Blog Post 1- Favorite Artworks
Limiting myself to a single favorite work of art would be an extensive process of elimination and debate so much to the reader’s dismay, I will be including several of my favorite inspirational artworks showing a wider variety of different mediums (it would be unfair to judge them against each other).
To start, a lot of my creative inspiration is drawn from movies, and while I adore stop-motion pictures such as Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox, to keep to the more 2D design-related topics, I’ve chosen one of my favorite animated movies: The Secret of Kells. This film is simply inspiring in all aspects. While the story may not hold as much water compared to others, the art style and composition in this movie are astonishing. The Celtic inspired designs detail every scene and are in stark visual contrast to the simple characters who are in flat color. This draws the viewers' eyes to the characters and allows them to pop against the backgrounds, giving the eye a place to rest while also cleverly focusing on the action. The backgrounds are also split into an unconventional setting, sometimes having the character in a scene without any perspective or showing settings from a perfectly straight “camera” angle. The linework used is careful and quiet in details but boldened against characters, which not only shows a beautiful contrast in-depth but highlights the precise shape used.
Apselene is an artist who I include as one of my favorites for her unique bodily proportions and distinct facial features used in her artwork. Besides the practiced proportions, she also shows a strong sense of color theory that is reminiscent of other artists like Amber Davkro. As someone who draws more characters than backgrounds, she’s definitely one of my art style crushes.
Jack Burke is an artist I found through the Subjectively youtube channel. He works mainly as a character designer and the thought put into each design really shines through. His linework is strong and consistent with clear form and decisive shape. Where he especially shines in my eyes, however, is his unique coloring style which can only be described as “stained-glass-like.” The sections of color are an inspiring way of shading and demonstrate ways of using color theory that I had never thought of before. And to reiterate, as an artist who works better with bodies than with trees, the design process and character studies shown opens my eyes to new ways of expression through character design.
Finally, I’d like to share some of my favorite art that I have made in the past year. There’s not much to say here in terms of praise, because I still have a long way to go, but I am proud of how I have grown anyways. Like stated before, I really don’t do backgrounds, which is something I should really focus on learning how to do in the next coming years. The pieces shown here are all digital, as that is my preferred medium (it’s very forgiving with mistakes) but I do have other pieces that show my abilities in other mediums (they’re a bit older because I haven’t done much besides digital since Covid). I would say I struggle in basic composition and am generally too lazy to step out of my comfort zone. I’d like to think I do good with color theory, but honestly, I wouldn’t be able to tell because I’m not exactly an expert at anything. More than anything I need a strong push towards my goals and a helping hand to reassure me.
Anyways, that’s that. A lengthy post about my favorites. These artworks serve as a small glimpse into some of my main inspirations, because if I were to list them all, nobody would have the strength or time to read everything.
To the future! :)