Inspiration Project Brief

Last week I was set a short project brief based on inspirations. After expressing what inspires me on a personal level on my previous blog post 'My Personal Inspirations' and sharing my thoughts with the rest of my peers at University, we were set a challenge in randomised pairs to create an illustration based on the other persons own inspirations.

I was paired up with Katie Mcternan who's personal work can be found on her blog at: http://katiemcternanillustration.tumblr.com/

Katie's Inspirations:

Nature- Andy Goldsworthy, man made vs nature (destruction of nature)- Julian Schnabel, patterns - Yellena James and Beatriz Milhazes, texture, butterflies - colour and pattern - Damien Hirst, Fiona Rae, visiting galleries, collect objects and images of things I like to make mood/inspiration boards, taking photos of things I see and like, time- decay- watching things age, experimentation with materials, life drawing, drawing.

Interestingly, I found many similarities with my own personal inspirations. Therefore, I naturally focused on these things and decided that to create my illustrative interpretation I would use the themes of nature and decaying over time. I also looked at the artists which were given and actually really loved the work of Yellena James who uses plenty of colour and pattern in her illustrations in a subtle and delicate way.

After researching and thinking about potential ideas for my illustration, I came up with an initial sketch:

The idea behind this was to illustrate how trees lose their leaves throughout the seasons. I visualised this as a form of decay and thought it linked quite well with Katie's inspirations. Furthermore, the bird signifies the beauty of nature and I thought that a bird would be a perfect icon for representation to reflect this. 

I then went on to develop this further with watercolour as my choice of media to reflect on the subtle beauty of nature.

Original watercolour illustration

Digitalised version of original illustration. Applied manipulation of brightness/ contrast, hue and saturation.

Final version of digital illustration

I believe that the final illustration I created was successful in the sense it portrays a sense of time and decay in a simple manner. The dark space gives the composition a sense of space, but also reflects the negativity of the theme of decay. The birds are almost 'dancing' in the air which gives a sense of juxtaposition and calm when the surroundings and themselves appear to be deteriorating.

Once digitalised, I feel it has enhanced my original illustration and made it stronger. It is not giving too much away and allows the viewer to interpret the illustration in their own way.

Cropping the image right makes the birds iconic without needing the rest of the image to understand the theme of decay within nature.


Reflection on Project

Overall I have found this project has given me a sense of relief from the main 'The Black Mirror' project. Forcing me to work at a fast pace has actually been a huge benefit to my approach to creating illustration, allowing me to illustrate my ideas visually without over-thinking or questioning them. As a matter of fact I believe through the creation of this illustration I can move forward with my main project and produce more visuals for my final outcomes.


Katie's Illustration based on my own Inspirations

As I was paired up with Katie for this brief, she also created an illustration based on my own personal inspirations (which can be seen on a previous post 'My Personal Inspirations').

After seeing Katie's illustration it immediately struck me how similar our compositions appeared to be, and how we both picked out the nature elements of our inspirations. We both also used watercolour as our choice of media which was interesting and demonstrated how similar our inspirations actually are. I think Katie has done a great job of depicting my personal inspirations, and how she chose to illustrate my childhood within quite a maturely painted and subtle background.

Life's a Beach

Today of all days proved that great artists and their work can be found anywhere and especially when you least expect it!

My walk on Bridlington seafront caused me to encounter a small local open exhibition, free of charge, how could I resist?! When viewing the artwork I was amazed in particular by the work of Katherine McDermid who created intricately detailed works in mixed media. Her distinct style caught my eye immediately, especially a cheeky comical-faced lady balancing a stack of cupcakes in her hands definitely put a smile on my face. It gives me great pleasure to be able to show you this piece and one other that intrigued me, given permission to show you all by the artist herself!

(sorry about the reflection it was a very sunny day!)

Stacked seagulls 1
Mixed media
Katherine McDermid

Stacked cupcakes 2
Mixed media
Katherine McDermid

Talking with the artist 

I felt particularly lucky when I found these works of art as the artist herself was present! This gave me an opportunity to find more about McDermid as an artist and it had also become apparent we both had been to see the Martin Creed exhibition! (See previous post http://carlataylorillustration.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/a-gallery-visit-martin-creed-or-crude.html)

First of all we talked about the artist's works and what type of media she used. I was even more impressed when I gained the knowledge that these pieces were created entirely from her head! Pen and ink were the primary bases of her pieces, with watercolour and finished with coloured pencils. McDermid's level of professionalism stood out for me here as from afar her works could easily be mistaken for digital. I had found out that this mistake had occurred previously which she then went on to amusingly explain how she has a lack of computer skills! 

McDermid also expressed how she had a 'down' moment in her art career where she was struggling for buyers (hard to believe!) and actually sent several of her old pieces to the tip! As a budding illustrator myself I could empathise with her on a certain level but was glad to see she had recovered her self belief as an artist and still creates beautiful pieces today!

Inspirations

It was interesting to find out some of the inspiration McDermid uses in her work to create her unique style. One of her main inspirations resides from everyday life and observing her surroundings. Often her work is based on true life and overhearing conversations between strangers. This idea of her work being spontaneous and forming from completely random events is very intriguing as the subject of the artwork is not determined by the artist herself, but the conversations she hears at the time. 

Overall, I was so pleased to have discovered an extremely talented LOCAL artist with current and modern work. As a person, McDermid was very pleasant to speak to and happily shared her past and current experiences as an artist. To see an artists work and to engage with an artist them-self can completely change one's perception of a particular piece or series. For me, this made me appreciate the work even more knowing that such a nice person had created them!

I would definitely recommend  having a look at Katherine McDermid's creations to all art and non-art lovers out there!

More of her work and history as an artist can be found on her website http://katherinemcdermid.com/index.htm Go check it out!

Two for Joy!

So I created a little illustration a while back and thought that now I'm finally acquiring some decent Photoshop skills I would digitalise it! Here is my process of how I made a simple sketch into something more finished.

The illustration is an abstraction of two Magpies in flight. These link to the superstition of 'One for Sorrow' which the second line reads 'Two for joy'

Any feedback appreciated and more can be found on my new Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CarlaTaylorIllustration

Enjoy :)

Digitalised sketch. Outlined in Photoshop

Trying out colour over outlines

Inverted colour

Full colour complete with subtle shading

For the last image I took away the lighter blue line which left my original shading I layered over the top. This has actually turned out successful as the colour is more subtle but still apparent.This is more suited to my softer style of work. 

However, I am unsure which of the last two images I prefer! Perhaps you all can help me decide :) 

What did everyone think of the inverted concept? At first I loved it! Then I loved the softer colour on the white background. 

Currently trying out different versions of colour in this illustration so keep your eyes peeled for more!