Conclusion

Different Illustrators have different ways of conducting their practice and this depends almost entirely on their intended audience.  Illustrators who are self-published will have self-initiated projects and will work very independently. However although this method has its benefits such as giving the artist a strong visual identity it can also cause their work to become restricted and repetitive. This is why artists such as Simone Lia get their ideas and influences from real life and everyday conversation so that there is always a fresh and unpredictable pool of resources. Chris Ware’s practice focuses on presenting and visualising information often diagrammatically which is reminiscent of infographics. This gives him an original way of producing his novels which enables his popularity as not many people are doing the same thing. Similarly H.R.Giger had such a strong visual identity in his ‘Biomechanism’ style that this could be applied to many different aspects of art and design and his concepts gained mass appeal from his work in the ‘Alien’ films. Shaun Tan tries not to define an audience for himself but has elements that appeal to different sections of the audience i.e. the visual appeal of his illustrations to children and the more serious themes that adults will understand references to, so his books have a wide appeal. Illustration is applied art so the way the art will be consumed dictates how the art will be produced and so effects the way the Illustrator conducts their practice.

Concept Art

Concept Art is a profession that focuses on creating images to visualise a concept, idea or design for use in media before the thing itself is put into production. It has many different applications from film and animation to architecture and product design and forms one of the initial stages of production. Concept Art is not as restrictive as finished illustrations set to a one off brief as it is dealing with raw emotions and ideas that can be adapted and developed as the project progresses. In the concept artwork a feel for space, characters and atmosphere must be created and stylised so that it can inform later production. Most of what is created comes from ideas and objects that are intangible and don’t really exist such as in fantasy art, so concept artists must find a real basis for their work so that their work can be understood and is as realistically accurate as possible. Some artists such as digital artist Kirsi Salonen look back to artists such as the classical masters John Collier, Rembrandt Caspar David Friedrich and Rubens to inspire her work¹  so that the work is informed by figurative studies and she has an established body of work to refer back to.

Two Satyrs’ (1618-1619) Peter Paul Rubens, oil on wood, 76 x 66cm

Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter who worked in the Baroque style producing work with greatly exaggerated movements colour gesture and expression. Here the shadowing on the face gives an expression of malevolence and this is further exaggerated in the dark background and black fur of the pelt the foreground satyr wears. The figure is powerful and dominates the painting and with all these elements combined gives the impression of a stereotypically ‘evil’ character. The art depicts fantastical beings which is good reference for concept artist  as a lot of what they produce , especially in the field of game design, deals with fantasy or imagined creatures. Concept artists also need a good knowledge of form and anatomy which they can gain by studying the old masters.

 

‘Necronom IV’ H.R Giger

H.R Giger is known for his work on the ‘Alien’ films where he designed the ‘xenomorph’ creature using his ‘biomechanics’ style. The film producers contacting him after seeing his ‘Necronom’ series of paintings in his ‘Necronomicon’ book and knew this was the creature they wanted. ²This style combines elements of man and machine the organic and the mechanic coming together in an unnerving style.

‘He gives us the elements of the shark, the spider, the scorpion, insects, worms, crocodiles, teeth, crushing limbs, wombs, razor surfaces across and down which we slide unable to get a hand hold, bottomless depths, malevolent eyes, the death rictus and sybaritic leer. This man knows what we fear’² The writer Harlan Ellison described Giger’s style in this way to explain how Giger creates his biomechanics style and how he takes elements of different things we fear and view as obscene, which made his style perfect for producing a classic sci-fi horror creature such as the Xenomorph. His work has such a definite style and uses motifs of skulls bones, spinal cords,  genitalia, feminine forms, curves, pipes and cords that combine in industrial and repetitive  compositions that are like the inside of some living machinery.

Giger’s style has many applications in concept art and he has also produced concepts for interior design and furniture design.

