BIG HEADS - Rob Hodgson

• Lives in Bristol with his studio in the loft of his house
• He works with U Studios Monday/Tuesday and the rest of the week is freelance
• Creates wrapping paper, pencils, cards etc for U Studios 
• Currently making children's books
• Starting to experiment with wood and lino printing, he scans them onto the computer and alters them digitally mixing traditional with modern methods
• Wants to make more handmade products as well as mass produced items that can be sold
• Believes handmade products are more commercial 
• Needs to work on his small packaging for his wooden characters
• Collects found materials and keeps them in folders around his studio for future reference
• Uses sketchbooks to note things down, create lists and work on character design
• Believes there needs to be a balance between personal and commercial work

Advice:

• Don't stress about your degree
• All about the work that you create not the grade you get
• Don't graduate with a set style always keep your mind open
• Make sure you ask questions and focus on your ideas

Study Task 3 - Applied

Pippa Toole

Pippa Toole painted onto these Doc Martens for a charity raffle where they were won at the end of the event. She painted the pink tone onto the shoes and allowed them to dry before painting the design and adding the eyeball pieces. 

The work is successful as it suits the target audience of Doc Martens with the dark tone of voice that can be seen consistently throughout her work. The pink undertone contrasts well with the black silhouettes painted over the top. Also the eyeballs being an add on to the original shoes makes the shoes more recognisable as her own work.

The product is successful as the design is strong and they were made for a charitable raffle with Doc Martens. The tone of voice of the piece will be seen as appealing to the audience because of the dark but playful paintings.

Louise Lockheart (Printed Peanut)

Created for Heal's including all the products that are seen in a luxury Christmas hamper. The work is successful because of the simplicity in the design using only two colours to create the piece as she has made use of the colour in the background as another element. Also the style and textures she has created using analog methods add a comforting tone of voice to the piece which is perfect for the tea towel design. 

However I personally believe that the design could have been recreated using only one element of the hamper such as the bottle of champagne on its own in the centre of the tea towel to emphasise the minimalistic approach.

The patterns and textures that have been created using found materials which are scanned and added to the drawn element of the individual products. The final design has then been printed onto a tea towel making it a functioning product. 

The role of the illustrations on the tea towel serve the idea of the typical items that are usually seen in a luxury Christmas hamper making it appealing to people who shop at Heal's. Also the colours that she has used to create the print appear to be sophisticated with the deep blue tone alongside the burnt orange tone. 

Gemma Correll

A lot of the work that Gemma Correll creates is for applied art purposes as a lot of her work is on the website Ohh Deer where the illustrations are seen on different objects such as mugs, cards and t-shirts. 

This particular piece of work is successful as (like the other pieces) it uses minimalistic colours but the image is still clear. The text on the piece adds to the humour of the piece. The hand written style to the font suits the rest of the design which proves it has been experimented with before the final piece has been created. 

Although, the piece has less successful elements to it such as the font which could be slightly improved if it was more similar to the style she uses on her other work.

Did she experiment with lower case letters to create the piece?

The product that Gemma Correll has chosen to place the design on is functional making it a strong piece of applied art. 

Rob Hodgson

These pieces of work are strong because of the idea behind the designs which add a humorous/satirical approach to the pencils. I believe the depressed pencils are a stronger idea than the burger pencils as they only work when they are all together. However, it's a good idea if a group of friends get one each as it works as a turn on friendship bracelets. 

The designs on the packaging have been printed where the pencil covers have been printed and wrapped onto the pencils. The design on the front of the burger packaging has added humour as I explained before with the pencils being separate as a hand is grabbing sections of the burger. 

As a pencil it is successful because of the thought that has gone into the idea of the product. They are completely functioning pencils that will be appealing to artists who are interested in his work.

Marcus Oakley

This piece is from an original painting created by Marcus Oakley which has now been printed onto a tote bag for ASOS who printed as part of a giveaway. 

The piece is successful printed onto the canvas bag with the use of one colour which means it can be mass produced meaning more people can get it and recognise his work. However, I personally think that the bag would have been more appealing if it had more colour to it even if only one more is added to fill in the body of the cat. 

Study Task 2 - Practice

Stephanie Unger

When Unger was younger she began drawing with her older sister who was also creative at the time. They used to watch films together and make their own versions of the characters they saw as well as designing their own comic books. She creates portraits and anything from everyday life that inspires her ALWAYS using vivid colours whether its in her sketchbooks or the final designs.

