OCA - Illustration 1: ASS4 - Project 1

Exercise: Identifying tools and Materials

Here is a list below in categories of illustrators that I found that only use one type of medium:

Paper
Jayme Mcgowen
Helen Friel
Lorraine Nam
Eiko Ojala
Mayuko Fujino
Sam Pierpoint
Jessica Palmer

Watercolour

Spiros Halaris
Michael Frith
Omar Figueroa Turcios
Tatiana Karpova
Kim Whittingham

Colour Pencils
Jennifer Harrison
Lia Selina
Morgan Davidson
Dallin Lee

Pen and Ink
Rohan Eason
Laura Fray & Jess Turley (artist duo ink inc)
Zoe Sadler
Sarah J Coleman
Ben Tallon

Collage
Michelle-Thompson
Megan Coyle
Dawn Maciocia
Lydia Coventry

From the above illustrators, I have looked at I am interested Dawn Maciocia in who uses collage:

website: https://www.dawnmaciocia.com

I really like her style. She creates an image using a mixture of paint and different parts of the paper to create a mixed collage of animals. The are bright and very pretty. the had captured the animals well. She has grasped colours well and has a great composition in her work. She makes the animals the main focus in her art. Their movements and ways they are created in her work show that she has looked at each animal in their natural habitat, She has captured their personalities well. She also prints her original designs on cards and cushions. There are a lot of different textures and levels of her work which makes it very interesting to look at. The colours she has used create a sense of different seasons such as the first one with the badgers in she has captured winter, with no leaves on the trees and white paint marks to emphasise snow on the trees and on the ground. The berries in the foreground also remind you of winter as they are scarce that time of year which the birds need to eat. The artwork with the puffins on shows flowers on the green grass and the swirls in the sky represent the sun, which shows to me that these two puffin birds are enjoying summer time.

Overall I think she has a great style and as I'm interested in paper this is also another idea I could add to my style to also use a mix of papers even if they have writing on to add to my current style.

I am going to try her technique out on one of my old illustrations:

Here above is my attempt of using coloured paper to form an image. I used golds on the crown and cushion to give it a shimmery effect. I also added black around the poodle as Dawn does that a lot in her style. I had fun creating this and I feel I did a good job.

From the above illustrators I have looked at I am interested in Zoe Sadler who uses pen and ink

Zoe's art work is created by using watercolour and inks. She creates art with lots of character. I can see she likes to use shadows a lot to make things stand out in her art work. I like the one she has done with the submarine in the page, the submarine really stands out. She uses black outlines a lot to make items bolder too. Her composition in her art works well and there is no rule it all depends what she is drawing to where its going to be on the paper. She has fantastic tones to her illustration and this is done by using inks and watercolours. The illustration with the ship and the whales she has used dark blue for the sea and only used the shadows of the whales to evoke the mood that the ship is in deep waters. She creates texture with the black lines such as the fur texture on the fox illustration. I think her style works well to capture simple illustrations.

I am going to try this technique out on the same old illustration I used above:

Here above is my attempt of the poodle illustration again but this time using Zoe's technique. I started off with watercolours first and then used some inks to add highlights and lowlights. I used a dark outline and used swirls to create textures of the ears. I think my attempt went well. I like the highlights I have created. The only thing is that I did not use black lines but I thought this may have been too much.

Overall I have fun doing it and it was interesting to see the same illustration but in different styles. I enjoy experimenting.

The AOC illustration

I think I mentioned previously that I left my job in December to pursue my career as an artist. I have recently taken up volunteering at a company called the Arts Of Change who use art as a way of therapy for mental illness, dementia and other issues they asked me to create an illustration to go on posters and leaflets that will be going to hospitals and doctors surgeries throughout England and Berlin.

The brief was to create a scene using animals to promote Neuro dramatic-play. Neuro dramatic play is a therapy used to help mothers and babies bond before birth and 6 months after birth. In the illustration, had to show a mother and baby bonding. Neuro dramatic-play they use water and sand to play with to help the bonding this is how I came up with this illustration with a mother and baby whale playing in the water.

This illustration worked well with the brief given and was made into leaflets and posters and put throughout England two weeks ago. I gave the original copy to the manager and he framed it and put it in the office so everyone can see how I create my illustrations using 3D effects with paper. He was overwhelmed with the illustration. I got paid £45.00 for it which was an added bonus and he is also asked me to do further illustrations in the near future this is a great opening for me to pursue my illustration career and was a good experience responding to a brief.

Other Illustrations

Here below is another illustration idea of a fox sleeping in his den again using paper. I really like how I'm coming on with these 3D paper effect. Sometimes I do miss drawing and sketching a finished image, so every now and then as your see below in a moment I do end up doing some drawings and really it does help me focus and create ideas for my paper illustrations