Sketches!!

These are some of my sketches for this brief !

Reference

These are some images iv been looking at for this brief..

I got these pictures on pinterest

Ballerina's !!

After choosing to go with a dance topic for mood & memory iv gone into looking at ballet in particular, the classical music of Gustav Holst related to the brief links to ballet in the sense that its classical music that is danced to in ballet, since looking into ballet iv loved doing this brief and have loads of ideas. Iv just been doing loose sketches for the moment, i just want as many ideas and reference as possible before i refine them and produce something final ! Sketches to follow !!!

Mood & Memory

The final brief of the year is titled 'Mood & Memory', it's a really open brief, it asks for a creative response to a piece of classical music 'The Planets' by Gustav Holst (obviously avoiding the obvious). I have really struggled with this brief as to how to approach it when i can go pretty much anywhere with it!
I listened to the piece of music and did a few rough mind maps for what came to mind and what i was reminded of whilst listening to it.
Iv been illustrating (or trying to) some of these things from the mind maps but iv found that they are not working and are just all over the place, and i think thats because im just really not inspired by the things im drawing and i think i need to give my self something specific to go with and narrow the brief down to something i do find inspiring !

Iv been back through my ideas and dance was one of them, and im able to tie this in with alot of words i included in my mnd maps so thats the topic im going to go with!

I Wish Id Done That!

This is the work of my favorite illustrator at the moment, Jill Calder, i think her work is amazing and it constantly inspires me in my work, Jill Calder is an illustrator from Scotland, ahe is also a calligrapher, digital artist and lecture! Her work is a combination of traditional and digital image making methods. I love the playful style of her work and the vast amount of colour and different textures in her work, i particularly like her ink drawings, the life and character she captures in them is something i really admire about her work.

She's said in interviews she likes to people watch and draw everywhere, i think this is something i want to get out and do more of, i sometimes struggle with ideas and i think just getting out and drawing anything i see would help not only to get me out of my ideas block but also improve my drawing!

I love the use of colour in her illustrations and it inspires me to get over my fear of using colour in my own work and move away from my limited colour palettes!

Click here to see more of her work!!

Pick Me Up 2013

On friday 19th April i went to the PICK ME UP graphic arts festival at the Somerset House in London. I had a great time, there was loads of amazing work on show and it has really inspired me to really push myself more in my work.
These are some of the people that stood out most to me whilst i was there.

You Byun

Damien Florebert Cuypers

Malika Favre

Hattie Stewart

Ping Zhu

Stuart Patience

I Wish I'd Done This

 
I recently went to the Pick Me Up exhibition in London, held at Somerset House, and came across the work of Ping Zhu, she is an LA born Illustrator based in London. Her work focuses on people and animals which feature an amazing use of colour and texture. Her style of working features playful proportions and perspectives, sweeping and expressive brush strokes and lots of texture created using a dry brush technique, bringing so much life to every one of her images.

In a way her work reminds me of the work of Charley Harper, well her animal illustrations anyway, particularly in her ability to capture the spirit of the animal she is drawing without the use of un-necessary visual elements. The image above of the Chimpanzee used for an article in the New York Times is a perfect example of this.

I think using more texture in my work is something I really want to experiment with and definatly do more of i think this is one of the things my work is missing and something that would improve it. 

See more amazing illustrations from Ping Zhu here !!!!