Tuesday 6 November 2012



Visual culture essay notes & ideas

American high school culture & films that embrace this theme:

American Beauty

Thirteen

Donnie Darko

Elephant

Welcome to the Dollhouse







identity, friendships, relationships, values, morals, social dynamics, materialism, self perception,                             hedonism



Sunday 14 October 2012

Refined list of 3 practioners

Luke Dixon

Luke Dixon is a young English illustrator who graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in Fine Art. He has been obsessed with drawing from a very young age and would rush home from school to draw, even extending his canvas to on his parents walls. He says his fascination with art "comes from the enjoyment and excitement of that clean piece of paper, and knowing you're about to get stuck into another piece of artwork".

Luke tends to do many rough sketches in his sketchbook before copying them lightly onto his paper. He then lines everything up, and then, when satisfied with the result, he inks in the final piece. Although he says he is beginning to use the computer more often to manipulate images, he prefers to leave many of his drawings as they are.

He says he has never struggled for ideas and has always had a slightly mangled perspective on things. When he realised that drawing would become his career his ideas combined with his inspiration and gradually developed into his current work. He describes the the Impressionist movement as "amazing" and says a huge influence on him and his work was Tristan Manco's book, 'Stencil Graffiti'. Another significant influence to Luke is Egon Schiele. 

At present he is working on composing and creating his own illustration book, which will consist of a drawing that he does everyday for a year. He is also currently undertaking a T-shirt design project.

Luke's work is available to buy on his website shop, http://www.thebearhug.com/ and he prices his work from about £100 up to £300, although his smaller prints and T-shirts are around £15 - £35.





Jack Hudson



                                                                                                                                          Jack Hudson is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in Salamanca, Spain. He describes his style as colourful, playful and rich in textures. His illustrations are dominated by human figures in various surrealist yet everyday situations, giving him a vast range of topics that enrich his signature style. His use of colour and texture and the latent ideas in the strokes bestow his illustrations with a positive feel, a sense of proximity, peacefulness and fantasy all at the same time.

Jack says his inspirations vary, "Sometimes if I have a new project on I'll spend hours creating folders of inspiration taken from the Internet which I can reference when I create new work. On the other hand, inspiration can often come when you least expect it, whether you're taking a walk through the park or people watching. I feel most inspired when I am away from my studio and out the house."

His artistic influences comprise of Charley Harper and David Hockney, highlighting their work aesthetic and hard working ethic. 

Jack usually works with the same materials: pencil, black Indian ink, gouache and a folder of scanned textures to work with digitally.

Jack sells his work through the shop on his website: http://www.jack-hudson.com/ and his price range varies from £30 - £45.




Phillipp Zurmöhle

Phillip Zurmöhle is a German freelance graphic designer and illustrator who also works at Adidas creating apparel graphics. He studied at the University of Hiroshima, Japan.

He defines his style as "simple, excessive and dark". His work is situated somewhere between realism and abstraction. He has produced digital works representing distant worlds, however his most dominant work consists of many brilliantly realistic illustrations of humanised animals with small touches of colour to provide contrast. 

Phillipp is inspired by hip hop. Joseph Beuys and his friends. Recently he has been impressed by the Graffuturism  movement, in which graffiti artists take a more abstract, innovative direction. He also mentions Mr Jago, one of his long-time favourite artists, whose artworks still trigger his imagination.

Phillipp sells his work as prints, stretched canvases, and on stationary cards, iPhone cases, tote bags, hoodies and T-shirts. His work and merchandise can be bought here, http://society6.com/phillennium/prints, and the prices range from £15 to £95.






















Keywords from 30 practioners

Urban

Graffiti

Narrative

Vintage

Digital media

Inks

Collage

Animals

Playful

Simple

Colourful

Typography 

Surreal

Retro

Watercolour


Suggested practioners from group based on keywords: 

Simon Schubert

Sua Yoo

Helen Chadwick