Illustration Research #9
BILL BRAGG
Award winning artist and Illustrator, Bill Bragg is known for his atmospheric images. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2005. He has illustrated four of Franz Kafka's works for 'The Folio Society' as well as their edition of Herman Melville's 'Complete Shorter Fiction'.
Bill Bragg's illustrations are beautiful. I love the lack of colour and the moodiness of each and every one. I visited his website and he has an entire section on narrative illustrations which was amazing. It was just the inspiration i needed to come up with my own narrative illustrations and his style is also really attractive to me. I feel like the images speak for themselves which is hard to achieve. There's so much story in each one and even though it's a rather simplistic style, he really has an eye for design and negative space. I also like how some of his works are laid out like comics. It separates the narrative a bit and gives more sense of a journey that the reader must follow. His work not only gives me inspiration for illustration styles but also narrative ideas.
I need to decide exactly what i want my narrative to be about. I know that it will definitely be set in a dystopian world that has become overrun by technology. These are the ideas so far. I need to make sure to keep it as simple as possible so i have room to develop:
- Secret letter service. Everything is watched, tracked and stored by the government. People aren't allowed to send letters anymore as it's deemed a form of secret communication.
-A world of conspiracy: Pigeons are government spies. A dark world overrun by pigeons that watch your every move.
-A world of conspiracy: A special vaccine against a deadly disease turns out to be a tracking device that logs your entire life onto the governments system.
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/archipelago-illustrations/
I came across this book, 'An Atlas of Imagined Islands' on 'Creative Review', as one of Bill Bragg's illustrations was featured in it (shown above). In the book, different illustrators dream up imaginary Islands. Wanting to know more and see all the Islands this book had to offer, i bought it off Amazon. It arrived the next day and is so beautiful; each page filled with a unique illustration, accompanied by a block of text to give some context around the image. Each one is so completely different from the other and it's so interesting to see how practitioners individually visualise an island. There's so much soul, creativity and detail in them all. They range from a classic treasure island/map layout, to an island made up of a woman. Already, i have gained so much inspiration from this book. I think the idea of creating a map for my world would make my life a lot easier; enabling me to really visualise how it will look, where everything will be and maybe create a journey for my protagonist. I can quite literally map out my narrative. I can set a tone for the narrative and therefore the illustrations, a colour palette and discover a lot about the world i'm creating through making a map. I also just think it will be a great way to establish the comic for the audience. I will do some experiments on photoshop to get some ideas flowing. I also need to begin writing the story.
I was particularly drawn to this map (shown above). I like how the artist has personified a landscape and portrayed this world as a really beautiful, abstract woman. Taking inspiration from this image, i decided to experiment in this style myself. This is what i came out with (shown below):
Complete:
It took me quite a while to establish my character and decide exactly how she would look, what kind of stance she would have etc. But once i got her general shape sorted, i was able to move onto the more intricate details. The first touch of colour i added was the yellow behind her head. It looks like it could be hair but in my mind i wanted it to represent the sun in this world. At first i wasn't sure about having so much colour but after experimenting with adding a bit more to the rest of the image, i decided that it added more to the image. This illustration began as a simple experiment but it actually turned into something i really liked and put a lot of time into. In one of the original drawings of her, i tried to drawn mountains around her neck but it didn't look right. It felt like i was trying too hard to make it aesthetically pleasing rather than focus on the actual world i want to create. This world isn't necessarily meant to be pretty. It's dark and corrupt with the occasional glimmer of light. With that in mind, i turned back to Bill Bragg's illustrations to gain some inspiration.
I love this illustration. The mood it conveys, the atmosphere it creates and its general design. Inspired by this, i created some train scenes to try and start to think about what kind of things i can have in this world. The train could be this world's main source of transport? I was guided by Bill Brag's style but tried to add my own style into it as well; in an attempt to find a style i could stick to and develop. Below is what i came up with:
I decided to create several of the same and just change the colour to give the illusion of movement through a space without the image actually having to change too much. I really liked the outcome however, i wasn't sure if i wanted to include so much colour in the illustrations. With the lady i had drawn first, she was just black, white and yellow which i quite liked. I'll experiment further and see what i prefer. With the lady/map that i drew, the idea of drawing layers of the world on her just happened as the illustration progressed. It really worked as it gives a sense of each section of the world i'm creating in little strips. You get snippets of the world you're about to enter before you enter it which i think is a strong way to start this comic. After creating these illustrations, i feel a lot more confident in the direction i'm headed and i feel as though i'm beginning to establish a style.
I thought about the theme of my narrative; How technology is becoming more omnipresent, and imagined how i could show that. After researching conspiracy theories, the recurring theme is that of watching and how society and everyone in it is always being watched. Art wise, the painting 'Dulle Griet' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder comes to mind when i think about some kind of all powerful monster watching over and causing chaos. In this painting, the monster is a part of the landscape like how Technology is a part of our landscape now.
'Dulle Griet'
I started to think about the possibility of personifying Technology in my illustrations.
Similar style and colour palette to the lady i drew previously.
Hundertwasser
I had a group tutorial with my theme 'Dependancy' and Jeremiah to discuss ideas. During the meeting, i showed the group the illustration of the lady. I got very positive feedback which was a relief, as i felt like i had looked at her so many times i was beginning to question if i actually liked it at all. So hearing positive things from fresh pairs of eyes was really helpful and brought me back down to earth a bit. Mariah suggested i look at the artist Hundertwasser, whose work she said reminded her a bit of the style i was going for. I had a look after the meeting and feel a bit in love. His images are so unique, abstract and vibrant. His use of colour is mesmerising and the figures in the images have become, if not, make up the landscapes in each of his illustrations. I also love his use of lines. It adds texture to the images and gives them more depth. They're almost psychedelic in feel which i really like. They transport you to a completely different world which i what i want to achieve through my comic.
This image reminds me of Dulle Griet.
The figures he depicts in his artwork make me think of the anime 'Attack on Titan'.
An Image from the comic book which came before the animated TV-Series:
'Attack on Titan' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous wall that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as Titans;. The story follows Eren Yeager, who vows to exterminate the Titans after a Titan brings about the destruction of his hometown and the death of his mother. I really enjoy the narrative of this comic/series. It's unique and actually rather terrifying. It gives me ideas to demonise Technology even further by personifying it and turning it into creatures, monsters maybe. I need to do some more drawing and experiment but it's definitely a push in the right direction.
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