Laila Pollard How has the advancement of computer technology changed the processes of narrative artwork in the modern day? The advance technology improvements continually being made in the graphic design art corporation has improved and developed business advertising in the 21st century. Artists have gained access to the use of high technology computer software’s such as Adobe Photoshop design and Illustrator to improve their levels of technique, moreover produce surreal manipulations that were previously impossible to do. From the first initial release of Photoshop, February 19 1990, the evolution of Photoshop from its modest beginnings as a bundled program sold with scanners to its current version. The origins of Photoshop all started with Thomas Knoll a PHD engineering student and Glen Knoll who was a college professor with two sons and two hobbies; computers and photography. In this essay I will be analysing different artists that use computer technology to enhance their designs and create to impossible, as well as examples of artists from over generations that use other processes in their work due to technology restrictions. These artists consist of Manuel Rebollo, Lissy Elle, Fiddle Oak and Hannah Hoch. Within this essay I plan to conclude with an answer to the following question, how has the advancement of computer technology changed the processes of narrative artwork in the modern day? To generate an answer my essay will consist on examples of when computer technology has either improved or down-graded the effect of an artist’s narrative piece, what will be different if photoshop wasn’t available or even created at a different time. Photo manipulation was soon employed in numerous ways, as early photography has several limitations. Correct exposures in landscape photography often led to the sky being overexposed for example. Photographers then combined two images, each section with the correct exposure. ‘Spirit’ photography used multiple exposures to depict the medium or subject with ghostly presences within the same image. Photo manipulation could illustrate concepts, such as the proposal to allow airships to dock at the top of the Empire State building. The artistic community took up photo manipulation, for instance, with the creation of narrative images. The advertising industry used it to improve the appearance of products. The most famous example was the ‘evolution’ video, which showed how a regular woman could be given supermodel looks through Photoshop that digitally manipulated features to an unrealistic scale such as plush lips and a longer neck.
Laila Pollard Narrative art tells a story. It uses the power of the visual image to enkindle imaginations, emotions and capture universal cultural truths and aspirations. What distinguishes narrative art from other genres is its ability to narrate a story across diverse cultures, preserving it for future generations. The same narrative stories are adapted and modernised with the advancement of technology. The designer of Disney movies is an example where the original films are modernised to more lifelike characters but with the same original cartoon features of bold eyes and extremely long hair such as Rapunzel. The artist of the narrative becomes a constructor of reality. New species of characters have evolved with the help of computer technology- building a new breed in the nature of narrative artwork as well as films. People have suddenly grown exaggerated body features such as pointy ears and wolf-life fur, body parts are stretched in scale and no longer in proportion. In the act of bonding to different animal genetics together, humans are beginning to have invincible powers and characteristics taken from wild species. The broad fantasy genre of films of the 21st century such as ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The hobbit’ show the process and stages of merging normal people with computer generated characters in the same set. This interaction is becoming more popular with all types of narrative work used by artists, film developers and even television programs.
From the 1920s through 1940s feature works ‘Minds eye’ was a popular photography process by which artists such as Herbert Bayer and Grete Stern, used this photography technique to evoke subjective states of mind, conjuring dreamlike scenarios and surreal imaginary worlds. Examples of artist’s work that were produced for newspaper and magazine use include Erwin Blumenfeld’s famous ‘Doe eye’ featuring as a Vogue cover from 1950 and Richard Avedon’s multiple portrait of Audrey Hepburn in 1967. These are representations of manipulated work used to alter, improve and sometimes fabricate images. Manuel Rebollo was born in 1986; he is a graphic designer and illustrator and is based in Salamanca, Spain. The artist Manuel Rebollo’s style of work consists of mark making lines, blank spaces, and subtlety of colour. His expressive designs come from the inspiration of music, fashion, love and sensuality. In examples of Rebollo’s graphic illustrations, he creates simplistic figure outline drawings then overlaps this with bold blocks or patches of black as shadows or sections of the figures features. The rough watercolour brush texture effect placed in some of the artist’s designs give the impression of the image being an old photograph or temporary drawing in a sketchbook. They also form a free-hand produced finish to the illustrations. Many of the subheadings and titles displayed in Manuel Rebollo’s work relate to social and political issues in today’s society. The artist uses his illustrations as a response to these problems in the world.
