Criteria 1:understand the potential of digital media in contemporary art and design practice

task 1

Analyse a minimum of three examples of digital media i.e. graphic design advertisement, fashion design, illustration

What is it used for and does it work?

What techniques were used?

Compare different pieces

Express your own opinion

illustrator

 

this piece is an advertisement poster for 'the frootful art ensemble' by Millie Marotta. although this is used as an advert i think it is quiet hard to get the idea of what 'the frootful art ensemble'  are, but after looking i turns out they are a band and that they are also a group of artist's but if she wanted people to look them up and get interested therefore more likely to go on the their website and/or their live gigs then yes it works.

personally i like the art style and the use of line along with the limited colour palette, i would but be interested in the band and look them up.

i think she uses abode illustrator and traces a photograph to do a detailed sketch and then using the pen tool to add detail to the feathers, then also using the pen tool to write out the name, dates and then erasing lines and leaving areas unfilled to make this effect

i particularly like this artist because her art style is very angular and sharp, but how she does it is a bit of a struggle to find out, i think she either draws her design out on paper then scans it into the computer and adds colour over the top by either photoshop or illustrator, or she uses a tables to draw straight into illustrator then adds colour.

I think the reason of this is just for art sake but she also i this is a piece of character design because her name is .EXE and she has been used in another piece called (hash-key)12.

fashion design

all though all of designing in fashion is done most commonly in a the same way (by hand) the original way is through either life drawing of someone is a similar cut item of clothing and then adding detial or adding parts onto it. the modern way is by either tracing a simple stencil of a person and then free handing the dress on and rubbing out the no longer needed lines, or the completely free handing the dress and the model wearing it

stencil example

free handed example

The pieces I am comparing are the top design and the free hand example piece. Although the top one is of the original technique and that the other one is the modern way and that tastes and expectation of both art styles are different, I think that the top one is very time consuming, can restrict the design possibilities also it isn't very good to make a lot of designs but with the modern way of making them I feel they do the job by showing the designs and what materials they need and the quality of the designs can impact the  outcomes but by simply re-drawing a detailed versions can make outcome be changed slightly to fit the designers ideas, although in some cases the differences can be completely change the entire item of clothing.

book illustration

Book illustration is an integral part of telling the story but has mainly been used in children's books, to guild the minds of the child reading as some parts of the story can be hard to fully visualize.

As I have mention the usage of Book illustration is to guild the visualisation of what the author and/or illustrator have pictured the characters or situation to look like but it can also be used to decorate the pages and in certain situations both. The decorative elements of books are mainly used as bordering the pages and separating the columns of text which is most famed through the hand written and hand drawn pages of the bible and other religious scripts created by monks.

Although I have previously stated that it is mainly used in children's fictional books, there usage in non-fiction are equally, if not even more important, this was especially useful before the age of photography as descriptive language can only point so close to the actual visual representation of what it truly is.

non-fiction book illustration

The art of illustrating books is certainly a varied spectrum of techniques and styles but there are 4 main ways of creating book illustration:

• Printing press: After reading or writing what is in the situation or what the character(s) look like the artist creates a print of what is they believe what it/they will look like and then place the text around the image(s) according to there shape and then print it.
• Drawn and then scanned in: this one is more popular with indie artist and writer as there is more of an artistic feeling to it this also cuts on the cost and saves time in the creation of the final book and it's designs. Another that this technique is enforced is through creating or refining the design through artistic software like Photoshop or adobe illustrator.
• Photography: This one is more used in non-fictional books but in very rare occasion can be used in fiction pieces with the usage of costumes, props and location.
• Hand drawn: This technique is a very simple one as all you need to do is draw onto the pages as you are writing them or before you write out the page. This was used for hundreds years before the printing was created and therefore many of the books are either one of a kind or lost throughout the years but is still being created contemporary to add a very personal feelings to what they are writing as there is nothing like it in the world and is most commonly used in presents and confessions of romantic feelings. 

an example of drawn and scanned in

printed book illustration

The comparison between these two are very drastic as the manner of which they were created were done in different ways, but the feelings of personality are similar. Although there is a usual feeling that drawing the are and scanning in usually has a personal feeling from it, which I do feel but I get more of that feeling from printed illustrations, as when you scan in your art and type or place the text around it all you need to do is press print and say you want so many copies, where as with printing there is a more laborious feeling in the books creation, due to having to ink up and place the template and carve out the design.

My opinion of book illustration is that I love the look of both scanned in and printed illustrations, but I do not like the photographic one as if the photographs involve people the idea of every photo there is either every single type of person in it, it feels as though they are screaming "we're not racist/sexist/homophobic" when no body would think they would be if there wasn't every type of person in the photographs. But in saying that when the photographic books are not about people or communities then I enjoy them as I don't get the feelings that they are trying too hard to avoid offence and the fact that the books that are fictional and uses photography are very good quality and genuinely help guild the reader through what is going on or what someone looks like.