Vintage Collage Experiments

In Depth Analysis of Raphael Vicenzi

These pieces of art work were designed and created by the artist Raphael Vicenzi. He is a 35 male from Brussels, Belgium. He has been recognised by established art publication mediums such as Illustration now 3, The Beautiful, Advanced Photoshop, Digital Arts and many other books, publications and on the web. I have chosen to analyse these pieces because this style of illustration is one I would like to take on board for my own work in the near future. This is a style that I would like to master and use  this watercolour style of illustration within my illustrations. I have loked around for interviews or blogs of Raphael Vicenzi and I found it very difficult to find many detailed texts from the artist. I eventually found an interview where Raphael Vicenzi opens up and explains his artistic background. In this interview he explains where he draws some of inspiration from and why he has made certain artistic choices in his work. Source. 

The theme of Raphael Vicenzi's work seems to be a theme of experience and his personal view translated through illustration. The work is very powerfully illustrated partly through the art style itself but also the colour used and the way the are mixed and merged. It is also emotive of the message it is supposed to be proposing. The Raphael Vicenzi has tried to instill a deeper meaning to his works especially through his use of typography in his illustrations normally being thought provoking words such as "Riot" or "Truth".

The techniques used are watercolours with markers and pencil to get the initial effect and the images are edited and sharpened up on Adobe Photoshop on a PC. The colour is one of the most important parts of the images that Raphael Vicenzi produces because its the softness of the watercolour coupled with the actual colours that he chooses that create a mood in the creation. Also the shapes that these watercolour colours are presented in also contributes towards the stunning effect produced.

In Depth Analysis of Julia Pott work

Both of theses pieces of work were designed and created by Julia Pott who is a animator, illustrator and Royal College of Art graduate with an MA in animation and resides in Brooklyn New York. She has received high commendations as she was named by Flimmaker Magazine on the 25 New Faces of Independent Film. The name of the two pieces of work are, at the top 'Here With Me' and at the bottom is called 'Kissed'. These two pieces were handmade and illustrated by Julia herself drawn with pencil and the colour was applied through a computer. the two creations were made two years apart, 'Kissed' being made in 2012 and 'Here With Me' made in 2010. These two creations were both made for personal illustration and not for one of the few independent films that Julia Pott has also been successful  with. I have chosen to analyse these particular pieces as I am about to undertake an illustration exam brief and I would like to approach the piece similarly to theses pieces.
I have found sources that have given me a deeper understanding of Julia Potts work this was through an interview that she did with inkygoodness. In this interview she gives te audience an opportunity to understand her artistic choices and how she names and approaches drawing her characters. Source. I think that the theme of most of Julia Potts's work is the illustration of more awkward moments of everyday life that are not normally talked about openly but she choses to bring them to the forefront without actually speaking about it, I think she picks up on the feelings of people that are not normally expressed openly. The style and techniques used for Julia Potts pieces is line drawing and colour illustration, and expert level of depth is used in Julia Potts pieces as depicted in each of these images. The use of colour in these images is cleverly applied as it makes sure not to distract from the focal part of the image and also allows the characters to always be the centre of attention. The two pictures represent there characters differently as in 'Kissed' it is quite a tight shot with the background scenery still involved but as an afterthought to the characters where as in 'Here With Me' its a much wider shot and the background colours and shapes are almost as important as the characters creating a setting for the charcters. In 'Here With Me' there is quite a large focus on pattern on different parts and this adds a different dimension to that piece on the other hand in 'Kissed' the focus is more on texture especially on the ground which is a intricately detailed illustration of dry land with small patches of grass also the fur of the characters is very detailed which is comprehensive of Julia Potts style.

Exam Brief Moodboards

Minmap for Briefs

Final Poster and Logos

Evaluation of Personal Project

For this project we were able to choose what we were going to do but it must tie into the CD packaging project. We then created are very own brief for how we wanted to go about the project in any medium we wanted.

I started off by creating 3 unique initial ideas as a starting point before developing them as mood boards  and putting elements of them all into a mindmap. After all the planning I decided to act upon making a authentic tour poster and t shirt for the tour as promotional products for the tour. I then proceeded to analyse Nikki Pilkington and Johnny Cheuk as these were artists that enjoyed mixing materials and different types of media to produce different outcomes. I also analysed two posters that J Cole, my artist  had used previously and through analysis of the posters I used them as inspiration for my own work. I then started the experimentation phase, experimenting with different tutorials found on Youtube and handmade work inspired directly by Nikki Pilkington, I found this stage the best in terms of development of ideas and general progression especially in terms of thinking towards my final.

 I finally started my final outcome and I felt extremely confident about starting as I knew exactly how I was going to do it and was eager to turn my thoughts into reality. I started by creating a base photo I could use for my idea but this would mean merging three completely different images together to create a whole new independent photograph which i had learnt earlier this year. This was already difficult as because of the resolution from the poor camera combined with the mirror having noticeable streaks on it meant as well as working through several layers of masking I also had to use the mixer brush tool on specific setting to disguise the streaks not to spoil the entire piece.

After creating the photo I added the effects starting on the evil side, I added the flames masking and texturing them so they looked as authentic and genuine as possible on the body, I turned up the levels and hue saturation layers and masked it to the left side and the light would be most noticeable on that sideI also added and extra glow layer and masked it over the body to add an effect of heat coming off from the flames.

I then advanced on to the good side of the image, I used an energy ball photoshop tutorial I had found in independent study and experimented with it to create the aura effect I was looking for, I also applied it in different ways with different strength layering them to show the power radiating from the model. After initially completing the aura through assistance from the tutorial I decided that it was still not exactly the effect I desired and changed some of the layer setting to make the lighting more radiant and shimmering adding the star tool effect I had created to the aura as well.

I created the title using the same effects that I had used for there associating parts of the image, and fonts that correspond with the affect that it is supposed to represent before masking them in to the original image. The image was then put into traditional poster format using the analysis of J Coles previously used posters that had inspired me.

I am very pleased with how my outcomes have come out altogether as a whole because I feel that they have come out exactly how I envisioned which is always the goal when you start out. I also feel that the poster is very realistic and something that could potentially be used for real in the real world.