Exhibition Text: In my piece "Gritty NYC" I show what we have done to our world through construction and how we have hurt it and put a stain on it. I do this through the illustration style of Colin Elgie. In this same piece I use transportation similarly to how Colin Elgie does.
Inspiration:
The inspiration for this piece came from an illustration artist by the name of Colin Elgie. My artist tends to use graphic designing for the finals but does the roughs as hand drawn works. Most of his works are used by companies and publishing agencies for books and other things. Most of his work tries to take on the feel of a poster that you might see if you were in the 1930s or 40s. In the piece to the left I wanted to focus on the buildings in the back, I wanted to focus on the cityscape as a way to contradict and show the opposite of the piece since the last piece was the countryside. I also wanted to include some form of transportation or multiple similarly to how Colin does in a lot of his pieces. I also wanted to use colors similar to him but maybe even dull them down a bit more in order to show color difference between the pieces and give me another opposite/negative. Another thing about this inspiration image is that the cityscape in the background is of New York City which is also where my illustration takes place.
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My second inspiration was this photograph taken by photographer Timothy Hughes. This photo was taken from using an older film camera which is why the photo is so grainy. This photo was the basis of my illustration because it is a photo of New York. This connects back to my other inspiration, Colin Elgie, because of the fact that it's New York. I chose this image in particular because of the river, the angle at which you see the buildings, as well as the colors. I wanted this image to capture the colors I was going to use similarly to my last illustration. I really wanted to show that kind of contrast between the two images. another thing I like about this image is the smokestacks in the background, because when you compare my two illustrations it adds to the idea of us taking over and killing this planet.
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Planning:
In my first planning sketch I take my first inspiration and I break it down, picking apart each thing I want to use from it as well as making notes on different parts and aspects of it. I made a note about the colors to use to not only create the best climate/ theme within my work, but also to contrast it from my last piece, the positive. I also talk about how I want to mainly focus on the skyscrapers and landscape within the background for this piece, I talk about how I may use one or two forms of transportation, but not have them be my main focus within the piece.
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In the second planning page I did the same thing as the first, and broke down and analyzed the inspiration image that I based my final illustration off of. In my sketch I focused on four different sections of the city in the image that I wanted to focus on in order to incorporate everything I did, I wanted to focus on a few buildings that still got my point across, but not to the full image. I also explain the kinds of colors I saw within the image that I wanted to use in order to create a similar feel to the inspiration.
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In my final planning page I outlined and did a rough sketch of the illustration and planned out angles, although later on in the final I still changed the angle a little further to better accommodate new additions for the piece. Later in my final version added a few things to the piece to make connections between my two illustrations. In this sketch I include the boat, plane, and smoke stacks, as well as different shapes and sizes of skyscraper. You can definitely see the correlation between both this sketch and the final illustration.
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Experimentation:
The first thing I experimented with, and started doing, was testing out each color to see how they looked. I also took each color and made light to dark marks so as to see how they would each look and I knew what I was working with. Throughout both illustrations I referenced back to this in order to help me make the best color choices.
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In this photo it shows my experimentation with the different types of roofing on buildings, as well as how I used that to try and show distance between buildings since you couldn't make out and pattern on the farther roof, but you could on this closer one. I also show the pattern through harder lines contrasted with lighter shades on the rest. One other thing that you can see in this photo is the use of dark lines to show borders between buildings and show that the buildings are not connected.
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In order to show the smoke billowing out of the smokestacks I would swirl the pencil in a very tight circle, this created darker lines within the piece and so I used a concept in my piece of the darker the smoke was the closer to the front it is. Another thing that I did with the smoke, specifically on the boat, I had the wind carry it slightly, but then since the boat is moving the smoke is moving more than that on the smokestacks behind the house. I used the smoke as a way to show movement of the boat.
I experimented with different colors and shapes as a way to show color change and change of season with the tree. I also swirled the colors similarly to how I did the smokestacks as a way to create the leaves, because I had never done it this way before, and I found that this worked the best and looks much more realistic than how I used to do it.
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Process:
These two images are some of the images just after I had finished laying out the illustration. In these two images I focused on the plane and boat, because of the use of transportation within Elgie's work. Elgie uses planes more often than boats I noticed, but in this specific artwork that is my inspiration he does use the boat.
