CHELTENHAM ILLUSTRATION VISUAL & CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH
Because of the major themes and aim for this brief I decided to focus on looking at classical, narrative and story – based illustration. No matter the era, no matter the style I wanted to see how narrative could influence illustration, especially if it is one single piece. It’s amazing to think about how so much can be fit into one image and that is one of the major goals I have for this brief. But I also don’t want to just limit myself to illustration and art I also looked at a lot of classical 80’s fantasy films on a whim, just to see what visual inspiration I could get from there and it actually proved to be really useful! In particular I looked at the cult classic and one of my favourite movies as a child, The Last Unicorn.
I’ve been looking at a lot of illustrators from the classical golden age of illustration and a lot of the practitioners at the time. I’ve always valued looking back at older artists and illustrators, since I believe they are just as important as looking at relevant practitioners who are alive and working today. There is always something worthy to look and learn from, and since media, in particular digital media wasn’t even a thing back in the day, a lot of illustrators were clearly restricted in their craft. Nika Goltz’s work has always been some of my favourite pieces, I love her broad brushstrokes and brash colours. Her characters have always had a lot of expression and life in them as well.
Shock! A digital artist! I felt that putting Ryoto Murayama here as a key part and aesthetic influence for this project was important since his work has such character and personality, he is able to tell a story through expression, form and colour so effectively. His characters are very lovable and unique as well.
Back to classical illustrators. Edmund Dulac is one of my personal favourites thanks to his amazing way of being able to create narrative, emotion and storytelling in just one image. He did a lot of fairytale and children’s book illustration, as did a lot of illustrators like him, but there is something really gorgeous about his way of creating images that blend character, landscape and detail so beautifully. When it comes to illustrating a story there always has to be a way the image fits or even excels the writing. It is enough to write a description of a character but it is also another to go out and draw said character, it’s why I think Edmund Dulac was able to create such gorgeous characters and figures.