Andy Warhol Research

I wanted to include a diverse group of artists in my book so I thought it would be good to put Andy Warhol in as he created pop art which is very different to all of the other art styles in the book. He also is known for drawing products rather than images that tell a story so I thought that would be interesting too. 

Born: August 6, 1928
Died: February 22, 1987
Movement: Pop Art

• Andy Warhol got banned from art club when he was in secondary school because he was better than all of the other students.
• Theres a 5 minute video of him eating hamburger on youtube.
• As well as creating art Andy Warhol owned a nightclub, produced music and had a TV show for MTV called Andy Warhol's 15 minutes. 
• Andy Warhol drew products rather than people so he had a lot of commercial jobs working for big companies. 
• His most famous and most recognisable piece of art work is probably the Campbell's Soup tin painting. 
• Andy Warhol's name was originally Andy Warhola but he dropped the 'A' when he became famous. 
• He was one of the leading pioneers in the pop art movement.
• He had a  nose job because he hated the way his nose looked. 
• Andy Warhol wore grey/silver wigs and eventually he died his hair the colour of his wigs. 
• he once got told he had a lazy eye so he decided to start wearing blacked out glasses with a pin hole in them to hide his eyes. 

Beatrix Potter Drawing

This is my Beatrix Potter line drawing and colouring process. I used the same technique as I did for all of my other drawings by layering up the colours on photoshop. As there was no real full colour photos I had to do a little bit of guess work with some of the colours. I think that the image worked well considering I had to guess which colours to go with.  

Beatrix Potter research

As I am struggling to find famous woman artists from the past that are appropriate to include in a book for a young person, I decided to branch a little bit into illustration, as it is still relevant and woman illustrators from history played a large part in shaping the future of the art and illustration industry. I also thought that younger people would like to have someone such as Beatrix Potter in this book as they will most likely remember reading her stories from their childhood and they will be able to relate to her and her art.

Born: 28th July 1866, South Kensington London
Died: 22nd December 1943
Movement: Illustration 

• Beatrix and her brother Bertram kept small animals as pets. They had mice, rabbits and even a hedgehog! These were the inspirations for her stories. 
• Beatrix potter is most known for creating her cute illustrated children's books featuring talking animals. Her most famous book is probably The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  
• Nature fascinated Beatrix, Her love of nature was inspired by the yearly trips that she took to the lake district with her family. 
• Before Beatrix potter was took on by a publishing house she privately printed the first edition of her book The Tale Of Peter Rabbit.
• Beatrix was a very smart business woman and she created merchandise to go alongside her books. She created Peter Rabbit dolls, board games and wallpapers along with other things. 
• Beatrix owned a lot of land including sixteen farms and over four hundred achers of land!  when she died she left all of her property to the national trust.  
• Beatrix Potters books are still so popular that on average four of her books are sold every single minute. 
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit has never been out of print since it was first published.

Image Taken from: http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/beatrix-potter

Georgia O'Keffee Research

Georgia O'Keffee could be known as one of the most significant artists from the 20th century, she is most known for painting large bright beautiful flowers. She was determined to live out her dream of becoming a painter.She achieved her dream and her career spanned for more than 60 years and even her failing eye sight didn't stop her from creating art.  


Born: November 15, 1887 In Wisconsin, United States
Died: March 6, 1986 In Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Movements: American Modernism

• Georgia O'Keffee lived until she was 98 years old.
• She made over 200 paintings of flowers. 
• as she got older, O'Keffee started to loose her vision so she stopped painting but she continued to make drawings and pottery. 
• She knew that she wanted to be an artist from a very young age and would not stop until she achieved her goal. 
• When she was at school everyone loved her drawings. 
• her painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1' Sold for 28 million pounds, making it the highest ever priced painting done by a woman. 
• she loved to paint flowers in a very large scale so that people could appreciate their beauty more. 

Image taken from: http://www.biography.com/people/groups/famous-named-georgia

Leonardo Da Vinci Research

Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most well known painters in the world. As well as being a highly talented painter he was extremely clever and first invented a lot of things that we use every day such as helicopters and bicycles.  



Born: April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy
Died: May 2, 1519
Movement: High Renaissance

• Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the best known painters in the world with his legendary works including the Mona Lisa, The Vitruvian Man an the Last Supper.
• Da Vinci wrote in the opposite direction to normal meaning that if you wanted to read it you would need a mirror. 
• He was obsessed with Anatomy of the human body and became an expert by creating hundreds of  drawings of human bodies.
• Da Vinci was not only a painter he was also an inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, writer,musician and much more. He was very, very talented.    
• There are a lot of theories surrounding Da Vinci's painting 'Mona Lisa.' for example some people believe that it is actually a self portrait.
• According to face recognition software the Mona Lisa is 83% happy, 9% Disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry.
• Da Vinci first invented many things such as a parachute, a helicopter, a diving suit, a giant crossbow, the bicycle and many many other things. 
• Leonardo Da Vinci was very tall, his height was 6 foot 4 and a half !

