The Arc, Stockton is running a project over the next few months to celebrate working class northern artists. I agreed to take part in a brief which explores what ‘Home’ means – this meant filling a sketchbook around the theme of ‘Home revisited’
I decided to explore ‘over the border’ of Middlesbrough. The part of Middlesbrough that was cut off by the building of the A66 Motorway in the 80s (a controversial decision)
The old town hall, and an abandoned road
Over the ‘border’ is the old town hall, a lot of industry, warehouses, the dinosaur park and the failed Middlehaven development. Also, of course, the famous Transporter Bridge
I’d been spending a lot of time over there recently anyway, and I like the abandoned spaces – or the spaces between places. I think there’s a lot of ideas there, real or fantasy, that might be worth looking at.
I actually completed the sketchbook in time for the exhibition, I haven’t completed a sketchbook since college so it was something of a personal achievement
Included is The Dinosaur Park, my imagining of peg powler the river witch who lives in the tees, some underpasses, the old car scrapyard that mysteriously burnt down, the Transporter bridge pixelated out of the horizon, the abandoned office building I’m using as a studio, some seagulls, the Byron pub etc.
The exhibition runs through October at the Arc, Stockton and features 15 sketchbooks from northern working class artists
I opened up my ‘Do not sit on the chair’ illustration to feedback from a very dedicated and active online group – the uk Rare and Unusual Houseplants Facebook Group. I wanted their feedback on what plants my plant-loving naked ladies would have in the living room
(Pictured) Not enough plants.
I got overwhelming comments and pictures of peoples favourite houseplants to include. The ladies were very passionate about their plants
A lady from the group showing me a few of her plants
Now I have to get to work adding more plants – I realised I’d been working for over 15 hours on this one drawing
Drawing plants at work
I’ve been using digital procreate pens inka and tinderbox brushes (semi opaque) for the colour on the pink princess leaves, and to create tones on the obliqua leaf. Just in case I forget.
Just the technical pen on the white fusion. Nothing fancy. Also dry ink pen on the terracotta pots for some texture – I’m going to add a texture filter at the end but I won’t some areas to have a little more texture
Is this enough plants?
I think that’s enough for now, I might come back up this later
I’ve been playing with the concept and styles of advertising, mostly for products / events / businesses that don’t exist. I’ve been making retro-inspired posters for fake events and brands, using various online models, to convey different ideas.
I like that they’re not advertisements at all, but fakes, with elements of the surreal and absurd about them
I hate adverts.
‘Hot Girl Cafe’ – Digital illustration
Retro ninties comic-book vintage advertising I call ‘hot girl cafe’ – I like this style, I’d love to animate it somehow, possibly using light boxes
‘Art Music Poetry’ – Digital Illustration, I’m mimicking burlesque/vintage book covers in both the style and phrasing
I’m working on a piece called ‘Brooklyn’s’ – more on that later
Psychic Language There is a psychic language That exists between our minds Where senses have collided Space seems to swallow time Involuntary voyages Starboard subconsciousness Gives to you a snapshot gift Cherish it before it drifts As we go back in time I’ll meet you in the psychic disco Through your eyes I will read your mind I will wait for full dilation Before we travel back through time
Illustrated Lyric Book and Projections (Chas Thomas)
As part of the ALT (Arts Lab Teesside) collective I was asked to submit illustrations for some song lyrics as part of an accessibility hand-out for a gig. I’m not the only artist working on this, I think we all get different lyrics. Unfortunately I don’t have a soul, so all song lyrics seem lonely and literal to me.
The Projects aim is to incorporate accessibility into the creative process for the post-lockdown return of ‘The Red Room’ (an interactive music/poetry/art event) (23 July at Base Camp venue, Middlesbrough)
Musician Chas Thomas will be doing a live music set – the hand out will illustrate some of the song lyrics, hopefully creating an experience for deaf and hearing impaired patrons
I decided to focus on space, water, distance, a person in relation to another person, and a deep sense of unadulterated longing and loneliness – I have never heard this song and knowing my luck it will be a jaunty pop song
Base sketch – I’ve got a lot of space to play with
Research and style inspiration for the cosmic illustration
I’m looking at repetitive line, Japanese inspired figures and nature woodcuts, fairytale illustration, vintage flat comics, and anything weird, line based and space related. I don’t want anything too difficult to print, or too difficult to make out on a hand out.
