Influences part 24: Gil Elvgren

Gil Elvgren (1914 - 1980) was an American painter and illustrator, best known for some of the 500 pin-up paintings that he produced during a 40 year career; however he also produced adverts for a range of clients including Coca-Cola (for 25 years) and the Good Housekeeping magazine.
In his excellent book Gil Elvgren: The Complete Collection (2008), co-author Charles G. Martignette describes Elvgren as "the Norman Rockwell of the pin-up genre of American Illustration" before going on to say that he also had the high skills of a classical artist. Indeed I would go so far as to suggest that Elvgren's work demonstrates [although often restrained in his commercial work] a superb understanding of form, composition, lighting, and colour that is comparable with Great Masters such as Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Even if you don't already know him by name, you may be familiar with Elvgren's visual style. For example, the style of his pin-up paintings influenced the look of The Saturday's 'Just Can't Get Enough' music video for Comic Relief 2009.


Gil Elvgren is often considered the greatest pin-up artist of all time, and has influenced a great number of artists.
I can't recall how I became familiar with his work, but I suspect it was either name-checked from research conducted during my final year at Edinburgh College of Art, or else he was probably mentioned by a tattoo artist on Miami Ink (as pin-up girls have often been a source of inspiration for many traditional tattoos).
Regardless of this, Elvgren's first notable influence on my own work came soon after I graduated (July 2009), and is most obvious in my portrait painting of actress Ava Gardner as seen here.
Although in my previous blog post I mentioned that I considered the style of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings as a relevant painting technique for interpreting the cool 60s style of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie into a painting of my own.


RELATED GIL ELVGREN LINKS:
- www.gilelvgren.com
- www.ElvgrenPinUp.com An extensive fan site.
- Gil Elvgren at The Pin-Up Files.
- Pin-Up Page: A big collection of Elvgren pin-up paintings.
- Interview with the director of The Saturday's Just Can't Get Enough music video - created in the style of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings.


CAUTION: Some of Gil Elvgren's pin-up paintings below display vintage Pretty Girls with underwear and/or mild nudity, which may not be suitable for viewing in public places (ie: at work, school, library, etc).
If using a public computer, please consider those around you and observe any codes-of-conduct before proceeding to the paintings below. (I don't think the images are distasteful or bad, but who knows - some people may take offense to them)...

Influences part 23: Thomas Allen

Yesterday a newspaper advert for National Book Tokens reminded me of the awesome trick photography of Thomas Allen, whose work influenced some research for my animated graduation film last year - so I've decided to promote his work on my blog.



Thomas Allen is an American photographer who, over the past decade, has developed a trademark portfolio of work by using modified pulp fiction books as his main subject.

As you'll see from the images featured in this blog post, Thomas Allen creates these highly intriguing photographs by using his mastery of composition and lighting in an otherwise simple process, as I will outline below...

- Starting off with standard pulp fiction novels (as popular in the 1950s), the artist searches for character illustrations that will serve his needs for effectively creating a single photograph to tell an intriguing new story.
- Having settled on particular characters and the composition for arranging the modified book/characters, the artist uses a scalpel to carefully cut free most of the illustrated character - although in many cases parts of the illustrated character will remain attached to the rest of the book cover so that the character can hinge and pop-up/out from the rest of the book (creating part of the 3D effect that you see in the final photographs).
- With the books modified and the characters popping-out, the artist arranges the book(s) in his desired composition, adjusts the lighting to create the desired aesthetic, and then sets-up his camera with a suitable depth-of-field (usually so that only a small section of the overall composition is in focus, while the rest of the image looks blurry) and then takes his photographs.
- The end result should now show the original book in a near-normal condition, except that the illustrated characters now seem to be alive and jumping out from the book itself (with the depth-of-field further enhancing this illusion).

The process that I've just described sounds really simple, and while it is not too complex to understand the basics of; from my experience of the technique last year, it does take a bit of time and persistence to get to grips with before you can start progressing it in your own way...
I reckon it took me about 2 hours to get used to my brothers digital SLR camera and to set-up a basic 3D-effect with modified books before I could even begin taking decent photos in the style of Thomas Allen. Even after those 2 hours of getting used to everything, I spent roughly a further 3 hours experimenting with everything and taking over 400 photos - only to end up with about 15 photos that I was genuinely happy with when viewed on the computer!