Image taken from: http://galleryhip.com/leonardo-self-portrait-drawing.html

Pablo Picasso research

Pablo Picasso was a great artist from a very young age. I feel as though he will be good to include in the book because it will make children realise that they can achieve things at a young age. Picasso also had a very interesting life and there are lots of facts fun about him to include. I also included a photo of Picasso 

Born: October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain
Died: April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France
Movement: Surrealism, Cubism

• Picasso's had an incredibly long name, it was: Pablo Diego José Francisco De Paula Nepomuceno María De Los Remedious Cipriano De La Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz Y Picasso.
• His first ever word was pencil. Well he was Spanish so technically his first word was 'Piz' which is short for 'Lápiz,' the Spanish word for pencil.
• Picasso completed his first proper painting at the age of 9. It was entitled 'Le Picacor' and it depicted a man riding a horse in a bull fight. 
• Pablo Picasso's farther trained him as a painter from the age of 7.
• He sometimes painted other famous artists paintings but in his own style.
• Some of Picasso's paintings are amongst the most expensive in the world. 
• Picasso did not only paint, he also created Ceramic and bronze sculptors, drawings, etchings and even poetry! 
• When Picasso first began to paint he had a very realistic style but his style evolved into a more abstract, surreal style. 
• Picasso created the Cubism style where the subject of the painting would be drawn using lots of different shapes. These paintings looked a bit like they had been cut up into different shapes and glued back together. 
• Picasso sometimes burnt his own paintings to keep his room warm. 

Artist research: Scriberian

I was really inspired by the style of work that the group Scribarian create. They are a company of people that you can hire out to an event and they will write and draw on a wall in front of everyone, a bit like taking notes but in a more interesting artistic way. They use a very interesting hectic style that combines typography and little illustrations, mainly using black lines but with hints of colour throughout. I like the way that all of the different typography seems to work together, I would like to attempt a similar sort of thing to this for my book pages. Im not sure if it will work out but I might experiment with this sort of style to see how it goes. I think that this will work really well with keeping a child interested as all of the different visual aspects will keep their minds and imagination working. Here are a few that i think work really well. 

Frida Kahlo research

For my First female artist I decided to look into Frida Kahlo as she is one of the only female artists that most people will know. She has had a very interesting life so I thought that there would be lots of impressive information and facts about her that younger people would be inspired by. I watched a full length documentary to get a full timeline of her life and to make sure that the facts I had were correct. Here are some of the facts that I found interesting. I have also included a photograph of Kahlo and a self portrait that she created. 

Full Name: Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón
Born: July 6, 1907,  Coyoacán Mexico 
Died: July 13, 1954 (age 47)
Movement: Magic realism, Surrealism, Modern art

• At the age of 6 Frida got polio, resulting in one of her legs being thinner than the other.
• When she was young Frida wanted to break the stereotype of being a girl so she would dress like a boy and play boys sports such as wrestling and boxing.
• At 19 years old Kahlo was in a serious bus accident, the bus collided with a street car. As a result of this collision Kahlo was impaled by a metal hand rail, it went into one side of her hip all the way through and came out the other side. She also suffered many other injuries including fractures in her spine and a crushed foot.
• After the accident she spent a lot of time in a body cast and she was bed ridden. She would paint to occupy her time. 
• She has a trademark unibrow that gave her a very distinctive look. She painted it in all of her self portraits.
• When Kahlo grew up she wore lots of Jewellery covered in bright bold jewels, and big flamboyant flowers in her hair. She had a very individual look that made her very interesting to look at.
• The house she was born in was called the 'Blue house.'
• She married fellow artist Diego Rivera in 1940. They stayed together but had a vary turbulent relationship. He had an affair with her sister and other women, Kahlo also had a few affairs.
• When Kahlo was 37 her health started to deteriorate and her back became very weak she wore many plaster braces that she would paint and decorate with bright patterns and shapes. 
• At 47 Kahlo passed away as a result of her ill health in the 'Blue house' that she was born in.

