How Photography Improves Artwork – part 1 : Composition.

Artists benefit from learning photography.

A visual artist, illustrator or even classically trained fine artists should consider learning the art of photography. Photographers are of course visual artists themselves. The practice of creating a good illustration or piece of art, as well as knowing how to take a great photo have a lot in common, however the procedure is very different in its execution.

Illustrators and artists spend years working on their drawing skills, learning muscle groups and figure drawing. Photographers learn how to use their equipment and learn about how to master it and create compositions and manipulate light. The learning curve is steep in all of these professions.

Artistry with photography and traditional art does however complement each other in a very unique way. Improvement in one is often reflected in the other. I gained a greater understanding of composition and its guidelines due to learning photography. This is the first post in a series on how photography gave me a better understanding of the visual arts.

Composition:

Composing and setting up a structure to an illustration is usually created based on a sketch or a starting point that the artist has already created. It is often something that is done at some stage after a sketch is created, unless this is planned out before the initial drawing is started. This would be done by creating thumbnails.

Artists illustrating fantasy landscapes do this before creating their pieces and have it ingrained as a first step in their process, however, it is not necessarily something artists in other genres tend to do very often. Some even think it is an unnecessary step for their work flow depending on what they are creating. The point being that composition is often an after thought based on what the sketch turns out to be.

I think, this is one of the reasons why many artists that are in the different stages of learning the craft, struggle with composition. The theory around composition and structure is also sometimes explained in an unnecessarily complicated manner by professionals and even art teachers. I personally figured out the theory of it, after receiving training in photography and several years of drawing. The truth is that the theory and rules of composition, whether it is art, Illustration or photography, is an annoyingly and almost frustratingly simple concept once you understand it.

Experienced photographers however, think of composition naturally, all the time, even when they don`t have a camera in their hand. It is the first big mental step taken to create a good image in most cases. It basically becomes an instinct that is gained over time.

When we learn about composition whether it is through art schooling or photography, there are two concepts that almost always turn up. These are “The rule of thirds” and “The golden ratio”, depending on the class, a string of maths is then presented to explain why these are the rules. This is completely unnecessary to know when you put these rules into use or even if you should choose to use them at all?, more on that later.

The rule of thirds is the easiest one to understand. Using four lines, the canvas is split into nine equally large boxes. Where the lines intersect there are “power points” meaning the focus or rather the most important part of the image or illustration should be located somewhere in or around these. The rest of the lines serve as a guide as to where you may want to have leading lines in the image, for instance a horizon or a street light, depending on the orientation of what it is in the image.

The rule of thirds.

Keep in mind that these boxes are the same whether the canvas or image is in Landscape mode or portrait mode, it can always be divided into the rule of thirds. The same is true for our next “rule”. The golden ratio.

The golden ratio is arguably more complicated, but it is still good too understand it conceptually. This is where most teachers would begin rambling about numbers to explain what it is, however this is not necessary. The numbers change depending on scale and size. If that was not enough, the golden ratio can almost be applied to anything, making it more confusing. For now it is enough to understand that it is a geometrically perfect spiral based on the Fibonacci sequence. This spiral is created by drawing a line through geometric boxes that multiplies with itself in height and width.

The golden ratio aka Fibonacci spiral.

This spiral is used as a tool to pinpoint where an artist would like to lead the eye of the person looking at the image. The focal point and the important and most detailed parts of the image or illustration should be close to the centre of the spiral. While the rest of the spiral is a guide to leading lines again. In the case of the spiral it is usually applied to more organic and fluid movement in an image..

Even though this is tough to understand sometimes, the spiral can be applied to almost anything. This is because the spiral can be flipped both horizontally and vertically as you see fit. This Gives some leeway into figuring out where you want the focal point or the point of interest to be.

The Fibonacci spiral can be flipped to whatever rotation that is needed.

The final thing i want to mention now is that the golden ratio fits almost perfectly into the rule of thirds as well. This means you can combine them when you think of structuring a work of art. Understanding this concept gives you a lot of freedom when applying these rules and you as an artist can make them work for you instead of being a slave to them.

