Thursday 30 September 2010

Gail Armstrong





Joji Okazaki


This Japanese designer invented the concept of a paper Bonsai tree back in 1997. It's a kit where you can construct your own tree, the leaves and branches have a way of slotting together . . .
This could influence my work as it could be a method of constructing my 3d work. It's a way of getting my models to stand on their own and if i was to make the book that i hope to produce for this fairytale, a nice idea would be to make the book interactive and having a 'construct your own characters kit' would be quite exciting for children because they would be able to take part in story.

Chris Gilmore




This designer makes these life size models out of cardboard and and glue, It must have taken immense skill and a lot of patience to construct these, the amount of detail that he has gone into and with a material such as cardboard is very impressive, I especially like the motorbike, the use of type on it is effective and i really like the fact that these models look really organic, i would like to make my models as detailed as these but i prefer working at smaller more delicate scale. . .

Masahiro chatani






I found this Japanese designer from looking at a graphic designer called Judy Robinson whose work is influenced by Masahiro Chatani's (mentioned in the book i was browsing through- ' Inside the Box') paper origamic architecture. His work specializes in creating intricate pop up greeting's cards. His silhouettes and the way his miniature sets focus on the shadows that are created, links in with my practice as im currently building a castle for the fairytale i'm illustrating and although i have used other materials aswell as paper, the main idea is very similar to what Judy Robinson and Masahiro Chatani do in their work, which is to create a 3-dimension silhouette that plays with shadow and can be photographed and integrated with lighting but with my illustrations, i'm hoping to create more atmospheric pieces, with more mysterious undertones to them.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

The green eyed monsters makes an appearance. . .












Su Blackwell a contemporary illustrator/3d sculpter (I have posted a post about her preivously on my blog)
I absolutely adore Su Blackwell's intricate installations. I can't really choose a favourite from her archive of work because i think its all really stunning.
She works at a range of scales in but im especially in love with her very small and delicate pieces, this is a quality that i would love to achieve in my work. At the moment my 3d work is at a larger scale and they are not as detailed as Su Blackwell's little models/ characters, i would love to create mine in in this subtle yet distinctive way. Her work seems to have a magical essence and an air of mystery, like it has holds lots of secrets.
Her installations seem very narrative driven and are based around fairytales/novels. Another aspect to her work i'm really interested in is the idea of illustrating a story but presenting it in a more contemporary way. This idea links in with my work i'm creating for my personal project as i'm considering different ways of presenting my images for the tale i'm illustrating/currently working on. I love the way her paper installations seem to unfold and blossom out of the book, I think it's a really nice metaphor as the stories are coming to life, or the story is growing or progressing.
The way she has cut the shapes, silhouettes out of the pages of the book and integrated them into an installation that blossoms out of the book is just incredible and give me the green eyes.
Another aspect to her work is lighting, she uses this to create moods and atmosphere's to her pieces, this is another contributing factor to the magical quality of her work. This subject is what i'm interested in and i'm hoping to use this as a main influence or theme for my future work.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Shadow Play: Alchemy Redolence & Enchantment


Look.... a 3 day Illustration Symposium organised by Cardiff School of Art and Design which will take place from the 2 - 4 November 2010. This is right up your street! Guest speakers include Roderick Mills, Graham Rawle and Anna Bhushan.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Fairytale T-shirt designs




I found these fairytale t shirt designs off another blog ( I can't remember what it was called) but i was instantly drawn to them as they have a similar quality to the way i work. Especially the Cinderella tank top, I think the silhouette is beautiful and very much like the silhouettes i have created in my previous projects. I'm really inspired by the context, in which the image has been printed onto a t-shirt as opposed to a book or poster etc.
I'm also thinking this could a possible idea/inspiration for the brief i have been given to design my own artifact.