OUIL502 Resubmission Part 2

With my own practice I’m starting to see where I want to go and where I need development in my work. I have recognised that I need to use my interest in helping me develop my practice as this feeds into my passion and therefore my motivation to create art. Take for example my love for music and the areas of the genre’s I love, using this I have started to look at band and gig posters and merchandise and seen that with more development in the printing and distribution I will hopefully be able to produce a brand that I can aim at this market. This I can then use as a platform to promote my name and my brand to the wider industry, producing artwork that becomes known for complimenting their music. At the moment I’m drawing and studying the metal industry’s art and considering what is being produced and how it is being used. Examples include designs for album covers and clothing merchandise.

In the short/medium term I want to develop a body of work showing my designs for my brand Livrid. Building up a website with a web store where I can sell my garments and art. This will also be a place I can have my online portfolio and a body of work to promote my skills to others and have the necessary details added to get people in contact with myself about a design or idea they have. I have also used the designs from my OUIL503 work by contacting the bands I produced them for in order to get some constructive feedback. In return I was offered very positive feedback, including a potential sale on one of the designs to be used on a single launch.

To get the brand going I first need to get some logo designs, illustrations for t-shirts, business cards, and a brand logo, basically get the branding finished up and feeling like it works well along side my designs and where I am want to take the brand.  I’m currently in the process of converting one of my sheds into a studio space where I can get my screen-printing equipment back into use and have a space I can develop an idea from sketchbook to final printed t-shirt as quick as I can to see if it works. With getting my printing equipment out and using the knowledge I have picked up in the print studios I feel I now also have the confidence to start printing onto paper and produce screen-prints of my work to sell. By doing all of this myself I know I’m going to cut out the cost of a third party company printing it for me. The cost to get set back up with cleaning chemicals, inks, adhesives, some new and retrenched screens, and some wholesale t-shirts and papers will be the biggest cost for the foreseeable future but this cost is a long term investment which will soon be covered. In order to build these funds I will be doing smaller commissioned designs.

I’m happy with the progress and skills I have picked up this year, one of the main ones is being able to try enjoy each piece of work I am working on, if its not fun and becoming a chore then I’m doing something wrong. This year I have had a battle with my illustration work and found myself not enjoying the processes or the end product and ultimately this is not what I have come to university to do, it’s the opposite.  I found I was being far too clinical at every stage of my work, which was often stunting my creativity and fluidness to produce something unique.  I have discovered that I should not do this and instead save it until after the development stage so I can be more free and spontaneous in what I produce. This will then lead to a better image and a change in the subject in drawing and a varity to choose from. I have started to pay a significant amount of my attention to the marks I can make with my pens, and by building up an array of skills using one tool such as my drawing pens I can learn and use multiple effects to build up an image. Using dots to build up an image has been the biggest surprise to me as I found it’s a process that works for me and seems to best translate what I’m trying to draw.

There are a few areas I feel I could do with improving the main one is the final stages of my work. I spend a long time producing work in time-consuming techniques.

I have been working on skull designs for the past few months and whilst development has been tough I am starting to get to stage I’m happy with the design I have developed. Though consistent development and just drawing similar images repeatedly I have found comfort now in where I am taking these designs and can see them been printed on products such as t-shirts, I have started to see how development though drawing can improve and evolve a design to a stage I’m happy with. For myself there is an element of building my confidence up in my own work in order to help me progress further at present this sometimes presents a weakness in my work and my ability to complete designs to time schedules. The repetitiveness and building on designs however can act as a positive as it gives unanticipated results some times and a chance to play and tweak the design in any way I want. I know skulls have been often been overused throughout history and heavily in the alternative music scene but it’s where my development is taking me and to progress to produce skulls to a standard that will make them stand out from the rest.  At the stage I am at in the development I am now happy to start to add my designs to products and show them off. At the moment I am adding one of my sketchbook drawings in much larger format onto a surf board, this is teaching me a great deal in how to recreate a image on to a larger surface and how the techniques I am using respond to this bigger format.

At present I need to continue researching into how to become more involved in music industry design and establish if this is a financially viable way forward. Continuing to look at different markets to see if my style can fit into different genres and types of illustration. Alongside this also researching smaller independent design companies’ history and progression to see how I can direct my own brand down a similar route. This may include widening my networking. 

Finally researching further into the cost and implications of printing own work and studying how I can strengthen these skills in order to create products that are going to stand out in the market. I am also interested in looking into how to make products that are more eco friendly; this particular area has become more popular over the past few years with a focus on handmade products that are environmentally friendly and fits with my own moral stance. For example researching into how to make produced from recycled materials.

OUIL502 Resubmission PART 1

Robert Borbas AKA Grind Design www.theartofgrindesign.com/home.html is a illustrator from Buderpest, he has work with so many bands and companys ima fan of I could not possabley name them all. He has a similar working set up as i do as he does 70% of his drawings by hand then takes it to photoshop to colour and finish of his designs. He creates work with a dark gothic style with added gore. He has also taken his attention to detail and sharpe images to the tattoo world and he has created some mighty fine work. Along with this he also own a clothing brand Fvernal Apparel, this is where i have a keen interest in seeing how his illustration translate onto clothing. Looking at how the positions and layout of his designs work on garments too.
 I have started to study his work in a bit more detail trying to pick up how he adds shades and tones to his end products as i want to try achieve the level of depth he creates in his images. From looking through his gallery on his website i have started to notice the use of textures he has added to make objects this gives the objects the illusion of how they could feel..  He he is a heavy skull user in his work added bonus. 