Combining the rule of thirds and the golden ratio.

These concepts are a lot like the pirates code, only for visual artists. “They`re more what you`d call guidelines than actual rules”. There are instances where you should use them, and then again they could potentially hinder an artists creativity. Some people swear by these concepts because they are “rules”, some are incapable of breaking them because a rule is a rule. But having some understanding of them leaves you better equipped to actually break the mold as well.

These rules are a lot like recipes, they are a structured concept that makes executing the task easier when it comes to gaining a good result in the end. But after cooking with recipes for a while you can explore your options in creating something new because you understand these concepts and ingredients.

The next post on how photography improved my understanding of art will be about light and how it can be manipulated to create better works of art.

Thank you for reading.

Gonzo – The Art and Writing of a Movement.

Design & Art History, Uncategorized

When people talk about Gonzo as a style or a form of aesthetics in its artistic sense, most of the conversation revolves around Gonzo writing, made famous by Hunter.S.Thompson through the article [The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved] and later with [Fear and loathing in Las Vegas]. This was again turned into a movie by the same name, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro.

There is however a major influence in the form of artwork to visualize the Gonzo style of writing, the masthead of this art in its illustrative form is Ralph Steadman. It all began in 1970 and a seemingly random encounter between two menn.

KAEEAkis – Model : Karl Erik – Illustration by Johan Torhaug.

Steadman describes the encounter with Hunter as follows –“What i in fact had done, without even realizing it, was scored a bulls eye, first time on my first visit to america. I mean, i met up with the one man i needed to meet in all the world, in the whole of america to work with.” -Ralph Steadman – For no good reason (Documentary).

The art of Ralph Steadman has been, and still is, a source of inspiration for me as an illustrator. It is also something that i have tried to replicate digitally and in different non-traditional mediums.

This has however proven nigh impossible as the organic flow of inc and spatters are difficult to create digitally without making it look static or non-organic. This basically means when working with these techniques in digital media it tends to look very fake, you can often see that it is not a “real” ink splash when studying the piece. Especially if you have used the same spatter or brush in more than one place on a given illustration.

Despite tremendous improvements in digital software and methods used in digital art over the past decade, it still fails (somewhat) to capture, what i think is, the essence of what the organic and traditional mediums can create, often called “happy accidents”.

This however does not mean that it is entirely impossible to create something organic digitally. It just takes some creativity and knowledge of the different mediums. This is why it is good to know how to create artwork with traditional mediums, even if you work digitally most of the time.

Steadman`s work is a good example of what could only be described controlled chaos, something which is counter intuitive in itself. However he has created an aesthetic and his own art form with it and in turn made it his “style”.

He has used this style to create journalistic and political illustrations, something that it is well suited for, as the illustrations gain a certain “punch” to them. Harnessing the anger and frustrations we all (should) feel sometimes regarding politics and social issues.

The illustrations in this post is my attempt at studying and creating something by mimicking this art style. Even though the art work have been digitized, it was initially created with traditional mediums using a paint brush, acrylics and ink. The letters where then in turn vectored and put to use digitally.

KAEEA – Type Logo by Johan Torhaug

Every spatter and letter was created manually one by one. The main image was then hand drawn using Adobe illustrator and vector graphics. This means the image can be resized for different uses without the quality of its lines being diminished. It also gives the illustration a very crisp and non-shaded quality.

Vectors do not handle shadows or gradients the same way an illustration created in Adobe Photoshop or even traditional media does. Illustrator is very “Yes – No” or rather “Black or any other colour” without blending. Think of it like working in paints and blending contra working with hard inks in traditional media.

The illustration was then put together with the type i managed to create. All vectorized.
The compilation of the final work ended up being the illustration along with a type logo. It took quite some time and many itterations to create the type itself, but the end result was interesting to me. I also learned something new and made it a part of my process for future work.

