Week one - Adrian Knopik

While searching for images to place in my sketch book I came across this young artist from Poland. Most of this artists illustrations include women and usually are are set in greyscale with just one of the elements of the picture being in color. I believe doing this really makes just that sole color more exaggerated than what it would normally be. The name of this piece is entitled Stereo Transmitted Disease. The message is unclear, even after reading the name, and I believe is pretty open for different interpretations. I believe this illustration is well done, and that in putting it in full color would not have been as effective. I think that the artist was able to capture the human figure very effectively with only using simple lines. I was really happy to come across this artist and will probably post more of their work in the weeks to come.

Week 1 - City-Scape "stumble uponed"

Found this image during a random session of stumble upon. I am unsure of who did it or where it came from, as I have saved it to my computer long ago. I placed it in a folder marked "motivation." This folder contains several images both illustration and photographic, that I find inspiring. The folder is selected as my desktop wallpaper, so the images constantly rotate on the screen. I picked this image because it is very busy and fun. It has a lot of Japanese influences, which is a culture I very much admire. As I continue to push through college to become a theme park designer, I find this image has a lot of those qualities found in concept art of parks. It shows a large amount of space, with different areas of focus. It has characters doing different actions, which help establish the look and feel of the environment. The lighting and shadows help create a mood. I find that if you look at this image long enough, you can soon see it as a real place. That is what is most inspiring about it, any image that can be created into something real.

week 1 | light calligraphy

calligraphy / julien breton aka kaalam

photography / david gallard

exposure time / 8 min

I decided to do something that's not as popular as pencil-and-paper work that I've enjoyed doing myself. It's called light calligraphy or light graffitti. Basically a photographer increases the exposure on his/her camera and lets all the light flood into the lens for a specific period of time. If you move quickly enough and draw in the air, with LED lights or glowsticks, precise enough, you'll get some incredibly rewarding results. In order to do something like this, you need to have a very good sense of depth as well as be able to judge composition while being in the image itself. If you stop for too long or pass over the same place too often, your 'ghost' will be imprinted in the photo.

I consider this to be an illustration because you're using light as the medium and space as your canvas.

Here's a link to this particular artist if you're interested.

http://www.behance.net/Kaalam/frame

cheers,

javi suarez

Week 1 ~Battle Cry

Battle Cry is a collection of concept art for an anime series called Samurai Champloo created and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. The show takes place in a Edo-era Japan where a girl tries to find a man that smells of sunflower seeds with a help of two swordsman. This anime had a nice mix of adding a current popular hip hop art style in a old historical setting, which I thought was pretty cool and unique. Ever since I saw this aired on television I was drawn to the art style of the anime and fell in love with it. I happened to find this book at a anime convention I went to last year with the illustration above as the cover. What I liked most about the art style was that it was graphic, bold, colorful and simple which fit nicely with the hip hop theme. In this illustration in particular, I love how the characters were posed because not only were they in interesting poses, you get a strong sense of motion from them. I also liked how the background is plain black with light delicate designs spread around it. It keeps the cover looking interesting without having the background overshadowing the main objects which are the three main characters.

A verse of the moon

I chose a piece of Yoshitaka Amano's art work. Amano is known for his illustrations for Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D. In the illustration titled, A Verse of the Moon, Amano's thin lines give his work a dreamy and wispy quality that I find beautiful and surreal. The textures remind me a lot of cloth, and the shapes seem like they are melting off the plane lending to the picture's other worldliness.

The crescent shape of the creature's wings on the left makes you focus on the couple who are cradled in the semi-circle of feathers. I understand the relationship between the characters. The two find comfort in each other, in the darkness, setting a romantic tone for this scene.

I confess I have not read, The Tale of Genji where this picture originates from. I never played Final Fantasy, and only read one Vampire Hunter D novel. The best thing about this piece and other Amano works are that they tell the story without the words. The art transports the viewer to another place through the colors, shapes, the lines; all the components of the picture. Being able to tell a story with the art is just as important as it is being pretty or interesting to look at.

The Windfish ~Pertheseus

This piece was done as fanart for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. In the game the Windfish is the manifestation of a god in the physical form of a giant flying whale. This piece is done in a digital format, which is one of the reasons I chose this. I like it because it doesn't really have a digital feel to it. It looks a lot like a painting in my opinion. The colors blend nicely and unlike most digital drawings it doesn't suffer from that sketchy look. I also chose it because i enjoy art like this. Well made fan art and concept art in my opinion really fleshes out pre-existing worlds and stories. it is one of my favorite forms of illustration and an area i hope to one day getinto as a means of gaining a fan base so I can get exposure for my own works. As a fan of many things myself I feel by creating a well made piece of art you can further connect with other fans.

Week 1 - Scott Gustafson

This week in my Children’s Book Illustration class we looked at the book Animal Orchestra by Scott Gustafson. Published in 1995, the book shows a “maestro” toucan getting a bunch of animals together to play in an orchestra. This illustration was my favorite of all the pages. Each page is done in the same style of painting, which gives the book more of a fine art feel. In class we were told that individual illustrations from the book’s pages have been printed on things like postcards and dishes. This also is more of a fine art practice. I chose this illustration because I’m interested in creating children’s books, and I like to explore all the different styles in which they have been done. More of Scott Gustafson’s work can be found at his website: http://www.scottgustafson.com/

He has a lot of cool classic fairy tale illustrations that are worth checking out.