Nathan...?: April 2011

Thursday, 28 April 2011

Monday, 18 April 2011

Boat Making

Ok, so you find a river, lake, pond, bath tub, sink, anything with water, and then you find a piece of tall grass / reed. (Reed apparently works best, but i made do with a tall shoot of grass form the river bank).

You then proceed to fold round the piece of grass / reed until you are about halfway up the shoot.

With the remaining top part of the grass / reed, you then have to wrap it around the folded base to form and hold together what is to be the main part of the boat. Be sure to only wrap about half of the remaining shoot.

With the last section of the very top of the shoot still available too you, tuck it through the centre of what is to be the base of the boat and bring it up through, creating the sail.

Complete!... Now set sail!

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Why Have I Chosen Illustration?

The main reasons for choosing to study Illustration at BA Hon Degree level, is that I feel Illustration suited my styles of working best. I haven’t always known that I’d be going to study an art form further, but it became clear to me throughout the past few years of my school life that an art subject was the way forward. I took the steps of applying for a local foundation course in Art and Design after my time at 6 ^th form, and from that chose to take Illustration further as my chosen topic.
I’ve always felt hampered by never knowing what career path I’ve wanted, therefore I have struggled in defining what particular topics to study and how to make big decisions related to my future academic studies and career direction.

What swayed me towards illustration during my foundation course was how I’ve always enjoyed the idea of making statements, making a stand and challenging majority views. From this I thought that illustration would be my best way forward.
I believe that communication through art is very important in this ever-growing world of debate and I’d like to help others around me to view the world in a positively different way.

I’m interested in 60s/70s music and surf artwork along with Art Nouveau. These have inspired my thoughts and design ideas into creating similarly influenced pieces. I collect Vinyl records from a variety of classic bands. What I feel is so important about vinyl, is that it’s a physical form of art; more than just the music; the sleeve the record comes in is also art, and it’s that that I love just as much as the bands and their music. Rick Griffin has been my biggest influence to date. His work on various classic albums, working for bands such as The Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, and the Cult. Rick also produced surf inspired artwork, comic strips, and music posters. He was, along with Alton Kelley, Stanley ‘Mouse’ Miller, Victor Moscoso and Wes Wilson, known as one of the ‘Big Five’ of psychedelia. In 1967 they founded the Berkeley-Bonaparte distribution agency to produce and sell psychedelic poster art.
Rick’s style of working is something I regard as very ‘me’. The attention to detail, the musical, psychedelic, and later on Christian references, all played a part in why I dwell on his works and regard them highly as influences.

In the future, perhaps I’d like to take the same route as Rick and work for myself, maybe collaborate with fellow illustrators/ designers and start a movement of challenging views. Perhaps I will resort to surf artwork, album covers or produce work relating to, and for the church. Hopefully the next 2 years will help me to define my unique style of working and allow me to open up new doors and possibilities preparing me for the future.

That is why I have chosen illustration as a BA (hons) Degree course.