Exercise: The History of Illustration

The aim of this exercise in my understanding is to research how illustration has evolved over the years by looking at artists from the early 1900's.

The course book asks us to choose an artist from a list of 6 and find out about them and the context in which their work was created.

The second part of this examination of early illustrators is to find a contemporary illustrator whose work I like, and explore and identify the differences in style, production and imagery between the 2 illustrators.

Main questions to ponder and answer:

• Did the work of the illustrator you chose from the list seem old fashioned? if so what made it seem so?
• What was it about the work of the contemporary artist that attracted you to their work?
• How did each artist produce their illustrations - what tools and materials did they use?

The last part asks us to draw an illustration in the style of each artist, selecting similar subject matter and media.

The artist I have chose is Edward Adrizzone.

Born Edward Jeffrey Irving Adrizzone in 1900 - he was a painter, printmaker, war artist, author and illustrator from England.

He illustrated many children's books and wrote and illustrated a series of books about a boy called Tim Pictured below:

Image from www.edwardadrizzone.org.uk

Media:

From my understanding Edward worked mainly in watercolours and ink as well as pencils.

An Illustration in his style:

For my mini illustration I decided to depict a sea scene as this played a large part in Edwards life as experience and knowledge of the sea was in his ancestry on both sides of his family according to this article. His father was an Italian sea captain and ship owner and one of his grandfathers had been a Captain Kirby - and left logbooks which he had illustrated himself.

Three images from Ardizzone’s classic picture book Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain, 1955.

My Versions / attempts to mimic Edwards Style:

I started off my attempting to copy 2 of Adrizzone's illustrations in my sketchbook, to get a feel for how he created his work.

To create my own illustration in his style I began by drawing 4 boxes or thumbnails to quickly jot down composition ideas.

However, as digital media will always be my preference, I started afresh on my iPad Pro, sketching a quick sea scene in a loose fashion. At the end, I preferred it over the sketchbook ideas, and decided to use it for my final illustration.


The Sketch:

My version: The Line Art Sketch.

When I had added the colour (subtle water colour effect with a bit of grain and texture) I decided to crop the image further as I didnt think the square shape was in Adrizzone's style, and something about it seemed a little "off". Once cropped I liked it much better.

To finish, I desaturated the image slightly to give a more subdued "old" effect, in order to mimic Adrizzone's style more closely.

I'm happy with the final result and really like the colouring. I wish I had made the line work even more scratchy and loose, but I felt like I was trying to control my looseness, making it all the more tight controlled. I also would have liked to draw the boy better, but have a difficult time with body proportions.

Final Piece:

My Version: Final Illustration in the style of Edward Adrizzone

'A Happy Accident.' 

While playing around with the line art layer - attempting to make it softer and less digital - I accidentally toggled no lines and the previous texture I had overlaid to mimic the paper texture changed the colours. This dramatically changed the mood of the image and I found it so beautiful that I decided to save this version and post it to my learning log. 

Contemporary Artist - Jon Burgerman:

Mural at A&P Motion, London

'Leonardoodle Da Vinci'

*Jon Burgerman is a UK born, NYC based artist instigating improvisation and play through drawing and spectacle. He is a purveyor of doodles and is often credited and referenced as the leading figure in the popular 'Doodle' art style.

His work is placed between fine art, urban art and pop-culture, using humour to reference and question his contemporary milieu. His is a pervasive and instantly recognisable aesthetic that exists across a multitude of forms including canvases, large scale murals (indoor and outside), sculpture, toys, apparel, design, print and people (as tattoos and temporary drawings).

Burgerman studied Fine Art at The Nottingham Trent University, graduating in 2001 with First Class Honours.

*Information from his website at www.jonburgerman.com

My illustration in his style:

I decided on a pattern as Jon's work is very pattern orientated even though its technically quite free.
Very quickly, and with no prior sketching, I came up with a collection of doodle characters and I was immediately happy with the result. I did not connect my characters quite as much as Jon does in his work, but I feel I mimicked his style and subject matter satisfactorily.

Main questions to ponder and answer:

Q: Did the work of the illustrator you chose from the list seem old fashioned? if so what made it seem so? 

A: Yes slightly, but it reminded me a lot of Quentin Blake's drawings which still remain quite current and loved by many including myself. The duller colours and the very sketchy line art made it seem old fashioned, as well as the way the faces were depicted. Clothes styles etc also influenced my impression.

Q: What was it about the work of the contemporary artist that attracted you to their work?

A: Jon Burgerman has always been the number one influence for me as an illustrator. I love his 'doodle' style - loose, playful and silly. His colourful, whimsical works instantly brighten my day and take me from reality to somewhere altogether more fun and playful.  The subject of his work is very modern - every character looks out of this world. What I most like about his work is that he really seems to enjoy the process and he's not afraid of looking silly!

Q: How did each artist produce their illustrations - what tools and materials did they use?

A: From my research on Edward Adrizzone, I see he mainly used watercolour and ink on paper in his illustrations, as well as pencil for his drawings. Jon Burgerman works digitally as well and with markers and paint. He also works with play dough and other clay to produce his quirky sculptures. With regards to the surfaces he works on - this can be anything from paper to walls to objects. Anything he is inspired to draw on!

Conclusion: 

I found this exercise interesting - I learnt about an illustrator I would otherwise not have known about, and explored some of the ways in which illustration has changed over the years.