looking face (Maybe mouth open) using tracing paper and a fine graphics pen to go into detail much like the style of Banksy however i will be stencilling the word Hibernate onto the peace this is were the street art idea came into play as i want it to have a urban twist maybe a little quirky edge to it below I have shown some images which have given my this idea, I will Blog back again once i have made a rough sketch of my idea or my mind map. Even tho the images which are stencilled I am going to try and get the same effect as Stencilled piece of work. 

Charles Burns 'If I Had A Heart'

Black And White 2D.

Dave Shrigley. 'Who I Am and What I Want'

The first animation which we had watched was  Dave Shrigley's ' Who I Am and What I Want '.

The Animation was visually strong in that fact it was more original to any of animation, some of the strong points in the animation for me were. The Voice Overs ( Of Pete ), black and white originality, and Simplicity of the video free hand drawings. 

The drawings were not the strongest looking compared to Charles burns  video however that is that's why the video is so strong its just simple and creative in its own way.

Quoted of  'http://jamiepartington.blogspot.com/' 

"Sometimes when something becomes really bad looking, it gets good again."

La Tour De Pise.

This morning we watched the 'La Tour De Pise' which means 'The Tower Of Pisa' translated into English.

The overal music video was created and directed by Jean-Francias Coen, i enjoyed most of the video but some parts seemed a bit repetitive, however the video is created in type and sometimes can be repetitive.

The "type" used was great as it showed neon and bright colours which attract the audience in  the night life scene in which were there was, bright sighs of type was very well composed.

To be able to create this video using type must have take hours of work and effort to be able to create searching for the correct words and spelling.

Some Pro's and Con's of the video:

Pro's.

• Music Sync with the type.
• Transition's and screen movement.
• The Layout and feel of the video.

Con's.

• Some time's the music video was repetitive.