Pick Me Up Exbitition

The Pick Me Up Exhibition was an contemporary graphic art fair experience run at Somerset House from 22 March - 1 April 2012. I found this event very insightful, discovering such a large variety of graphic art that I had never come across before and I found it exciting to see in real life some of the artists that I had heard of and researched previously. Some of the artist which were related to the illustration brief that I chose were Chris Dent, David Sparshatt and Zelbot. The artist gave us an insight into how to create pieces similar to there own which will help in my final outcomes and there will definitely be hints of there work in mine where i have tried to incorporate all the i have learned from this art fair as possible.

Postage Stamp Analysis

These are postage stamps from Manchester and are worth one penny which in the time period would have been the average amount spent on a single postage stamp in England. They have been very well preserved seeing as they are so dated, they have only suffered minor discolouration to the powerful and vivid red base colour. The design with stamp is similar to modern money in which their is a portrait of a person; most likely part of the royal family which can be assumed from the crown at the top of the stamp  and arches on either side with the lion underneath signifying England.

In depth analysis of paper made creation by Peter Callesen

This is Peter Callesen's paper art piece called 'A Distant Wish', my first reaction to the piece was that I liked how delicate and intricate it looked also the way it is almost a pop up of the paper showing a transition from 2D to 3D. The part that drawsmy attention the most is the bird figure especially the wings which are extremely detailed even detailing the ridges and feathers in he wings would be which fit perfectly proportionate to the body of the hummingbird. I feel like this piece resembles freedom because it as if the hummingbird has escaped the paper and is spreading its wings to get away or has escaped the 2D element of the flat paper. It also emotes a sense happiness which related to the freedom, happy that its free from the paper and leaving the cut out behind to get to the flower which is also free from its 2D form.
I think that the piece is symbolic to feeling of breaking free of limitations going for what you want in life as the hummingbird is breaking free from the limits of 2D and basic shape and features to get to the flower which is what it would want, so i think that interpretation is easy to get from the piece and the desired effect.
I think the choice not to use colour adds to power of the piece because it keeps the emphasis on the objects themselves whereas if it had a lot of colour it may take away from the message it is truing to present and the viewer would lose the focus on freedom and just concentrate on the painting and any detail presented through the paint. The white works really well with the concept of the piece because it keeps your attention to what the piece is trying to portray and allows you to recognise the detail of the 3D sculptures more clearly on the wings and tail parts of the sculpture. The usage of space is key to capturing the concept of getting what you want because it reflects pursuing what you what and going to get it because of the space between the bird and the flower.

This is the type of artistry that is normally associated with Peter Callesen whom lately has mainly been doing paper sculpting and other forms of art mainly using the medium of paper to make pieces of art and then photographing them in a way which accentuated the visuals of the piece and made the main focus easily noticeable as the focus of the piece.

                     

Exam Unit Moodboard

In depth analysis of paper made creation by Zim and Zou

My first reaction to the work is that I think it is a very creative and expressive creation of what an ordinary object is and I like that aspect of it because I think it is more impressive to view a piece that has a twist to it or the artist has put some personality to it. The part that draws my attention the most is definitely the earth in the center because it is the main focus and the light is hitting it just right for it to be easily noticeable that it is the main part. This is a very fun and light hearted piece which you can tell from the cartoon style used such as the clouds in typical cartoon style, intentionally not adding to much realism to the piece to keep it fun. 

I think this piece represents the beauty of earth in simplistic form to make it more obvious; the colours used, arrangement of the surroundings of the earth and the lighting is what makes the representation of earths beauty even more poignant. this message may spread further to cover preserving the beauty of the earth by recycling, this can be assumed by another Zim and Zou piece on that topic in similar style. 

This type of art is paper installation where you use paper as your main or only material in a piece this is not only difficult in terms of creating solid forms but using your imagination to make something out of paper is no easy task. Zim and Zou have not only successfully made a creation out of paper but pulled it off in such a magnitude their mastery of paper has allowed them to create an environment of sorts using smaller planets and 'paper planes' with colour combinations and gradients of colour which mesh very well together to create 3D space experience.

I think they used paper to make this installation because it is impressive technically in terms of aesthetics but i think they chose paper for its texture qualities, the texture of paper is perfect for this kind of piece especially as it is 3D the thin and lightness of the paper compliments those aspects of the hanging installation.   

AS Graphics Trip

I felt that the Graphics Trip, the Hayward Gallery exhibitions was definitely geared towards my brief of illustration and therefore I found it very informative and enlighten in the types of art that can be made for illustration and actually how much thought is put into the pieces to give them such powerful messages. I found David Shringley's part to be more interesting as did most of the other students Deller's dents, i felt that his more quirky, crude stye gave him an edge and this edginess was embraced by the group. Jeremy Deller's part was in my opinion more plain and ordinary compared to David Shringley's. Jeremy Deller's use of colour is very literal and this can sometimes be boring if they images are quite straight forward to begin with. DAvid Shringley's colour usage was almost child like which appealed to us and had a sense of freedom and wittiness to it, his popularity proved that sometimes strange is more interesting.