Laila Pollard Manuel Rebollo is an example of an artist that uses computer softwares such as Photoshop and illustrator for the base of his designs; creating free-hand drawings with a graphical tablet instead of pencil to paper. The artist has lost the hand-drawn process effects of smudged sketches caused by materials and exchanged them for modern Photoshop watercolour brushes to give a textured and unfinished look to his outcomes. This updated and new advanced way of creating illustrations makes the work more professional even for a beginner in Photoshop design. His figurative drawings would of previously been made with the use of cut out stencils whereas computer softwares have allowed him to fill sections of the image with bold blocks. His bold designs relate to comic storyboard designs that have evolved since the early 1930s.
It is to of been said that Lissy Elle is interested and inspired by the ‘impossible’- this is portrayed through the subject of her work with levitation being her known skill that is commonly used in her manipulations. She turns her surreal adventures into art. Lissy Elle manipulates her own primary sourced images to create sceneries she experiences in her dreams using Photoshop. I believe that Lissy’s work is designed in a way to make the image look convincing to the audience, for example her levitation illustrations include shadows of the figures in the background image. Lissy Elle works with just digital photography and photo manipulation on computer software. From looking at her images I can suggest that when producing the work, she uses a highly advanced camera that captures speed a well as a tripod to independently take the photos herself. Modern technology has high importance in Lissy’s work, as without computer technology such as Photoshop in today’s century, producing the same manipulations wouldn’t be as easy to produce. The artists Tim Walker and Tim burton, as well as old movies and movement and delicate flow of ballerinas inspired Lissy Elle. The first illustration above by Lissy Elle reminds me of the story of Alice in Wonderland, as it looks as though the girl in the picture is being sucked into the storybook; suggesting that Lissy Elle’s images are based on adventures and dreams. If Lissy Elle’s manipulations were to be recreated before the growth of computer technology the darkroom process is an example of how it would be produced; a slowly timed method that consists of overlaying separate images that are on transplant materials then exposed to sunlight for a number of seconds to mirror the images onto a light sensitive medium. Once the paper is soaked in developer and fixer solutions the end result consists of the separate images merged into one creating a manipulation of the two scenarios.
Laila Pollard
Zen Hoover, known as Fiddle Oak is a 14 years old photographer based in Natick, USA. Zev Hoover’s username Fiddle Oak is a play on ‘little folk’, linking to the theme of his magical images. He has produced a series of self-portraits and created a world of miniature and fairy-tale with photo manipulations. He first started to play around with Photoshop and the use of scale at the age of eight years old, making normalsized people appear tiny. Fiddle Oaks work is based on magical and surreals scenes. His technique of creating small figures gives the impression that his images relate to childhood memories and adventures. The process involves capturing the background, shrinking photos of people in similar lighting, manipulating the images in photoshop and editing the colour scheme so that the two separate photographs merge as one. With the artist developing his graphical skills at such a young age, Zen Hoover was automatically brought up in a community where technology played a huge part of socialisation and education; this means he learnt about and used computer softwares as apart of everyday life compared to an older artist whom experienced the generation where photoshop had only began at its lower
development stages. Piecing together images taken from popular magazines at the time, the artist Hannah Hoch created a humorous and moving commentary in society during a time of tremendous social change. Hoch established collage as a key medium for satire whilst being a master of its poetic beauty. Hannah Hoch’s collage cutouts are a handcrafted process of what can be computer manipulated on a photoshop software in today’s graphic corporation with the use of digital photographs. In the years Hannah
Laila Pollard produced these commentary designs she was technology restricted to minimal techniques and processes that she was able to use. Without the help of colour balance and image editing, the artist’s work were kept as the original cutouts from magazines in shades of brown.
In conclusion to the question of my essay; How has the advancement of computer technology changed the processes of narrative artwork in the modern day. Photoshop design has improved the efficiency in time scale of narrative artwork. Something that would take weeks to produce can now be done in a matter of minutes at a considerably higher quality. The majority of designers have evolved within their skill range alongside the growth of accessible softwares and technology. However, in the 21st century it is becoming a popular phase to rekindle the love of vintage ways of advertisement by using the old processes when creating narrative art. Deliberately designing poor quality designs with the hand-produced look with ridged cut edges, low saturated images and purposely made flaws. The advancement of technology has taken away the human element in narrative art as the computer now does most of the process of the work. Although, whatever way a narrative piece is produced the original story behind the work always comes from the artist’s imagination and skills. Bibliographyhttp://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/02/20-years-of-adobe-photoshop/ http://mashable.com/2015/02/19/before-photoshop/ http://www.cityartgallery.co/blog/2013/04/02/Manuel-Rebollo-Biography-.aspx http://www.lissyelle.com http://www.featherofme.com/little-world-of-fiddle-oak/
Laila Pollard http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/press/hannah-hoch/