I had to work on making a manifesto in a group, featuring 6 monsters that we made and represented us. We had to define a society, its rules, religion (or not religion).
Knowing the kind of society I would love to live in, I immediately thought of Les colories by Alexandre Jardin, a book for kids where children got rid of all the adults of the iland and found their own society, devoid of responsibilities and hard work, full of joy, colour. The kids live in trees, and their food come from pélicans, so they don't have to move all day, unless for playing.
How can this not inspire any society ?
I thought of this society applied to the monsters, who would live in a colourful world, where monsters would live in houses in trees, reliated by cocoons made of clothes, that they rejected.
With this idea, I looked at Sara Fanelli's style, that we could interpret as childish and colourful, which would get well with the society.
she uses collage, which would be the perfect medium to represent childhood, plus her characters are rather exagerreated, disproportionated, which would fit the story. I like that she used patterned paper for trees, this is why I used some for mine, using William Morris's
the idea to use bold colours for the bushes came from Bault, but he, instead of collage, mostly uses spray and acrylic. I also thought of adding lines, but then I thought the blocks of colours alone were enough.
Bault.
The house and design for the monsters came from Dulk
I also make this collage
In which I cut images from The Odysee, cut their heads to draw some monsters heads inspired by Sara Fanelli.
So. I had to a biography of Joseph Beuys, the post WWII german artist who was a pioneer in performance. He produced number of drawings, sculptures, performances and installations that were in a whole very political commitment. He mostly used felt, honey, grease, dead animals, blood, wood... He put in his work a mystical dimension, used the WWII as a recuring theme. He created the concept of social scuplture, that would allow to fairer society. He believed that every man is an artist, and that if everybody uses their creativity, all will be free.
Firtly, I thought about making a comic, as I was very inspired by Les Culottees, by Penelope Bagieu, which are short biographies of women who sometimes changed history by rebelling agaisnt the social pressure of their time.
Mae Jeminah, first afro-american astronaut, Hedy Lamar, inventor and actor, Wu Zetian, Chinese empress.
All of these have the same structure : their birth, their childhood/main interests, their particularities, the context (respectively the 60s segregation, WWII, and the 7th century, a time where the highest rank a woman could get was to be a concubine), their fights (to be taken seriouly, to change society or obtain power), their succes, their death.
They are short, but they tell enough. If I had done that, I would have used the same formula.
I also thought of doing a spiral where we would pull a strip that would take the character through his life
However, I felt like I could make something that was more revelant to Joseph, and after making a trip to the V&A to the costume section, I thought about making a reproduction of his famous felt costume, and telling his story from the top of his head (his birth) to the bottom of his feet (his death). I thought that telling his story through a body would rend a spiritual side, which was recurent in his work.
It would have been a performance. I would have worn the costume while drawing on the blackboard on my chest with a chalk, with a noise in the background of people talking. On the top of my head, there would have been a cutout picture of nazis, on my nose a crashed plane, on my arms the Tartars who saved Joseph, my arms bandaged in felt, the blackboard, then cutouts of Joseph at different stages of his life, and artwork.
At the end, I decided to make an animation. As I would have to make a lot of frames, I decided to simplify the visual of Joseph, and make a mix between Tom Gauld and Herge's styles, to make him look comic-ish.
Hergé.
I thought that keeping some of his characteristics would make him instantly re
cognizable, his bone cheeks, distorded nose and felt costume. That is enough. The change of expression would be expressed through the eyebrows and the mouth.
As I had never done animation before, I used an animation app to experiment, and make something that has nothing to do with Joseph Beuys, aka science fiction and kids becoming animals !
Each took me at least 2-3 days, as I had to come back and go forward several times, I had to make sure that each frame was close to the previous one to make it fluid. A lot of time, there was either something missing in the next frame, either the transition wasn't smooth enough, especially in the teeth.
I wanted to make a digital animation, but at the end, I decided to make a chalk on blackboard animation to stay in the theme. I mixed it with cutouts.
The final, that I filmed with my phone using an app:
I feel like it came okaly, for a fist try. However, the blackboard kept moving from the floor (impossible to masking tape it on the carpet) , I sometimes forgot a paper of piece of felt that appears and dissapears between 2 frames.
Cut-outs are what I enjoy to do the most, it has, y a know... A sense of presence, a feeling that isn't there with drawings.
That is, the pain in my wrist.
Half kidding.
I did these a year ago, with the subject of children books :
which reminds me the 3h of pain in my wrist, now that I mentioned them ^^
It is an idea of cover for The jungle book. It is quite simple, but evocative, I believe : the Tiger Sheer Kan is surrendering Moogli, the sharpness of the stripes evoke knifes, and the jungle around them suggests closure
Another idea of cover for The jungle book. The positive cutting shows Moogli balancing in the tree, while the negative suggests the head of the bear.
But Tarmasz is really the illustrator that I love and look at the most. I am a somewhat (depending on the subject, I mean) a very perfectionist person who wants to get the most realistic imageries, while Tarmasz is more like "f**k it" on that matter. And that's what I love, otherwise, it would be so boring ! I feel now that proportions don't really matter. You know what a real person looks like, so what would be the actual point of despicting always reality ?
She's a French illustrator wholike strong pictures where symbols are more important than realism. She uses medieval, antique art and mythology.
Right here is a scene from The pied piper of Hamelin . Everything is out of proportion, but all the elements that we need to see, aca the villagers mocking the piper for asking to be paid is here, right on the middle. The rest is just showing a village, the background in a Medieval world, to set the story. And that all what is needed to be shown.
And I really love her wolves :
inspiring me these wolves :
and her collage of Leon (what it if you haven't !) :
both combined inspired me to make a collage of Red Riding hood:
The massive wolf under the girl means that she is threatened, by something she doesn't know, and the black leaves around her indicate a forest, and a trap.
HEY Sweeties !
A bit about me : I can feel like the title might be misguiding, but it's honestly all what my sarcastic/cynical brain could find in less than 3mn !
I am an illustrator (to be) but not exclusively, I love fashion and 3d too !
This blog will be about showing what I do, and all the artists that inspire me ! It's about finding my style, and possibly make you discover artists !