This is a more zoomed out photo of the two photos from before. this is roughly what the piece looked like before much color was added to it. In this photo, I want to specifically focus on the tree in the lower left corner. I use this tree as a way of connecting both the positive and the negative. Since the last illustration (my positive) was focused on nature, specifically the New York Countryside in the middle of fall with the leaves changing, I felt that the tree was a very good way to call back to that.
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In this photo it shows how I started to add color. I did this by adding yellow with the windows to show light shining through. I tried to randomize the placement of the lighting in order to add a sense of character to the piece. I also tried to keep the buildings with as little detail as possible similarly to how Elgie does in his piece. Another thing shown in the piece is the smoke billowing out of the boat and smokestacks, I also colored in both of them.
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This is a picture of the final piece. you can see the use of colors and how I tried to use as many grays and browns as I could in order to get the gritty, grungy look, I also added a street sign to help reinforce the idea that this is New York City, on the sign it says broadway since that is a very well known street. Another thing I did within the piece was color over the yellow with a grey, and then go over them again with the yellow. I did this in order to create a dimmed look within the windows.
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Critique:
Similarities:
- One similarity can be drawn from the color usage within both paintings. We both use brighter/ cheerier tones, as well as layout of said colors.
- Another similarity would be the setting of both illustrations.
- The final similarity would be the use of transportation within the piece, in particular the same kinds of transportation used.
- One difference between both pieces is the medium that is used. In my piece it is colored pencil and illustration board, in Elgie's it's digital.
- Another difference is What the piece is used for. Mine is being used as an art project, and trying to send a message, where as Elgie's piece is for the remake of a book, and was commissioned by a publishing company.
- One final difference would be the line work used. This is in part due to the medium, but when you look at the two pieces you can see lots of lines and stuff in mine, and when you look at Elgie's you see a very smoothly blended work.
Reflection:
I feel similarly about this piece as I do my last. I did not enjoy working with the medium we were given what so ever. I found it very difficult to blend it as well as get the lines and colors looking seamless. If I were to do this project over again and could change anything I would change the medium that we can do this with. I would have most likely chosen paint instead because I find that paint works better, and for my piece it is definitely a more seamless look. I also find it much easier to blend and work with overall. One thing that I did like about this project and my illustration in particular was the subject matter and artist inspiration that I chose, I feel like I executed that very well and chose a really good artist that really spoke to me.
ACT Questions:
1.) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
- You can see a clear cause and effect relationship within the two pieces based off of the setting alone. both take place in the city (specifically New York to be exact) and both also include forms of transportation within them. Because I my author set the piece where they did, I took that and spun in to my own creation.
- My inspiration works methodically when it comes to there pieces they always first hand draw the rough drafts so as to have copies to come back to, and so as to have something to base the final off of, and so that they can see it as they work.
- When doing my research and actually doing the drawings for myself, I found that not everything is as it seems, and nothing will turn out how you expect it to. For example with my drawing I had a completely different idea in my head as to how it would turn out, I will be honest I thought it would be much better and much more intricate than it actually turned out to be, and thats because we all have this idea in our heads that we are so much better than we actually are.
- The central idea around my research was that all art is up to how you interpret it, and there are many different ways of executing it.
- While reading my research I made the inference that with the way that we are treating our earth and the toxins we are spewing into the world we soon wont have an earth, cities are huge polluters, and the smokestacks and transportation shows it.
Citations:
- Colin Elgie - Biography, www.colinelgie.com/colinelgie-biogr.html.
- Elgie, Colin. “x.” Illustration, www.illustrationx.com/artists/ColinElgie/59774.
- Hughes, Timothy. “New York City: Gritty.” Blog of Timothy Hughes, a Photographer in Madison, 12 Apr. 2014, www.th-photo.net/photo_blog/2009/03/new-york-city-gritty/.
- Elgie, Colin. “x.” Illustration, www.illustrationx.com/artists/ColinElgie/59774.
- Hughes, Timothy. “New York City: Gritty.” Blog of Timothy Hughes, a Photographer in Madison, 12 Apr. 2014, www.th-photo.net/photo_blog/2009/03/new-york-city-gritty/.