Alberto Seveso

Alberto Seveso is an Italian Graphic Designer (now working freelance in Bristol), growing up on Sardinia Island, first being introduced to art in the early 90's. He has mentioned that skate decks and the cover of music albums being his inspiration.

Alberto works purely in digital, photographing a model, and then proceeding to exaggerate their skintones and facial structures, as well as other body parts, in Adobe's Photoshop.

His work reminds me of tattoos and a bad makeup job but it works, as it looks like loads of butterflies are taking wing from someone they've had a little rest on.

Agencies

Agencies, they represent the illustrators, if you are a freelance style, the agency promotes your unique style, however if you work for the agency and are not sponsored by them, you work within their house style.

How do you see yourself?
Working as a freelance illustrator.

How do you want to be represented?
I want to be represented by an Agency, as a freelance illustrator, in bright bold colours so it gains the attention of perspective clients.


Here are some agencies

http://www.centralillustration.com/

http://www.folioart.co.uk/

http://www.lemonadeillustration.com/

The Consumer

The Consumers are the people who enjoy, and use the services of the final product. These are the people that the product is aimed at, a target market.

The product is created with a certain audience in mind, and with modern technology, there are so many ways to advertise this product. Youtube now allows companies to advertise their products before a video, or surveys. The advertisement in question depends what your recent search history is, for example, my favorite TV show is Sons of Anarchy, so youtube showed me a video of the fan merchandise (biker jackets and cuts) for sale on Amazon, and Facebook works in a similar way, if you have the app- Messenger, and mention for instance, you are thinking of purchasing an Ipad, the adverts at the side of your news feed will quickly change to different legitimate websites selling Ipads, because you are a potential consumer of this product. Yes this may seem like Facebook is violating your personal space and privacy, but this is how far advertisement has stretched, it is no longer bound to the TV, Radio or billboards.
Of course, there is such a thing as a bad advert, that doesn't appeal to the consumer at all.


The consumer has to enjoy the product, as it was designed by them in mind.
With children's books, there is a factory working to go through- Author- Illustrator- Agent- Publisher- Consumer.
Obviously children's books are aimed at small boys and girls, but they have to appeal to parents, as these are the people who decide what is and isn't suitable for their children to read.

Would you let your child read this?                                          Or this?

Or even this? (though it is a sattire of the hungry caterpillar,and probably only created by the very talented 'Eric Bastard' for the purpose of entertaining those who spend hours travelling the internet.)



Of course not, it's wildly inappropriate and unsuitable for children, and this is why we have consumers, a specific group of people at the end of the production line, ready to try and test our product,because not everything works for everyone.

Digital

                                                                                   
In Brief four, we worked digitally, using photoshop on the Wacoms. Our goal was too produce 4 finished digital pieces.

I've had a little bit of experience with digital art before, using an app called Procreate that's sadly only available through IOS. It records every mark you make on the screen so when you have a finished piece you can export a video, in time lapse.



Here's Pongo from Walt Disney's film "101 Dalmatians"
Neither character or music belong to me, they belong to Walt Disney and Disney animation studios, I used the character as a quick example.


I looked back through old briefs of Animls and reportage and chose my 'Smoking wombat', an Irish Staffordshire bull terrier and Egypt, a friend of mine.

The way I colored the Smoking Wombat was not too dissimilar to the way I use procreate, though I used photoshop, by using the pen on the wacoms to blend. I first scanned the image of the Smoking Wombat into the computer and I was away.

I chose one of my reportage pieces to work with, simply changing the hue within the image to bring out the green tones within the black an d blue ink. I then selected and copied and pasted certain parts of the image by using the lasso tool on photoshop.

Group Work; The wall

As preparation for working with other artists we had a group module, the main focus was interesting characters. People on the streets, or friends, we had to document them, well as incorporating five prints into it. This would then become an open night, for parents and friends on bonfire night (free wine YAY!) My group’s main focus where the outlaws and rebels of society, such as my friend Emily, a piercer who is big on self-body modification, she was joined by Nigel the biker (bikers are a pro rebellion poster if you want to look at it like that) and bob from Uni with his dreadlocks. The aim was to capture and document the people that older generations would perhaps frown upon or judge straight away because of their dress code or however much metal they want have in their skin.
Our group consisted of Frazer, Egypt, Eve, Lewis and Harry (of course myself), it was a brilliant mix of talent as each person differed in artistic skill.