Thank you for reading – J

Illustration – “AI” – Geisha.

Illusions, Uncategorized

Tools :

The software i used for this illustration was Adobe Illustrator on the Ipad pro (also known as Adobe Draw). I later imported it to Adobe Illustrator on my PC to touch up and finish the image.

From sketches to illustration – progression.

Before i begin sketching i usually go through a thought process. Depending on the work i want to create, the time i spend thinking about the image and visualizing it varies.
After i have an idea on how i want the sketch to turn out i do some research.

Spending a few minutes on Pinterest i get some inspirations and visual impressions before i execute the first/starting sketch. Be careful with spending too much time on this however as you do not want the inspirations you receive from elsewhere to dictate how your piece turns out.

The first step was starting a rough sketch, trying to capture the essence of what i am visualizing and trying to create with the image.

This is however not necessarily the right approach always. It was the way i started this illustration, but sometimes you just get a sketch you want to complete with no visualizing or intention as well.

The beginning of an illustration or sketch is always open to varying your approach. You could always start a new sketch if it does not pan out as intended.

After the main sketch was done i spent some time experimenting with it on different layers, thinking about colours and lighting etch, this is evident with all the layers i used.

After i had spent some time thinking about the image i reduced the opacity on the sketch and started refining the line art on a new layer.

This is definitely one way several digital artists go about refining and create line work.
However this is not always how i go about it myself. Refining line art on a new layer is maybe an easy way of doing it but sometimes refining the sketch itself is a better way to approach an image, albeit a more difficult and time consuming approach.

On this one however i refined the line work on its own layer. Spending some time adding details around the face and hair to create more interest and ensuring the face is the focal point of the illustration.

I do this spending some ekstra time getting the line work to be coherent. meaning creating lines mostly in one long swift stroke with minimal amounts of breaks in between the lengths of the lines. This is to ensure the line work doesn’t look scratchy and broken up in between the endpoints.

After i have finished the line work of the main sketch, i continue working on it adding more details. Focusing on shadows and where the light source is i draw in where the shadows are to create some more depth in the line work. I also add more detail around the face and hair, trying to create interest.

Finishing the line work is always satisfying to me, probably because this is where i tend to spend the most of the time i work an an image. This is when i begin spending time on experimenting some more with new layers and colours to figure out what i want to do next.

When i have made up my mind i start organizing my layers again to remove the unnecessary ones and clean up the work space. Keep in mind however that you should not delete the rough sketch layer. It is nice to have as a comparison later down the road of the illustration.

Now the time to add colour has come, i played around with several combinations of colours to find the ones i wanted to use in this illustration.

I like de-saturated colours as they dont “glare” and strain the eye as much as highly saturated tones do. I want the image to lead the eye well without having too bright colours that steal the interest away from the focal points.

After getting a base colour palette to work with mu drawing i started fiddling with the flowers on the fan the geisha is holding.

This is where i got stuck. This happens sometimes, you get stuck on illustration work and you dont really know what to do about it. I put the illustration away for a few days while thinking again about how to deal with this issue.

I the end i asked another artist friend of mine on how she would approach it (i specifically asked about the background colour). Blue was suggested as the colour for the background as she thought this would give the illustration some more depth.

In this i agreed, i played around with some blue hues that i thought would work well.

Pro Tip : When stuck, ask someone for directions.

To finish the illustration`s background i wanted a graphical element to round the whole image off. In the background is the kanji for “Ai” drawn on a makeshift wall.

Of course when using graphical element from a written language that is foreign to you, one needs to do some research.

In Japanese, both “ai （愛）” and “koi （恋）” can be roughly translated as “love” in English. However, the two characters have a slightly different nuance.

I did some research and found this web page from ThoughtCo explaining what i needed to know for this illustration with, at the very least, a small degree of confidence.

Feel free to leave a comment on this post and let me know what you think.
Thank you for reading, i hope you enjoyed it.

Atrum[s] – Illusions

“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein

Vector