Carrying on from our initial research last week, our next task was to choose 5 contemporary Illustrators whose practice inspires me. Their practices also have to be clearly linked to my chosen area of study for research, relating to one of the given areas on the brief and including:
Publishing & Book Design
Editorial & Reportage
Character & Narrative
Product & Packaging
Children's Books & Education
*Object & Environment*
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MATT SEWELL
I found a number of interviews, many of them had similar questions about how he got into drawing birds, and about his working process, so i posted up some of his answers.
Why are birds so important?
I focused my work on birds a few years ago after I took some time out and went travelling with my girlfriend. I needed to re-address what I was doing and needed to bring the soul back into my work that had got lost by doing too much commercial work and trying to impress the in-crowd. My work has always had a focus on nature but British birds have been cropping up through-out since day one without me really realising. Being a bit of a spotter since a kid they’ve always had a special place in my heart, I have loads of good memories of family and holidays associated with them. I honestly get such a buzz by seeing a new bird or even something really common, seeing a jay can put me in a good mood all day. Also with poring over bird books for years I couldn’t help but humanify and mystify birds that I have never seen. I channelled all this positivity and love into my work and have been having a great journey ever since.
I focused my work on birds a few years ago after I took some time out and went travelling with my girlfriend. I needed to re-address what I was doing and needed to bring the soul back into my work that had got lost by doing too much commercial work and trying to impress the in-crowd. My work has always had a focus on nature but British birds have been cropping up through-out since day one without me really realising. Being a bit of a spotter since a kid they’ve always had a special place in my heart, I have loads of good memories of family and holidays associated with them. I honestly get such a buzz by seeing a new bird or even something really common, seeing a jay can put me in a good mood all day. Also with poring over bird books for years I couldn’t help but humanify and mystify birds that I have never seen. I channelled all this positivity and love into my work and have been having a great journey ever since.
What is your process when you draw?
I’ll have a look through my favourite bird books and maybe have a look at Google Image just to know I’m getting the basic markings in the right place. I think about the bird’s nature and character and decide how he is going to look and get to it. But really when I draw a bird I try to do it as quick as possible so I can capture a character within it.
I’ll have a look through my favourite bird books and maybe have a look at Google Image just to know I’m getting the basic markings in the right place. I think about the bird’s nature and character and decide how he is going to look and get to it. But really when I draw a bird I try to do it as quick as possible so I can capture a character within it.
When do you remember them first becoming important to you?
My earliest memory is hiding in my mam and dad’s bed as a jackdaw flew around the room. It had somehow got down the chimney, shit everywhere and then made it’s way up stairs to scare the living daylights out of me and my sister. When I was about 4 or 5 we moved to an old mill that was really a small farm, and I got kind of obsessed with nature from then really. But my first real recollection of birds becoming a big part in my life was when some swallows nested just above our front door. I clearly remember being blown away by them, the power and just sheer magic of them in flight, their song which I could never forget and the muddy nest that they made. Sometimes my dad would set up a step ladder and we’d have a look at the chicks. Very special memories.
Why did you decide to write your own quirky descriptions to accompany the illustrations?
The book originated from my Bird of the Week contribution to the Caught By The River blog. I originally just wanted to contribute to CBTR because I loved it so much, such a lovely and inspiring site and originally I was just going to paint a bird that I loved or had spotted that week. So when I painted the Bluetit (my first) I thought I had got a lot of character in him but I didn’t think I had got across all my love for him so I wrote a sentence or two. As the contributions continued my writing grew longer and more confident and the book naturally took form from that.
The book originated from my Bird of the Week contribution to the Caught By The River blog. I originally just wanted to contribute to CBTR because I loved it so much, such a lovely and inspiring site and originally I was just going to paint a bird that I loved or had spotted that week. So when I painted the Bluetit (my first) I thought I had got a lot of character in him but I didn’t think I had got across all my love for him so I wrote a sentence or two. As the contributions continued my writing grew longer and more confident and the book naturally took form from that.
How did you hook up with caught by the river and then with Ebury?
Jeff Barrett from Heavenly Records and CBTR got in touch initially through a mutual friend of ours, Paul Tomlinson. He was after a new logo designing for CBTR and he was really into a logo I had done for a site me and Tomo had set up called The Wooden Branch. Which is basically a site for people who love trees to put up pictures and explanations of their favourite ones from around the world, it’s a lovely idea but didn’t take off… nice logo though if I say so myself. Anyway I worked with Jeff on a few things and then continued with the Bird of the Weekcontribution to the blog. After a only a few birds Jeff saw the potential of it turning into a book; they had already had a book out called A Collection of Words on Water and there were a few others in the pipeline. Initial interest was good and it was with a big publishers for a year with them farting about with it before they dropped it. Which is when Ebury Press picked it up and the whole process has been a complete joy ever since.
