CIRCUS creations

Since i picked the topic subject of 'Circus' to work with, from recent projects, I have struggled on occassions with a self initiated brief, to create imagery that had a meaning, that had a purpose. For this, I suppose you could say I took the easy route and picked a story to illustrate.. After reading into Martin Salisbury's 'Playpen' and the in depth anylsis of childrens illustration, I developed a keen liking to childrens illustration. I have also been looking into Jim Flora and french illustrators Antoine and Manuel. All shapely design of which are constructed with strong colour, composition and simplicity.

By the time I will have completed the project, I will have an image for each chapter I complete, there are 26 chapters and upto now, I have atleast 15-20 images all at different stages.. the few I have included, are images I consider either finished or a rough final..

Above: the chapter depicts how Lotta, a circus girl, is learning to do tricks with the horses, she has to jump within a ring, that is on the broad side of the horses back. (ROUGH FINAL)

The above image, was created from a range of old circus imagery, that have an etching look to them, I try to use an element of this sort of imagery within most of my work. The cut and paste technique seems to have generated into an original style for me, it gives a different appeal, a look of building an image and 3dness instead of flatness, for me the image comes alive with this. and finally, shape, the element that holds my work together, that links each piece of imagery. For this project, after looking into book illustrations and format, I have 3 format proprtions to choose from depending on the image. a full page, a half page and a double page, just across the top of both pieces. Most of my designs so far, have been the half page, and so only develop into a size of 10 x 7cm, this is quite a small format, so the images have to be a somewhat simple detail.. so you can see exactly whats going on, but yet still have the integrity that depicts the making of the illustration. After looking at some 'Vignettes' , I have decided to create my designs in the same manner. 

Above: Lucky, the new dog of the Circus, is learning new tricks, one being how to push a pram, the chapter denotes how the dog steers the pram right round the ring, and so this large circular element denotes this. The image is not quite finished as yet, but its not far off. (ROUGH FINAL)

Above: An idea that has generated and changed a numerous amount of times. 'the new caravan', as the browns move in with the circus, they have their own caravan but are expected to clean it out in return for their gift from Mr. Galliano. After I have generated it a bit more it will be finished, but presently, the elements, are a bit all over, and too spread, and not correctly scaled. (ROUGH FINAL)

Above: the first final image, an exciting chapter where Jumbo - the elephant rampages through the town at night time, the dimmed colour, is reflective of the night as is the shadow around the elephant. As a first image, I decided to keep the shape of the elephant simple, this contrasted on the mixed media photographic elements in play with the shape, and gave the image a sense of movement. (FINAL)

Above: A chapter denoting the circus dogs, jumping through hoops, showing their tricks in play. Again the large shapes play the roll in holding this image together, they leave out the negative space in creating this vignette. (FINAL)

Circus visual reference

One of the Year 1 students told me about LIFE magazine online, which has a fantastic and rich image archive. There is tons of imagery on the theme of circus. Have a look.

Kim Smith

I came across the work of Kim Smith lookin for blogs on the internet, her work is quite whimsical and she has created a good many illustrations for childrens books, these two being my favourite. Some of her work looks almost 3d as if it has been cut out and layered like a theatre set production. I think the characters and some of the shapes of which she captures elements such as the trees in the piece above are beautiful, simple, yet effective!

Secret History book cover

After a series of endless changes, I have finally got to a point where I'm happy (for the time being) with this piece! I still think it needs a lots of work and I feel that the shape on the front cover is somewhat dominating and going off the theme and style of my own work, netherless, I think the space on the front cover enhances the piece, this was overcrowded with a dark image to start with and through discussion was taken out to give the image room to breathe, the communication is still lacking but I'm quite pleased with the way it works and the general style. More changes yet though! 

Max Huber

I have come across the work of Max Huber in the past, but Ian mentioned his work to me when I was tweaking the mindmap, again! I chose these two pieces out of a book of Huber's, based upon his use of coloured shapes and forms and the overlapping of them on photographic imagery, I felt it related to my work from that point of view. I particularly like the image above due to the way the shapes overlap upon the type, they are not exactly box bound, I like the way they interact. I feel onlooking these pieces, they also keep the image quite spacious, overlapping the colours because they are semi transparent, they create another 'level' of integrity to Huber's work.

