Tracey Emin

Emin is an artist who finds inspiration from her own life and what she sees around her. The type of work she does ranges from painting, drawing, video, photography, monoprint, needlework and sculpture. Her work is very personal and she has been able to channel her emotions and thoughts into creations.

She has created a series of monoprints, which often portray and represent events that happened in her past. These frequently include text as well as the image itself, however sometimes it is just the image or text alone. Emin’s style in her monoprints is very sketchy and casual as if they are sudden thoughts or notes that she wanted to write down, this applies especially to her use of text.

I think that although the style of her monoprints is very informal, they seem to have quite a bit of thought put into them- even if the drawing took a short amount of time to do, it still shows the feelings behind it. Personally, I am not an admirer of her work and therefore do not take much inspiration from her pieces, however I do think the technique for her monoprints is helpful to look at.

Printmaking photos

These are some of the photos i took while doing mono printing. 

This was an image i drew by Keith Haring called The Radiant Baby on the back of brown paper.

On the other side of the brown paper i used coloured tissue paper in a block with a border to create a background and fit in with the artist's style.

 I then placed the paper with the image facing upwards onto the ink and traced over the lines of the drawing. 

This is what the final print looks like. The only disadvantage that i had when i drew on my image was that it would be backwards when i printed, a way around this would be to find an image on the internet, flip it and print using that image instead.

These are another few images of the prints i have done based on Keith Haring's work.

Printmaking

Printmaking has been used over the years to create rather interesting and often abstract images. Today we were introduced to print and our objectives were to complete a series of A4 monoprint, use monochromatic and least two other colours and use other materials to create a different effect on the final image.

The process of monoprinting is fairly simple; to print an image onto the paper you first need to either have a picture you want to print or draw an image onto one side of the paper. You would then need to place the paper, image up, onto a surface coated in the ink you have chosen to use. It is important not to touch the paper when it is on the ink because any sections that you do touch will show the black ink through and this will ruin the image. You then need to draw over the linesof the image you have which will pick up the ink on the other side. The more pressure you put onto the pen or object you are using to go over the line, the darker the ink will appear. We used different objects- biro pens, pencils, graphite sticks and even just fingers to apply pressure.

We used primary colours in our printwork and i think this aids the design of the image especially as the artist work i have used by Keith Haring is very similar in both colours and style. Instead of using the colour from the ink i did one print with a background coloured from tissue paper and brown paper and then applied a black ink outline of an image on top. I thought about the style of the background so that it would fit in with the artist's work; i used an orange square of tissue paper and a dark border which is often a favorite style of Harings.

Overall, i enjoyed printmaking and the effect it has on images because i think it is more appealing to the eye and it encourages depth into the image. I found the process easy to do and i experimented with a use of different materials which made it even more interesting. Some prints worked better than others, but the ones that did came out really well and i also attempted to mix colours such as red and yellow to create an orange. This effect was interesting but also effective because it allowed you to just use primary colours to create new colours.

Claire Rollet

Claire Rollet is a freelance illustrator who is particularly inspired by her surroundings of London. Her illustrations are created using pen and ink and then coloured digitally. A careful use of colour in her work, picks out the key details and makes a clean representation of the architecture. I think that the amount of detail used in her images is balanced with her use of few colours; the images don't look too cluttered and the composition is good.

http://www.inkcities.com/

Olivier Kugler

Olivier Kugler  is an illustrator who creates detailed and intricate images.
I find the use of the rough lines interesting as it creates a flowing effect, it makes the image look much more natural whereas straight lines would make it look more clinical.
The colours Kugler uses are fairly neutral and used effectively to create an image with impact.

He often uses text in his illustrations and in this sense i think that these look similar to comic strips or sections from newspapers.
I really like the style of his work; though some parts may look incomplete, it makes it interesting to look at and is eye catching.

http://www.olivierkugler.com/

Tommy Penton

Best known for his CD cover artwork, Tommy Penton is an illustrator who creates quirky an detailed images. Some of his artwork is done in basic colours such as the image above; a very intricate illustration of a train journey. On the other hand, some of his work is very abstract and colourful, often putting objects in unfamiliar areas, such as the image below.

I like some of Penton's work; mostly his more detailed black and white pieces which i think have more of an impact.

http://www.tommypenton.com/

Chris Dent

Chris Dent is another illustrator who usually hand draws his images. There is a lot of detail in every image and it causes the viewer to concentrate and look carefully at each image- every detail is important in the whole image.

I particularly like this image of his called 'Puma'. The use of architecture in this piece is clever because each building is specifically shaped to create the outline of the Puma.
Often, Dent uses only a small amount of colour in his work which allows the detail to stand out more and overall makes the image more effective.

http://www.chrisdent.co.uk/

Andy Council

Andy Council is an illustrator from Bristol who particularly enjoys creating incorporating architecture and dinosaurs into his work. The image above is a map of Britain with a difference- Council has taken key landmarks from around the country to build up the landscape. For example, in London, you can clearly recognise the London Eye and Big Ben or in Scotland you can see the Loch Ness Monster. Although the landmarks are small, they are very detailed and this really gives the image impact.

This is another clever design by Council because the dinosaur fits perfectly with the skyline even if it is rather abstract. I think that this piece works really well because of how much detail and precision is shown in the image, if it didn't have this i don't think it would've been quite so effective. 

http://www.andycouncil.co.uk/

Featured blogger- Afternoon Pity Party

The Afternoon Pity Party is a blog which shows the work of Elisabeth McNair, an illustrator and designer. The blog also includes other things which interest her, such as other illustrators, painters and photographers. I think that this blog is very interesting to read and look at; it contains a range of different posts with a mixture of both her own work and others.

http://www.afternoonpityparty.com/

Featured blogger- little doodles

Little Doodles are the creations of London based illustrator Kate Wilson. Her designs are clever and beautifully drawn; her style is very recognisable and has a wide range of different characters and icons. 
This is my favourite blog that i am currently following because i think she has quirky designs and interesting style.

http://little-doodles.blogspot.co.uk/