Jeff Barrett from Heavenly Records and CBTR got in touch initially through a mutual friend of ours, Paul Tomlinson. He was after a new logo designing for CBTR and he was really into a logo I had done for a site me and Tomo had set up called The Wooden Branch. Which is basically a site for people who love trees to put up pictures and explanations of their favourite ones from around the world, it’s a lovely idea but didn’t take off… nice logo though if I say so myself. Anyway I worked with Jeff on a few things and then continued with the Bird of the Weekcontribution to the blog. After a only a few birds Jeff saw the potential of it turning into a book; they had already had a book out called A Collection of Words on Water and there were a few others in the pipeline. Initial interest was good and it was with a big publishers for a year with them farting about with it before they dropped it. Which is when Ebury Press picked it up and the whole process has been a complete joy ever since.
I’d gone through most of my education before I even really knew what illustration was. I’d got onto a daft course in Ipswich to study animation and a load of other things. It was an art degree for slackers who didn’t know what they wanted to do, so perfect really. After trying loads of things and getting stuck into animation I slowly realised that I was not that kind of calm, painstaking perfectionist that animators tended to be and that that slow, hair-pulling, stop motion technique had turned me into an alcoholic. So I started to look elsewhere and came across illustration that just sounded like you could do whatever you wanted. I had really enjoyed designing the characters when I was doing animation so I took that over into it. I also did loads of spray-painted painting, this was in '96 so I hadn’t learned how to paint at this point so the less said about this the better. A few years after leaving college I started getting editorial work for magazines, i couldn’t believe I was getting paid to create my own little worlds. I loved it from then. It has been an on and off affair though. Hating it so much at times that I’ve packed it in, but she tempts me back the harlett!
What is your working process like? For example do you plan or is it entirely experimental?
When painting birds I will study and sketch them first in my trusty Readers Digest Field Guide To British Birds or my Collins or a lot of the time on Google Image. I make sure I understand the shape and character and reduce it to its simplest markings. So even if it’s head and eyes are far too big and I’ve taken liberties with the colours, everything will be in it’s right place so people can’t complain too much. I love using watercolours as it's permanent and you have to make instant decisions. Those mistakes and experiments quickly turn into styles, purpose and confidence.So everything does start out as experimentation in the very beginning. Like everything in life I suppose.
Matt Sewell - Big Heads interview - LCA, 2014
http://artandsoleblog.com/blog/view/a-few-of-my-favourite-sneakers-matt-sewell
Below is the 1st year uni project i did which unknown to me at the time follows a very similar theme to Sewell's favourite feathered sneakers project from 2013. Although on paper the theme seems the same, the thinking behind them were different. He drew his favourite shoes that remind him of birds, whereas i matched up trainers to a list of birds that were coloured coded to each other. Though with me being an absolute nobody, i was a but gutted to see the similarities and did feel like id be seen as a rip-off merchant. I though surely it mustve been done before out two efforts, but i have come across anyone who had the same idea. That is except me, 5 years earlier.
AirMax '90 Infrared & Bullfinch, 2009.
This design had disappeared into obscurity, to be seen by virtually no-one. I recall doing a one-off piece featuring a bullfinch and an Air Max '90 Infrared back in 2009/10, as a personal project which i never saw through. I did it as this is my all-time favourite sneaker,(and i love bullfinches too) and this was during a time before all the big & loud trainers from the 90's were getting the re-releases they get today. This would become the inpiration for me to dust the concept off and develop it years later, but shhhhh, don't tell anyone,
Feathers & Footwear book, 2014.
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ROB LOWE - SUPERMUNDANE
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PATRICK NAGEL
Nagel's figures generally have black hair, bright white skin, full-lipped mouths, and the distinctive Nagel eyes, which are often squared off in the later works. Because of the intense stylization and reduction of facial features into clean lines, generally the figures resemble each other, though Nagel worked with many models, including Playboy Playmates. In 1984, at the age of 38, Nagel participated in a 15-minute celebrity "Aerobathon" to raise funds for the American Heart Association. Afterwards, he was found dead in his car, and doctors determined by autopsy that he had suffered a heart attack
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JEREMY FISH
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MR PENFOLD
Mr penfold hails from cambridge, england, and currently lives in bristol. he works as an artist and designer and has exhibited across the world.
After leaving school he started working in a professional collaborative printmaking studio making work for and with artists of international repute. over the last 8 years he has developed a distinctive way of working and a range of imagery that is as striking as it is unmistakable.
Penfold has been formed by a number of influences from skateboard graphics to classical and formal abstraction, developing a distinctive and recognizable palette and formulating a set of conditions that he applies to his work.
He works in a variety of fields and mediums including painting, sculpture, graphic design and screen printing. his work can be found all over the uk, usa, australia & europe.
(from http://nowallsgallery.com/artists/mr_penfold/)
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