I wish I had done this

There has been several artists that have really inspired me since the start of the course but Glenn Arthur has to be the one I go back to the most. I think it's that his main subject is women like me that draws me to his work, among his artwork their is also fan art of anime classics such as sailor moon and dragon ball. I tried my best to contact him for an interview but I got no response. It was very hard to choose one single piece of work of Glenn Arthur's I wish I had done because in reality I wish I had the skill to do all of them.

This was one of the first pieces of Glenn Arthur's work I saw and it is called Groundskeeper, so it is only apt I choose this one to talk the most about.

I love the detail in Glenn Arthur's work, the folds in her clothing the dappled appearance of the skull, the petals falling from the blooms on her dress and the detailing on the grave stones. Glenn Arthur does his work mostly in acrylic paint how he makes acrylic paint look almost air brushed is something which will probably always fascinate and boggle my mind in equal measure. He uses tiny brushes to achieve the flawless look of the paint. One thing I really love about this particular painting is her posture, it strikes me as very proud and I feel this when I look at Glenn Arthur's other paintings to. The motif of the strong proud woman that still retains a sense of fragility and grace. He paints the strange and the bazaar conjoined twins, bearded ladies, vampires and tattooed princesses. 

A motif that shows up in most of his pieces is a humming bird, if I had gotten an interview with him I would have asked him why the humming bird? I have my own theory however, humming birds are always close to starving because they have the highest metabolism of any bird a necessity in order to support the rapid beating of their wings during hovering and fast forward flight. To conserve energy when there is a lack of food hummingbird's go into a state similar to hibernation. Hummingbirds are continuously hours away from starving to death and are able to store just enough energy to survive overnight. My theory is that he includes hummingbird's to symbolize death or to symbolize making the most of life. In Groundskeeper you see both a skull and a hummingbird this leads me to think they might be juxtaposing each other the skull quite obviously representing death and the hummingbird to remind us of our mortality.

I love the expression on the girls face and the way he has painted her hair. I am normally one for vibrant colour pallets but the colour pallet Glenn has used in this painting is beautiful and gives an ethereal feel, there are other pieces that Glenn has done that exhibits much more vibrant colour pallets. The pink of her dress and the cream of her cloak really makes her stand out from her darker surroundings. The main elements are actually mostly grey with hints of blue in the headstones and yellow in the over cast sky.

The composition is quite standard with most of the key elements cantered in and towards the middle of the piece. The only thing I would have done differently if I would have painted this piece is I would make the gravestones in the background have different patterns/engravings rather than the same for all three. 

I don't think my working style will ever be anything like Glenn Arthur's and even though I love his work I wouldn't really want to pursue making work like his, I would feel like I would be ripping him off which I wouldn't want at all. I think I am satisfied with following his work and admiring the skill he has. I would one day really like to dive into painting with acrylics and maybe achieve that flawless look in my own style, I would also like to really start looking at the poses in which I draw my characters so I do can make my characters more fleshed out, for this I will have to look more into anatomy.

PDP Interview #3 with Jenni Illustrations

Interview with Jenni Illustrations

Jenni is an artist from Australia, I aspire to be as successful as she is. She sell's her work on clothes, posters, playing cards, stickers and the list goes on. I chose to interview her because she is very much inspired by the same things I am and despite the common interests our styles are very different.

Q1. I can see a definite anime/manga influence in your artwork is there anything else that inspires how you work? I think seeing other artist with the same style influence me. Anything cute and colourful/bright. Living and having kawaii things also influence me and my work.

Q2. What advice would you give someone who wants to sell their work at conventions/events? Having motivation and passion for your work is something you need. Loving your work and making other people love your work is another. Also knowing what people really like is something to think about. eg, whats your target audience? what will they be attracted to

Q3. If you could experiment with any medium you want what medium would you choose? I like pen work and watercolour. I always draw digitally but there's times I just want to get away from the computer and free myself with some traditional mediums. 

Q4. Do you prefer having lots of little projects on the go or one big project? I like either really. sometimes mostly my little projects is really related to my big project. eg: my original character in diff drawings(small project) while big projects is like having them on clothes, products, animation.

Q5. Do you ever have problems with motivation, if so how do you keep yourself motivated? I do a lot of the time. (I'm sure no one can tell) haha. I get a lot of inspiration from looking at things. everyday life around me, music I listen to ( every day, all day till night I listen to music) keeps me sane lol Having you guys ( my followers and friends) who enjoys my drawings keeps me motivated. who cares about my work. who wants to share my work/talk about me all over the world is one thing I really appreciate keeps me going =]

Find more of her work here

facebook.com/Jenni.Illustrations

1,2,3

This post is about three of the best pieces of advice I have been given since starting the course some of these will not be a piece of advice per say more of a turn in the right direction.

1. The zine making workshop

In the zine workshop I learned that working on pages which already had some preexisting texture or image on really help one overcome blank page anxiety or new sketchbook anxiety. I am someone who can get very hung up on their work and want every page to be perfect while in the zine the perfection is that it isn't perfect it has misspells, it has sketches done on lined paper, receipts, napkins, photocopies from things that inspired you through out. for me I think it is the perfect way to document and brainstorm (and kick a sketchbook buying addiction). There is something wonderful about making it yourself, selecting the papers and the binding. It's like having a little nugget of personality. Personally next year I want to do away with having sketchbooks and just bind my own zine style sketchbooks I think it really helped me with my process when it came to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

2. Be a flaneur

There are so many things you miss when you have your mind set on a destination, enjoy just taking everything in and being purposefully lost. I made another post called Ode to Manchester which really explains in depth what happened when I was being a flaneur in Manchester during my Tales of The City project. I class Manchester as my hometown over Salford and I was surprised by how much of Manchester I have never seen before despite spending a lot of time there over the years. What really grabbed me was how much of Manchester juxtaposes, I saw posh bars next to dingy alleyways and crumbling walls of old factories. Austerity and prosperity dwelling right next door to one another, I felt like if the bars could speak they would be gloating.

