Artist Analysis
David McKean was born on the 29th December 1963 in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art and sculpture.
I have decided to look at Dave McKean because I like the edgy look of his work and the dark undertones. I also like the use of his techniques and how he layers and manipulates his work.
I chose to look at this piece in particular because I liked the use of layering and the composition. It is clear that the artist has created a number of layers in this piece in the shapes of squares and rectangles. This use of layering has given this piece more depth and the appearance of being 3D. It feels as though you could physically move the layers if you wanted to. I also think the composition of this piece is successful because of how different tones of the same colour are used. Using a darker tone at the edge of the piece and the gradually getting lighter, until at its lightest in the centre, naturally draws the viewer into the piece, which again emphasises how much depth this seems to have created.
I think the “jigsaw� look of the piece, where the image doesn't quite match up, adds to the darkness and edginess of this artwork. It looks as if the character on the page is disfigured. It reminds me of something that you might see in a nightmare or horror film, especially with the dark red and black tones.
I liked the simplicity of this piece and how I felt it still had a powerful impact. This piece is from Dave McKean’s Black and White Lies collection. From the title we can tell that this piece would have a dark theme, but I think the artist has successfully shown this in his artwork too.
It looks as though a branch is impaling the hand from the left. The way the hand is positioned along with the branch makes me feel uncomfortable because the image looks painful. I think this is also emphasised by his use of textures. The pieces looks as though it has been ripped up, then put together again, but the tones of the pieces put back aren’t quite right. It looks disfigured and disconnected. He has probably done this by creating new layers, duplicating certain parts of the picture, then changing them to “screen” effect. Conversely, he may have physically ripped the image apart, scanned it, and adjusted the brightness and exposure with Photoshop. I also like how the image sharply contrasts the background, it makes it stand out more and seem more shocking.
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I chose to look at this piece because I liked the composition and the use of textures. I especially like the torn edges that can be seen on the left side of the piece. It creates a broken feel, something that is either old and worn out or something that needs care and attention to be fixed. I like this idea because I feel I could incorporate this in my own work. As I am looking at helping the environment, the idea of using textures to create a feeling of being unloved and forgotten would create a bigger impact on my work. I want people to realise they should appreciate and care for the environment more and I think using this technique would help me to do so. I also like his tonal range in this piece. Like most of his work, his colour scheme is fairly restricted, but I like how he uses sepia tones, which once again gives the impression of being old and uncared for.
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I found looking at Dave McKean’s work helpful because the topic I am covering about global warming is an important and serious one and I feel that I can use ideas and techniques from this artist to help me create an edgier final piece that will have a heavier impact on those who view my work. I also feel that after looking at his work I have better idea as to how to add depth to my own work as he does this in most of his piece by creating a number of layers. I will also think about keeping to a limited colour scheme as I felt as though this gave his work a darker feeling.
After looking at this artist I then created pieces trying to use his techniques and style so that I could apply them successfully to my project later on.
From looking at Dave McKean’s work I have then attempted to do work in his style. To do this I have experimented with creating layers to add depth to my work, as well as use a number of textures and a restricted colour scheme. I have tried make my images slightly obscure to add to the edginess and “disconnected” feel often seen his own work.
Yvonne Boyd is an advertising and editorial photographer based in Atlanta Georgia. Her saying in life is “less is more” and you can see this from her photographs. Many of them are simple, but very interesting to look at. I think she makes her work stand out from other photographers portfolios because she combines her photographs with textures and manipulates them digitally.
I have chosen to look at Yvonne Boyd because I believe she is relevant to the theme for my project of discovery and helping the planet. In an interview she said, “I love to experience new things and places, and I tend to be inspired by the things that many people would simply disregard as ordinary everyday life.” I believe this is relevant because it seems to me that people today take the little things for granted, which is why our planet is in the mess it is in. Yvonne Boyd however, appreciates the small things in life and I would like to make this idea relevant in my own work encouraging people that by doing just simple things they can make a big difference.
