2nd Year - 11: Portraiture Research

I am going to look at different time frames in society and discuss examples of portraiture used, discussing the social implications behind this type of art and whether or not it is to show individuals or whether it is part of society as a whole.

James Gunn was an artist who lived from 1893 til 1964. For the start of his career he was a landscape painter and he spent a lot of time travelling and exhibiting his works until around 1929 where he became increasingly devoted solely to portrait paintings. My first example of portraits we can read into to discuss the social context at the time is “Conversation Piece (G.K. Chesterton; Maurice Baring; Hilaire Belloc)”. This painting from 1932 is a portrait of 3 men; the idea for this painting is said to have come to Gunn as an idea of a gift for Hilaire Belloc's 60^th Birthday. This was at a time just before the second world war where men were in charge and and the money makers of the family while their wives were expected to stay at home and take care of the family and home. It wasn’t until the start of the war when women started to become empowered but until then it was the gentlemen of the country who ran it.

Hilaire Belloc was a writer, one of the most prolific in England at the time and was well known for a variety of things as well as a writer. He was also known for his poetry, his work as a soldier and a political activist, to name a few. These attributes lead him to become quite high up within the english heirarchy and so was quite well off in terms of wealth. We can see this is reflected in the image. Several things indicate wealth in the image and thus reflect on society and there place within it. One of these indicators are the large gold frame for a painting commission. At the time not many people could afford to commission paintings in general, much less one of that size and this suggests that the people in the image value traditional painting which could suggest that they want to show other people how cultured they are. Another thing that suggests wealth and is possibly the most obvious is the attire; the suits the men are wearing suggest class, an outwards portrayal of being a gentleman. Men wear suits to show the rest of the world that they are respectable, successful and important. The shoes we can see are gentleman's shoes with a high shine suggesting they treat them well and get them cleaned and shined regularly.

The pose of the figures also enforces a feeling of power and success as they don't acknowledge the audience. The figures are too enthralled in what is being written down or noted which suggests it has more importance than the everyday spectator which creates a feeling of the men being more important or of a higher class than the viewers. The final component suggesting wealth in the image is the room itself, with clean walls and a high quality finish with the dado rail that cuts through the center of the wall, its use is to protect the wall from chairs damaging it. The act of protecting something suggests it has worth and therefore the house must be quite valuable and because it has clean walls this suggests the house gets cleaned, possibly by someone who it hired to do so.

By analyzing this painting we can see that it falls in to both categories where it does depict its subjects but there is also a social context for it as well. It represents the individuals as part of a larger group in society within the higher classes.

2nd Year - 05: Illustration as a product

I am going to discuss what I feel are the differences between Illustration and Graphic Design and research information and examples to either back up my argument or reach a new understanding. 

Personally I feel as though Graphic design is the design of a product, which may incorporate an illustration. For example, The design within a tshirt, if it incorporates the tshirt I would consider a graphic design, but the actual artwork itself an illustration. 

A graphic designer could help with the layout and design of a website, or create posters and the placement of text and other components. an illustrator could create artwork for either of them.

Illustrators could have basic knowledge about typography and communication within an image but not as advanced as a graphic designer.  


"What is the difference between an art studio and a design studio? An art studio generates just that - art, usually in the form of an illustration."
- Fleishman, M. Starting Your Career as a Freelance Illustrator Or Graphic Designer. Allworth Press, 2001. 


"Generally Graphic Designers with no drawing ability are the ones who believe the difference between graphic design and illustration is important" 
- Williams, M. Basics Illustration 03: Text and Image. AVA Publishing, 2008. 

2nd Year - 07: Lady Bird Books

I am going to discuss the course of lady bird books through time from both the readers perspective and from the business perspective, as this currently relates to my assignment.

By 1973, 20 million copies a year were being printed in Loughbrough
Each book was the same size and format, which kept costs low and kept them identifiable. 
56 pages, 24 illustrations
The price was the same for 29 years, "2 and 6" which was around the same amount as average pocket money for children. 
Translated into over 60 languages
Lady bird used top illustrators, many of which had ladybird books as a side project whilst working for big manufacturing companies or popular comics.
Books for boys and books for girls, Cinderella showed illustrations of big dresses which girls in that time looked up at as this could be their future. 

"Magnets Bolts and Batteries" Instructs you on things such as cutting apart a battery and then lick a device which makes you use your tongue as a conductor. 