Allen's style has a really rare kind of aesthetic that many people appreciate as soon as they see it. In many ways I would compare it to the stereoscopic (3D glasses) effect that is currently sweeping through Hollywood cinema.
Allen's photography is simply a delightful little illusion that seems to appeal to everyone, in much the same way that everyone used to gasp with delight when an object leapt out from the cinema screen.
If you've not seen his work before, I hope you enjoy the small sample of work displayed here, and I'd urge you to look through the links listed below for more...







Related links:
- Thomas Allen's blog

- Thomas Allen's work at: www.mnartists.org

- Thomas Allen's work on The Foley Gallery website

- Robert Ayers in conversation with Thomas Allen

- Thomas Allen: Uncovered - Book of photographs for sale at Amazon.co.uk

Influences part 22: J.D. Fergusson

To compliment yesterday's post about my visit to The Fergusson Gallery in Perth, here's a short post showcasing a sample of the artwork by John Duncan Fergusson.
Fergusson spent a lot of time in France where he created many colourful landscape paintings alongside several French Impressionist and Fauve artists; however I have a preference for his portraiture works, which exhibit a greater sense of artistic freedom and personal experimentation - as I hope is evident from the images below.







Related links:
- Yesterday's blog post about The Fergusson Gallery, Perth.
- The Fergusson Gallery website
- Fergusson's work at the Hunterian Art Gallery online database
- J.D. Fergusson at the Portland Gallery
- J.D. Fergusson at the Art Inconnu blog

Influences part 21: Rene Gruau

I first mentioned the work of Rene Gruau as an influence when I published Painting 1 of my 12fp(s) film-inspired painting series.


Gruau is a graphic illustrator with a minimal yet very bold visual style that I find really appealing.
I think that to a great extent the quality of his work speaks for itself, so rather than write a whole load of text, here's a few samples of his work to do the same job much quicker:



I'm posting the work of Rene Gruau as an influence just now because I'm finding the simplicity of his work really inspiring while I work on a female portrait painting based on a beautiful photograph with soft texture and colour. I originally wanted to paint the portrait in a style closely influenced by the 100 year old illustrations of Arthur Rackham, and although this is still my intention, I think Rackham's style will be too rough and may spoil the simplicity of the portrait, hence why I am also looking at the work of Gruau...

Related links:
- www.renegruau.com
- Rene Gruau: Capturing the look of Parisian chic. Veronica Horwell, The Guardian newspaper, 15 April 2004.
- Rene Gruau images at CyanaTrendLand.com

Influences part 20: Zina Saunders

The latest post over on the Lines & Colours blog highlights the new issue of Illo magazine and features a sample of work by four illustrators; but Zina Saunders was the featured artist that immediately caught my attention.


I would describe Saunders' style as having a loosely realist drawing style mixed with a controlled Expressionist colouring scheme. Although this is a contrast to my usual art preferences, Saunders makes it work to great effect, which really captivated me and inspired me to do some further research on it beyond the Lines and Colours blog post.
It states on Saunders website that she has been a writer/illustrator for over 15 years, and as well as general illustrations she also does political satire, woodcut-inspired works, and 'reportage illustration' that fuses her illustrations with her interviews and other writings.

Saying as I only just found Saunders work earlier today I don't know whether I'd call her an influence right now [note that this blog post is called Influences...], but I certainly have a great admiration for the work featured on her website, and I can also sense a vague similarity between some of her works and my current painting series (mainly the realism and my keen interest in colour) - so why not include her here?

I like the realism used on the key areas in each of her works (such as the faces), and although I'm not so keen on the loose/vibrant line work used in other parts of her works (like bits of the background - see image below), for me it is the Expressionist colouring that dominates the image and grabs attention (because I love colour!)


