Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Android Jones


Andrew (Android) Jones is an artist who has worked with character design for video games, live event art (creating art that is projected on a screen during a fashion show, in a club, etc while an event is going on in real time), and various other areas of illustration. He has a very distinct methodology of using various shapes to create a composition with chaos. As his illustration progresses, he uses the same technique with greater selectiveness to create an image that is visually interesting, and “unbelievably believable,” as Jones put it himself.

Jones utilizes several digital programs to achieve the look and feel of his images. He choses the shapes to incorporate based on how they fit the intentions of the piece. When watching the artist at work, at face level it looks like he’s just throwing down shapes and colors, but he’s really thinking and analyzing what he’s doing in relation to the mood that is being created and the story being told. With the Dragonforce cover, he was creating an image that gives the impression of a woman holding a guitar in an abstract space that is reminiscent of a conglomeration of video games. His methods have worked well here to create a believable futuristic armor and guitar. He uses complimentary colors to create the color space; green and magenta, orange and violet.



His process is just as important as the final piece in some of his live event work. It needs to be interesting enough so that it’s not distracting to what is going on around it. Jones methodology lends itself to experimentation and change. He sifts through geometric shapes, layering and adding to them until his intentions are met. One thing I really enjoy about his work is that the final product doesn’t try to mask itself as a traditional media piece, but rather is distinctly digital.

For more on Andrew (Android) Jones:
website: http://www.androidjones.com/
videos his process are available for purchase at: http://media.massiveblack.com/

Joe Koch

3 comments:

  1. the most interesting aspect of this video (i watched the video) was that as long as ive been digital painting ive never heard of a professional concept artist who used geometric shapes in unison with their digital technique.

    it seems really obvious and kind of like a short cut, but its not really a short cut at all.

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  2. this stuff has always interested me as it seems the fantasy genre of illustration is almost the hardest to please because of most the technical issues. I'm not hardcore into this aesthetic but always have had a strong respect to these artists who can render such a fantasy like figure or creature flawlessly to autonomic perfection.

    _yael

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  3. I really enjoyed this, to see the process and I even learned about a program I never knew of. The use of different shapes to make a new shape is amazing, though I wouldn’t have thought that the thing she was holding was a guitar, thought it was a gun. I’m really happy you showed the image along with the steps to get a better understand to how he got to the finished work. Cause at first it looked like it was all 3D made until you watch the video then you really see what’s 3D and what’s not. It’s also interesting that at one point the girl is looking up, a step you would have never known happened without this video, I’m happy he went with her looking ahead instead of lookup. It’s a bummer her eyes got lost in the final piece so all that detailing was lost. Though I’d never work in the programs he uses, be interesting to illustrate something with forms and shapes for that abstracted feel that his work started out looking as before the finished work. I think also the thing I like most is the hair, though it’s not moving it’s design really gives it that flowing look like it’s moving around like a flame in the wind. Also how it‘s one of the brightest colors, your eyes flow from the text, to the hair, down to the rest of the work (Though that’s how my eyes follow it anyways).

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