3. Don't be afraid to take on more than you can chew (sometimes)

I have a habit of doing very ambitious projects, I feel like a cat with nine lives just managing to pull through every time. The good thing about having ambitious projects is it keeps you engaged because you have to stay engaged or the project will crumble, it forces you to make use of all the time you have. It's stressful but seeing the final outcomes is a great feeling.

Difficulty getting interviews

I have lost count of the amount of artists I have tried to contact just to name a few who have not replied Erik Jones, Glenn Arthur and Camilla D'errico who said she would answer my questions and never got back then I contacted an artist I have bought artwork form before called Destiny Blue  and this is what I got back.

Any responses other than answering my questions was pointing me towards a previously done Q&A or an FAQ.

Also a lot of artists I wanted to contact didn't have a contact email that I could find and on there facebook pages had taken off the option to inbox them. I am starting to feel very apprehensive about if I will get my final interview and if they interviews I have done will be seen as being suitable. I have tried my best in interview people who's work inspires me but they seem quite hard to get a hold of. 

Ode to Manchester

Salford maybe my "hometown" but I feel myself more strongly in Manchester. Today in order to find places to hang my #Brightercityproject Teru teru bonzu I just wandered. I went with my gut and what way peeked my interest, if you asked me to find the exact locations of where I hung the Teru teru bonzu I probably wouldn't be able to find a large number of them. It was fun to think of how long it might take people to find them hours, days, weeks...who knows. One thing I noticed while straying from the frequently traveled paths is that Manchester is a city of irony and juxtaposition. How so you may ask? A posh restaurant, bar or cafe next to an old abandoned building or a neglected alleyway. This was surprisingly a common sight. Austerity in the middle of abandonment. There were times where I felt threatened I walked down several streets and saw men staring me down. When I stumbled across a familiar route I felt comfortable and relieved. I have walked through the city many times but never like that. When I got lost in the city it would reduce me to tears, shear panic would rip through me I would feel helpless and small against the buildings and other people. The crowds would churn around me engulf me and drag me further from the path. Little did I know back then if I had just removed the path and aimed to just eventually stumble upon what I am looking for it could all be avoided. I didn't feel small, I didn't feel panicked, I felt like a tower, I felt confident and powerful somehow by relinquishing the control that was tied to I final destination. My goal was to wander and hang my signs and leave them behind and not look back and not care about what would happen to them afterwards. I noticed many things I wouldn't have noticed otherwise, a little boy walking with his mother and a friend through a seedy part of town carrying his toys with him. A wannabe gangster taking a piss in and ally next to an expensive bar. The only times I felt somewhat anxious is when people we watching me, cars drove slowly past me and when I was going to take a picture of where a homeless person sleeps (I got too anxious to actually take a picture). That is a lot less anxiety than I would normally have. This experience has been eye opening and I hope through this post and through the work itself it will be eye opening to others as well.

Doll test how ingrained is racism?

I just watched this video and the video really made me feel uneasy, which I think is what it is supposed to do.

This video is entitled Doll Test and in the video the people conducting the experiments ask children from varying racial backgrounds questions about two dolls and a diagram with different skin colours. What really pulled at my heart stings was watching the children of colour pointing to the "black" doll and labeling it as the ugly doll, with most preferring the white doll. And when asked to give the researcher the doll which looked like them they handed over the "black" doll which they had earlier categorized as the ugly doll.

The fact they considered a doll with a similar skin colour ugly just shows how much the stereotypes made by white people have been rooted within coloured children. I felt tears come to my eyes several times no child should think that their skin colour makes them ugly or untrustworthy.

PDP interview #2 Liara K Crane

Interview with Liara K Crane

I was recommended Liara K Crane's work by a friend of mine after looking at her artwork I saw she was doing things that I really want to do, like selling my artwork online and working on comics.

Q1.What inspires your work; do you actively pursue standing out from the crowed with your art style?

A1. I would say that my work is chiefly inspired by my desire to tell stories. I have a catalogue of future personal projects and original characters whose stories I hope to finally share. Narrative is very important to me. What I try to do with my art is prove wrong the teachers I had for 99% of my academic life. All through my childhood I had art teachers saying ‘it’s nice but anime is unoriginal and you won’t get anywhere unless you change your style.’ It wasn’t until I studied art in japan that I truly saw how different my style was, and how it was far more a marriage between the West and the East. Q2. Do you sell your work at any events or are you mostly online based?

A2. At the moment I am exclusively online however now that my finances are looking a little brighter I am putting time and money into developing stock to sell at future conventions. Q3. Any legal procedures you need to know before you start selling your work?

A3. As an illustrator I think the most important thing you need to know in regards to the law is copyright (and as a fan-artist you need to realise the fire you are playing with if selling your work.) Q4. What do you prefer long ambitious projects or lots of short projects?

A4. I like either short projects or longer projects made from shorter parts. I could never paint photo realism as a career or paint anything too large and ambitious because it would just take too damn long and I confess I’ve a limited attention span (especially as my favourite part of the whole creative process is the drawing!) I am looking forward to doing some comic work in the future. Q5. If you were to give someone who was thinking about selling their artwork one piece of advice you wish you had known when you started what would it be?

A5. As briefly mentioned earlier, it’s good to know where you stand in regards to intellectual copyright, as well as the terms and conditions of selling at places like conventions and etsy.


Check out her work here
www.facebook.com/LiaraKCraneIllustration