For this unit I decided to go for a character that really appealed to myself, especially one I wouldn't lose interest in half-way through the process and one that I could look forward to creating rather than just dragging one out like a chore. I looked at many different artists to consider their workflow, style, techniques and colours.
You might notice that I had tried to lean towards more traditional artists, looking at more hands-on traditional techniques like ink, ink-wash, watercolours and more. Based on technique and workflow I chose to focus on artist such as Will Morris and Zosia Dzierzawska who were previously featured on the NoBrow issue 9.
There isn't really an aspect of Morris's work that I wouldn't call inspiring, his style, colours and his general work flow are more than notable. He often works with both digital and traditional methods to approach his work, but what I really wanted to focus on was what originally drew me to his work; his line work - which when researched is normally done with black ink.
The next artist I looked in to was Zosia Dzierzawska, who's work is almost- if not all traditional. Her work has a very experimental nature i've noticed and not every piece is is the same. She works with a lot of pencils and pastels to achieve her child-friendly appeal and scans her work in to fix any minor mistakes on software such as Adobe Photoshop. It's not just Dzierzawska's workflow that has inspired me but her colour palette too. I love the washed out look of her work and really like to replicate that kind of look.
The next artist I looked closely at was Bianca Bagnarelli and Hellen Jo for their kick-ass style, linework and colour palettes. Both artists show in-depth knowledge of their go-to technique and style but both approach their work with different workflows. Where as Bagnarelli uses digital means from start to finish Jo uses traditional mediums such as pencils and watercolours.
Bianca's colours and they way she draws faces so effortlessly looking inspires me to go for a more simple looking style, there are small imperfect details in her work that really round it off to look more unique and stylised. Something I would definitely like to take influence from. Her colour palette, shading and highlighting correspond with the atmosphere and mood of the piece.
One of the biggest influences for my style has to be Hellen Jo, her use of traditional methods gives a very earthy and organic looking visuals. Her linework is something that especially appeals to me and the way she draws her hair. Jo uses watercolours to colour up her work, making her pieces come together very effortlessly.
