My End Of Year Show

This is a picture of me standing next to my work for the end of year show which took place in the shop. This piece along with 2 others are now within the college for show. Photos will be taken and placed on the next blog post.

Exhibition Shop

Today I was in the shop with Billie looking after everything and talking to customers who looked at the work if they wanted to. We were there from 3:15 till 5:10 and were the last to take care of the shop so we locked up. It was good to take care of the shop because it shows that we can be responsible. We got a few people come in and show interest :) 

B Road Britain

Today I got a brief from Steve Taylor, short and sweet, cutting straight to the chase. Steve is doing a B Road Britain ride next year where he will ride around Britain on a 50cc Moped. He will be riding through Ireland, Scotland, Wales and of course England entirely through back roads not used as much to raise money for MS. Having MS himself he is risking his life to save others. I was more than happy to accept this request from Steve and can't wait to see what I come up with.

Engraving Art - what you need?

Things that are needed for the engraving, (Things that came from the pack and some things from your house) shown below.

A table would be useful to lean on, preferably one that is steady because you will be there for a while engraving the A4 page. Something to lean the card on (another piece of clear card is in the pack so I am leaning it on that), the card you are engraving, the engraving pen to scratch away the black paint and reveal a beautiful silver pattern. The Things you will need from home is paper to lean your hands on so you do not get finger prints on while working, a damp cloth to wipe away the scrapings from the card while you work, tissue to dry it if still working on the area and some music as you will be there for a while. Keep snacks close by in case you get peckish. 

Picture shows that I have started. It is a fun process and interesting to experiment with :) 

Engraving

Got an engraving set from nan to give a go so giving it a try now. Will be nice to see a different effect and technique of art :) 

End Of Year Show Piece

My A1 piece up at the show. Taken from a distance. Show is almost finished just a few more things that will have to be done before the start. Everything looks good and today we created more badges.

Rik Lee

http://www.rikleeillustration.com


 Working with grey lead pencils, texts, watercolours and his computer to create masterpieces is an artist called Rik Lee who lives and draws in Melbourne, Australia. Rik has worked for a range of clients that include American Express, Nylon, Puma, Wired, Vodaphone, Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, Telstra, Vibe, Vice, Dotti, Clandestine Industries. Hurley, Honour Over Glory, Stussy and The Itailors.

From studying Graphic Design to becoming a Freelance Illustrator

Rik studied Graphic Design however it bummed him out and he decided to focus more on his illustrations because it made him happy and it meant he was doing what he loves, instead of leaving the Design School he decided to stay and produce an illustration portfolio however this caused him to get a lot of grief from his lecturers of whom were annoyed with him for drawing everything even typography. Rik graduated with a portfolio he was proud with however one that no design company wanted anything to do with. Rik carried on drawing and ended up picking up some freelance gigs and is now illustrating for a living.

Mediums and Processes

Rik's works have a range of different media used, first he will started off with a red outline (Faber Castell "Polychromos" pencils, the red is his favourite) for the basic lines where he would then be able to trace over the lines that he wanted in a darker tone. 

The lead of all the coloured pencils differ slightly and Rik found that the blacks and greys are scratchy and good to use so he decided upon using the red because it is soft and draws perfectly. These reasons being why he uses the red pencil first as he then stated "I began to draw almost exclusively in red. It comes down to personal preference. Like all my techniques, I have discovered them through trial and error. I suggest you do the same. Mess around, and find out what works for you. every artist is different and every artist will prefer different mediums. While I may like the red pencil, another person may prefer blue or green. Try them out and decide for yourself."

When the line work and shading is drawn by hand in pencil and the occasional marker pen/sharpie he will sometimes scan in the illustration to then manipulate it in photoshop by adding colour and more. However sometimes he will continue working by hand by colouring it with gauche or watercolours but in some cases he will leave the piece as a pencil drawing on paper. The medium used for each piece depends on which Rik feels would work best and a medium which he is confident with using. The paper that he uses is Arches Smooth Watercolour Paper.

Rik's Interests

Rik has his other interests outside of his drawing of which involve trying not to fall off his skateboard, talking in detail about the weather (Storms being his favourite). He plans to draws more in the future as well as travel more, get more tattoos, drive a '67 Chevy Impala and move down the Coast with his girlfriend and his dog.