The Ministry of Defense had copies of the How It Works series printed for their employees with plain brown covers so they didn't get embarrassed. 

"They Wanted to have a book for every subject and I think they pretty much did it." - Ronnie Fairweather, creative director of Ladybird. 

In the book "Things to Make" it gives instructions on how to build things from every day products which meant that even the lower class families could still have fun and put them on the same level as the upper classes. An example of these instructions tells children how to build stilts from some string and two syrup tins. 

- James May: My Sisters' Top Toys. BBC, 2007.

2nd Year - 01: The Brief research

From the list of briefs, currently 2 have grabbed my attention. The first is to talk about how portraits are used in society at different points. 

 - "Given that aspects of portraiture evoke the standards of representation at a given time, discuss whether these works of art are a representation of an individual, or a depiction of someone who belongs within a society."

For this topic I could research a range of cultural times, quite important times in history and reflect on the use of portraiture within those times, both dark times and light times to see how they differ, and explore both how they can reflect each person as well as the culture of certain societies at that time. 

 - "Semiotics is known as the ‘science of signs’ and has evolved to infiltrate all aspects of visual culture. Choose four popular cultural artefacts such as advertisements, posters, or illustrations, and offer an in depth semiotic analysis of their meanings via the use of sign, dialogic, symbol and index. Discuss in terms of symbolism, and/or a fragment standing for the whole."



I need to create an indepth analysis and reflect on my findings with at least 3000 words, but no more than 3300. I need substantial research documenting each topic from the lectures in both written and visual forms and submit both the journal and essay as one on 19/01/15.

2nd Year - 08: Who am I? Self Identity

I am going to analyze my own work in an attempt to reflect on my own practice, piecing out of it my aims as an artist on this course and try to find a market to work towards in an attempt to help progress my practice into a specified field.

2nd Year - 09: Gendering The Image

I am going to discuss whether there is such a difference between the work of male artists and female artists, how they have been treated by society in the past and how they are treated currently, as well as discussing whether or not it is actually important to have differences. 

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/constructing-gender


By trying to decipher the gender of an artist purely based on their work we automatically turn to socially constructed gender norms where masculine and feminine aspects are expected to reflect a gender. For instance we would expect male artists to use harsher techniques; Bolder lines, a more powerful colour pallete of deep reds etc. and more aggression, we expect the work to look powerful. 

Female artists on the other hand are expected to use softer approaches with more subtle features and for everything to be pretty. 

Personally I believe this stems from our culture. I think that historically males have always been the dominant protectors, killing animals for food to feed our families, going to war to protect our countries and females have stayed at home and remained safe. 

I also feel that it's wrong to approach art in this way, and that this algorithm of deciphering gender isn't relevant anymore in todays society, especially in the western world. Perhaps in the east this may be different as especially in Japan, where right up until World War 2 it was men that were loyal to their lords and women who were loyal to their men. 

Then during world war two women's roles shifted so that they aided their country by having babies, men's role was to fight for it. 

Today men are still seen to some extent as the dominant gender but society is quickly evening out the field. The truth is there is no way to 100% distinguish genders purely from artwork; there is such a difference in styles that it is impossible and personality can play a big part in styles and processes. Women can be masculine and Men can be feminine.

2nd Year - 12: Dave McKean

Dave McKean

Director of Luna, Dave McKean is also an illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, musician and graphic designer. His work is quite surreal and strange which gives him a unique style and opens him up more to a market by almost becoming a main figure of a certain style. 

He was born in Maidenhead, England in 1963 where he grew up with a love of comics. He planned to take his love into a career and took a trip to new york in 1986 to find work as a comic book illustrator, but failed. Shortly afterwards while back in England he met writer Neil Gaiman and the two began writing "Violent Cases",a short graphic novel which became published in 1987.

Among his work with Gaiman, he also began working for DC comics, on covers for "Hellblazer" initially but then moved on to the more successful and popular "Batman", producing the graphic novel "Arkham Asylum: A Serious House On Serious Earth", written by Grant Morrison.

McKean has also had success with creating Album Art, and has worked with a range of artists including "Alice Cooper", "Buckethead", and "Fear Factory".

In the illustrated book by Richard Dawkins called "The Magic of Reality" McKean's strange creations were used to explain different aspects of every day life.