The hair flows like water, the lady is set in the void
Messing with composition – does she need extra planets? Yes, alwaysFinished image The finished image has a layer of noise added, so it matches the vintage comic style it was inspired by
Back on my ‘Draw me nsfw’ Illustrations – some of them aren’t really that NSFW (digital illustration)
I mentioned in a previous post about people posting themselves online to be drawn, or to just share themselves. Why are they doing it and why am I looking?
Exhibitionism and voyeurism obviously. But a lot of them aren’t even erotic, they’re a bit odd, quirky, personal, sincere, bold… it’s almost like, given the space and freedom from the usual expectations – people are actually becoming more of themselves. Dying their hair, exploring their identity and posing naked with their plants
Is posing naked with your plants a thing now? Seriously, I’ve seen many of these recently I really enjoy this persons photos, as they are travelling the USA in a VAN and experimenting with ftm feminine identity
There are definitely some plants in these picturesI’m making it a thing I don’t think it captures her face well enough, but it’s a nice sketch – could call it ‘Eve with no belly button’
Quick sketches in different styles
I thought of a non (kind of) erotic ‘body’ (haha) of illustration, (more nude than erotic) detailing peoples unique reaction to the pandemic – they’re share pictures of themselves online doing…just stuff. Dressing up, experimenting with gender, being playful…online. Do they care less because they’ve been isolated so long, or were they always like this?
Digital sketch in simple, soviet colours
I don’t know, I feel a connection to these people, I check out the rest of their profiles, comments, interests. I started drawing them in different art styles – If they’ve shared a picture online, I’m drawing it. I don’t know where I’m going with that, but I’m collecting a lot of images of people living their best socially distant lives
I thought that might look good in a physical light box/digital illustration format. I’d do loads of them in standard screen size, display them on top of each other together and call it ‘stacked’ or something.
I circle around once again to Minotaurs – with ‘willing’ life models gathered online, I’m sketching my naked mythical creatures
You’ll noticed the body types I picked aren’t monsters, and they are weirdly aesthetic – I’ve changed the proportions a bit so they’re not quite human. I also gave them cows heads, which is the main thing.
One highland cow cross and one sacred Indian cow – I spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking for cow models that had character and sympathy.
The working title is ‘analog’ – which I thought meant ‘off and on’ or negative and positive.
adjectiveadjective: analog
relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position, voltage, etc.”analogue signals”
a person or thing seen as comparable to another.”an interior analogue of the exterior world”
from Greek analogon, neuter of analogos ‘proportionate’.
But I’m going with the thing comparable to another, and the Greek proportionate – I’m going for a feeling here, no time to explain.
I want to see if I can mimic the below art style – I’ve spent a lot of time staring at this weirdly elaborate pornography. I have no idea what medium it is, it looks like a watercolour original mass printed onto low quality paper. Or maybe it’s a printing process that layers up colour. I don’t know. Buts it’s cute
(Unknown artist) Just living in the moment, before tv and phones ruined everything I’ve gone overboard with the muscle tone – I always do this
One hour into working on this, I’ve already over complicated it so they’re looking too realistic, but also not real at all because of the proportions (and cow heads) – It’s a watercolour style base, with grit texture colours to layer the tones up
I currently find them a little unnerving to look at – which is excellent, I’m totally there for this. More on this as I progress
Different Snakes, 2020, A1 acetate illustration print, LED light box
“Aspirational alternative reality advertisement: Different Snakes is part of a series of lockdown illustrations. There’s been enough time to ask, how do we rebrand the loaded imagery of Medusa? Why would we want to?
Also, does Art Nouveau need a 70s colour scheme revival? A light look into Myth, advertisements, mass production, pop surrealism, vintage comics and snakes”
I’ve been thinking about vignettes or compartments….possibly apartments. Isolation, and what everyone is doing in their homes on their own.
I mean…not like that. Maybe kind of like that
I did wonder a bit about compartmentalising both ourselves and parts of ourselves and what that might look like in relation to lockdown. And how that might look in an illustration
Maybe left to their own devices, people are actually discovering themselves? Like they didn’t need to travel to India to find themselves – they just needed three months pandemic induced isolation – OR MORE LIKELY everyone just spent most of the time laying on the floor
Ink on paper – sometime in 2014. A prediction of things to come Research – a comic about depression, one assumes
I’ve been working on a few illustrations, I discovered that as people have been isolated, they’ve mostly moved online – there’s a few places (specifically r/drawmeNSFW ) offering themselves up as models for drawing. I didn’t know this was a thing and it needs looking into. Who wants anonymous strangers to draw them naked?