I can't tell yet whether the work of Zina Saunders will have any notable influence on my work in the future, but hopefully it will help me to loosen my strong grasp on realism - as is noticeable in my current painting series 12fp(s).

Influences part 19: Berthe Morisot

My recent finger paintings (previous post) have been inspired by the Impressionist movement of the late 19th century, which challenged pre-existing ideals, "emphasized colour to express form and create mood" (Robinson, M. quoted in Pickeral, T. 2007), and celebrated modernity. Key figures from the Impressionist movement include: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cezanne, but the Impressionist that most influences my finger paintings just now is Berthe Morisot.

Morisot's work had its first of several appearances at the prestigious Salon de Paris in 1864 when she was 23 years old. In 1868 she formed a close friendship with Edouard Manet (another artist associated with the Impressionists), and they influenced each others development equally. Their relationship remained close when Morisot married Manet's brother in 1874 - the same year that the Impressionists had their first exhibition (which Morisot was part of).
Her artworks tend to focus on daily experiences of domestic life because her gender & class were restricted from urban settings and nude figures due to the culture. As a result of this much of Morisot's work portrays the comfort of women's domestic life, much like fellow female Impressionist, Mary Cassatt.

What I admire about Morisot's work is the careful use of colours, combined with the soft brushstrokes, which gives her paintings a subtle vibrancy that enriches the whole image without distracting from the calm, feminine subject matter.
For the past few weeks I have been collecting a series of Morisot paintings from the Internet and examining her style as the primary influence for my finger paintings.
My painting style so far is a lot bolder and nowhere near as subtle/beautiful as those of Morisot, so it may be regarded as ridiculous to link her with my paintings; but then again, it never was my intention to closely copy her style - I simply use her work as an influence so that I avoid using a tighter/controlled painting style or end up with a carefully painted image that tries to imitate reality.
My reason for this is that after studying animation at Edinburgh College of Art for the last 4 years and researching/writing several essays that dismiss 'photo-realistic' art styles, I'm now reluctant to admire any style of art that tries to imitate a photo (or real life) because I feel that this style of art rarely lives up to the photo/real object that it is trying to imitate, so therefore more expressive/looser styles of art can offer a greater amount of visual interest for its audience.


Bibliography:
- Robinson, M. quoted in Pickeral, T. Impressionism. Flame Tree Publishing, London, 2007. Pg 11.
- Olga's Gallery. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). Available at <http://www.abcgallery.com/M/morisot/morisot.html>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].
- Webmuseum, Paris. Berthe Morisot. Available at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/morisot/>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].
- Wikipedia. Berthe Morisot. Available at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthe_Morisot>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].

Influences part 18: TV adverts

I just realised how they made the advert [above] for the Honda Insight (Hybrid) a couple of weeks ago, and it really impressed me, so I've finally decided to post something about some of my favourite TV adverts...

United Airlines: Rose
Created by the amazing Russian paint on glass animator Aleksandr Petrov (The Old Man And The Sea, My Love), I think this is one of his most artistically impressive pieces.
Even though Petrov's films are vibrant and uniquely stunning in equal measure, I think his morphing painterly style works even better in these very short commercials - none more so than in The Night (another United Airlines commercial - shown in the image below)...
This second United Airlines commercial by Petrov is available to view at this website and is located on the right hand side, four pictures from the bottom.

Nike SB: Paul Rodriguez
It's a really simple 30 second advert for the Nike skateboard team, but the effective use of a basic digital/optical effect makes it stand out and live on in my memory.

Miss Dior: Cherie
From the calm summery pastel colour scheme, to the Frenchyness of the song Moi Je Joue (by Brigette Bardot); this whole advert (directed by Sofia Coppola - Lost In Translation), just has a wonderfully beguiling quality to it that I appreciate whenever it is broadcast.

Ladyhawke: self-titled debut album
I love the artwork of Sarah Larnach (Ladyhawke's illustrator), and the music video for Ladyhawke's My Delirium is one of my favourite music videos ever: so this advert (which is basically a 30 second showreel of them both) is, for me, simply stunning!

