Study Task 3 - What is illustration?

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Some examples of the things I've put on my 9 boards:

Drawing

This drawing is by Courtney Kenny Porto. I've classified it as drawing rather than imagemaking or illustration simply because it is a pencilled copy of a lion. There is almost no imagination or purpose behind the drawing other than to represent the real thing. Although it's a very good drawing and it is representational, it's not that exciting and not much thought has gone into the composition. However, it is hard to classify images as drawing, imagemaking or illustration without knowing their context. This was actually used as a greeting card, so in theory it is illustration, but I still stand by classifying it as drawing for the aforementioned reasons. The image is aesthetically pleasing and relates to my own practice as I do sometimes like to draw realistic (or as realistic as I can get them) monochrome pencil/pen drawings, usually of people. Again, I do this simply as observation, to practice my skill or because I too find my subject aesthetically pleasing and want to capture it in my own way.

Imagemaking

I've chosen this image for this category because it is more imaginative than just drawing a representational image of a cat, and more thought and effort has gone into the process (screen-printing) than just drawing. The artist is Sam Giles, and although it is used as his business card (Dream Safari, at the bottom), the actual image of the cat is quite stand-alone and doesn't particularly convey a meaning or purpose as illustration should. I love the line quality in this work, and the contrast of just monochromatic line on white stock. I often draw in the same way, and am sometimes almost scared to add colour in case it ruins the aesthetic.

Illustration

This is an image by Boneface, a promotional image for Queens of the Stone Age's album 'Like Clockwork'. I've classified it as illustration because it is an image with a purpose - to communicate the message behind one of the songs on the album. I personally like the artwork because like myself, Boneface does a lot of character work, drawing people and such, which is what I most interesting in. He uses bold black line in a very graphic style and bold colour which is aesthetically pleasing to me, and also reflective of my own work. One thing he does though, which I don't but should do more of, is use textures in his work, as you can see in the jacket of this piece. Texture adds depth and character to his work more than just block colour.

Purpose

Laurina Paperina! The purpose in this image is humour - relatable to many self-deprecating millennials nowadays. The humour is conveyed with a naive, low-fi line quality and colour scheme, almost childlike - contrasting to the only slightly more adult themes. I love Paperina's work, as I often seek to convey humour within my own work, and also admire how she can convey purpose without investing a lot of time into her work.

Context

This is the book cover for graphic novel Art Schooled, written and illustrated by Jamie Coe. That is it's context. I love the colour scheme and composition of the work, coupled with the typography and the narrative and character running through the image. I seek to one day write graphic novels, as I love narrative and character, and Coe is one artist I really admire for his visual signature, narrative skills and humour. I actually used him as inspiration for one of the briefs in OUIL403, the typology poster.

Process

Luke Dixon. Great character artist, often using lino print (like here) or pens to create images with wonderful line quality. He has an instantly recognisable visual signature no matter what media he uses, as he uses line and mark-making to create tone within his work. He's one artist I often go back to for inspiration, as I also generally opt for black line, but I admire his ability to create depth within his work using only black ink and line.

Product

Chris Haughton - A Bit Lost. A children's book created with collage and shape. I love the visual aesthetic of his work, as well as his narrative and characters. Shape and collage are things I don't play around with often enough, and seeing work like this inspires me to push myself out of my comfort zone, as I can see the beautiful things that can be created with different methods.

Aesthetic

Becky Cloonan. I LOVE Becky Cloonan. Her line quality and use of colour both analogue and digital astounds me in it's quality. This image is from the cover of a graphic novel she illustrated called The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, written by Gerard Way. Again, aspiring to create graphic novels, Cloonan is one artist I constantly look to for guidance and reference - not only her finished work but also her rough sketches, as I am able to see how her work translates from the initial stages into masterpieces (in my opinion). Her proficiency with digital also encourages me to experiment more with Photoshop to achieve similar things.

Content

James Jarvis. I picked this image for content semi-ironically, as there is barely any physical content in the frame. However the image displays humour and meaning to the viewer - it's strange how we can relate to such simply shapes and project feelings onto them. I like to create simple humourous images sometimes, maybe just doodles in my notebooks about how I'm feeling, but I think they express more than some well-composed and detailed images do.