Left, ‘Harkonnen chair’ and other furniture design 1980-1991

Right, Plan for table leg 1980 acrylic on paper

Giger’s furniture concept designs are an extension of his artistic practice and he sees this as a practical application ‘we have no room for sculptures, which take up a lot of space,we try to make usable works of art’³, this is another combination of practical and aesthetic which fits with his ‘biomechanicism’ ideas. The chairs share the aesthetics of his paintings and other designs incorporating skulls, spinal bone designs and more industrial elements. The ‘Harkonnen’ chair and other furniture was designed for the film ‘Dune’ but the project was not realised and Giger worked with Conny deFries later to physically create the furniture. After this it became influence for the furniture and interiors in the series of Giger Bars. This shows how the concept was designed for a purpose and then altered and changed to fit another one which is something concept artists must be prepared to do as the project they are working on will change throughout production.

Concept art is not a profession that has been taught and many digital concept artists just have to teach themselves, it is a new profession in terms of digital applications but the artists need a strong classical base in having strong drawing skills in areas like figure drawing. Also because of the mainly digital platform there is not a known base of resources and artists that can influence concept art so maybe to teach it the knowledge and inspiration should come from the works of the classical masters and organic real life forms.

References

1.       Kirsi Salonen

2.       Harlan Ellison

3.       HR Giger

Bibliography

Ellison Harlan . (1996). H.R. GIGER'S BIOMECHANICS INTRODUCTION (excerpt1990.Available: http://www.hrgiger.com/frame.htm. Last accessed 8th Dec 2014.

HR Giger (2013). HR GIGER. Cologne: Taschen. p45-60.

 Salonen Kirsi. Interview with Kirsi Salonen . Available: http://www.itsartmag.com/features/kirsisalonen/. Last accessed 08th Dec 2014.

Simone Lia

Simone Lia uses anthropomorphism in her work so that her work appeals more to her audience. Her most well-known use of anthropomorphism is seen in ‘Fluffy’.  Fluffy has a wide appeal because the simple shape and minimal features make the character appear ‘cute’ which allows the reader to follow the story more easily as they find the character engaging.

‘we employ animals in comics because we inherently realize the limitations of our human forms and are constantly seeking alternate means of rationalizing our worlds through means that, while unrealistic, have some semblance of plausibility’¹ Though Fluffy has many of the characteristics of a small child with his naivety and constant asking of questions, it is the fact that Simone Lia has not drawn a child that the book is funny and endearing. A good example is Fluffy’s leaving of rabbit droppings which reminds the reader of his rabbit nature and creates amusing moments.

‘Fluffy’( serialised 2003-2005) Simone Lia

  

Much of the humour in ‘Fluffy’ stems from the bizarre relationship of the rabbit ‘Fluffy’ and her human ‘Daddy’ Michael. The book constantly refers to the fact that Fluffy is a rabbit but never explains how the family came to be. Because of this awkward and absurd situations occur between the pair where Michael doesn’t know what to say to Fluffy. Simone Lia uses sparse panels and a lack of words in these situations to exaggerate the awkwardness and show time going by. The use of close ups on Michaels face show he is lost for words and the angle changes represent an attempt to move on to a less awkward subject.

Simone Lia also uses inanimate objects as characters such as lamps, a singular dandruff flake, a bit of corn or here two blobs. She uses surreal characters to express emotion a common one is the worm. She sometimes expresses her own emotions through the worm character unintentionally saying that she is ‘drawn to the worm’ and when doing her personal work she finds there are ‘emerging emotions’ that come through the character.²

'How do you do’ (2010) Simone Lia

Though her characters are simple Simone Lia gives them great personality. "What I want to do with my work is to be really, really honest and tell the truth in pictures, so sometimes characters will say things that are a bit ugly, not what you want them to say, they'll take on their own life.”³ This idea of honesty explains the simplicity of the characters as they are stripped down so that nothing gets in the way of their message. She gets lots of her ideas and phrases from overheard conversations and real life, so her honesty is also her interpretation of ‘real life’ communicated through her illustration work. She will start with an overheard snippet and then develop personalities characters and stories around it.²

This need to communicate clearly influences her illustration style. She uses flat colours and carefully selected, well toned colour palettes, she sometimes uses an online palette generator to find schemes she likes.²  She has a unique way of mixing images and text that makes her work very likeable and applicable to greetings cards and decorative art work.