--Space--

While I was developing the Mindmap design amongst other pieces, I had a browse through a new vintage type book. Im fairly interested in type, but in terms of integration into my work, I never quite got round to it. I have used a handwritten type within a previous work in the second year, through the making of my artist book, I thoroughly enjoyed this and the combination of elements, and this handwritten type, made the illustrations much more original. But anyway, when I was looking through this type book, primarily discussing the type of work throughout the era's, there is a few chapters, discussing the work over the Modernist periods. Obviously mentioning the work of Alexander Rodchenko (constructivist) (below)

and Jan Tsichold (bauhaus), and it led me on to thinking about the space within illustrations, as I tend to clutter. The colour throughout this period, or more prior in significant with these artists was also fairly limited. From the observation of the Mindmap (previous post), this piece too, had a restricted colour pallette, but I think the aid of the shaped and intensity of the colour seemed to clutter the piece somewhat. I will most probably post another rendered design!! 

" The early revolutionary avant-garde stage on constructivism was noted for geometric abstraction, while the later Productivist stage was more minimally representational.

The common Modernist graphic traits of asymmetric layout, sans serif type faces, austere geometric ornament, primary colour palette, photographic illustration, pictograghic imagery, were not always universally employed in purist ways."

Mindmap- take2!

I posted an image earlier, of a mindmap which I created for the self-generated brief, which I chose to base around Location. A few tweaks, and here it is again.

You can see the development of shape and colour, in comparison to the first piece. Of course with specific colours, and the placement of elements, things can be brought forward and dimmed back. Ian enlightened me with these ideals, and hopefully from now, my work will progress in the same manner, but hopefully not lose it's 'subtlty' and become too over whelmed with shape. 

Miro

I have brought a couple of books in for you Sarah. There are also some new Polish Books in the library that have arrived and have not been out on the shelves yet. Perhaps if you asked they would let you look? Here is Miro's take on the theme of 'Circus' there is a wonderful sense of space and drama.

Gary P and 'Durutti Column' album Covers!

I have always been over fond of the work of Gary Prendergast! At last i'm finally informing you of it! Particularly his cut and paste technique, which is where the technique behind my illustrations emerged from. This first came about, when working with Gary for a while in the second year, when creating an artist book! After being informed of this technique, the project somehow fell into place, and I have only very recently been working with this cut and paste way of working, referenced within the 'Location brief'. I utilised this technique with a slightly different means of communication and became more computer reliant as opposed to Gary who maintains the aesthetic touch within his work. Yet I feel this way of working suits me best! I also had a quick peak at an influence that Gary P mentioned in his blog, (as you can see from the image below) and again fell in love with the work. This is a link featuring some of the music covers for the 'Durutti Column'. 

http://www.cerysmaticfactory.info/durutti_column_discography.html

I spoke to Gary P, not too long ago about his work, discussing the issue that once these 3D juxtaposed creations were finished, how would you then generate them to become an Illustration, maintaining the aesthetic? This too, was a topic i discussed within my journal as the majority of illustrations are computer generated or rendered. After experimenting on the photocopier, which has now become a key element in my generation of work, darkening and lightening areas as much as I could so you can still visibly clarify that there has been a cut and paste technique used, I then scanned this in and cropped various areas, utilising photoshop tools to find the best outcome when overlapping the 'cut and paste' ephemera and the computer generated illustration.

     

Alvin Lustig

I can't remember how I came across these pieces, but it was whilst i was creating the cover jacket for the barcelona project that I was looking into Alvin Lustig. I think his use of space is complimentary. i love his use of shape and not always but his colours are quite striking too, but placement and use of space is something i'm still yet to crack and the size of objects, whether or not, they are too busy for an image, which is when i began to inform my work with shape. Referring to the self-initiated brief, the location brief, the shape element (i found) held my images together much better.

These Lustig pieces, particularly the bottom, exemplify the scale of some shapes and how they can aid a design (from my point of view). I love this piece, especially the placement of type, which i was again looking at for the barcelona project. having been already told that the type had a specific place, I was able to work around it with various means and media, the bottom piece of these Lustig Illustrations, for book cover jackets, aided that. Maybe you cant quite see the connection, but it inspired me!

Barcelona: Book Cover and inner designs

Following on from the self-initiated brief, I followed the same practice, with the cut and paste technique, collected ephemera and photographs to create these mixed media juxtapositions. the cover over all works in a number of ways better than the other two. the type has been purposely integrated within the image and not simply just placed. The colour scheme is continued from that of the last brief, but working with one or two colours and their tones instead of an array of colours. The cover has been more considered in terms of placement and consideration of space, I like the incorporation of a silhoutte object or figure within my work  and also flat blocks of shape. being informed by illustrators such as Jim Flora. I was also looking into the work of Rodchenko from the constructivist movement. I admire his photography just as much as his photomontage, and the way he captured his subjects from alternate angles.

