John Tenniel
This is an artist from the Golden Age of Illustration, who I would like to take inspiration from during my Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe project. He had created the original illustrations for ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll.
From the illustrations specifically from this book, Tenniel’s style is semi-realistic but with the theme of the book, he has played around with surrealism, illustrating things that you would not exactly see in the real world, and exaggerating some of the characters proportions, as seen in figure 1.
I believe these illustrations were hand-drawn with pen and ink, but I believe when it came to mass production, the design was etched into a plate, so the illustration could be printed multiple times for hundreds of books.
Because of this factor, during my Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe project, I want to experiment with different mediums, working traditionally with pen and ink, but also playing around with different printing techniques, such as screen printing, linocut printing, etching, and even creating a plate with the laser cutter that is available within the college.
Primarily, I do want to work in black and white for this project, however, I do plan to also play around with foils, possibly adding hints of gold or silver to the designs, potentially giving my pieces a more regal appearance that I believe will fit the theme of the story.
As the competitions are not yet known and I do not know what I will be creating, I want to keep an open mind of where I can go with these projects in sense of style and techniques I could use. I have however been enjoying the work of Ana Godis over the holidays, so would potentially like to use her work as inspiration for a project over the coming year.
I would explain her work as experimental in a way, although I believe she always works digitally, I’d say her style can differ from piece to piece, as for one, she could be creating a beautiful digital portrait which is very realistic, but in another piece, she could be working very stylised, almost ‘cartoony’? But in another piece, she could be combining the two styles, which probably sounds confusing, but she is able to execute the style so well!
Over the holiday, as she does post process videos along with her pieces, I have tried to learn from these videos, trying to follow her steps, as to improve my own technique, and I had created two digital paintings. I could still do with some further practice, however, I do feel the process had given me smoother results, in comparison to the digital painting I had done the year previously.
I feel as her style is so flexible, if I were to take inspiration from her work, I would be able to apply it to any project, including the competitions. Her work is illustrative but quite contemporary in style, so if I were to learn more from her techniques, I could potentially apply them to book illustrations or editorial themes or possibly even use them for advertising.
Ana Godis does have a Patreon in which I believe she does go into more depth with her process, the tools she uses etc. I personally am not subscribed as I do not use Patreon (as I feel it would be a black hole for me, following too many artists and probably spending all of my student loan within it, which is not something I am committed to doing as of yet) But, if you are interested in her work and do wish to learn more in-depth about her process and tools, here is her link: www.patreon.com/ana_godis
Like Ana Godis, I will potentially be taking inspiration from Rafael Mayani during my commercial projects.
In comparison to the previous artist, I believe his work is more contemporary, possibly more editorial-based, so I believe he would be most useful within the Association of Illustrators – World Illustration Awards competition, especially if I decide to work in the editorial category.
His style is minimal, easily readable and overall it is easy on the eyes. I believe I would most likely see his work in commercial settings, such as in magazines, in advertising, on posters, etc. In figure 3 specifically, he had created an illustration for a magazine, which was honouring the people who helped clean up and take care of others after the earthquake in Mexico in 2017. I believe by not giving his characters faces, it is not singling out any particular person who had helped but instead is celebrating the community as a whole, and the reader could potentially fill in the spaces themselves, imagining the people they know, if that makes sense?
When taking inspiration from his work, it will be with the minimal almost papercut style, as I do believe it is very readable, and it does attract the eye, which I do feel is an important factor if I were to create a piece that would advertise a specific article.
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 – Tenniel, J. (1865) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [Online] Available at: https://medium.com/alice-s-adventures-in-wonderland/sir-john-tenniel-s-classic-illustrations-of-alice-in-wonderland-2c3bbdca3a77 [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]
Figure 2 – Godis, A (04 Sep. 2018) [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BnTw8cOnCra/ [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]
Figure 3 – Mayani, R (13 Nov. 2018) [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BbceF5PFQLR/?taken-by=rmayani [Accessed on 24 Sep. 2018]
Melon.R 