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I like this piece of work because of how she has added texture to the photograph. This seems to be done on software such as Photoshop, although in some of her other pieces, the textures look as though she has made them by hand and then scanned them onto a computer, then adding it to her photographs with Photoshop. I have chosen to look at this photograph mainly because of how she has manipulated the light and tones of the pieces to create focal points and make it more intimate. She has made the edges of this photograph very dark, creating a frame around the piece. I think this draws the eye inwards to the centre of the piece. The sky in the centre seems to have been overexposed, being much brighter than everywhere else and therefore drawing our eye to the horizon, the end of the pier and the middle yacht, which are the main objects in the photograph. I think this technique would be useful for my own project as it helps me manipulate the composition of a photograph, simply by adjusting tones , brightness and exposure.
I chose to look at this piece because I like the simplicity of it. I think the use of the blue bike is quite effective at creating a focal point as it stands out boldly from the washed out beige background. I feel as though this piece has quite a cold message about it. the bike on its own makes me feel isolated and the use of blue makes me feel cold. Like some Dave McKean’s work, this piece is quite simple, but I think the use of the restricted colour scheme and how the lonely bike creates such a strong sense of abandonment, gives this piece quite a strong impact. I think this piece would be useful for my project because I am encouraging people to help the environment, so the use of simple images to create the feeling that world has been abandoned might be something I consider using in my project.
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I found this artist useful because she helped me to think more in depth about the angles and positions I took my photographs from. The majority of her work has an impact because she photographed something interesting or at an interesting angle, rather than manipulate it with computer software. However, from looking at some of her digitally manipulated work, I have discovered how to apply effective filters to my work to give them a certain appearance and also how enhancing vibrancy and changing brightness levels can change a photograph.
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I did this in the style of Yvonne Boyd by adjusting the colours and adding a grainy texture over the top. I think is slightly edgier than her work usually is because I have used a black and white filter to decrease the brightness significantly. I have done this because I want my project to have a darker feel to it and therefore adapted this artists style to fit my own project.
I decided to look at Stephanie Dalton Cowan because of her use of illustration and texture. She has been a photographer and graphic designer for 20 years and now works in the creative field as a professional fine artist and illustrator. She has a very unique style. She creates mixed media collages, by combining traditional artwork with digital art work. She uses a digital scanner as a camera. I find it interesting how she also combines layers of abstract painted imagery and archival art. She has worked for a number of clients such as National Geographic Adventure, Newsweek, The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, American Lawyer and Conde Nast.
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I particularly like the piece below because of the composition and the way she has fragmented the image like a jigsaw puzzle. I think this is supposed to be an abstract piece as the segments do not match up and it is unclear what the message of the piece is. When I look at this piece I get the feeling there is mystery behind it and that makes it intriguing and interesting to look at. It’s as if each segment is telling its own part of the story. I like the sepia tones used on the left hand side of this piece as it gives it an aged and old fashioned appearance which matches the images she has used. I also like her use of layers and the way she has done this add more texture.
I chose to look at this piece because I felt that it had a message of being exposed. As part of my project I want to show people that they are damaging the planet by “exposing” the facts to them. I like the idea of taking an image and then taking another to make it look like we are looking more deeply into something, like the use of the x-ray image in this piece. I also like the colour scheme in this piece. I the colours look almost neon, making them contrast more against the background. Something else I liked about this piece was the “journal” like quality of it. The use of textures and how either a photograph has been manipulated or the artist has used illustrations, makes this piece look like something out of someone’s personal notes. I like this idea of making pieces look both visually appealing, but with “done it myself” feel. I think it makes the piece seem unique and more intimate, like the artist is sharing something personal with the person looking at it. I felt the same for the piece on the right too.
“Your palette consists of earthy colors that have a deep luscious feeling; does your inspiration come from your visits to the Southwest? My inspirations for color come from nature” – I found this quote in an interview with the artist and thought this was particularly useful for my project as it is about the planet and conserving nature and its beauty. I especially liked the use of her colour as the tones were very earthy and this is something I want to include in my own project. I also liked the warmth in her pieces and I think this is due to her chosen palette of “warm ochres, umbers, and burnt sienna tones.”
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To do a piece in the style of Stephanie Dalton Cowan I focused on texture, colour and the combination of computer manipulation and illustration. I liked this artist’s use of earthy tones