Vincent Van Gogh Research

As the book I aim to create will have information and facts about artists I decided to find out some interesting things about Vincent Van Gogh. I started with finding out the basic information such as when he was born and died and his artistic movement. I then went into finding more interesting focused facts about him. Here is the information that I have found so far, I may add more facts or replace some if there aren't enough or I find better ones in the future. I also included a self portrait of Van Gogh

Born: 30 March 1853, in the Netherlands
Died: 29 July 1890, (aged 37)
Movement: Post-impressionism  

• Van Gogh wrote over 800 letters in his lifetime, most of these letters were written to his brother Theo, who was also his best friend.
• In his short life he created the astonishing amount of 2000 pieces, this is including drawings and sketches as well as paintings. 
• Van Gogh only became famous after his death because his brothers wife set out to get him the recognition that he deserved. 
• Within 10 years Van Gogh created approximately 900 paintings! some of which are known as the greatest works of art ever created.
• Van Gogh committed suicide by shooting himself and dying of blood loss two days later.  
• He suffered greatly from mental illness and spent part of his life in the Saint-Paul Asylum. This is where the famous painting 'starry night' was created, it is thought to be of the view from his room. 
• Part of Van Gogh's ear lobe was cut off, no one knows the real truth about how this event took place there are a few different stories as to how this happened. Many people think that he cut it off himself but there are other theories that his artist friend Paul Gauguin cut it off in a row.
• Van Gogh painted 30 self portraits between 1886 and 1889.

Self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh

artist research: Fran Meneses

I decided to have a look at Fran Meneses or better known as Frannerd for my research for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. Fran is an illustrator that lives in Berlin she creates very cute little cartoon style drawings that often are based on real life things that happen day to day. She creates zines, cards, stickers and calendars along with a few other things on her etsy store and also makes youtube videos about her life as a free lance illustrator.  
I received one of her zines for christmas as a gift and it really inspired me with this book cover because I was really stuck with what to do for it so I took a break for a while and sat down and read the zine. I really liked the scrap book feel to it and I also am a big fan of how the different hand drawn typography all works together on one page so well. I also think that the delicate line quality is really nice. Overall I just really like cuteness and the simplicity of her drawings. Here a few different drawings that I really like and a video from her youtube channel. 

From the zine 'Perfect tree shapes' Photo taken from From: http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-
01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/s899uf5c88jfsqd/Screenshot%202015-01-06%2011.21.22.png?dl=0

Artist research Gemma Topliss

I was looking for illustrators that have a really simplistic look because for my oranges are not the only fruit cover I want it to be quite simple but effective. I came across this illustrator called Gemma Topliss from Australia, I really love the line quality of her drawings as it is very delicate and this adds a really unique feel to them. Her drawings take you to a whimsical but also quite creepy world and i like that her drawings have the ability to do that. I also really like when simple hand drawn typography is added to the drawings as this adds an extra element of interest to the image. I think that for this book cover I would like to include some line drawing as that is one thing that I enjoy doing but haven't done much of lately. 

Gemma Topliss
Image from: http://www.parallelplanets.com/2014/03/gemma-topliss-dream-little-dream-for-me.html

Gemma Topliss
Image from: http://gemmatopliss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/new-sketchbook.html

Gemma Topliss
image from: https://www.tumblr.com/search/gemma+topliss

Artist research: Andrea Dezsö

Whilst looking through the book Paper Craft 2 I came across an artist called Andrea Dezsö she is an artist that works across a huge range of media's. some of her paper cut work uses a similar idea to Hari and Deepeti in the way that the artist forms nicely lit silhouette scenes but instead of keeping the scene plain white, and relying on shadows to create the full effect, she uses coloured paper to add different moods and atmospheres to her images. I love the effect that this gives to her work and makes the worlds look so interesting, they really do draw you into them. 
I think for my Carries war book cover I am going to stick with an all white scene for now to see how that looks, I might even experiment with different coloured lighting effects. but the coloured paper idea is definitely something to consider and try out, I might even utilise this idea for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. 

Artist research: Hari and Deepti

Hari and Deepeti create really beautiful scenes using just plain white paper, They look a bit boring to begin with but after some very clever lighting they are transformed into the most magical looking scenes, they really do transport you into another world. The scenes that they create are focused on storytelling, they depict adventures and travels from all around the world. I would love to try out this technique for my book cover as it is really unique and eye catching. I don't know if it would work for carries war as it is a book for a younger audience and the lack of colour might not attract them as much. On the other hand it could be really effective and work well. Ill have to work with a trail and error attitude to see if this kind of idea will work. It was really hard to chose because all of their pieces are beautiful, but here are some of their designs that I think work best.