Honda Accord: Cog
This advert is probably responsible for me beginning to pay so much attention to adverts, and it also inspired my favourite college project, Die Skateboard (which I created for Sculpture during the 1st Year general course at Edinburgh College of Art in 2005/2006).

And finally of course, how could I forget that cheeky wee meerkat?

Highlights from my 210 films of research

Earlier this week I reached my 400th film rating on Flixster; mainly as a result of all the film research I did for my graduation project over the past year (I've watched 210 films in 365 days)...
To mark this random milestone, and to counter all the negative reviews I tend to write, I thought I'd list some of the films that I can either critique positively or that were not great films but which still influenced my graduation project.
I've arranged some of the films by director (at the top of the list), and the rest are arranged by year of release.

Quentin Tarantino:
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Kill Bill v1 (2003)

Jean-Luc Godard:
A bout de Souffle / Breathless (1959)
Une Femme Est Une Femme / A Woman Is A Woman (1961)
Bande a Part (1964)
Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Weekend (1967)

Alfred Hitchcock:
Rebecca (1940)
Rope (1948)
Strangers On A Train (1951)
Vertigo (1958)
Psycho (1960)

Tim Burton:
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Big Fish (2003)
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005)

James Bond films:
Dr No (1962) Directed by Terence Young
Live And Let Die (1973) Directed by Guy Hamilton
Moonraker (1979) Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Octopussy (1983) Directed by John Glen
Casino Royale (2006) Directed by Martin Campbell

David Lynch:
Eraserhead (1977)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Mulholland Drive (2001)

Other films:
Bringing Up Baby (1938) Directed by Howard Hawks
The Spiral Staircase (1945) Directed by Robert Siodmak
Singin' In The Rain (1952) Directed by Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly
House On Haunted Hill (1959) Directed by William Castle
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Directed by John Ford
Bonnie & Clyde (1967) Directed by Arthur Penn
The Amityville Horror (1979) Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Cape Fear (1991) Directed by Martin Scorsese
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Directed by Frank Darabont
Lola Rennt / Run Lola Run (1998) Directed by Tom Tykwer
Saving Private Ryan (1998) Directed by Steven Spielberg
American Beauty (1999) Directed by Sam Mendes
Memento (2000) Directed by Christopher Nolan
Vanilla Sky (2001) Directed by Cameron Crowe
Final Destination 2 (2003) Directed by David R. Ellis
Lost In Translation (2003) Directed by Sofia Coppola
Monster (2003) Directed by Patty Jenkins
Million Dollar Baby (2004) Directed by Clint Eastwood
13 Tzameti (2005) Directed by Géla Babluani
Lords of Dogtown (2005) Directed by Catherine Hardwicke
Saw 2 (2005) Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
Final Destination 3 (2006) Directed by James Wong
The Departed (2006) Directed by Martin Scorsese
El Orfanato / The Orphanage (2007) Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
This Is England (2007) Directed by Shane Meadows
Planet Terror (2007) Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Influences part 17: poster design

Last week I received a box full of over 500 identical postcards from the printers so that I can promote my graduation film, and as I'm not doing anything else right now (1:30am), this seems like as good a time as any to document some of the film posters that influenced the design decisions behind the aesthetics of my film poster/postcards...
In case you haven't already seen it, below is the poster design for my graduation film: Pigment of Imagination

I had always planned on making my film poster from a drawing or painting that illustrates 'something' about my film, rather than just creating a layout around an existing piece of my film footage... I suppose the original influence for this design decision may have come from Erica's hand-drawn poster for The Gardener, which both I and many others greatly admired.

I have always enjoyed painting, so I wanted to incorporate that into the aesthetics of my poster; and this also linked nicely with my favourite style of film poster - the vintage film posters of the 1940s & 50s, that were painted by hand. Some of my favourite posters in this style include those for The 400 Blows, Vivre Sa Vie, Jules et Jim, and Casablanca:

The third major influence on the design of my poster was the layout of the posters for Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho; but The Trouble With Harry and many other designs from the 50s/60s also greatly influence me.


Other notable influences include the artwork of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec...

And various Eastern European/Russian prints.