References

1. Scott Marsden
2. Simone Lia
3. Laura Barton

Barton Laura. (2007). Rabbiting on. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/feb/14/fiction.laurabarton. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.

Lia Simone (2014) Interview at University of Gloucestershire, 24th Oct

Marsden Scott. (2013). #124 Encounters With Animals: Revealing our Humanity Through Anthropomorphic Comics. Available: http://www.graphixia.cssgn.org/2013/07/09/124-encounters-with-animals-revealing-our-humanity-through-anthropomorphic-comics/. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.

Shaun Tan

One of Shaun Tan’s main themes is of alienation such as in the form of someone having a new start in a new place or being in a new and unfamiliar situation. This is clearly seen in his wordless novel ‘The Arrival’ about an immigrant going to an alien country, where the viewer is also put into an unfamiliar place to better sympathise with the main character. The setting the character is in seems bizarre and Shaun Tan removes the comfort of a recognisable language, animals or buildings to emulate some of the uncomfortableness and confusion the character feels.

Double page from ‘The Arrival’(2006) Shaun Tan

The image is striking and the statue is iconic yet not recognisable as a common icon or figure to our minds. The forms of buildings roads and the cityscape are curved which seems unusual where most cities are angular. The typography visible is a pictographic script with similarities to Sanskrit or hieroglyphics which implies an air of mystery and ancient knowledge, making the place seem yet more exotic to the immigrant.

The novel is also silent with no speech, narration or readable text of any kind, in any human language. This is typical of Shaun Tan’s work as he relies heavily on image to communicate.  In an interview he describes this as ‘having a conversation with the viewer, leaving space for interpretation’¹. He does not use text as that would dictate a particular message instead he uses his imagery to suggest a story, a place, a feeling and lets the reader fill the gaps and so contribute to the story, as to a conversation.

‘The Rabbits’ (2000) Shaun Tan and John Marsden

This is seen in ‘ The Rabbits’ where Tan says he considered using the Union Flag as the Rabbit’s flag but thought that this would lead the viewer down a very specific path and be to easily readable as a metaphor for British colonialism.

Tan’s work can be described as ‘Crossover texts’ which is ‘an intertextual transgression between fictional worlds that seems to be included in a larger joint world’- Erwin Feyersinger.² The plot points and surroundings of Tan’s stories are understood in the context of the world’s he creates, even if parts of it are vastly different to what is normal in our world, we still understand the connotations and allow influences of history people and places we know to contribute to our understanding. Thus we understand his work intertextuality.

In this way his books have universality and not restricted to a genre or audience. His imagery is quite surreal and he doesn’t shy away from serious themes. Of his work Shaun Tan says that both adults and children ‘like to look at things from unusual angles, attempt to seek some child-like revelation in the ordinary, and bring our imagination to the task of questioning everyday experience’³ His surreal environments encourage imagination in his readers and entertain them with the fantastical.

            References

1.                  .   Shaun Tan (interview)

2.                        Christophe Dony

3.                  .      Shaun Tan

4.                     .    Shaun Tan

    Bibliography

Christophe Dony. (2012). Towards a vocabulary of displacement and utopian possibilities: Reading Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as a crossover text. Studies in Comics. 3 (1), 83-105.

  statelibraryvictoria. (2011). Shaun Tan: Do you encourage open interpretation of your work?. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cb37WdbBgk&feature=youtube_gdata_player. Last accessed 21st Oct 14.

Tan Shaun. (2002). PICTURE BOOKS: Who Are They For?. Available: http://www.shauntan.net/essay1.html. Last accessed 21st Oct 14.

Tan Shaun (2006). The Arrival. 2nd ed. London: Hodder Children's Books. 1-30.

2nd Year: Chris Ware

Chris Ware

Chris Ware’s compositions in his comics and graphic novels enable him to express his major themes of Time & Memory. 

The composition of comics can be explained as ‘Raccord’ this is the ‘continuity in the textual/spatial surface of the page’ ¹  The layout of the comic with its format and composition relates directly to how it is read and understood, features such as arrows text and other icons enable continuity and linkage of the story told on the page.