As a group we ran through ideas of what we could do, an interactive wall, where those who visited could draw on our section of wall, or somehow be involved. After discussing this over a period of three days, we decided on creating a wallpaper, covering it in drawings, sketches and paintings of the people we knew and had met on this module. All though a few characters where strictly imagination.

The other wall was drawn straight onto, with marker pen, colouring pens and different lead pencils so we had a range of texture. The prints where linocut, which is where you take a sheet of linoleum and cut into it using a scalpel or sharp implement. It works in negative (good way to describe it) as the places carved away remain naked as the ink does not touch the detail, just the negative space remaining on the linoleum. Ink is rolled onto the sheet and the printing can be done by hand or press. Frazer pressed straight onto the wallpaper and wall. I used a much more primitive technique. I painted my fingertips and created a pattern around Nathaniel (skinhead rolling a cigarette.) Our five prints where three lino prints, smoke coming from the ginger sailor's pipe, a woman on the wall paper, a man on the wall and two separate finger prints.

I enjoyed working in a group for a short period of time, with it being such a large project you know you have a team to help or advise- and that's useful, getting a fresh set of eyes to examine your work and give constructive criticism, just as a client would. What I didn't like was the small amount of space we had, though we managed it well.

Animalia

So as brief two, we studied animals, movements, structures and characteristics. I was excited for this brief, I love animals and they are my favorite things in the world, they show beauty, grace and aggression all at the same time, and have a much broader range of characteristics.As well as having animals brought into the university, one of these creatures being a super cute Meerkat kitten named Merlin, we visited Flamingo land, with a wider spectrum of animals.
Sketching from life was in some ways easier, than taking from a photograph and later studying it as I could see the ripple in the muscle and how their joints work, giving me a greater understanding of how that particular animals biological motor works.
I also looked at photographs I had taken at Chester Zoo in my personal time and worked from them later on.

Though looking at wild animals was great fun, a major source of inspiration was my own four legged friend; Reethi my Hungarian vizsla. Whilst working on this brief I took my aged and tattered novels out when walking him, working in fine liner on the flip pages, though this proved to be a problem as he didn't slow down for anything, so eventually i gave in and had to work from photographs.

During the brief I experimented in mediums, water colour, acrylic, gouache and fine liner.









As well as completing four sketchbooks, we had to come up with four mythological creatures, from our own imagination.

My first creation was the 'Sea Lion' but instead of being completely fabulous, it's a marine animal that would work, the tusk on its head acting like the mane of the land living Lion, the bigger and more fully developed the tusk or mane, the more dominant is the Lion/Sea Lion, also giving the animal the ability to move quickly in the depths, cutting through the water quickly.

Wayne McLoughlin

Wayne McLoughlin is one of my favorite artists, though he's quite secretive about what medium he uses, his artwork, to me is just enchanting. He even illustrates Warriors which gives him brownie points off me.
He has won awards for six unique markets;
Children's & Tween Illustration National Advertising & Catalog Art (all categories) Specialized Advertising Art/Articles for the Outdoor IndustryEditorial, Historical, Conceptual Art - Magazines & Books Character & Backstory Development for Toys, Books & TV                                                        Paper Engineering 

As well as illustrating Warriors (Warrior cats) for the author Erin Hunter, he also illustrates her series; Seekers (about bears) and Survivors (dogs).

I have chosen too look at Wayne McLoughlin because I've studied animals briefly on this course.

http://www.workbook.com/portfolios/mcloughlin_w

Publishing

Us Brits, have one of the best book industries in the world. We're also true book lovers, forever shoveling book after book into our ever expanding minds, whether its a good solid book in the grasp of our hands, an eBook on one of them new-fangled kindles or an audio book as we go for our morning jog or commute to work. We love books, our nation is home to some of the best fiction (an honourable few- Bram Stoker, Erin Hunter, Mary Shelley) and non fiction (Joy&George Adamson, Philippa Gregory and Juliet Gardiner) authors in the world. And this imagination and skill of jotting down these events have now given us one of the worlds leading Book industries at an amazing worth of £4.5 Billion GBP, generating more worth than music, TV and film at this time.
Of course with in the book industries there's smaller groups, publishing houses, illustrators, authors, editors, and us the public, who decide, what book we want the most and the style we want it in, whether that would  be Paperback, Hardback, eBook or Audio. The British public generates 60% of the British Book industries worth as it happens.
If you where to work within the book industry, would you want to work in the print rooms, making sure that the machinery put the book together in the correct order? Nahhh, you'd want to be where the fun stuff is, illustrating the actual story inside of the book or creating the front cover- the one thing that gets the consumer to pick it up off the shelf in the store in the first place.
I would much prefer to work illustrating the interior! How about you?
With a book, you can read it, get to know the character, whether animal or human you start to visualize them in your head and from there you can put it too paper and help create a best selling masterpiece.
Publishing isn't just tied into Books, look at Newspapers and Magazines.

