Exhibition Text: In my piece "Whiteface Mountain" I try to capture the essence of beauty from that which our earth has created. I work to do this through the illustration style of Colin Elgie, I capture Elgie's use of text as well as their use of rounded shapes.
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. The image to the left is my first inspiration, it is a piece of work for a book done digitally. I wanted to focus more specifically on the background, the landscape of it. I really liked the colors used and all of the rolling hills and countryside and wanted to base my illustration off of something similar. Wanted to use similar colors to this piece as well. as I explain in my planning work. I also wanted to include the trees and things much more than the houses or roads, So I mostly wanted to t=focus on the natural aspect of his work.
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My second Inspiration comes from an image taken by photographer Alexander Sviridov. It is a photograph of the Whiteface Mountains in Wilmington, New York ( a very far north part of New York. I chose this specific photo because I felt that it captured just about every aspect from the other inspiration image by Colin Elgie. It not only captures the hills and mountains and countryside, but also a lot of the color I was looking for. This photo is from the fall, and I think that it captures even the way that the colors land and that is why I felt it would be the perfect image to use for my illustration. It also helps me for when I do my negative/opposite illustration.
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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 noticed and made a note about the fact that the text in the top right hand corner of the piece is the artwork's title, and so I did the same in mine. I also noted that the sky uses a combination of blues and purples to help show the time of day that it is. One other thing I noted about color was the color of the hills and the land in general tended to be more earthy tones as one would expect. Then at the bottom I note most or all of the things that I want and did include in my illustration.
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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 image off of. I explain in it the colors to use different factors and details to include in my illustration. I wanted to use green, oranges, reds, yellows, blues, purples, and blacks because I wanted to use brighter more "happy" colors. I also planned out where I want to use each color and put the text. I also note the way the photograph shows distance.
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In my final planning page I outlined and did a rough sketch of the illustration and planned out angles as well as colors. Later in my final version added a few things to the piece to make connections between my two illustrations. In the green section though, you can see that I talk about using lighter greens towards the left and as they move right they get darker, this is because of the yellows that are mixed in with it that make it lighter.
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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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The next thing that I experimented with was the text, I tried out a few different styles of text to see what I liked best and what I felt would work the best with the actual end result, and the image to the left is what I decided on, I felt that the classic bold box letters worked the best and emphasized my title to best extent that it could.
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Another thing that I experimented with was the use of shading, and color mixing/blending within the piece. In the image to the right you can see how I did this in the mountains, and how I used blacks and blues as well as browns to mix colors and get a darkened peak effect and look similar to that of the original photograph.
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In this photo I show how I experimented with different weights of color in order to show depth, and how colors show up. you can see reddish browns popping up similarly to how they do in the original image. In this photo I also show off more of the technique from before with the mountain tops in order to reduce rough edges and smooth out the image, but create a sense of depth and angle with the piece.
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In the final image I show the experimentation and use of color blocking as well as the blending of colors within my piece. Another technique that shows up within this image is the use of color as a way to show distance of objects, as seen with the blues in order to show the atmospheric fog when an object is so far away.
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Process:
To start out I drew in some lines so as to mark out where the tops of the mountains were, and I don't show it in this image, but I also marked out where the lake lies. I did this to give myself an idea of where the colors go based on the basis image as well as my planning sketch from before. This really helped later on with all of the colors being added.
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The next thing I did was add the blues, blacks, purples, and browns to create depth as explained in my experimentation but also to add color. Another thing I added was the title of the piece, as seen in the top right hand corner. I started to color this in. I decided to have any part of it that was in the blue section be blue, but the rest I colored in as grey later on.
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The next thing that I added was small in size, but big in importance. I added a small airplane in the distance about the mountains in order to use it as a way of connecting my two illustrations between each other. It also works because of Colin Elgie's use of transportation even in this inspiration with the bus. This plane is very similar to that of the one in negative/opposite drawing because I like to think that it is flying from or too New York and that it is telling us a story.
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The next process photo shows an almost complete version of the illustration. I have most of the reds as well as most of the yellows in the image and I just have to do the greens next. I have also added dark patches in to signify hills within and have done different grades of shading throughout the image to show different densities of forest.
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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 as well as the use of text within both pieces to convey the title.
- 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 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 nature/ the countryside and both also include a form a 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 found that there are many beautiful places in this world that we should all go ad see, because with the way that we treat this world, and the way that it's headed, it could all be gone before we know it.
Citations:
- Colin Elgie - Biography, www.colinelgie.com/colinelgie-biogr.html.
- Elgie, Colin. “x.” Illustration, www.illustrationx.com/artists/ColinElgie/124071.
- Saunders, Tanner. “The Most Beautiful Places in New York Just off the Beaten Path.” Thrillist, www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/most-beautiful-places-in-new-york.
- Elgie, Colin. “x.” Illustration, www.illustrationx.com/artists/ColinElgie/124071.
- Saunders, Tanner. “The Most Beautiful Places in New York Just off the Beaten Path.” Thrillist, www.thrillist.com/lifestyle/new-york/most-beautiful-places-in-new-york.