Survey results

As I stated before, I made a survey to better grasp how people feel about lo-fi illustration. Although there wasn't many responses, i feel as though the responses will still help me with this project and predicting trends and styles. 

Artist Inspiration: Maria Herreros

One of the main illustrators I have been interested in recently is Maria Herreros and her ability to create beautiful portraits that, on the surface seem naive, but really they have captured the personality of the subjects so perfectly. I adore her quirky, lo-fi style of line and her use of colour in the pieces. As I have stated previously though, it is not the use of colour I am really interested in when looking at artists for this project, it is their line work and the overall formation of the subject that interests me. 

David Lynch, 2012

Company She Keeps, 2013

Audrey Hepburn at a Flower Market, 2013

I feel as though looking at really contemporary artists of this module is vital, they are working and living in the current climate and are creating works for audiences now. Especially Herreros. 

Her lines are lilted and unconventional but the way she can capture a face is magical. As stated in the previous post, I have emailed her enquiring if she has ever encountered any copyright issues surround her famous people portraits, as this is very important to really understand what I could expect of my products, even though they are technically my intellectual property. 

The answer was pretty straight forward, it does sort of make me feel a bit more comfortable with proceeding with the project. 

Illustration now! 5, Julius Weidemann, Taschen. 

getting on

I have not produced as much work as i would have liked to thus far in the project... so from now on 'm going to have to churn out illustrations like nobody's business.  feel as though once the first few portraits of one person are done you soon start to find it easier to draw this person. 

In reality I would like to have completed the Bunny Yeager Saints by the end of tomorrow and to have started and hopefully finished the comedy acts by the end of the weekend. 

In terms of Market research and primary research, I created an survey for people to complete on lo-fi illustration, only 13 people got back to me but its better that nothing and the results do show that this is a trend that people are beginning to notice more. I have also contacted Maria Herreros about copyrighting issues, if any, she may have encountered from drawing famous people's faces. I find her work extremely inspiring and have asked her because she is very contemporary and will hopefully be knowledgeable on these issues an illustrator may have to deal with. 

Initial Portrait Research

I went to the library and found an Illustrations now! book on portraits specifically. I came across a few I liked, for their simple compositions and style. I also wanted to look at how other illustrators captured the person they were drawing and how successful it was. 

I rely love this contemporary religious portraits. It contains aspects of the more classical style but also by introducing  bright colour palette and a simple line it gives a really nice effect. 

These two images above by German illustrator, Henrik Abrahams, are really successful in capturing the character of the subject. I also really love how simple the portraits are in terms of style.

The simple style of these works also appeal to my mindset in terms of this module, the portraits are slightly off the figure, but the artist still captures the character. The pieces are acrylic on canvas with a quick run through Photoshop.  

Bob London's simple works are some of the best in the book in my opinion, I love the lo-fi style and line work. The muted colour palette looks awesome against the simple black line. 

     

Book:

Illustration now! Portraits, Ed Julius Wiedemann, Taschen, 2011

Hans Holbein

1497-1543, A german portrait painter who's religious works I will be looking at for imagery and symbols. He focussed quite heavily on religious portraits in his early career before moving to London, and earning his money painting portraits of people at the royal court. 

For the Illustrations I will create for the comedy groups, something like the two images below may work really well, taking this classical framing and composition and giving it a modern twist is a really cool idea. 

Darmstadt Madonna, 1526

The Last Supper, 1524

Head of a Female Saint, 1515

Head of a Male Saint, 1515

Especially in terms of the the above two portraits I feel as though the simple framing and composition is the kind of illustration I want printed on the tote bags, But with a banner below it. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paintings_by_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger

Italian religious imagery

As I stated in my learning agreement, I want to produce a range of Italian medieval style triptychs to go alongside my tote bags. I wanted to collect some initial research material to gain inspiration from for this style, as it will play a large role in the finished outcome. 

Alongside the religious symbolism this research will give me it is also interesting to see how simple the style of illustration was. I love the black and grey portraits, and will definitely refer back to them for stylistic terms but i feel as though the rich colours found are also important to incorporate. I will be able to achieve the same vividness with inks. 

Books:

First set of Portraits

For my first set of portraits I am focusing on Photographer Bunny Yeager and two models of the same period, Bettie Page and Blaze Starr. I have elected Bunny as one of my creative saints because of her work in empowering women through the lens. Her erotic photography is cheeky and playful with the female form. 

Both Bettie and Blaze worked with Yeager at some point in their career and it really launched them into the limelight. Both playful characters, I wish to celebrate them as women who pushed the boundaries and gave this style of modelling a name. They helped bring in the sexual revolution that occurred a decade after in the 1960's, and I feel it was a crucial and important development in the past century. I adore the pin up look and think it will work as a really nice juxtaposition against the religious imagery of the project.
To really be able to capture their characters I will watch various documentaries and films on the women, including Teaserama, The Notorious Bettie Page, among other striptease shorts.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/25/bunny-yeager-model-photographer-dies

Online market research

Online shop research:

I have decided to look at a high street front runner, Topshop, just to show how this style of illustration is beginning to infiltrate the wider market in retail. In terms of the bags and accessories there is quite a good percentage of items with illustrations of this genre, although they are definitely not produced in a lo-fi traditional fashion, it is the line work and aesthetic of this style I am going to focus on most for this research. There were not, however, any tote bags in this style which I can take as a potentially good thing as people may want to buy a more exclusive product in the style I am going for.