Influences part 16: music videos (part 2)

I'm hoping to begin work on several music videos after I've served my time at ECA, so this seems like an appropriate time to update part of my old "influences" series of blog posts - especially the section about my influences from the world of music videos, so here it goes:

Ladyhawke - My Delirium
It's like a big living 3D watercolour painting that is constantly moving - what else do I need to say!?
Well, it also features awesome watercolour illustrations by Sarah Larnach; some great rotoscoping in a similar style to Larnach but created by the guys at Frater (who turned Larnach's paintings into the animation); as well as demonstrating some other experimental styles of animation...
To put it simply, this is my favourite music video just now - if not ever!

Alphabeat - Boyfriend
More arty-farty goodness from those Alphabeat folks (I think all their videos - or at least the ones I've seen - are pretty quirky and cool). This song has 2 different videos, but I prefer the one linked above which was directed by Daniel Eskils.


Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
It just looks so quirky and different from any other music videos that commonly get shown on TV.


Ida Maria - I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked
It has a strong digital production process similar to the Franz Ferdinand video, but this one has a strong pop-art influence, which I like for the styling and bright colours.

Millencolin - Detox
Really cool camera work, that's about it really... (It's also a catchy song from a great band though).


Pink - Don't Leave Me
I can't tell whether I genuinely like the video, or if it's just because the male character (when he has a bandaged head) reminds me of Markku Peltola's injured character in Aki Kaurismaki's The Man Without A Past... Regardless of this, I also like the aesthetic of the hazy focal field in some of the scenes after the male character in this video gets injured.

Blink 182 - The Rock Show
I remember all the hype surrounding the launch of the Take Off Your Pants And Jacket album many years ago, and even after all these years I still love this song and how silly/reckless the video is.
The official video is not available on YouTube, so here is The Making Of The Rock Show instead.

The Dykeenies - The Sound Of The City
One of my friends who does crew work with The Dykeenies (and many other bands on tour), told me that the band made this video (which covers a wide spectrum of playful, yet highly creative, pixelation and stopmotion processes) by themselves.
Due to the amateur/hands-on approach by the band for the creation of this video, there is a strong vibrancy in it that I find exciting to watch because I feel as though it is missing from much professional music videos today.


Just Jack - Embers
It an interesting pan through history (if history were written by Just Jack), with lots of little models and some nice effects.

And finally, while I was searching for Not A Dry Eye In The House by Meat Loaf on YouTube, I discovered this mock video of it (AKA a literal music video) where the user has dubbed Meat Loaf's vocals for a pretty good impression that sings about what happens on screen throughout the official video footage...
I love the original Meat Loaf video, which is a re-telling of Beauty & The Beast, but this mock video is pretty funny and worth including here instead (particularly as I couldn't find the original on YouTube).

A mine of design

While drawing a new PoV shot for my film over the last two days I've spent even more time on the Internet looking for design influences... I just couldn't help myself - i love 'research'!
Over the last two days I've found so many wierd and wonderful things!!! Here's a round-up...

WebUrbanist is a great resource with loads of databases of very unusual things... One such database is 20 Unusually Brilliant Bookcase & Bookshelf Designs.

WebUrbanist also had these evocative databases collectively known as The (WU)ltimate 33-Part Guide To Abandonded Cities. I found it really useful for ideas to develop the spooky run-down aesthetic designs of the house in my film.

Another similar link is at Askville where people replied to a question asking 'What defines a house as spooky or haunted?' Although most of the answers are fairly common, it also has a few really unusual answers, and lots of good imagery and related links.

I found this blog post about Weird Chairs called That's What You Call Pain In The Ass. There are chairs made from cutlery, sharpened pencils, screws, and even featuring 3 sheep heads! But this set above, designed to look like a child's drawing, is my favourite.

Opera78 is a design board established in 2005 by Fiodor SUMKIN, and has lots of cool illustrations.

Tim Sale is the graphic novel illustrator who creates the artwork for Heroes. I just checked back on his website yesterday for the first time in ages, and forgot how great his work looks.

