Glen keane

Glen Keane is an artist, author, animator and illustrator, who was born on april the 13th 1954, in the city of Philadelphia, United states. He developed a keen interest in art from a very young age, and received a lot of influence from his father, due to his occupation at the time as a cartoonist. At a young age, he applied for a course at the California Institute of Arts - School of Life Drawing, and through a mix up, applied for the wrong course (Film Graphics). However, after being accepted, Glen decided to remain on the course, he was mentored under the teaching of the animator, Jules Engel. After leaving CalArts in 1974, he joined the Walt Disney Corporation, and retired in 2013.

He is widely renown as a Disney legend, and was given this honour title by the Disney corporation itself. He has produced a large amount of work in such movies as beauty and the Beast, Tangled and the Little Mermaid.

http://jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/Glenn-Keane-portrait-web.jpg < image reference at this link.

Although his occupation as an animator tends to shadow his other work, he has, (and does) create reportage style pieces, that include human form, very similar to how myself, and other students have drawn humans from observation.

Below I will show a few examples of his reportage work, which includes human form.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/fantastic-gallery-of-glen-keanes-personal-drawings-59697.html < image reference at this link.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/fantastic-gallery-of-glen-keanes-personal-drawings-59697.html

The image above, is a reportage watercolour painting, that I created in the style of Glen Keane's own personal reportage style. I used the example image that I included with his research as a reference point.



Thomas.

Conclusion of Unit

Over the course of the reportage unit, I have felt my skills grow very quickly. By experiencing sessions such as life drawing, group outings, and experimenting with different techniques and materials, I have widened my comfort zone as an artist substantially. Before joining the course, I would never have even attempted to draw a human figure, but now I believe I am a lot more confident when it comes to human form and anatomy. I have pushed myself to complete many sketchbooks and objectives, and because of this my ability has improved dramatically. I believe this course is beginning to unlock the potential within me.

I also believe my general basic drawing skills have improved, I now spend more time on a drawing, whereas before university, I would have tried to complete a drawing in a set time limit, usually rushing sketches, which I never found worked.

I have really enjoyed this unit. I hope to expand on my studies,  I think I will continue creating reportage artwork in my own personal time. I really enjoyed creating pieces with charcoal as well as graphite pencil, however I wish that I used paint more in my studies.

Thomas.

Trip to Bradford

This blog is a post about the first trip that myself, and the illustration group went on. This was a city visual culture trip to the city of Bradford.

http://www.railwaysleepers.com/files/images/product/Bradford.jpg < image reference at this link.

Bradford is a city south of the university, close to the city of Leeds. And we went as part of an introduction/educational trip. We visited several areas in Bradford, most notably the Bradford industrial museum and the national media museum.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/f5/41/4d/bradford-industrial-museum.jpg < image reference at this link.

My own image of a train, from Bradford industrial museum.

My own image of a camera, from the national media museum.

It was a very educational day, and I enjoyed it very much. there was loads of things to see and do, within both museums, as well as the actual city, and it was a perfect opportunity to add to my reportage sketchbooks.

Reportage sketch of the exterior of the Bradford industrial museum.

Thomas.

All sketchbooks done.

I am very happy to note on my blog, that all 10 reportage sketchbooks have been fully completed. I even did an extra one, so thats my reportage done.

Thomas.

Male form life drawing #2

Today there was a second session on the male form. It involved a different nude model posing in a fashion that was very similar to the last session, which was last week.

I sketched the model in a multitude of ways, and I will post some of my favourites below. For this session I used a pigment ink pen, which worked really well for providing shading, and lighting. I am currently in love with this pen.

The pigment ink pen.

Every time I have a live session like this, I notice that my skills improve. After comparing my first nude sketches, to my ones after today, I have made astonishing improvement, and I feel happy about this.

For this image I used both my left, and right hand. My right being my weaker.

Thomas.

Olivia Keith

Olivia Keith is a reportage style artist and sculptor, who is currently a resident of Lancashire. She creates very beautiful artwork, and for this blog I will be mainly focusing on her reportage pieces. I love her style of creating reportage, and some of her work almost reminds me of the techniques, in how I create my own reportage pieces.

She is currently studying for her MA (MA means Master of Arts), in fine art, at UCLan, which is based in Preston, Lancaashire, United Kingdom.

http://oliviakeith.co.uk/photo_10561240.html < image reference at this link.

As you can see in her piece above, she uses a lot of different line formations. Some are sketchy, and this piece is an overall bold, and striking image. It reminds me of my own reportage work, that I have created in my sketchbook.

Above is an example of some of my charcoal reportage work. It heavily resembles the work made by Olivia Keith. It (like hers) features bold, strong lines, as well as little colour. I compared this piece, to the image above this one, by Olivia.

 This particular image really inspires me to create more of my reportage artwork, this is something that I will be doing over the Christmas break. She creates reportage work in a variety of styles, which I will showcase below.

http://oliviakeith.co.uk/photo_11707316.html > image reference at this link.

This image is a very different style to the previous image I talked about this one is almost a stark contrast, as it features colour, and is less scratchy, and more refined.

http://oliviakeith.co.uk/photo_4685694.html > image reference at this link.

As a side note, she also creates sculptures. This is something that I personally find interesting. As you can see, this is a large scale sculpture, made from natural elements.

Interestingly, her site contains an online CV section, in which I can tie in with my professional studies research.

Thomas.

Reportage Update

At this point in time, I have almost finished my reportage sketchbook assignment. I have still yet to complete 2-3 more books, so over the christmas period, I will be going around newcastle, and maybe even York, to get some new images for my reportage sketchbooks.

Thomas.