Chris Ware’s stories have a linear narrative but his comics have unusual layouts and complex patterns which change the way the otherwise straight-forward narrative is understood.  Ware enables understanding by using colour to join together themes, objects and people, he also uses similar motifs in various places to make connections for the reader. He evokes memories and produces feelings by making the reader choose their own interpretation of the story in a way that makes sense to them and thus he sympathetically harmonises with his reader’s past experiences.

He uses diagrammatic compositions to communicate large amounts of information and give an all-encompassing view of the various story elements.

Double page from ‘Jimmy Corrigan’(2000) Chris Ware

   In this section of ‘Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth’² the double page spread shows the history of the Corrigan family. Diagrammatic symbols such as arrows and lines have been used to link certain features of the story similar to a flow chart. Different members of the family, generations and places of origin are represented throughout the pages. These are separated by their positioning but kept together by lines and similar imagery i.e. a man holding a letter, a woman crying or a baby. The light blue colour gives another pathway for the eye to follow linking characters’ thoughts, journeys and plans along with the repeating motif of the light blue ship. The diagram doesn’t focus on certain family members but serves as a reminder of perspective, there are many elements , the unseen past and the unknown future that influence the story but it is our perspective that provides significance to certain events and characters. This is a clear example of Ware’s application of time and memory. The concept of time is left to the readers’ interpretation and previous knowledge of history. Features of buildings and the use of greyscale show time changes but every life is shown simultaneously communicating how intrinsically they are all woven together.

Chris Ware’s work tries to emulate time flow in real life unlike mediums such as film which, according to philosopher Henri Bergson, is limited as it is, in a basic sense, a succession of fixed frames.

‘Condemned to itemize time image by image, instead of grasping it as a whole’ ³

We do not view time as a linear pattern and cannot recall memories clearly as if we were rewinding a film, time is relative it doesn’t move in equal segments or in straight lines. Comic books and graphic novels can escape the flaws of other mediums because of the ability to show different elements of time and story on the same page thus enabling simultaneous narratives.

Film poster for ‘Tokyo Story’(2008) Chris Ware

This is shown in Chris Ware’s  film poster for ‘Tokyo Story’ by Yasujiro Ozu. He shows three scenes where time has passed between to represent the entire film. This reflects how important events and occasions stand out in our memories. The image forces the reader to compare past and     present⁴ he exaggerates the wife’s absence in the last panel by keeping the rest of the image almost the same, time might not have passed at all apart from the wife is now missing. This gives greater meaning to the middle panel as the viewer is left questioning what has happened between the two normal seeming homely images. This reflects the human thought pattern the thinking back and remembering which helps readers connect sympathetically with the two characters visible.

References

                                  

1.       Ernesto Priego

2.       Chris Ware

3.       Henri Bergson

4.       Roberto Bartual

Bibliography                                            

Bartual, Roberto. (2012). TOWARDS A PANOPTICAL REPRESENTATION OF TIME AND MEMORY: CHRIS WARE, MARCEL PROUST AND HENRI BERGSON’S “PURE DURATION”. SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF COMIC ART (SJOCA). 1 (1), 51-54.

Bergson,Henri.  1959.La pensée et lemouvant.Paris:PressesUniversitairesdeFrance.

Priego,Ernesto. (2012). Shade: Raccord as Media-Specific Reverb.Available: http://blog.comicsgrid.com/2012/02/shade-raccord/. Last accessed 05th Oct 2014.

Ware,Chris (2000). Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth. New York: Pantheon Books.

Assignment AD4004

Introduction

Visual conventions are employed in media, such as illustrated artworks, graphic novels, comic strips and cartoons, to better communicate with the audience. Some of these conventions such as Economy and Minimalism change the way the work is produced and presented so that the meaning can be more clearly perceived. Others such as Anthropomorphism alter how we see the main characters and what qualities we attribute to them, by the artists‘ discretion, based upon their appearance. Other methods such as the employment of Graphic Symbolism in these media help to amplify the story, i.e. by adding to a moment or communicating an emotion, and so aid comprehension. I will examine the three themes of Minimalism, Anthropomorphism and Graphic Symbolism in the context of visual media to better understand the visual codes at work.