After looking quickly at a more recognised high street store, I am now going to focus on more underground companies. As a quick reference loin possibly for a later post, I took a quick look at rising online shop, Oh Deer. They employ illustrators and everything is made in the UK, the companies founders also give a chances to budding illustrators as they allow them to submit work with a sight to possibly sell. 

I also looked at Redbubble.com as I know that they do many illustrated products and most notably they have a vast range of tote bags. I found a few cool products in the style I want to pursue:

I really love the line work on this bag, it's simple and is a good example of one facet of lo-fi. Although at the minute I don't think I will be using too much colour in my own pieces this is still a really nice example of the style being executed. 

This is also a really good example of another area of lo-fi, with just the black and white and simple yet bold line drawing. A large majority of the bags in this style at the minute are for bands, which is a good thing as their could be an opening in the market for a more quirky concept for illustrated tote bags. 

I also had a quick look at whats on offer in the 'online marketplace' Etsy.com. Although it is made up of various freelancers, it is still an good thing to look at as it is a sort of home for handmade, quirky products. 

I found a few that really appealed to me:

One from a seller called 'cool and the bag'(https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Coolandthebag?ref=l2-shopheader-name)

I love the simple line work and the actual subject matter on the bags, I just think they're really cool and it really embodies the area of lo-fi I want to break into. 

Another seller I really liked was 'Bijou Karman', (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BijouKarman?ref=l2-shopheader-name).

The portraits of 'some groovy people' from the sixties are really lovely and sensitive, most importantly they are full of character which is an aspect i'm going to focus on when I come down to actually producing the illustrations. 

http://ohhdeer.com

https://www.etsy.com

http://www.topshop.com

The Lo-Fi Movement

I want to try and research this area of illustration as much as possible as I feel as though I will gain a better knowledge of the market I am targeting by doing so, which is an important factor of this module as these products will be eventually sold. 

To do this I will create a survey asking what people think of this style and if they have seen it appear more in a retail environment. I will also conduct some market research in shops and online to see where it appears. This will be the primary research part of this module, as it is getting more and more important to start personally analysing the current market trends if I want these final products to sell well.

Negotiated Project

Finally the time is here where we basically have complete artistic freedom in a module, we have to write our own brief and also think of a marketable final product. I will paste below my synopsis from the Learning Agreement to present my idea: 

My proposal for this project is based around creative and artistic people of the past century. I want to celebrate the people who have inspired me up to this point in my artistic life. I will focus on three main areas of the creative industries that have always held a great deal of interest to me: Photography, Comedy and Film. Within these chosen industries I will look at people such as: Bunny Yeager and her risqué pin up portraits, British comedians Steve Coogan, Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh and finally directors David Lynch, Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino.

I view these people as my creative saints of the modern age and to instill this idea in my drawings I will produce a range of experimental portraits in a sketchbook, portraying these people in pseudo religious poses. I will, to all intents and purposes be creating new personas and characters for my chosen subjects, meaning the illustrations I produce will be my intellectual property and I can avoid any copyrighting issues. I will also research into this by contacting one of the main influences in terms of style, Maria Herreros, whose naïve portraits of celebrities are brilliant. I feel as though if I do get in contact she will be a wealth of knowledge on the subject of copyright.(LO4)

 The style of drawing I want to employ is that of the Lo-fi movement that is emerging into the wider market at the moment. I will look at trend journals and the market to research into how well I can expect my style to be received. I will also conduct a survey to gain my own primary research, as I feel it is important to start to do this when beginning a project as I am not relying on other sources figures and feedback on a product.(LO1) (LO3)

 As further research for these drawings I will look at medieval Italian saint triptychs and portraits from artists such as Master Francesco and Jacopo del Casentino, trying to incorporate some of their style in with my more contemporary illustration creating a quirky fusion of the two. (LO2)

 As further research I will look into contacting the living creatives I have chosen to see if there are any possibilities of a meeting in which I could draw them, giving my project it’s primary research. I will also look to see if any of the comedians are touring close by and attend. Alongside this I will go to life-drawing sessions to further my experience in drawing portraits. Other than this my project will rely quite heavily on Internet and book research. Rather than copying existing portraits I will look at stand up shows, sketch shows and documentaries. I want to capture their characters and I feel by studying them in this way I will be able to achieve that better that if I were to copy from photographs. (Excluding Bunny Yeager’s photographic portraits).

When I have completed this experimentation I will then go on to begin my final product for the module. Through some market research I have seen that illustrated tote bags are really popular and I want to create my own. (LO3) I will choose three portraits from each group of people and will have them in classical religious poses, with the gold disc behind their heads and a banner beneath them, proclaiming them “Saint …”. I will produce five of each bag, ensuring that I work to make them as professional as possible. To do this I will ‘clean up’ the images on Photoshop and expose them onto screens, running test prints first so I can really monitor the quality of the final images. I will buy plain canvas tote bags, so I know that they are properly made as this will add to the professional finish.(LO3)

In addition to the bags I plan on making a variation of Italian religious gold triptychs, based around my concept and featuring my ‘Saints’. It will be a fold out print with the same gold border as you see on the originals, but with my simple illustrated portraits, giving this art form a new lease of life in modern illustration. The subject of this project could be seen as controversial but the demographic that I am aiming for of artistic people aged eighteen and up, should appreciate the overall style and humor of the pieces. (LO3)(LO4)   

From looking at various style and trend websites for the last module I know that this simple, charming style is very on trend. I know what look I am going for and know that by placing my stylised illustrations onto a tote bag and filling that with art 'goodies' is a very effective way of marketing my work and selling a product, because lets face it... most people love a good tote bag.