Artist Research: Florian Nicolle

Florian Nicolle is a graphic designer and illustrator.

The thing that intrigues me is his choice of materials, which is ink worked over collage paper. They bear a few resemblance with Dave McKean in terms of materials, however Nicolle's brush strokes are more free and spontaneous, with the occasional fine line detail using a dip pen.

The collage background creates highlights in certain areas, usually made up of printed words on paper and lightly stained.

Artist research: Robert Ingpen

I looked into a few classic Children's books and one of the few that first came to mind were those by author Charles Dickens. I managed to find A Christmas Carol, which was illustrated by Robert Ingpen.

I scanned a few examples of his drawings. His style is incredibly detailed and realistic, and very few aspects of the characters were "cartooned".

What intrigues me are his pencil sketches. The toning helps to accentuate the details in the features, and most of them tend to be worked over stained paper.  

Perhaps Ingpen obtained his subject matter through observational resources in order to achieve such high level of detail. Some of them appear to be unfinished, only picking out the important features with tone.

His works are very dark and sinister from what the non-coloured sketches portray. Again there is  constant use of washed background worked over with graphite, pencil and charcoal.

Ingpen uses rich, bold colours on certain areas, in this case mainly to suggest importance of the scene; warm colours were used to convey warmth and vice versa. The stained backgrounds play a part in this as well, acting as a contrasting hue to accentuate the main subjects. 

Group Meeting: General Career Paths

How do illustrators operate on a daily basis:


(www.skillfast-uk.org) I looked into this site which provides tips on job profiles, case studies as well as information on qualifications which is essential in order to pursue particular careers. 


General discussions:

• Sending samples of work to magazines or newspapers.

• Organize portfolio and update constantly.

• Important to start in a wide range of work, be more flexible and broad-minded with the subject area, before being able to establish self as personal illustrator.

Specific and more in depth discussions.
Personal investigation
Examples from artists within the specialist area:


Brett Helquist:-
Started an internship with illustrator Robert Neubecker and "showing portfolio" whenever possible. Eventually jobs for newspapers and magazines were offered little by little, (within the period of seven years), at the same time working as a graphic designer. In spare time he developed a way to draw without using models.
Eventually decided to pursue a career in Children's books (first book was "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket).
Source: (www.bretthelquist.com)


Tony DiTerlizzi:-
After art school, DiTerlizzi began as a freelance illustrator working for TSR (game company for Dungeons and Dragons) and continued to illustrate for the gaming industry for seven years. He eventually decided to specialize in children's picture books. Wrote and illustrated his own books, as well as collaborating with authors to this day. 
Source: (www.diterlizzi.com) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_DiTerlizzi)

Research Courses: Art & Design

The following links are of University and College Foundation courses for Art & Design:

Art and Design (Foundation Studies) BTEC Diploma: course from De Montfort University, UK


Art and Design (Foundation Studies): course from Loughborough University
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/prospectus/ug/courses/dept/foundation/adf/index.htm


Art and Design (Foundation Studies): course from Leicester College
http://www.leicestercollege.ac.uk/index.php/About-Art-and-Design-Courses.html
The PDF course guide can be viewed here:
http://www.leicestercollege.ac.uk/docs/guides/FullTime1011/LC_Full_Time_Course_Guide_1011_Art_and_Design.pdf

Artist research: N.C Wyeth

Brett Helquist once wrote that his main influences were N.C Wyeth, who was a pupil under Howard Pyle. Wyeth was an American artist and illustrator. He drew more than three thousand paintings during his lifetime, and illustrated for many books. I decided to look into samples of his works.

 

There is a firm resemblance between Wyeth and Helquist's styles. Both are mostly action-based (there is often a clear sense of movement within the subjects in action) and also the use of rich, bold colours.

Comparison:

Their techniques in conveying motion is intriguing. The compositions of the subjects and the direction they face play an important role to make the sense of movement look convincing. Wyeth and Helquist are particularly skilled at capturing moving subjects in a still.

A drawing by N.C Wyeth, portrays a man riding a horse

Illustrated by Brett Helquist, an extract from a children's book titled "Hook"