John Tenniel in-depth analysis

Sir John Tenniel was a British illustrator, graphic humorist and cartoonist who's work was prominent in the later half of the 19th century in England. He is considered important in terms of the social, literary and history of art in that period. In 1893 he was knighted by Queen Victoria for his achievements in his field. Two of his most well known accomplishments are his work as the principle political cartoonist for England's Punch magazine (a weekly humor and satire magazine lasting from 1841 to 1992, drawing its name from the glove puppet act Punch and Judy) and later Lewis Carroll's Alice in wonderland and Alice through the looking glass.

This illustration is John Tenniel's interpretation of Davy Jones sitting on his locker. This image itself is dated to 1892 and shows Davy Jones reading a chart if the 1789 Ferrol harbour which was home to the HMS Howe which had run aground the same year. Davy Jones itself is an idiom for the bottom of or death at sea. The idea that when a person died there, their body would sink down into Davy Jones locker where it would remain. This satire illustration was making a joke of the incident by showing Davy jones looking for the ship on the map. 

Here is another example of the the work of John Tenniel. The piece was taken from Lewis Carroll's Alice in wonderland and shows the caterpillar smoking a pipe and talking to her as she peeps over the giant mushroom. When I look closer at the techniques that where used to apply the image, it appears    that initially pen an ink where used to draw the image because of the defined lines and the use of cross hatching. But of course this would be very in-efficient because thousands of copies would have been made. There for they would have created etchings and then put them into a print press.

 
In the sequel, Alice through the looking glass, Alice encounters the Jabberwocky. She first discovers the Jabberwocky in a poem in the back to front world of a looking glass. The Jabberwocky is a large reptile like creature, many features where drawn from dinosaurs, its scaled leathery skin and wings resembling those of a pterodactyl as well as its snake-like tale and claws with talons.

Raphael Vicenzi in-depth analysis.

Raphael Vicenzi is a self taught illustrator who lives in Brussels, Belgium. His work is heavily influenced by the beauty and the fashion industry as well as street art and graffiti and into his mixed media style he incorporates soft and delicate lines with with some dark colours and strong outlines. He also uses mixed digital media, painting and water colours with textures to express his ideas and emotions.

(Link) Here are two typical pieces of Raphael Vicenzi work and two that I particularly like and find relevant to my idea for a final piece. They are a jam packed explosion of colour, imagery and typography where each part seems to be interlinked in the same way that the worlds that Alice explores on her adventures live and breathe as one. The bright colours are a true visual representation of a persons imagination, full of energy and of course Raphael's work is his imagination on paper. He does this by bundling what may seem like completely unrelated images like phones and birds in the picture on the left or in the picture on the right mushrooms and donkeys which on the surface doesn't make sense but in the head of the artist they do. In the same way that when we daydream, we too will have thoughts that to us make sense but to others don't and it is this concept I will take into account when developing my idea because the world that Lewis Carroll has many elements which appear insane but in his imagination may have been normal.

(Link) Wonderland and through the looking glass contain sinister undertones. Characters like the Queen of Hearts and the Mad-hatter especially, display schizophrenic and sociopathic behaviour. Alice, a child, is traveling through an unknown land with strange creatures, people and a warped, dreamscape eco-system are the sort of thing you may experience in a nightmare or the delusions of a mad person. For that reason I chose these images, the one on the right because it is of a young woman/ girl who is close to the common interpretation of what Alice looks like in terms of the body profile. Long hair, slim and elegant and confidant in posture. I took the picture on the left because the is similar the the idea of my composition. Alice in black and white and the world of wonderland in colour but appearing to break out from her head as if escaping her mind.

Mood Board

illustration brief art in depth analysis.

Julia herself graduated from Kingston University in the U.K in 2007 with a BA in animation and illustration with her first major piece, her graduation piece receiving a lot of exposure on the internet and making its way to the front page of youtube as well as receiving one million his within the first two months. Since then she has gone on to complete an MA at the royal college of art and has been commissioned by clients such as E4, Skins, MTV, Virgin and Toyota.

      

This illustration is on a greetings card printed 6 by 4 inches and the image is of an elephant and a wild boar on horseback in the mountains. They are also satin coated to give better colour reproduction.  The artist who created the card is called Julia Pott and the piece is titled, "I love that you're here with me". Julia employs an amateurist style often referred to as awkward animations combined with anthropomorphises which she uses to explore the motivations between human relationships where by characters are represented by "mildly ridiculous animals". Although the style at first may appear childish, on closer inspection you can see the amount of detail that she has put into the hair of the animals and objects such as the log in the bottom right hand corner, the trunk of the elephant that is riding the horse as well as the trees in the background. This helps to create areas of visual texture where by the audience can tell by looking at the area what it feels like. Common to her work Julia uses predominantly muted colours with minimal vibrant ones helping to create a dreamy atmosphere and variation in tones which help the audience to focus on the key parts of the image. Where most artist would use thick bold lines to make parts of the image stand out Julia uses thin ones which helps to create this awkward style and the composition looks as if she meant the piece to appear like an instillation with each image standing in its own layer from front to back. I believe she did this because her work is meant to be personal, in effect she is creating what she feels inside, in her head from her experiences and the style is a representation of her personality. This layered effect to me illustrates the layers of our memories in combination with our feelings, each individual drawing stands on its own like each feeling is interdependent of another but to remember, we recollect specific parts of memories and feeling of the time and piece them together to recreate the scene in our head. Again I believe Julia uses her "almost" childish, awkward style to show how people become a "teenager" again when they are in love.

In comparison to the first piece which seems to be embracing a memory of two people who have feelings for each other, this seems to be more about regret. Initially I noticed the picture isn't as busy as the first, an almost barren land scape, dark and cloudy with lightning in the background. On viewing this picture you feel a sense of emptiness, minimal dull muted colours and the grainy texture used on the landscape create a tense atmosphere. The animals have been brought into the foreground and unlike the background the grainy texture wasn't applied so imidiate attention is brought to them instead. The same technique of "visual texture" has been applied to this piece through the fur of the animals, warm and fuzzy clearly showing that there is or at least were feelings of attraction between them. Their body language, lack of eye contact, hands in pockets and avoiding posture tell me that the relationship between them was at an early stage they maybe hadn't told each other how they felt and it was cut short. My understanding of the method behind the composition is that the animals visualy represent the moment and the background is a personification of what they felt at the time.

After looking at the work of Julia Pott, watching interviews and her animations I have defiantly concluded that she is a romantic, I have enjoyed exploring her style and her combination of texture and muted colours as well as her "awkward animations"  which are certainly a representation of her personality. She has defiantly taught me something about incorporating emotions into my work. As I will be creating an illustration themed by the "Alice" and "Wonderland" which incorporates feelings of needing to be connected and finding a way to fit in I will try to use similar techniques in order to bring the audience into the piece.

Exam Project Brief