“Using vibrant colours has always been very important to me when producing work. For me it’s not just about putting good looking colour combinations together but making sure the colours set the right feeling to my images.”

The use of vivid colours with minimal or no outline to her designs is what attracts me to her work the most. I myself sometimes find it daring to work with no outline although Stephanie has worked in her practice for some time and goes straight ahead with her bold colours straight onto the page. I particularly like that she chooses to look at everyday objects and interesting bedroom/bathroom scenes which appear throughout her work rather than trying hard to go out and find something interesting which would look too much with the use of such strong colours.

Stephanie Unger uses Posca pens to create her work which is why her work has such vivid flat colours throughout. Her sketchbook work as well as her final pieces are all created using the pens. 

“I’ll often begin [an illustration] just by grabbing a sketchbook and start drawing until I get an idea and then develop that until I’m happy,” 

Stephanie Unger bases her work around her surroundings and draws items that she finds interesting whether she has seen it on television or when she's out. She creates a lot of scenes that are typical home scenes such as the bedroom or bathroom that often relate to sex. She is often attached to everyday environments that her audience can relate to.

Unger tends to draw people as well as different objects which could be as she is a London based illustrator so she always surrounded by a crowd. London is clearly seen as a massive influence in her work as she focuses on the 'exotic' elements of the city such as food products she sees in local independent shops which is emphasised with the bold colours.

I personally like her pieces with minimal use of colour because it is how I would like to produce my own work with no outline by using screen printing, acrylic paint or possibly pens which I intend on experimenting with more to create my future work.

The first time I saw her work was at a Basement gig on one of their shirts although I did not recognise her as an artist at first I found myself looking further into her work. 

BIG HEADS - Stanley Chow

• Been a freelance illustrator for about 20 years
• Mainly does portraits of people (celebs, footballers etc)
• Foundation course at Manchester School of Art
• Did his degree in Swindon down south
• Started off with painting but moved onto digital work
• If he sees something interesting on TV he instantly draws it whether it is buildings, sci fi or people.
• At the point in his career where he doesn't have free time to do personal work
• Converts faces into shapes using Adobe Illustrator
•  Positioning of facial features make the person recognisable (dots for eyes, triangle nose and simple mouth shape)
• Less detail tends to be a better result
• Works better when he needs the client more than they need him (such as White Stripes USB sticks for their album)
• Wing it 
• Illustrate more of the things you're interested in (do them to get more people to notice you doing things you love rather than what you're being told to do)
• Pricing for clients can be a struggle because it goes to a design agency for a quote

DO WHAT YOU LOVE, WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, DON'T THINK ABOUT GRADES

Level 5/6 Work

This particular piece by Leah Rose was the first piece to stand out to me whilst looking at higher levels work because it is a quick drawing in her sketchbook although it has been well planned as colour has been used on the glasses frame making it stand out against the rest of the drawing.

Looking at the Level 5/6 summer sketchbooks allowed me to see the amount of work and development that they have achieved over the past 4 months which has inspired me to draw a lot more in my free time to further enhance my own skills.

Sam Metcalf sketchbook particularly stood out to me as he has taken the time to draw and paint each image until it has been completely finalised to a high quality standard.

Certain sketchbooks showed a lot more development than others as these had stuck to the same idea throughout the summer and managed to finalise a strong 'final piece' in their sketchbook which has been slowly progressing as the characters have been repeatedly drawn.

Study Task 1 - Image, Idea, Context

I chose this image as Pippa Toole is one of my personal favourite freelance illustrators for her unique style which is consistent throughout every piece of her work. This particular piece is a bold statement with the use of minimalistic colours and how each part of the image has a dog reference which shows the work is well planned and thought out before the final piece is created.

The image is a digital print on coloured paper using only monochrome colours and handwritten font. It is a successful piece because the use of colour for the background makes the poster as a whole stand out. The dog itself does not have an outline which makes the design a lot more simplistic and flat next to the background. The monochrome shades remind me of old punk show posters which relates to the made up band name 'Butthole Sniffers'.

The idea of the piece is successful as there is are references which are dog related throughout the whole piece making the theme consistent. It is clearly shown that this particular dog is a bad bitch (literally) as she is wearing minimal leather/PVC clothing in black. Also a sign of rebellion is shown in the text of the poster such as 'NO CATS. NO COPS'. 

The print was originally made for Common Bar in Manchester where an exhibition took place involving a dog motorcycle gang. Pippa Toole and other members of Skull Paradise collaborated to create the gang which featured leather jackets, wanted posters and life-size vinyl stickers of the gang members themselves.