Market Multiples

Here is the most recent completed piece of work; another book in the experimental however-many-I-achieve-before-April-project:



Market: a story of multiples.
Unintentionally, due to my own love of nature and all things frest and living and flowing, the intended illustration of commercialism, consumerism and capitalism has become this. Cute, magical and full of fantasy characters. The narrative drove what I illustrated, and therefore I had the freedom of conducting the image making in a way I wanted.
The proposal I set for myself, as far as media was concerned, was: "Working with very fine continuous lines I will work up in the drawing, rendering from the floor to the sky the five-page narrative I have developed. It will be interesting to see the outcome of working this way, as the five consecutive images form simultaneously. The beginning scene must be very geometric, and this will be a challenge, as I find it a lot more pleasant to draw organic, flowing forms. I am certain of the abstracted form of the figures involved, but not of the scenery surrounding them. We shall see what happens." And indeed, with the Copic 0.03, the metal ruler and the 15x75cm Khadi cotton paper, this was how the illustration of the concept was carried out.

Also, nothing to do with the aforementioned, but here is a Flickr set of the delightful naivety of Medieval Medicine in Illuminated Manuscripts! The book (compiled by Peter Murray Jones) begins with the Juliana Anicia Codex, the oldest recorded medical manuscript of early 5th Century Byzantium. It relies on observational documentation and classification of the natural world, and these realistic drawings of life help communicate what fresh ideas were being worked out and taught to a select few about the fasciniating world.
Later, I learned of the copyists working in monastic scriptoria, meticulously copying manuscripts handed down through generations. Often, like Chinese Whispers, the words and images would become abstracted and stylised. Naïvety and a distinctive 'Medieval' look arose from this faith in the older manuscripts.
This book displayed illustrations made before the time of mass production via printing (earliest known printing press 1440). Individuals produced the images, and were allowed considerable artistic license. Before the separation of science and religion, myth and fact, illuminators were working under the instruction of authors, and often did not understand the concepts they were directed to communicate. This was fine, however, as the authors themselves had limited understanding of how things worked.

Fantasy Book Illustration of 1860-1920

That was one fantastic book.
Here is the 88-image Flickr set of mostly photos from the book, plus a few extra uploads by the featured artists.
Beauty, at this time, was everything. It was the peak of aesthetics, before Dada and Deco, and indeed before the war. Culture was flourishing towards the end of Victoria's reign. Illustration then was influenced by what was around; the Arts & Crafts Movement, the Pre-Raphaelites and the European total style of Art Nouveau, along with the imported Japanese woodcuts of Hiroshige and the like. The natural world and her organic forms drove how the illustrators brought to life the new marvels that were being written about by the likes of Wilde and Carroll. Book illustrations were rich and flowing and magical and full of character. Here are just some of my favourites, and the most prolific gentlemen of the time:



William Heath Robinson While I was aware of his eponymous contraptions, I was delighted to discover that he was accomplished in fantasy and nonsense, having published several books of his own in the genre. I admire his clean lines and charming rendition of characters and objects. Even his more serious work is fun and fresh.


Edward Lear Whimsy and nonsense, its purpose to entertain. Lear had such fun making these poems and drawings, where anything was possible as long as it rhymed. My favourite, and one of the most popular of his works is The Owl & The Pussycat; a nonsense narrative. Laura Logan has rendered the concept in this serene pastelly painting. Using a wide range of media, she illustrates for children in a sweet, colourful, adorable style.


Richard Doyle not only a painter of fairies. His work is full of colour and detail and many magical little characters interacting, but no matter how large the scene, or how fantastical, nothing is out of place, and the overall composition is stunning. While there is distance so that more stuff can be fitted into the elf-lands, the make-believe is made believeable. Also, the subject matter takes me back to a childhood love. :]



Aubrey Beardsley I'm pleasantly surprised to have found some of his work that's not monochrome. Beardsley is renowned, and rightly so, for his use of inked forms and flowing lines, using space and contrast to great effect, but it is interesting to see how he tackles colour, in a similar fashion to his peers; Dulac, Nielsen and Rackham.



Charles Robinson The brother of W. Heath Robinson, I enjoy his style probably because it is similar in richness and magic to that of Dulac.


René Bull Another artist of the time whose work I admire for the same reasons as Charles Robinson, Edmund Dulac and Kay Nielsen.

I might as well mention and link to that marvellous Flickr member finsbry, who collects illustrations of every sort. Their great organisation and massive collections make my life a lot easier. Here are the sets of the work of: Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, Harry Clarke, W. Heath Robinson, Charles Robinson. And all the illustrations from Nielsen's In Powder & Crinoline. And so much more!

always more to add to this post!

Typography & Book 2

Inspired by things in Mike Perry's Hand Job: A Catalog of Type;

I painted this, testing out Khadi cotton paper in the process:


That's a panoramic photograph, then a panoramic scan. Cotman watercolour on 76x5cm Khadi cotton paper (each section is 5x5cm). In this project (and indeed in life) I am exploring character and narrative in media, scale and imagery. Also, the longer I have to devlop myself and my understanding of illustration, the more I know what I like, in both process and results. Typography is one of my key interests, and I was glad to be able to combine this with the creation of an underwater world of interacting pink wibbly creatures. Each character is a character! Using a little maths, a long ruler, and A1 paper, I halved the alphabet and forced pairs of characters together. The letters with holes in (these have closed counters) were especially fun, along with M and N, which resulted in very realistic sea-slugs. This way of working suits me very well; where I set myself up rules, but am unsure of the outcome. It's a delight when characters come about organically.
The second in the series of books, this can be read from start to finish, but also works as a single image of a concept. In imagery I was inspired by Mr. Scruff and The Blue Planet, which I'm currently rewatching. Mother nature, you are my muse.

Book 1 & Decemberists Posters

Javier Columbus' Journal of Experimental Biology
I set up a drawing-in-response-to-text exercise, influenced by workshops I took part in during the first module of the illustration pathway at Camberwell. Little did I know that the character would develop so much by the smallest of details (ie contact with his girlfriend or a home town that gives him a geordie accent). I have developed a real attatchment to my intrepid wildlife explorer who emerged organically from the pages of my beloved free daily newspaper. An experiment with unexpectedly positive result.

This is the first of a range of fold-out 'books' I am producing for the Final Major Project.

I plan, in a book illustrating commercialism and our consumer society (was originally going to illustrate "multiples" with this), to be a little more experimental with screenprinting. It's a shame I was too ill to do the workshop last week, but I'll be an early birdie on Monday and sign up for this week. I will use this workshop to see what is possible when mixing colours, practice alignment with multiple screens and work on different papers. This will help me in designing imagery for the final story... which thus far I want to be all deep and ambiguous and call Consumers.

Through following the Decemberists on Facebook, I have discovered what a fantastic range of screenprinted posters they have. There are hundreds, each one a beautiful and fascinating image.
Chris Turnham has produced these:

The fact that he manages to create such impact and contrast with a muted, tateful palette is impressive. The forms are elegant and I enjoy the environments he has created from block pastel colours.

I am very pleased to have discovered the Zeloot studio, and have had to limit myself to only his posters for the Decemberists. There are so many more beauties on his site.


Wow. Marq Spusta.