Death Hell Grave http://deathhellgrave.bigcartel.com/. This guy has been on my browser for a while too, his t-shirt and patch products have had my attenion for some time now. He uses a lot of skulls in his work which is a must for me in a product but not just a standard skull one with the artist's own twist on. I would too like to have go at making patches for my brand LIVRID and from looking at DHGs work I can see how my illustration could be made into patches. As i use heavy outlines and bold colours i feel i could turn some of my already finished designs to patches almost straight away. 


Some of his Embroidered patches.

Abandon Ship Apparel
https://www.abandonshipapparel.com/

I have been following this company on social media since they started out. Over the years i have loved what they have with they brand. They have worked with some of my favorite artist/illustrators such as Hydro74, Mcabees, Iain Seller and Tom J Newell. I really like the designs that they put on garments and I own a few of they products. The bold use of image on they t-shirt and the fact that they use just black and white on most of the shirts is what appeals to me, they do use color in some of they designs but its the B+W foor me.  . 

They have always been very active in using social media to interact with the customers, this gives they direct feedback and contact from the people who buy they product new product. This is something I have watched and seen that direct contact with customers gives your company a voice that people feel they can interact with. 

Sam Mills AKA DEFAME defameart.bigcartel.com/ creates images that are heavily influenced by demons, skulls and the dark arts side. One of the main reasons this guy is one of my favorite current artist is his use of Black and white in his  images he creates. This is a area i am trying to develop myself at present. Its not that i don't like using colour i just want to be able to create garment designs that i can take from sketch to screen print with minimal editing needed on the computer, this will also keep cost down when i come to printing products as less colours means asda price (cheaper).

Tom J Newell tomjnewell.com. Line quality is a main focal point of Toms work and what i really like about the images he creates. How he takes his work and puts in on so many different formats and uses. He applies his work to many different products from record covers to hand painting shop fronts, his style seems to suit these many different uses. His used of limited again jumps out at me, his bold uses of the negative space with the space boldness for the subject does not need to be over coloured, not that he doesn't use color when he does its only really a few bold colors used to help the image jump out at you eye. 

45RPM www.thebearded45.co.uk , www.45rpm.bigcartel.com I first found 45rpm by seeing his graffity but then i found his other work which he post alot to on his instagram account. He illustrates quotes and sayings, his style  is so consistent which bold clean thick outlines coloured in flat colour. His images even tho simple in constructions have movement and a very good quality when finished. They stand out by how crisp and well constructed the line quality is . This translates as images that are great when applied to merchandise such as pin badges, embroidered patches, stickers and printed on clothing. This is again the kind of images i want to be producing as i also like to use bold outlines and want to understand how to use simple well thought out flat colours to enhance the over all look of my images be it a spot illustration, logo design or character design. By looking and seeing how people like 45rpm use colour should show me simple schemes that work to great effect when used together which bold outlines. 

Sin Eater Illustrations sineater.bigcartel.com is a  illustrator that has such detail with so much line quality in each mark he makes. These marks also help with direction and flow to the images for example on the fur of a beast he changes the direction of the makes to show the fur flowing over the contours of the body, this also helps with the depth of the image. He has a style reminds me of very old school gothic images that would be found in books showing images to help explain the text. From Sin Eater the added bonus of adding direction can help add movement to  a image even down to the tiny marks he make. Also one of the main the main aspects from his practise is that you can screen print fine detail very well, as this is something people keep asking me about the recent detailed work iv been exploring is will the fine detail translate through the process. 

Kerby Rosanes is a artist i was introduced to via a gift someone sent us in the form of a book called sketchy stories, i have become a big fan of Kerby's from receiving this book. It is full of his sketches and process he has when making work, but the most amazing part is the vision he has for turning a image into a journey which is full of so much information. He calls his sketch books his doodle world as he can create whatever he want on every page create world, monster, creatures of all shapes and sizes, he creates palaces out of shells been flaunted by a snail, the man is gifted. From Kerby Rosanes the importance of sketching, doodling everyday getting your imagination out of your head on to paper keep the strange ideas flowing and build up a world for my own for myself. 

Matt Suanders www.mattsaunders.ink Is a illustrator from leeds but now based in london town. I have followed matts work for many years and have seen him over the last few years take hold of his tone of voice and apply it to a number of different products. Matt has recently been doing gig posters for Modest Mouse working on illustrations for J.K Rowlings  Pottermore. Matt also puts out his own personal work that he sells though his s osial media pages which he keeps up to date all the time with what he is woking on and to show his new work off. 

Tim Burton www.timburton.com One of the biggest inspiraion to me is Tim I have grown up watching all his films and looking at his art work and illustraion. I feel it can be said tim burton has created a whole world from his own head. I love the character work he does be it for a film and book or a short storey. Some of the characters he has created such as Jack skellington who was created for The Nightmare Before Christmas animated film  nearly 22 years ago have become mega stars of the merchandise world and has been used many times still to this day. I love his book The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy and Other Stories  its full of wonderful short wth spot illustration to support and give a visual on each peace of writing. He is also the creator of the best film in the history of film to ever be made MARS ATTACKS is my all time favorite film, lord Burton dint come up with the original idea of mars attacks as it was originally a trading card series by topps, but he certainly put his magic touch to it and made it gold.  As Tim has so many designs and a world of his characters set in his own worlds he must not stop drawing and creating all the time and thats what im currently doing just drawing or creating something or developing a idea everyday and trying to stay within the creative bubble, finding my own creative world.