Earlier this evening I saw the advert for Ladyhawke's debut album on the TV, and it looks so awesome! It has wonderful watercolour illustrations and the coolest rotoscoping I've ever seen!
I checked out the music video for My Delirium on YouTube... It mixes live-action with the really cool rotoscoping and even has long sequences of animation created by digitally manipulating a series of watercolour paintings.
The illustrations and paintings were made by Sarah Larnach. And her watercolour paintings were turned into the awesome animation sequences by Frater at Partizan Lab.

Film update & words of wisdom

I've spent a long time away from my film this month, and after what a particular Quentin Tarantino character may recognise as "a moment of clarity", I've decided just to stick with all the rotoscoping and ballpoint pen colouring.

I've finally come to terms with the fact that this film (using the drawn process) will never look as great as I ideally desire (which requires more experience, resources, and time than are available to me in 4th Year). This realisation has helped me to 'enjoy' [I don't think that is the most suitable word] the production process more and just see what happens... The final result will be decent by my own perfectionist standards, so it should be fine for other students too - and I suppose by not meeting my exceptional expectations first time around will mean I've still got something to aim for with my next project! I've certainly got enough obscure influences/inspirations/ideas/drive to get started on a new auteur-style film after this project is concluded.
Anyway, I thought that this post (with it's "moment of clarity") would be suitable for publishing some of the words of wisdom that I've received over roughly the past 12 months...

- "We as an art college should be striving to produce innovative, exciting new works, and attempting to break new ground for the future animators. We shouldn't be trying to imitate someone else in the professional world, or settle for what we know and have access to. We are the explorers of today (like Len Lye, Walt Disney, and Norman McLaren were in the past); we have the rest of our careers to comply with the industry and do as someone else tells us, but for just now, as students, we should do what we want to do". (Neil Kempsell, March 2008)

- [about the concept selection for a graduation film] "I think it's best to just pick a simple concept right from the beginning. Many people go into 4th Year expecting to produce a 10-minute masterpiece [of the quality like Disney, Petrov, or Burton] and then they realise much later that they won't be able to achieve it, and they will have to cut it all right down - which ruins the story... It's only a student film after all, it's not a big expensive industry film". (Erica Weiste, April 2008)

- "Try not to be too much of a perfectionist". (Erica Weiste, March 2009)

- [about the work load/scheduling of a graduation film] "Start planning it all right now [the end of 3rd Year] and make sure that you've got the story, the style, the process, EVERYTHING, completely sorted out by October [the start of 4th Year]. That way you can get as much time as possible to develop it and work on the animation". (Louis Hudson, May 2008)

- [about the dedication required on a graduation film] "There's so much to do that it will mean not sleeping for the next few weeks". (Alison Cross, April 2008)

And finally, just because I think it's pretty humorous, a quote I found on the internet from an actor talking about his job... "I'm an actor... I do a job and I go home. Why are you interested in me? You don't ask a truck driver about his job". (James Gandolfini).

Influences part 15: Paul Cezanne

I first discovered Cezanne's work when I started high school almost 10 years ago after my art teacher assigned to everyone in the class a random painting to write a critical analysis about. The Cezanne painting that I received seemed pretty abstract (which I wasn't keen on) and was very different to anything I had previously been familiar with, but I quickly began to appreciate his style, and Cezanne has remained a key influence on my work ever since... Below are a couple of my paintings from March 2008 influenced primarily by the work of Cezanne.


I feel that Cezanne's brushwork creates two completely seperate fields of study in his work: the subject of the painting, and the painting technique.
Cezanne's work uses a loose/slightly abstract painting technique that creates a stimulating aesthetic. His finished paintings are fairly recognisable, however the brushstrokes that make up the overall image are very obvious and not at all reminiscent of their subject in reality. This is similar to Impressionist painting techniques, and I am using this theory to develop the animation process/aesthetics for my graduation film.

For my graduation film I am interpreting live-action video footage, which should create a life-like motion within the animation. This means that I can be more abstract with the visual style of my animation drawings because regardless of how the individual drawings look, the motion created when the sequential drawings are displayed at film speed should create a clear illusion of realistic motion.