Harper collins is my favorite publishing house (bias because they published my favorite series- Warriors)
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/

Industry Structures

As an Artist, there are many twisting, winding paths too choose from. Parents may frown upon your choice of career and say 'Art? Art, there's no goddamn money in art!' Well they are bastard liars or idiots. Every company you can think of, has commissioned an artist (if its not an art company in itself) to design a logo, create the typeface for the company, or advertise the company through that specific artists style.. Something like the coca-cola font is now recognized world wide, though its had minor tweaks to the font over the decades, to suit the moving culture and modern times, the type face has never changed so massively that you wouldn't recognize it.
Design houses are a massive money maker within the creative world (if successful) they can have hundreds (maybe thousands) of clients and be a world wide company, with houses in every big city, and you could be making big money.. But there is a catch, just like how the devil would want your soul for that Lamborghini Sesto Elemento you've always lusted after. In design houses you are very rarely given creative freedom and have to work in the style that house is best known for, which restricts your creative flow and is utterlyyyyyy boring in my oppinion. Having said that, it might appeal to you, to work in a design house, you might feel comfortable boxed in to one particular style of artwork, where as I, I like to be as free as a bird, and do what I want when I want #swag #yolo which leads to Freelance work.
As beautiful as the word 'Free' sounds it comes at a cost. How fucking ironic! Because the price you have to pay for freelance work is if you're not working you don't get paid. But the plus side for being your own man (or artist I am not gender bias ladies) is that people commission you to work for them because they like your style!

Here's some design houses, to have a look at
http://ilovedust.com/
Based in the south of england, near the sea side. These guys are really cool for a design house, bikers for the win, they look mean and their artwork is even meaner, their artwork has a very rock and roll vibe! Its fresh, cool and totally down with the kids.
How about this bunch...
http://www.vault49.com/
These guys are based in New York, one of the most enticing cities in the world, because if you can bet known in New York, you can get known anywhere.

For Freelance, there are two options, you can join a well known website, where your work will be cataloged, with many other illustrators. If a company approaches this website or that catalog and they then decide they want you, the business that has hosted you will want a percentage of earnings from the work.
An example of this is..
http://www.jellylondon.com/illustration
Or you could create your own website...
Like Amy did.
http://www.amydover.com/
(Sorry Amy, but your work is very nice and quirky)

So reader, its up to you...

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a scary word, to any creative soul. Its a dangerous business to involve yourself in, being caught out can get you into a lot of trouble, and with the internet being the way it is, you're stupid if you think you can slip under the radar. Plagiarism, is copying somebody else's work or ideas and claiming it as your own, which naturally can cause a lot of offence to the original artist, as due credit isn't being awarded to them, and instead to who is wrongly claiming all of the glory.

One man who has been accused of plagiarism is insanely famous for the multi-coloured print of the blonde bombshell, Marilyn Monroe.  Andy Warhol, without permission of the photographer, silk screened her photographs. Of course, when you are so well known in the art world, its hard for someone not to realise, with his celebrity status, these silk screen flower prints where soon in magazines.. And who of course noticed? The original photographer! Patricia Caulfield then claimed ownership of her work after seeing Warhols adaption of her photograph. After a tedious court battle, Miss Caulfield and Andy settled for her receiving royalties to use the image as well as two of his adaptions.
Moral of the story, its not big, its not clever and if you're an artistic fellow surely you're creative enough to come with your own ideas?
http://www.phaidon.com/resource/warhol-flowers-opener.jpg
(^Photo of Warhols and Caulfields's flowers, forgive me for not actually putting the photo in, getting used to this blog malarkey)