As well as creating the illustrations for The Magic of Reality, he also illustrated Coraline, again with Neil Gaiman and worked as a concept artist for the Harry Potter franchise, coming up with the designs for The Dementors. 

While at San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) He was asked about his influences, to which he replied "My influences were nearly anybody, really. You can find something in anything if you look. There have been maybe a couple of people whose attitude in their work was really important. There's a New York artist called Jim Dine who I really love; there's an English illustrator called Ralph Steadman who I like. Every line in a Ralph Steadman drawing is describing and expressing the emotion in the character, not just what they look like." 

By looking at Steadman's work we can see a subtle similarity in that he also works with surrealism and the line is quite similar to the comicbook line McKean uses within his Batman comics, but this subtle similarity is better seen in his earlier work with The Wolves In The Walls.

I feel that the way the line is used for the illustrations of TheWolves in The Walls is very similar to an illustrator called Daniel Egneus. The processes are very similar in that a line creating a figure sits over splashes of colour which amplifies the figure and is used to anchor attention.

The Wolves in the Walls, Dave McKean

Red Riding Hood, Daniel Egneus














References:
http://unbored.net/dave-mckean/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/dave_mckean/biography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_McKean

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46907

2nd Year - 04: The Beatles Albums

I am going to discuss an album cover of The Beatles and how it played an important role int he visual arts industry tying it in with the social surroundings at the time and how the band had progressed into this phase.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The album itself was incredibly important to that era,spreading the theme of love and spirituality unlike any other album before it or since. It contributed to the sociecty of the time and the peoples mindsets. For the band themselves this album was important, because it was the point in their careers together where they began to grow apart and began to hate being the beatles. 

For this album the band went undercover. They were no longer The Beatles, and this meant that they were free to experiment. 
     "We'd pretend to be someone else,". "It liberated you – you could do anything when you got to the mic or on your guitar, because it wasn't you."

                                                        - Paul McCartney, The Beatles Anthology

The album was the first produced with an 8 track recording; 2 4-track machines were used together in sync.

The theme for the album cover was "people we like". In short, Peter Blake (the artist behind the design) said that if they were in a park playing a concert then the people in the photo would just be anyone who turned up to the concert, but if they used cardboard cutouts, those people could be whoever they wanted. Along side celebrities and well known people, the Beatles also featured waxworks of themselves all dressed in matching suits; they referred to these as "the old Beatles". 

The Beatles former bandmate, Stuart Sutcliffe was also featured on the album cover, dispite having died in 62. John is thought to be behind choosing Stuart to appear as he always thought of his as his best friend. 

2nd Year - 03: Heath Robinson

I am going to discuss the artist Heath Robinson and how his work was quite ahead of its time, bringing in examples of contemporary illustrations to enforce my argument. 

Chris Riddell and William Heath Robinson

Son of an Anglican Priest, Chris Riddell was born in Cape Town, South Africa, where he lived until he was 1. He then moved to England in 1963 and moved around a lot as his father changed parishes. He attended grammer school before moving on to an art college, and then from 1981 to 1984 he studied illustration at Brighton Polytechnic, where he became a student of Raymond Briggs, the illustrator of the well known book "The Snowman". Chris acknowledges Briggs as a biginfluence in his work and it can be seen when contrasting work from the two. 

The Snowman, Raymond Briggs

Whilst there, Briggs introduced Riddell to his own publisher, and this lead to Riddell being commissioned for The Book Of Giants, for Sainsburys. 

In 88 the editor of The Economist was so impressed by Riddell's work that he hired him to work on illustrating articles for the magazine. He also worked as a political illustrator for the Sunday Correspondent and also a business cartoonist for The Observer. 

As well as Briggs being a large influence to Riddell's work, he also states that William Heath Robinson and John Tenniel are influencial too, and he has had work described as "Heath Robinson with a few drinks in him". 


Riddell

Heath Robinson

We can see a real similarity between the two, perhaps more detail in Riddell's work but the same use of line in used. Line is something quite important with Heath Robinson's popularity in the present day. His designs are very contemporary and this is down to the clean line that he uses. 

His work shows a resemblance in two quite different areas, one of these being in contemporary furniture. Here we can see a design that was created in 1976 and a chair made in recent years.

Another genre we see his works similarities in is the growing popularity of Steampunk. The line he uses as well as the technical side to his designs are something replicated within the designs of steampunk machines.