The Book of Drawings Ideas and Inspiration

The first initial idea I had for my book of drawings was to create a series of 6 digital drawings that document a journey that I take. But after a lot of researching and thinking about my idea I thought that it wasn't very exciting and that's when I came across Shaun Tan who draws every day scenes but adds animals and weird creatures to them to make them a bit more exciting and I really liked this idea.

I started to research a lot of artists that draw characters and animals and even looked at films such as My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke and they all had some really interesting characters in them which I was inspired by.

Because I had previously completed projects based around reportage, animals and creatures and people I thought that I could definitely use some inspiration from drawings I had already done. I looked through my sketchbooks and found images I liked and animals which I thought would work well in my drawings.

I was really inspired by the drawing and colouring style of Rodrigo Araya because I like how simple yet quite effective it is and I took a lot of inspiration from style.

I thought about how I would assemble the book once I had completed my drawings. I looked at a variety of binding methods and found a YouTube video which was very helpful.

Bobby Chiu

http://www.imaginismstudios.com/artists/Bobby%20Chiu

Bobby Chiu is an artist from Canada and I researched him because he draws really crazy characters and they look they like are inspired by Tim Burton/Alice in Wonderland and I really like his style.  The colours he uses and his colouring technique play a part in how effective the image as whole is and i think every aspect of the sketches work really well together. 

Here are some of his images that I am really inspired by:  

Creature Box

http://creaturebox.com/

http://creaturebox.com/blog/

Creature Box is a collaborative company of two people and they focus their work around creating creatures and characters. They draw monsters, robots, cartoons and aliens and lots of other illustrations. I am really inspired by their creatures, I think they are fantastically drawn and created and I really like their style. 

Here are some of their creatures that I am inspired by:

 

Dead Zebra Inc.

http://www.creaturesinmyhead.com/
http://www.deadzebra.com/project/creatures-in-my-head/

Dead Zebra are a company from Brooklyn run by artist Andrew Bell. I focussed on the project names 'The Creatures in my Head.' because I was really interested in what characters he had come up with. I think they are all really impressive, I like the way they have been created and `i think they style they have been drawn in is really effective.

Here are some images that I really like from this project.

Crotchety Comics

http://crotchetycomics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/creatures.html
http://crotchetycomics.tumblr.com/

Crotchety Comics is an animator from California and I researched him because I was interested in his drawings of creatures and animals. I really like the technique he uses to sketch his characters because they are sketchy but I think they work well as a final image as well as a development stage. I also really like the imagination behind his characters, they are very unusual but that's what makes it work. 

Here are some examples of his work that I am inspired by: 

Will Terry

http://willterry.com/index.php

http://willterry.com/books.php

http://www.willterry.blogspot.co.uk/

I came across a children's book illustrator called Will Terry and I really like the animals that he draws. They are really unusual creatures and I think they fit in well with what I am trying to do for my final book of drawings. 

Joel Millerchip

http://mistermillerchip.com/
http://www.ngngdesign.com/joel-millerchip

We were also privileged to have Joel Millerchip come and speak to us also and he is a very interesting artist. I really like his style of drawing and his outlook on the artist world. His style impresses me a lot and I really like the simple black and white design in the majority of his work, it is very effective. Here are some images that I really like of his. 

CRAWW

http://www.craww.com/

http://craww.wordpress.com/

We were privileged to have a visit from 'Craww' who very kindly spoke to us about his work, the way he works and also let us have a look through his original sketchbooks which was awesome. I really enjoyed looking at his work and I was very inspired by it. I like his style because it is very unique and you can tell that it just comes naturally to him.  

I've attached some images of his from his sketchbooks that I really like.

Shaun Tan: The Arrival

http://www.shauntan.net/books/the-arrival.html#anchor
http://www.shauntan.net/books.html

Because my idea for my book is 'A day in the life' I looked at Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival'. It is a wordless story book with very exaggerated images. He draws every day scenes but then adds something unusual like a big monster or some kind of creature and I really like the idea of it. I think it makes the images and story seem more exciting and interesting. The images below show some of the creatures and animals sketches that I thought were really effective. 

Sarah McNeil

http://sarahmcneil.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.400pencils.com/
http://www.400pencils.com/154718/books-zines

I researched Sarah McNeil because she makes very effectives books of drawings and I am very inspired by them. I like the way she makes her books because they look hand made but still very professional. I alos am really inspired by her sketches. 

Marc Johns

http://shop.marcjohns.com/products/i-made-these-drawings-for-you-book
http://www.marcjohns.com/

Marc Johns is an illustrator who draws very comical and random images. I really like his style of drawing because it is simple but it works. I chose to look at his work because he actually created a book of drawings which is what my goal is. (I couldn't save any of my favourite images but the majority of them are on his blog.)

Unknown artist

http://imadeyousomecookies.blogspot.co.uk/

I found this artist when I was searching for books of drawings that had been made and I was really interested in the style of drawing in which they have sketched. I don't think I will go down this route but I still really like the line work and the black and white style.

IMOTIV

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/IMOTIV/profile


IMOTIV specialise is creating animations but I was really interested in their storyboards they sketch out before making an animation. I think the drawings are really effective because of how sketchy they are and I think this is good because it creates movement and details.

Ben Tallon

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/BenTallon/view
http://bentallon.com/

Ben Tallon is an award winning illustrator who creates 100% hand made images using a wide range of materials and techniques. He has done work for clients such as Channel 4/E4 where he created the logo and sketches for the TV series 'Skins'. I really like the style of his work because it reminds me of graffiti and urban type art. I really like how his images are layered with line and colour it has a very nice effect. 

Caroline Church

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/CarolineChurch/profile

http://www.carolinejaynechurch.com/index.htm

Caroline Church isn illustrator from Surrey who creates her illustrations using scraper board and a craft knife then uses photoshop to add colour. I really like her initial sketches/engravings because they are really detailed but very effective. I prefer her black and white images to her coloured ones because I think more of the detail can be seen. 

Rodrigo Araya

http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/RodrigoAraya/view

http://www.rodrigo-araya.com/

Rodrigo Araya is a self taught freelance illustrator from Germany who creates many graphic/digital drawings. I really liked his simple line work because it is sketchy but it looks really goos, in my opinion. The images below are the ones I like most, I do also think that they would look good with just a little bit of colour added to them just make them more aesthetic. 

Digital Manipulation Research: Ben Heine

http://benheine.deviantart.com/
http://www.benheine.com/
http://benjaminheine.blogspot.co.uk/

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I was really interested by Ben's graphic work as I thought the dots/popart idea was really effective and would be so fun to have a go of. Below are some of my favourite digital images of his.