Drawing Practice

David Hockney

I have researched on David Hockney quite a long time ago, and I really loved his style and design in the many paintings and digital designs he has created. I'm more interested in the paintings of his parents and other friends/ strangers sat in chairs or going about their everyday lives. Some of his digital art looks very good however, I dislike to the use of too many bright colours, it almost jumps into your eyes too much. Although I do like his design methods, I'm more interested in his paintings rather than his digital art.

My Parents: 1977

I love this painting from David. The use of bright vibrant colours mixed with the dull background makes both his parents and the furniture stand out. The difference in both poses is quite significant in the painting. The mother is sat quite sensible and calming, whilst the father sits rugged and occupied with his newspaper. I just feel that this is very significant in Hockney's work.

I adore the use of tones in this piece. Every crease from the clothes stand out well, and the lighting casting down and creating a shadow on both parents and furniture is very subtle but creates a calm mood.

Winter Timber

This is one of the digital paintings that Hockney produced. He has created digital art on his iPhone and iPad. Although the designs are very impressive on iPhones and iPad, I just don't like the way they look. I feel like the use of colours are too flamboyant, he mainly uses yellows, greens and purples which doesn't really appeal to me. It's a completely different design to his original still life works, so I think the jump from originality from his paintings to a new digital environment is a bold move. I also think that the colours are very flat and there aren't any tones on the important areas like the logs and the tree stump.

There are plenty of designs he has made on digital work. I especially dislike his iPhone designs, as they look childlike. 

Claude Monet

I have heard of Monet before, but I never really researched on the artist. From what I've gathered he seems to focus on traditional brush to canvas painting which I love in various art displays. Monet's artwork reminds me of Van Gogh's in some ways, I think it is mainly from the kind of brush strokes he uses and that there is a distinct pattern between Monet and Gogh because of this.

The Artist's Garden at Giverny: 1900

This was painted in the artists back garden, which was created into a peaceful Japanese scenery. The painting from Monet is very calming. I really love the subtleness of the purple and blue colours. From the design of this painting, it looks like it was created with a palette knife. The rough edges on the flowers create this thesis, I think this is a brilliant design though, the rough edges combine brilliantly with the soft flowers. Even though it is an obscure design, you can really tell there are flowers, trees, and a pond, it really feels like a peaceful Japanese garden.

La Rue Montorgrueil: 1879

This painting really intrigues me, there are a lot of things going on in this painting. You have various bright blues, reds, and whites all coming from the French flags displayed in the painting. This reminds me of the French revolution because of the crowds of people parading through the street. Even though I like this painting, I feel that there is too much going on and it is hard to focus on the important thing in this painting.

Alphonse Mucha

I have never heard of this artist before, and from what I've seen so far, his designs look quite mythical and fabled. They remind me quite a lot like stained glass windows that are placed in churches. He uses a lot of bright oranges and reds in his artwork, and tries to include as many of these vibrant colours as possible.

Zodiac: 1896

As I have said previously, Alphonse's artwork reminds me of a mythical and fantastical design. Stated in the title, Zodiac, uses all the zodiac signs surrounded around a woman that is unknown to me. The black outline around the woman really stands her out, and I think in other designs that Alphonse has done, this works well with the composition. A lot of his designs reminds me of the tarot cards that fortune tellers have which is really unique.

Marjane Satrapi

Her art style is quite noir like, it feels very original. However, it does remind me of the old 1930s Mickey Mouse animations. This scene importantly, is very eye catching. Both older women in this scene are very exaggerated, bending around and surrounding the young girl like snakes. This is very good story telling. I've only seen a few clips from this film but from what I have gathered I am very interested in watching the whole movie. The colours she uses are mainly black, white and greys just to give that noir feel to the story.

Persepolis

Her art style is quite noir like, it feels very original. However, it does remind me of the old 1930s Mickey Mouse animations. This scene importantly, is very eye catching. Both older women in this scene are very exaggerated, bending around and surrounding the young girl like snakes. This is very good story telling. I've only seen a few clips from this film but from what I have gathered I am very interested in watching the whole movie. The colours she uses are mainly black, white and greys just to give that noir feel to the story.

Michael Dudok

Michael is mainly known well for his animations Father and Daughter, and The Red Turtle. Looking at a few of his animations, The Red Turtle reminds me a lot of the classic Tin Tin comics/ cartoons which I find interesting.

