Sunday, 27 April 2014

A Final Word

A Prehistoric Cave Painting


Although I covered the five artists that are required I feel that I have to include a selection of artists and historic practices that have had impact on graphics/illustration and on me. Illustration goes as far back as the prehistoric times where hunters would paint on caves to describe there stories, you could say it was the earliest form of visual communication that has evolved as time as gone by.


Great Wave By Hokusai Katsuhika 
Wood Block Print


Japanese woodcut print blocks are example of illustration in books; the blocks were made so that the image could be mass-produced. I see these early techniques being a very important stage in the production of the books of today.




Another important movement that needs to be mentioned is the Bauhaus. There contribution to graphics design/illustration was a important change in design for a changing world.

Illustration By Greg Staples 
www.gregstaples.com

But my final artist, who has had an impact on my illustrations, is called Greg Staple's. Greg started out as a comic book artist at an early age. Later he went on to work in conceptual art and illustration in games, books and films. A lot of my earlier work has been influenced from playing games and watching films and knowing that Greg has worked professionally in these areas and lives just down the road from me, inspired me to keep illustrating and one day make it in the industry just like him.


But things have changed since then, I use to be quite narrow minded, trying to imitate his work instead of finding my own route and I am glad to say I am, by focusing on my own strengths has allowed me to develop my own style which is very important.

Saturday, 26 April 2014

Artists Influence Frank Miller & Roy Lichtenstein

I have chosen two artists that have influenced a piece of my work. They are Frank Miller and Roy Lichtenstein. Frank miller is a comic book artist/writer who is most famous for his sin city stories. He has led a very long and successful career working on popular books such as Batman, Daredevil and 300, his talents stretch far into the industry being credited as a writer, colorist, finisher, penciled and inker.
  

His Film Noir style of art and gritty tales broke new ground in comics, His Sin City books are a perfect examples because the content was for the mature reader. Comics are usually about heroes in costumes saving the world but in sin city, his world was full of lies, cheats and anti heroes. His work has even been turned into cinema and its success just shows how much of an accomplished artist he is.

Extract From Frank Millers SinCity 

Extract From Frank Millers SinCity
For my foundation final piece I created a comic book that was partly influenced by franks style. It was a story with two half's and two styles. One half was in the style of film noir. I tried to achieve a dark gritty look using a dull colour pallet. I also tried to achieve the same gritty language that you would find in his books. I studied many of his panels to understand how to use angles to add drama and impact. What I did discover, is how difficult comic books are to create.



Extract From A Thirst For Inspiration
David Ward
The second out of the two is a well-known pop artist that goes by the name of Roy Lichtenstein. He was born in New York City in 1923 and took a interest in comics at a early age. Later he would go on to study fine art and had also worked as a industrial designer.

More importantly he was apart of the pop art movement with other artists like Andy Warhol who brought art to the masses, he blurred the line between High and low art. His early interest in comics had clearly had an impact on his because all of his work was in a comic book style.

Roy Lichtenstein
Whaam
The second half of my comic book was more to Lichtenstein's style, Use of bright colour was one of those things but it was his use of metaphor that Inspired me to try include in my story. I liked his work so much I included it in my comic, you can see it all around the walls in the bar.
Extract From A Thirst For Inspiration
David Ward
Extract From A Thirst For Inspiration
David Ward