Artist liks: Tankie girl and Ms Westwood

So i've found three pretty great points of reference for my project. Starting with tank girl and the work of Jamie Hewlett, and Rufus Dayglo.

  

So Im looking at these two works on the same character because they both encapsulate what i want to portray in my imagery, an in your face, fuck you attitude, with characters that look damn good and messy all at the same time. On top of my research on existing punk looks, this offers a hyper stylised version of the fashion, taking the movement even further, something i wish to do and will have to combining the fancy suffragette clothing with stripped down punk. I bought the second book especially for this task and i was pleasantly surprised at the use of colour also, very in tune with what i plan to use for my own, vibrancy, nice.

Now to Vivienne Westwood

 

So if i'm going to approach punk in terms of costume, i have to look in to one of the big hitters in terms of early punk as a fashion movement. Her clothing is interesting, but it was an interview that really grabbed my attention, where the interviewer asked her to explain punk, and she basically explained that it was totally about going against the norm, trying to offend and cause outrage in your image, gotta keep that in mind.

Architectural artist links

I was quite worried about finding a link for architectural work, but i got incredibly lucky and found the perfect website for what i needed, showcasing a wide breadth of work, all looking slick and all containing nuggets of information on the process, idea or project behind the work. This haven that somehow made buildings interesting is called Visualising Architecture.

Just look at the gallery page, the different approaches, the different lovely colours.

This is the first thing to catch my eye in the sea of goodness, its actually a tutorial on how to make this effect, by a fella called Alex Hogrefe, obviously i wont be able to try it out, having to use vectors, and i have already used blueprint to show an architectural space for a previous project, so i think ill let this one pass for now. What i will take away from it is that even though some of the dimension is lost by only using two rones, there is enough information for me to make out the building, i shouldn't be afraid to make things really basic if needs must.

These colours are really tasty, really really tasty, i absolutely know that i want colour to be a main concern in my imagery after seeing this. It is created by the same person as the blueprints, and its simply his display of having to create a more abstract form in his work, similar to my project.

This one combines all that was good about the previous two images, great colours and really simple design, nice stuff, i think this will be my main inspiration, lets see how this plays out.                                                                                                                                                    

I also have this architecture book from Grenwich uni that pretty much confirms that i should concentrate on colour to make my images interesting.

GIF practice and GIF goal

So I have a friends birthday coming up, and see this as an ample opportunity to practice my knowledge of using photoshop to make a GIF (Note: the subject matter of the gif is an inside joke so i wont bother to explain it to you)

Yeah, here it is, a nice slab of dumb. Enlarged the image gradually between frames to have it seem as though it was zooming in, and all drawn elements were added with the paint tool on separate layers. Took me two minutes and will probably save me having to buy  a gift, good times.

GIF artist links

So for my first gif, i present the work of Phazed, a GIF artist who pretty much creates works that do what the above image is doing, presenting a illustrated person, or character with strobing rainbows coursing through their body. Personally i think its quite ghastly, and have grown a trite tired with the aesthetic, seen as each work of his is pretty much the same, but am considering a coursing colour spiral for one of my ideas, so i will have to try and avoid inspiring those feelings with my own work. I dunno, just thought this was worth a mention, especially seen as my actual gif artist link... artist, is actually unknown.

So this ones really simple, and if you think about it, doesn't really need to be a GIF. The image itself is static, with the colour strobing, as if the lighting of the room is on its way out. Its this little touch that grabs my interest though. Now its absolutely a solid work of art, lots of lovely detail, but the light just completes the atmosphere. I feel like i'm actually in a shady arms shop, and despite a character existing within the space, it is without a doubt the space that is the real character. So whilst i wont even pretend to hope to create an atmosphere like this, i will absolutely be working on an outcome that concentrates on a room and its lighting.

For a final link this work comes from Bryan Konietzko, another work that is super simple in idea but still excites me, its all character in this one, with a sweet design making it the success that it is.The work was created with the artist taking reference from Religious symbolism, i shouldn't be afraid to splice elements myself. 

Unsung artist: Louise Lockhart featuring Ben Eine and Kate Bingaman-Burt

So i failed to credit this work within my primary post, but it did help to influence my idea of using the house shape as a setting and also when the book consisted purely of blueprint spreads, the plan was to be a concertina of the 3D cube shape, like this does with all following the building shape.

