I really enjoyed creating this piece, as I always enjoy drawing animals. The idea of this one was to show a metaphor for trying to pursue Happiness and I related that being homeless ( confusing aha). The snow leopard is a symbol of survival and isolation as leopards are often completely cut off from everything else. They have to try and survive so it was the ideal animal to relate to my subject.
With this piece there is a surreal feel to it, with the leopard meant to be almost part of the mountain - looming over the climbers, who are homeless people. In my initial sketches I wanted the leopard with its camouflaged fur to almost be invisible, just as homeless people often feel they are.
The mountain was so hard to create it almost gave me a headache, I focused on getting the shape and form right.
I wanted climbers to represent the struggle of being homeless and the effort each and every day takes just to survive.
Using mark making and a solid drawing I managed to create this.The eyes were the most important component in this as they capture the mood of the animal.
Visual langauge and being able to communicate an idea is integral if I want to make it as a professional illustrator. One way of achieving that is using metaphors to communicate a piece of text or an idea - whatever the illustration is for. its a really smart and precise way of interpreting something.
I have over the last year started to bring this into my own work, but I sometimes dont make it really obvious what its about. So with this project the snow leopard idea that I have isn't immediately obvious, but you can piece together all the different aspects to create a visual metaphor. Its a way of working that I like to use as it differentiates my work and isn't the obvious.
Combines thoughtful symbolism worked into his compositions with considered drawings and painterly textures. He creates very interesting narratives within his image.
To get my work onto the next level and to push myself further I decided to create my own newspaper using the great website 'newspaper club'. Its a website where you can create your own layout and design and use your images..... I thought this would tie in nicely with my project as the images i'm creating are quite political and news orientated. However the problem I had at first was that Id never designed my own newspaper and there was a lot that needed to be considered, from composition, page layout and images relating top the text.
Research
The only way I would be able to understand what it is that makes articles and images work was by looking at some. Creative Review is a magazine targeting the art scene, reviewing modern and contemporary art. The first aspect I noticed was the professional look the paper had and the seamless link between images and text.
The images used were often clever and often metaphors for the text. Each image had its own meaning, but they always linked to the text and
challenged me to try and find out what the link was. For example a magazine I saw had a picture of a magpie and the article was about stealing, which magpies are synonymous with. I want my newspaper to have the same professional feel and design.
The core design and layout was the most important part for me, as it had to resemble that of a newspaper. This article on data presentation was a help. From my research I found most newspapers stick to the same formats, so font size, columns and image size. This is to keep a consistent layout and this makes artists design images to work with a format. So my aim was to follow the blueprint of arty magazines such as creative review and let the page work as one.
Born in Japan but now living and working in New York City, artist Kumi Yamashita does incredible things with light and shadows. Kumi has an impressive list of solo and group shows sine the late 90s along with a host of permanent collections around the world.
In her series entitled Light & Shadow, Kumi uses a single light source along with an assortment of perfectly placed objects to create incredible shadow silhouettes and artwork on walls. One aspect I wanted in my own work was the idea of shadow and creating a mood. Shadows are a great way of creating a mood and the light and dark shades work very well, so this artist helped me to get a sense of what I wanted my own work to look like.
One of my original ideas was the use of magpies as they repseresnt stealing and homeless people are often unfairly associated with that. I wanted to keep the image simple and use negative space to keep it from looking too cluttered on the page.
Ive used mark making with the magpies as I wanted them to look playful and mimic what real life magpies are like, the colours work well as the vibrant blues and green contrast nicely with the dark black of the birds feathers.
The image on the left is the one I've used for my newspaper. I used different ink and block printing ink to create the marks below the magpie. They are experimental, but help to form an interesting composition.
I dont like the straight edge of the second image, but unfortunalty time constraints limited me to coming up with some way to not make it look like the man was floating in mid air :)
One of the main things I have to keep in check is the core ideas behind my drawings, they have to represent and reflect what it is I'm focusing on. One of the main issues for me was being able to come up with good enough ideas quick enough in a short space of time. In my own opinion I over think things, I spent all summer researching and coming up with ideas' that I lost sight of what it was I wanted my project to be and what I was trying to communicate. I felt like I had a mental block with what I was trying to say with a pencil. The ideas just weren't coming out naturally and felt forced, as I was thinking too literally and not challenging myself with my concepts and ideas, like I have done in the past.
In the end I came up with lots and lots of different ideas, even it was just tweaking my original ideas. However I came up with varying ideas, not just the same one. Most importantly my ideas linked to the concept of homelessness and communicated an idea of throughout the use of metaphors.
Idea 1 Snow Leopard )
PLEASE WATCH THIS ITS AMAZING !!!
The Idea revolves around a snow leopard. They are one of my favorite creatures, but are often never seen as they live in remote and isolated areas. They fend for themselves and I saw a link between that sense of isolation and being homeless. So I wanted the leopard to work in some way with the homeless man. I was playing around with the idea of someone climbing, possibly its tail struggling to reach the top and there final destination.
Idea 2 The Sea)
I was really excited about this idea because I knew from my own instincts that it worked and captured the isolation well. I wanted to use the sea as its so unforgiving and lonely by yourself. I like Edward Hoppers paintings I looked at earlier in the year, with the idea of being far away and in the distance - almost not there. So perspective was crucial for this piece to work. The hands symbolize reaching for help.
Idea 3 Scissors)
Government cuts are a big part of why so many people are becoming homeless, so for this one I tried to think straight forward about a simple design that someone would know instantly what the piece is about. So I thought of government cuts and got scissors from that and they linked. Just like with the others I wanted it to feel like you were lost almost.
Idea 4 Manchester town hall )
The town hall the epicenter of all things manchester is where most things like government cuts happen so I wanted to include it somewhere within my image. I wanted tents to come up and almost dictate the shape of the main town building and start creeping in.
Idea 5 Magpies )
I struggled with this one, but I had a core concept of magpies as they are associated with stealing, as are homeless people unfairly.
Abram Games was good at composition and getting the message of the image across. This was about growing your own food and its really cleverly done in how he uses the spade as ship. I need to try and emulate this in my own drawings and get my message across.
