Carl Warner

In summer, a friend told me about a photographer called Carl Warner who creates landscapes using food and photographs them. His work was really fascinating and he made an appearance at the Just-so Festival which I took part in, however, at that point in time, photography wasn't such a huge deal to me, of course I appreciated his work and thought it was rather fantastic, but it didn't interest me that much. Since using paper  craft in my work recently, I have looked back at his work and can now 'connect' with his precision and accuracy of the scenery he has created.

Volcano Valley - Carl Warner

Pumpkin Paradise - Carl Warner

Each piece of food is placed with perfection, everything has been carefully considered, it all just looks too good to be real! (And I was complaining about my own work being difficult to make!) The lighting, the scraping in the river, the seeds, they all look like real locations.

Bread Town - Carl Warner

Sources:

Carl Warner's Website

Lenswall London Prints Website

http://www.lenswall.com/photographers.php?a=19

http://www.lenswall.com/display-photo.php?code=0019-0139

http://www.lenswall.com/display-photo.php?code=0019-0130

http://www.lenswall.com/display-photo.php?code=0019-0140

Peter Callesen

I have been looking at the art work of Peter Callesen. He is an illustrator who works with paper cutouts. His work is very relevant to mine since I am using a lot of sugar paper and ephemera in my current project. His cut-outs are extremely accurate, and precision has been made when cutting. His work is about the removal of paper as well as the blank space. They both compliment each-other in an appealing way. I especially like the way in which all of the designs have different leftovers, for example in the first image below, you can see that the cutouts are angels, but at the bottom of the page, you see skeletons of the angels. This shows that his work isn't just cut cut cut, there is a sumpliminal message within them, not just eye candy.

The quality of the skeleton is amazing!

The following image is one of my favourites, the tree has been very carefully cut out, and even that alone looks really appealing, but even the leftovers that have been cut out have been preserved and placed at the bottom, and this looks like a positive shadow, or roots of the tree underground.

Although I don't necessarily think the most beautiful drawing is the best, I can really appreciate the effort and accuracy made in this work and it has really inspired me.


Sources:

Peter Callesen website
http://www.petercallesen.com/paper/large-framed-papercuts/
http://www.petercallesen.com/home/

Summer Project Sketches

Did these sketches over summer, they are of a film called 'War of the Worlds'. I chose a couple of scenes from the beginning of the film and drew them. I did these because I was planning to create an animation and I thought it would give me an idea of sequencing peripherals. (This has obviously changed since I am now making a scarf, my bad for forgetting to upload these earlier!)

David Shrigley Exhibition - Cornerhouse Manchester

So the other day(, the third of October to be exact), me and a few companions visited David Shrigley's exhibition in Manchester. It was really great to see all of his fascinating and crazy work all over the walls. Shrigley has always been a really big inspiration for me, because I believe he has a similar sense of humor (though I say that with a pinch of salt :P ) to me, and we illustrate in a random and unpredictable manner. 

Here are a few shots I took at the event...

Just a shot of a wall, his drawings are everywhere!

"The North Wind Doth Blow"

At the end there was a life-drawing event and everyone's sketches were hung around the room. The model also took a wee into a bucket at 3 minute intervals. There was also a chance to act out a scene shown on a screen that we took part in. Then the characters are supposed to swap around. There was a naive customer, a stuck-up artist and a smart banker. It was interesting to see people switching roles around because you get used to seeing someone play a part and then switch to another completely different person.

Anyway, I really loved the exhibition, it was definitely one of my favorites! I love David Shrigley, and his funny characteristic art-style. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to see another exhibition like this.

Ciara Phelan

I have recently been looking at the work of Ciara Phelan. Her work first caught my eye when I was browsing illustrators that use coloured paper in their work. I was really amazed by the cutesy little trees and hills made of card, and some of the sets she has made are very creative and everything looks so perfectly placed. She implements old ephemera and images from encyclopaedias in her work. She seems to be inspired by nature and geometric patterns, this is clearly evident by her work almost always involving plants and trees. Everything she creates is easily recognisable because of the simplicity of the observation, plants and roots are cartoon-like, but the shape has been thought about and so you know exactly what you're looking at straight away, this is one of the advantages of using card but I think it is also it's greatest hindrance because some objects can be harder to keep simple than other objects.

The ephemera she has collected is also very vital to her compositions, they compliment the coloured card so well, in her 'Reading with Kids' piece, she has made a montage of different book characters surrounding a child, this is really fascinating because the simplicity of the card goes really well with children's book illustrations.

Sources:

Images obtained from Colagene.com

http://www.colagene.com/en/illustration/ciara-phelan#4370