Technology/ Digital Craft by David Crow

After being informed of the new 'eye magazine' I began to read up on an issue that has been discussed by David Crow, which interested me and brought me to think of my own work, in relation to the way I work, with a 'hands on' approach instead of relying completely on the computer, but letting the handmade practice and efficency of this practice inform my work.

Crow discusses how the hand crafted design is a symbolic tool of the person, it depicts who they are.

"The hand is an important metaphorical signal for the presence of the individual in craft, and is central in the symbolism  surrounding the historic tension between man and machine , and more recently between global and local culture."

Arts and Crafts:

"If William Morris was the figurehead of the movement, the John Ruskin was it's inspiration: 'For it is not the material, but the absense of human endeavour, which makes the thing worthless' (Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1849). 

One lasting principle of the movement is the claim that art has a place outside the gallery; that art can be found in things that are useful. Industry was a 'beast without hands' that made dull and monotonous objects (and as Karl Marx later suggested, would do untold damage to the human experience). Hands were celebrated as capable of probing the world, bringing a unity of working and learning. No machine could replace the sensitivity of hands. Craft practice became synonymous with individualism and integrity."

"Craft is so often described as a practice surrounding a specific set of materials. But in truth it is less the material that defines the practice as the process of play, experiment, adjustment, individual judgement and the love of a material - any material."

Crow explores the ideals of craft, depicting it's importance to design, and not just a singular craft but in all areas ranging from textiles to graphic design. He talks about the aid of the computer beside craft and what design was like without the fundamental values of 'traditional crafts'.

A Vision In Colour:

Finally! Colour images! hurray! 

Im quite pleased with these, I treid to maintain the use of shape but at a more low key format to that of my train I had created earlier on for this brief, I found that as a singular image, it worked fine, but it was then a task of re- integrating it into the design, which became a problem. I stripped back the design and worked with a colour pallette I thought suited me. I feel I could add something more, a found object maybe, just to tweak the image, to give a more sense of 'me' as I feel there is a little something missing. The idea, was that these images were to be postcards but fit together, as a collection, again in the form of the mindmap, I have created a final image for this but it was not so successful as these prove to be on their own.

Mindmap

Mindmap:cut and Paste:

This image demonstrates the cut and paste technique I now use within most of my work but came across throughout my 'Location' brief. I quite often look into and admire the work of Hannah Hoch, a female dadaist who also demonstrated the cut and paste technique within her own work, only I utilise this technique from a different angle. the fact that you can see how I have created the mindmap, you can see where I have overlapped images, fixing them with sellotape in the corners. I like that you can see this, it gives the work more integrity. From this perspective my work differs from that of Hoch's, the dadaists were very neat on piecing images together, usually collected photographs and clippings. yet, as an image and not a complete image at that, I think it holds together well as a form, I still try to maintain that space and placement are quite important to my images.

Buy Eye

Buy the latest edition of Eye magazine (number 70, think they have it in Borders) its full of good articles about the hand made/ craft renaissance, also a good review of a book about Barney Bubbles look at the layout/old artwork for the Ian Dury LP cover quite reminiscent of the cut up work you have been doing.

Buy Eye

Buy the latest edition of Eye magazine (number 70, think they have it in Borders) its full of good articles about the hand made/ craft renaissance, also a good review of a book about Barney Bubbles look at the layout/old artwork for the Ian Dury LP cover quite reminiscent of the cut up work you have been doing.

Julius Bissier

I saw this work at the Miro museum in Barcelona and it reminded me so much of Matthew Richardson's work. I think it is the colour palette and parred down use of elements. As well as the way in which the elements overlap in places and they are both delicate and bold at the same time. I have not heard of him as an artist before. Some of the printed woodcuts on this website http://www.bissier.org/ are really lovely. I notice that you are looking a lot more at 'shape ' in your own work - these may be of use.

impossible worlds

Saw this whilst looking for some reference for a tap ! (for a freelance job) might be interesting to use this impossible worlds idea in your mind map images?

http://impossible-world.blogspot.com/

Richard Sarson

Hi Sarah Don't want to push you off course with the work you are producing at present, working with shape seems to be working for you. This link is to to guys whose work is quite abstract, but I think will have interest for you. The mail from Cheryl was useful, obviously she speaks from experience. Once you have established a way of working/visual language you need to make the idea paramount (and understandable/clear) http://www.richardsarson.com/

Initial Ideas - Train - (travel)

I thought i'd just post one of my finished designs for a travel idea, my train! Again collaged with bits of found collections and nostalgic ephemera and patterns. I feel my work seems to be a lot more progressive since I have been introduced to shape. It seems to somewhat hold an image together for me.