Some examples of Rik's works below:

End Of Year Exhibition

Yesterday we went to the shop/studio we will be using for our end of year show, the end of the year show will show all the work of the students in the last year of their course. When arriving at the shop/studio we were left to do the cleaning up and touching up the paint on the walls where lacking, this involved the scrubbing of the floor, cleaning the bar, hoovering and making everything ready for the work to be put up for Tomorrows private showing.

We ask that if you are in the area you come and check out the work for viewing. Friday night is the opening to the event where there will be V.I.P and wine while also being taken on the tour and viewing the works.

This event starts tomorrow night (Friday 7th June 2013) at half 5 and will go on until 17th June 2013. It is called Bridging the G.A.P for the purpose that the show will have a variety of work there from Graphics, Art and Photography. Bridging the Gap will start at Canterbury College where it will then continue into the town to 3 other locations.

This will be like a tour where at the beginning you will see the level 1 and 2 Art and Design at the college then go to a shop/studio where you will see Level 3 Art and Design, another shop/studio to see the Level 3 Graphic Design (us) and finally Level 3 photography at the Marlowe Theatre.

The Kids Are Losing Their Minds ~ Rik Lee

When looking through Rik Lee's website (http://www.rikleeillustration.com)  I saw this typeface that he has created and illustrated. This is the only typeface seen upon his website and one of the rare pieces with the men being used but as well as men there is also also other things that show animals, scenes or objects. I really like this typeface and think it is beautifully illustrated with different illustrations in each.

I think that in some cases the illustrations were thought about for the creating of the letter but in other cases clipping masks would have been used. I think that the first T and H work very well as well as all the I's, the A and E in are and then the L and O in losing work very well. I think that these are the ones that were thought about because they fit into the letter perfectly and even make the letter in their own way especially the T,H,I,A and E.

I like how the colour scheme consists on 3 colours that are repetitive and go nicely together for the darkness is the same with each of the colours and they do not clash nor dull each other out. The illustrations that do not make the letter fit in nicely because you can still see letters and it also looks pretty, I like the people being used in the letters as well as the animals and scenes such as Vegas diner.

Work Similarities

Pick Me Up Exibition Work VS Rik Lee

These pieces of work were seen at the Pick Me Up Exhibition. When seeing these pieces of work it immediately reminded me of an artist that I had found out shortly before this exhibition.

Although these are very different to what Rik Lee has produced they have similarities which will be discussed in this blog post.

This artist has their work on a white background and they use 3 colour of which are white, black and pink. The designs look like they are shirt designs and also have a lot of detail of which are the tattoos and the detail in the hair for the man. In the images most of it is outlines rather than fills which is interesting for the woman however I think that the image of the man looks wrong where his hair has the detail and feel that this should be filled in black like the woman's hair.

Out of the two pieces produced by this artist I prefer the woman because she looks better with the hair, the way her body cuts out and also I like how her tattoos aren't all filled in.

Rik Lee's work focuses on the tattoo side also but in a very different way to the artist above. In most of his art works, Rik also uses 3 colours of which are black, white and blue however he changes the opacity of the black to get different shades therefore having grey in the colour scheme for the shading. Rik focuses on the women in his work having a limited amount of men used within his designs, not only does his work focus on the tattoos it also is in a tattoo style which is also shown with his signature and the text on his work for it is using a typeface often used when type is tattooed. I prefer the style of Rik Lee rather than the artist displayed above for rik puts more detail within his work and brings realism within the art with the use of the shading. The tattoos are all seen in a darkish blue, this is to make it stand out against the harsh black with a bit of colour as well as make it stand out against the skin tone shading.


My favourite from the 3 pieces of Rik's work seen to the right would have to be the first one because of the detail in the image and the simplicity of the colours as the one at the bottom has a bit too much colour when the lips and nails are always coloured in however i like the melting effect on her jacket. For an improvement to the bottom image I think that her other jacket sleeve would need to be coloured in to complete the look and more shading to be added into her hair. The top 2 piece of his focuses more on the tattoos and have a lot more shading to show the tone but the first is my favourite because she is facing head on and the tattoos are spread out amongst her instead of just one place. I also like the way that She fades out because the fact that she was faded out is very clean and doesn't look weird however with the arm it looks weird because there is no connection to anything and the arm appeared from nowhere.


I think that the tattoos being in blue is a good idea because it stands out against the harsh black and stands out against the toning of the ski however i think that the blue is off-putting in some points where it looks to much and wrong in cases like the first 2 images because it is all black and white however when it is a cade of having quite a bit of colour already within the image like the one to the right it doesn't looks so bad and isn't so much noticeable due to the colour already being on the piece.