Japanese Cartoon Art (Sanrio)

I love the simplicity yet effectiveness of sanrio artwork. It's in a very simplistic style which would be easy to replicate and yet still stylistic and iconic.

Shield bug

As bizarre as this may sound, whilst sat outside today a small bug fell onto me from the tree. I was about to brush it off when I noticed it shining in the sunlight and looked down upon it to see a lovely pattern. This inspired me for my project over the summer to do a study of different beetles and their patterns throughout the summer. This will enable me to experiment loads with material and media.

John Burningham

I really like John Burninghams work and was introduced to him at college. The pastel and light colour palette that he uses is very unique and is very suitable for the children's books  which he illustrates. The spray paint used in the background creates a nicely textured background and this is what I like most and like to try and incorpirate within my work.

Amanda Kavanagh

Yet again this is a reference and inspiration on how I am to start keeping my sketchbooks similar to.

Sketchbook

To keep myself working in the break before university I am going to set myself a brief project although I am yet to still decide what this should be upon. Whilst doing this, I am intending to make at least one drawing a day so that my book is full of observational drawings.

Constructivism

This is a new art movement I was introduced to at the start of University, and had never previously never heard of. This has relevance to my current visual problem solving module as it co-insides with propaganda posters and their stylistic qualities.

Nature - Flowers

Flowers inspire me not only with how pretty and delicate they are, but mainly their colour. I love trying to replicate these bright colours and working with them within my work. Georgia O' Keefe's work mainly inspired me as it is surreal and different to how most flowers are presented, focusing mostly upon the colour. Below are some examples of my flower work.

Henna Tattoo

Henna Tattoo inspires me with the patterns that are created to decorate the hands. Floral patterns often appeal to me however the more orient ones which are more decorative have slightly more appeal as there is so much shape and geometry within them. 

Pyrography - Cenevieve Dionne

I was not aware of the method of Pyrography before I discovered this artist. The technique consists of burning images into wood with hot tools such as soldering irons. Usually the image is drawn first so that there are guides to follow. Cenevieve Dionne's work made this technique appealing to me as it delicate drawings and colour is added with watercolour paints or gauche.

Illustrated Life

Once again I will mention this book, but purely to make people aware of it, as I feel it is a very beneficial book to all artists and looking at other peoples sketchbook works and ways they work is always a good way to adapt personal work.

Shepard Fairey

I discovered this street artists work when watching Exit Through The Gift Shop. It really struck me as it was very  similar to the propaganda posters and also inspired my current visual problem solving module. I like the use of a limited panel and stencil imaging.

Kurt Hollomon

I discovered his work in "illustrated life" and I liked how he uses his sketchbook. each page is just full of sketches after sketches as well as lots of notes and thoughts. I need to get into the habit of carrying a mini sketchbook and pencils with me at all times, as you never know when something will catch your eye.

Peter Callesen

This isn't a style of work I personally would do at the moment, however his technique definitely caught my eye and showed possibilities. I love how simplistic the materials are as in just paper, but the images are very eye catching. He achieves this by making a cut out silhouette of the subject and then building paper models to fall out, or hang from and be relief from the paper as if it is real and just falling out. This also links back similar to Sue Blackwell's work yet not with a book. It also opens my eyes to 3D elements being used within Illustration.

Nature - Animals

I used to hate drawing animals as they were so complex however I then received a book from my uncle teaching the basics to drawing any animal and were to start and with practice they have become one of my favourite subjects to draw with the complex and uniqueness to each one. I love the textures, colours, patterns and shapes created by each individual animal. Below are some previous drawings I have done in different techniques.

Illustration Play - The book

This isn't an artist as such although this book has definitely introduced me to a lot of new artists since reading it and also discovered different techniques of working even if slightly bizarre. It's inspired me to start using more unusual material and media within my work for future projects.

Penelope Dullagham

I found this artist within the book "Illustrated Life" which shows many sketchbooks and how artists have used these in different ways and made them personal. I like her work in the sketchbooks with it's naive feel however the thing that stood out to me most was the quote "make something of it". This quote is inspiring to me as often I will draw something and think oh no, it's gone wrong, get rid whereas this quote is making me think differently to just keep working until I get something I like or keep it just for reference and practice to look back upon.

Debbie Adele Cooper/ Sue Blackwell.

I discovered her work when visiting the Quad and seeing the exhibition "Never Let Me Go". The thing that appealed to me most about this work is that the book she was interpreting, she had decided to carve hollow and create a little scene based around imagery in the book within it, with a peeping hole to view inside when slightly opened. The trees on top were also made from pages of the book. This was a newish form of art that I had seen which reminded me of my work I did for my body project at college; however that project was inspired by the work of Sue Blackwell (2nd image). Below Sue Blackwell's work is also an image of the work I created for the body project and a similar idea of using pages within a book to create artwork.

Eleanor Bowley "Watching/Waiting"

This piece in particular stood out to me from her work which is shown in the book Illustration Play: Craving for the extraordinary. I feel this piece stood out to me the most as it is so delicate and pretty, and the detail on the bird is very contradictory to just the shapes and patterns in the background. The use of mixed media and material to composite most of it appeals to me as I like textile work myself. I feel it all works very well to give a natural feel and a very delicate, feminine piece of work. I'm hoping to try this style more over the summer with personal projects.

Propaganda Posters

I have been doing research into these as it fits in nicely with the work I am creating for Visual Problem Solving with people trying to manipulate peoples thoughts etc.
I like the simplistic compositions and imagery within this posters which are far from complex so the message is clear and to the point. I also like the use of a colour palette and this not ranging too much, often with 4 colours being the maximum amount. I am hoping to incorporate similar qualities within my own work, and possibly create one piece very like this.

Jenny Saville

I was first introduced to Jenny Saville's work in college as well. I love her work has she takes controversial issues of gender or weight and these are the main focus within her work. The colours she uses as well within her work are often to portray dead bodies or look like rotting flesh, however the reason why I love her work is for the respect I have for the skill of painting. These pieces are known to be fairly big and yet the whilst the marks look really precise to create the skin, they are very expressive.

Dave Mckean

Dave Mckean is a major inspiration in my artwork and has been since I was first introduced to him in my final year of school (2008). I absolutely love his wide range of work and find him such an inspiring artist as he has tried many forms of different ways to communicate messages and be creative. For this reason I have included my 3 main types of work I love that he has done. The first is of his drawings, my parents recently brought me his book Squink, too many times I can just sit looking through that book for inspiration to just pick up a paintbrush (or whatever medium) and just make markings to try and represent what's in front of me. In this book the only use of medium is black ink. I find this alone incredible as the images still vary quite significantly, as in they have different mark making techniques applied, different styles, and it appears them spontaneous marks. The second image is of his photo manipulation and heavy mixed media images that he creates. This is the first work I discovered by him and it was definitely what has helped to inspire me to be more creative with media etc. The other amazing thing about the piece below is it's sheer size that it was painted at so that it could be used in an a4 comic. The final thing that I have linked is of his movie work that he has done. Mirrormask is by far one of my favourite movies for it's artistic qualities and it amazes me that Dave Mckean just tries his hand at everything, as this is how I like to work, and I hope to have skills in many aspects of creativity.

Natalie Shau

Natalie Shau has been an inspiration to me for a while now since I discovered her work at college. I love the use of photography combined with subtle photography. It helps to create a realistic looking image that is still blatantly drawn. I would like to work in a similar style to this one day or at least try combining photography and drawn images as I like the techniques it produces.

Apologies

Firstly I would like to apologise for the lack of posts in the last month, hopefully all the influences from those days will be uploaded in the next 24 hours.