Image before lighting and photography

Image after lighting and  being photographed

Artist research: Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora is a multimedia artist originally from Cuba. She creates a lot of paper cut art because she is fascinated by the endless possibilities of the medium. she liked to turn  a flat piece of paper into something meaningful. 
She creates fully white pieces as well as full colour pieces. She also creates flat and 3D images from using the paper in different ways, sometimes she will just cut into the flat paper to create an image and other times she will mould and layer the paper to create an image. I really like the versatility of her work because she creates a large range of styles with in her work whilst still keeping it recognisably similar, I think that this keeps her art interesting. I think her 3D pieces work really well and I would like to try out creating a 3D paper cut piece for my carries war book cover. 

Artist research: Gail Armstrong

As I would like to create my penguin book cover for carries war using a paper cut and sculpt technique I decided to re visit this artist as I have researched her work before but not in much detail and she has created more work in the months since I have looked at it. 
Gail Armstrong creates beautiful illustrations made from folding, layering and sculpting paper into different shapes to describe things. I love her colour work but I especially think that her white paper work works even more. I was thinking of doing my book cover in coloured paper/ card but after looking at her white paper work I am considering trying out just white, but probably wont end up using white for the final piece. I think that the camera and lighting definitely make these images work because a lot of the time the only way that you can see the shape of the paper is because of the way the light is hitting it. There is a for me lot to consider and learn if I want to go ahead with this process and it will definitely take a lot of practice. These photos have watermarks but they were the best resolution that I could find. 
I also came across a video of the artist creating one of the pieces so iv'e included that as well.

Editorial Artist research Sarah Hingle

After giving my editorial piece some thought I realised that it would be good to try and include a drawing of Agnes Obel herself as the article will be about her. I decided to look into an editorial illustrator that draws portraits for magazines. Sarah Hingle is an Australian illustrator that has worked for magazines from around the world including Elle magazine, Frankie magazine and milk and honey  to name a few. Her style is very traditional looking as she draws very accurate portraits using pencil, a lot of her drawings are also brightened up with splashes of colour in the backgrounds. I think her drawings work really well because they are very delicate and pretty whilst remaining lifelike the colour she uses adds an extra element of interest and excitement, which I hope to achieve within my editorial piece.  I am going to tryout drawing Agnes Obel in pencil and add colour for more interest and see how it works out. I don't know if ill be able to pull off drawing as realistically as Sarah Hingle does but ill give it a try and if it doesn't work out I can always simplify my drawing to suit me more. 

Artist research Sandra Dieckmann

Sandra Dieckmann is an illustrator From Germany she creates beautiful artwork using what looks like pencil and watercolour. Her images often revolve around nature and wildlife but they always have an extra magical touch to them.  
I decided to research into this artist in particular because I was strugling with making my image more dark and this illustrator likes to show the darkness in folktales which is what i am aiming to do with this project. 

"The best folktales have a dark edge. Conversely, the best folk art pops with colour - perhaps as a visual way of whistling in the dark, perhaps a celebration of the richness of northern Europe's storytelling tradition. Sandra Dieckmann's nature inspired illustration has got that elusive, comfortable yet disquieting quality in spades."(Digital Artist Magazine)

The thing that I think works best within her work is the delicate lines, colours and patterns that she uses. I also really like the compositions used within her work, I feel like they are really considered and  really add to the mood of the image. I will look at the compositions and colours of her work and try and improve the mood in my own work.

Research Marimekko

Marimekko is a design company based in Helsinki, Finland that creates all sorts of things from their beautiful pattern designs. They have a collection of artists that create patterns and they generally all follow a house style. I decided to look at this company because they use colour really well and thats where I am struggling a bit.

For my research I decided to look at the artist that made Marimekko famous so that my research is more focussed. Maija Isola mainly created very bold patterns using flowers in various different colours. She drew most of her inspiration from traditional folk art, Nature,  trips around the world and modern visual art. all of these themes are clearly seen throughout her art. I think her use of colour works so well to complement her art, I especially like the vibrant deep red colours that she often uses. I want to use reds and oranges throughout my work so looking at this art really inspires me and helps me understand colour a bit more.

Artist research: Elizabeth Moseng

Elizabeth Moseng is an illustrator from Norway that creates illustrations for all sorts of things from editorials to children's books. She has a very simplistic look to her style and her colour pallets are usually quite limited. Her work uses flat colours and shapes, her work looks very graphic but at the same time illustrative.
The simplicity of the flat colour and imagery is what I find most visually pleasing. The things that I am going to focus most on when looking at her work is the colours that she uses and the textures that she uses throughout her images as I am trying to learn what works best for my own images to get the right look that I want to achieve.