The Monk and the Fish

I think this is one of the more obscure animations I have seen. I really love this short but sweet animation and the art style used for this short feels unique. I adore the reflections in the water used in this animation and the colours are just right with a mixture of blues, oranges, yellows, and sometimes not even using any colour works greatly. There is a lot of comedic affect in this animation and it collides well with the calmness in the design of the short film. This animation doesn't feel like a digital animation, it reminds me of a paintbrush to paper kind of animation. Some movements in the short film kind of reminds me of a zoetrope because of the way the monk bounces up and down.

Jenny Saville

Some of Jenny's artwork are very unique. However, I find them to be very complicated to look at. She has a very peculiar art style that I don't find appealing. I remember researching on her a while back, and even then I was still skeptical on whether or not I could find any favourite designs in her work and unfortunately, I still don't like her overly complicated pieces. 

Vis and Ramin: 2018

I feel like there is too much going on in this painting. It's hard to see what is going on in the middle of the painting with the scribbles, sketches and markings placed around the page. I feel that Jenny is a brave artists although I find it hard to understand some of her pieces thoroughly. However, I do enjoy the various colours that are used in this piece, it's very obscure but the skin tones are added in the perfect way. 

Moebius 

The art style that Moebius uses remind me of traditional Japanese art and also flamboyant manga or comic book art. The colours that he uses stand out really well, and the use of tonal work is very limited but his designs are detailed enough to not include so much tonal work. Some of his work reminds me of concept artwork from the movie 'Alien'.

This kind of art style reminds me of the anime film spirited away. It also reminds me of Dudok's art as well because they both seem to have the same line drawings and they both don't use as many shadows as they need to. I do love how Moebius can create such a fantasy world by creating various weird and wonderful landscapes. They're very unique and reminds me a lot of Star Wars and weirdly Mad Max. I just love the simple yet elegant landscape, the mixtures between waterfalls and cliffs are put together very subtlety and i find calmness looking at this picture.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Unknown

I have decided to look at the above image by Leonardo Da Vinci. It looks like a mixture between a cat, as portrayed by the feline-like teeth and the whiskers, but also a dragon, as shown by the typical Chinese dragon format with the eyebrows and the fierce pose. As you can see, the image is incomplete, similar to other designs that Da Vinci worked on through his creative years. Due to the fact the image is incomplete, I cannot fully assess it, however the work that has been done is satisfactory in conveying a terrifying beast similar to the film 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. 

Kristian Andrews

Kristian, is one of the many animators working for the art studio Studio Aka. He has a wide range of animating ideas, and he has also helped companies with advertisement such as Toyota. With addition to that, he also helped on some sequences on the infamous cartoon The Amazing World of Gumball. His art style can be very creative, which can vary between bright and colourful cartoons, to dark and grim thriller type animations.

Giri Haji

Kristian helped animate some of the design sequences in the BBC Netflix Drama, Giri Haji. I love this kind of art style. It looks all done efficiently on Photoshop. The brush strokes leaving into the vanishing point on the bridge are really subtle and the uses of black, reds and whites really hit the authentic Japanese scenery. The blood splatters over the animation reminds me of traditional cherry blossoms found in Japan. The design of the black figure is very eerie but I love the creepiness and mysteriousness in the design.

Yoji Shinkawa

Yoji specialises in game art, specifically in the Metal Gear Solid game franchise. He has worked for the infamous Japanese gaming company, Konami but currently resides working for another infamous game artist, Hideo Kajima. His concept artwork reminds me a lot of another Japanese artist Kim Jung Gi. As you can see, they both have similar art styles. Yoji and Kim's art style reminds me of simple white board and black marker drawings. 

Lorin Wood

Lorin is well known for his concept work for the Borderlands game series. He specializes mainly in robot and mechanization creations rather than traditional humanoid characterization. Some of his creations come from various shapes, for instance: The character on the right has been created as an upside down pyramid shape with a wheel on the bottom, and his colour pallet used throughout his concept art is mainly black and white. His drawing techniques remind me a lot like Euan Uglow because of the mark making and point to point designs on some of his concept work. 

Bob Ross

Bob Ross isn't well known for certain art pieces, he has created a wide range of art pieces that are too many to count. His art style is traditional, however he doesn't observe a landscape, he creates paintings by imagination. In some of his pieces, he uses flat brushes and in others he uses a painting knife. Most of his paintings are traditionally mountain/ forest landscapes in a snowy or dry environment.  

I find it very interesting that he paints using a dry brush throughout the painting session and that he mainly taps and dabs on the canvas rather than regular brush strokes. His techniques are so simple, but yet the designs that he creates are so detailed and brilliant.