Its a wonderful little piece, consisting of a stretch of bright and colourful storefronts, super charming.

Finding a theme

Time to get stuck in to the real meat and potatoes of this unit, our book brief. Again following the telling an untold story ideal, we were told to create imagery for a 12-16 paged saddle stitch or concertina book. Outside of this we were given a few suggestions for ideas to follow, but outside of this, we could research whatever we wanted, as long as it was based on a location, and the outcome was generated of the findings whilst there.

Early stages I toyed with a few ideas, thinking of either visiting the Bradford media museum, or a swimming baths. I had an interest in the media museum because of its video game related collection, and being quite well versed in the subject would have easily been able to collate something fun to work on. The swimming baths would have been trickier to approach, with little to no opportunity for photography to be taken, but I was certain that working from observations made during the visit would offer quite an interesting outcome.

Almost deciding upon the swimming baths, the unexpected happened, I was told that my grandparents were moving house. This was strange to me considering they had lived there for as long as I’ve been fannying around on this earth, and I had spent every single summer half term there, this was my place of escape being sold. With this I decided I would like to visit the old place for one last time and could find something to work from in London whilst visiting.

Research trip: London

My first instinct was to work whilst traveling on the tube, taking in the various characters and happenings, drawing rough representations of them and making notes. This didn’t amount to much as I must admit, I don’t really give a damn about the tube, I don’t find it especially interesting or awkward as many would describe it to be, it’s a bit of a nothing experience for me, I guess that comes with growing up using the system. Reaching central London, I took touristy photos but just didn’t feel like it would amount to anything worthwhile. With this I relocated to my grandparents home.

Tube Imagery

 And Central London

 Finding a direction

 Feeling a bit lost my plan was to research locations online that I could travel to the next day, but when I got to the house I found that my grandparents needed help with moving their various belonging in preparation for the move. It was whilst moving the items and talking of the memories attached to them that I had been a colossal idiot, the house itself would be location that I would use, telling a very personal untold story.

I started by painting two family heirlooms found during the process and making a note of their significance, carrying on from hereon out making notes of the various stories given by my grandparents on our family history and the current happenings in their lives.

Heir loom no1: Rolls razor 

This item belonged to my grans father, its a razor that could be re sharpened using its own case, i found it to be still sharp, having cut myself on the bugger.

The box contained this great set of illustrated instructions, man, they just don't make them like they used to.

Also within the container i found a letter written by my great grandfather requesting a smaller home with central heating, as they were struggling to keep their home warm. There must have also been a struggle dealing with the home itself as the letter stops on a bit of a heartbreaker for myself, as he explains to the landlord that he has arteritis in his back and that there is no cure. I can see by the way he includes this fact that he was a prideful man, opting not to use it as his primary reason for the move, leaving it as a side note. I know that my great grandmother also suffered arthritis in multiple ares of her body, i guess that was just a by product of the strains of the time. Our instructions might not be fully illustrated, but at least we don't have to push our bodies to extremes to get by.

What if i use the location itself?

Moving on in the process it struck me that i could use the location itself as my imagery, with this i decided to photograph each and every room for possible future use.

                     

Collection of notes and doodles made on the trip

Starting with the tube doodles, and continuing to family stories.

Spending time with the family

Luckily for me my Aunty had decided to visit that weekend, meaning i got to spend time with more of my family, getting to see my youngest cousin, San-Jin. Its a bit generic to say he's getting bigger all the time, but i will admit he is one adorable little bugger. Another story related to a family object is when one day he noticed a little last supper ornament, admired it for a while taking it all in, then decided to pinch above the food items and drop imaginary portions in to each and every person in the rooms hands. He decided to bring out his little golf set and hit his ball across the room, demanding a high five from everyone when he made a shot, which was every couple of seconds.

Ill top off the trip write up with these incredible ear rings, i mean, check them out, they're fucking incredible! I brought them to my grans attention and she was quick to dismiss them, saying someone must have bought them for her.

This was a great visit, and a perfect way to say goodbye to the place, i'm glad that i could find a reason within my project to include it.