George Bellows

I recently went to see an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, of American printmakers and discovered the work of George Bellows, in particluar, "a stag at sharkey's". This brilliant print is such a great action shot, I can really feel the movement of the two boxers and the physical struggle that is happening.

Figure Project: Abstracters

Paul Wearing
Lasse Skarbovik


These are two great designers I've researched who abstract the figure in their designs. Paul Wearing creates brilliant figures with a slightly abstract feel, but their is an inherent strength and cohesion to them. Lasse Skarbovik's use of shapes to build up the figure is very simple but looks amazing and gives off a great character to his designs, strecthing the limit of what the figure can do and be.

www.lasseskarbovik.com

www.paulwearing.co.uk

Figure Project: Stylists

Jonny Hannah

Gary Taxali

Christopher Corr

These are some of the artists I've researched who deal with the figure in quite a stylistic way.
Jonny Hannah's brilliant figures are simple but really evoke the message of his illustrations.
Gary Taxali often repeats the same characters in his works, his figures are beautifully drawn and give off a real sense of personality.
Christopher Corr's vibrant images have a great sense of fun and his stylised characters fit perfectly with this.

Jonny Hannah's works
www.garytaxali.com
www.christophercorr.com

Figure Project: Drawers

Some belated research for the figure project...

Firstly we have Ian Pollock, a fantastic illustrator, his quick, erratic mark making really gives his drawings a characterful quality and captures the essence of the person who it is depicting.



This is a piece of work by David Hughes, his drawings are brilliant and his style is very reminiscent of charicatures, I really enjoy the quality of line in his work.




These are a couple of illustrations by David Downton, his drawings are amazing, his expressive, free style is something I really envy, as is the way he leaves things out but it still makes sense as an image.



www.ianpollock.co.uk
www.davidhughesillustration.co.uk
www.daviddownton.com

Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad17d5hR5s

These are two fantastic videos of stop motion animation paintings done by artist "blu", they have been my main point of reference for my work so far, and I was sure almost from the minute Eleanor showed me them that I wanted to work in a similar way. The looseness and character of the images really appeal to me the most.

Critical Studies - Artist and their influences...

The artist I chose was John Howe, on of my favourite artists, he named some of his influences as Frank Frazetta, the Godfather of fantasy art, and Barry Smith, a great comic book artist who has produced some brilliant work for a "Conan" series of comics. The fact that Howe named these people as his influences doesnt surprise me all that much as Howe's work is also very figurative and based on myths and legends or fantasy themes. However, Howe's work is brilliantly informed by his extensive knowledge of arms and armour from many different periods.

John Howe

Frank Frazetta

Barry Smith

www.john-howe.com
www.frankfrazetta.org
www.barrywindsor-smith.com

Shaped By Fate - They Told Me You Were Dead

This is a video I found while listening to some music, reminds me of the Basic Design Module for some reason... The mixture of animation and film is brilliant especially from about 2mins30 onwards...