Monday 28 March 2011

Updates

Haven't posted during these two weeks because I've had a non-stop schedule, from a 3-day stay in Luxembourg with my Media students:
Ritienne Aquilina & Andy Micallef at the EU Bookshop Ceremony
...to shadowing a German lecturer for the BA Fine Arts Course on the Digital Applications Unit. Presentation will be on Friday and I will try to post some documentations here the following weekend!

Friday 11 March 2011

The Grammar of Film & Storyboarding

Excellent video tutorials on the Grammar of Film kindly provided by my friend/colleague Eleonora (check out her blog here)

The Grammar of Film Part 1 from Eleonora Rose Abela on Vimeo.

The Grammar of Film Part 2 from Eleonora Rose Abela on Vimeo.
And here's some information on Storyboarding - just in case there's no time to cover this in class :) The final few slides are a summary of the above videos.Storyboarding
View more presentations from Moira Zahra.

Saturday 5 March 2011

Illusive Contemporary Illustration - mesmerizing Illustrations

Sometimes, my friends/coworkers Ruth and Eleonora (check out her new film blog here) come over and we sit down together, drink, eat, sing loudly and draw/paint :) Recently we've been going through 'Illusive - Contemporary Illustration Part 3' for inspiration, before starting our drawing sessions. So I've decided to share with you some names which have kept me looking at their works for the longest amount of time. These are not necessarily my favourites, because there were various other excellent illustrations, but I guess they did mesmerise me slightly more than the others. I have to admit I am a bit of a sucker for figurative and delicate likes, so you'll be seeing more of these.

Pietari Posti

The colour scheme of 'Storm' by Pietari Posti is so simple and yet astonishingly attractive. What I like about this: the line quality of the waves, the 'rough' colouring of the tentacles, the little dark corner in the top left nails it.
Mocchi Mocchi
 This was one of Ruth's favourites. There's something about illustrations of poppies - I guess it's the random, asymmetrical shape, and then the little black spots in the middle. Strikingly addictive,
Joe Mclaren
 A very popular style which is emerging locally as well - 'imperfect' illustration which puts the focus on the line and less on the rendering. Must admit I find its naivety very pleasing.
Bovey Lee
 What's not to like about this one? Beautifully detailed tactile illustration! There were other really good tactile illustrations on the book, but again, the lines in the one got me!
Nathan Fox
Really like the adrenalin and energy in Nathan Fox's illustration - very American-comic but in a different context. Reminded me a bit of the works of Winston Rowntree one of my favourite internet comic artists.
Laura Laine
Laura Laine is a Finnish fashion illustrator. Her works blew me away. Figures distorted in all the right areas. A little bit Tim-Burtonesque, but more refined.

Sabine Pieper
 After detailed lines and figures, collages are next on my list. I like the mixture of detailed faces with rough ink and paint smudges in Pieper's work.
Marguerite Sauvage
 Don't you think Marguerite Sauvage's name is perfect for her style of illustration? :) I was a bit undecided of whether to include her works her of not. Then I looked her up and found this illustration (which was not in the book) and I was hooked instantly. Love the pastel colour scheme, their faces, the hair, the food! (I love food illustration) and the whole Parisian-feel of the illustration.
Nao
I want to buy this as a print one day. What I like about it: the effortless line drawing, the running ink effect which I think is perfect for the context of this illustration. The writing, the hair...
Gabriel Moreno
 Gabriel Moreno's line quality reminds me of Daniela Attard's (who goes by the name of Iella) one of my favourite local illustrators.
Eva Sun-sil Han
 More collage work. Eva's work is a mixture of ravaged collage faces and thin architectural lines.
Marco Marella
 Marco Marella's work reminds me of these IT magazine illustration (perhaps he does do illustration for IT magazines, not sure). Also reminds me of coffee-shop artwork. Either way, I love the mixture of type with his rough-yet-clean figure illustrations.
Vincent Bakkum
I wanted to include a more traditional illustration, and I chose Vincent Bakkum, who does beautifully rendered figures, most of the time - accompanied by birds. I'm not a big fan of animal illustrations but I decided to make an exception for this one.
Yoko Furusho
Last but not least, Yoko Furusho has some amazing works comprised of clean-line figures. I really like the content of this illustration as well.

Please feel free to share your own favourite Illustrators :)

Wednesday 2 March 2011

What I'm doing

What I'm doing: Combining traditional and digital. Trying to take the best of both worlds :)