Anyway….
I’m having some good fun with the unashamed way a lightbox literally illuminates an illustration – you can’t emphasise anything further than making it light up.
Attention seeking advertising tools – and I never thought of it before but you can just BUY them and use them. No one stops you
Someone could juxtapose the isolation of parts of someone’s personality, with brash advertising illumination, if someone wished. If someone knew what juxtaposition meant, which I don’t
A4 Light Box with print
I’ve been informed that vignettes means; a series of short scenes, that make up a larger work. I don’t know if that’s right. But I thought a lot about a cube shaped structure of single illuminated images – making up a block of flats-style window into little narrative snapshots
But I also thought how expensive it would be to buy 9 light boxes – so more on this project IF I get any money haha
Lockdown art illustration Practicing line work with a simplified illustration.
I have a few variations of the same basic idea, it changes from a fox/rabbit, fox/butterfly, then dog/mouse. Same concept – a stretched jaw devouring something delicate – the delicate thing being unconcerned about this fact.
When I moved from black and white I tried a few colour combinations, a clean, limited colour pallet and changed the mouse to a more passive pose.
Pencil and/or ink sketches – same concept
I prefer the passive mouse, as the tail line loops better with the tongue – the composition has a better balance
Passive mouse – cool tonesPassive mouse – warmer green tones
We all submitted recipes and did interviews for the covid artist support cookbook last year – but they didn’t add the Interviews in them – which is a shame because it’s nice to know a bit about artists who made the images
(There’s a copy of my interview below) – I’m not sure if I made sense, I’d been in solitary confinement for three months
I like art, but I don’t like artists. And I don’t even think I really like art anymore
Tell us about a seminal experience, person or influence that put you on this creative path? Tell us about an artwork or artist that really inspires you.
I spent a lot of time in the early nineties learning to draw ponies. I was 4 at the time, and this was important work. I realised that, instead of holding the pen and hoping that a horse shape will appear, If you move the pen in a certain way, you can control the lines (?!) – I was Palaeolithic man and this was my cave-drawn bison. Or crayon pony. Whatever.
Ponies were never going to be enough, I grew to love the pure aesthetics of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Tamara de Lempicka (cold, inaccessible beauty) Aubrey Beardsley (art for arts sake?) and Alphonse Mucha (sensuous, flowing perfection) I was lonely, and art was beautiful- I copied everything I could. I’ll probably always love and appreciate pure aesthetics
What do you consider to be your main achievements during your artistic career? How do you measure success as an artist? Is it having a big museum exhibition or just completing the latest work in your studio
The only achievement that means anything in the art world is continuing to make art. So I guess since I’m still here #winning
What do you think of the wider artistic community in Teesside and do you feel part of it? Do you feel artists have an important role in society? And what might that look like? How would you improve the connections between artists and the public?
I like art, but I don’t like artists. And I don’t even think I really like art anymore. I’m not sure I have a relationship with the Art Community in Teesside – It’s both frustratingly stale, and also wildly brimming with potential.
Let’s be realistic; we’re a working class, post industrial, poverty stricken northern town. Attempts to engage with the general public are usually over-thought, and misguidedly ‘arty’. If your main art events (which have the majority of funding, and are aimed squarely at the general public) are actually prioritising conceptual art aimed at ‘art academics’, if your artist statements are convoluted intellectual nonsense, and you’re creating shows for the same audience that always turn up, and not considering why most people don’t turn up – what are you even doing?
I mean, saying that, I’m delighted to see steps by the Art Scene to engage with the local community in accessible, physical spaces, such as Pineapple Black and the Auxiliary. Like I said, there’s potential in a less formal art movement.
But yeah, I know I talked a lot of aesthetics and art for arts sake, but I do think artists have a role to play in society. Traditionally, we’re (artists) supposed to be changing identities, moving around between classes, documenting and representing. Using imagery for propaganda and protest.
I’ve been watching with absolute delight at the rise of Memes as an organic art form that is Reactionary, funny, touching, and relatable – which have their own life cycle and language and can be made by anyone. It’s great, if anyone is writing a dissertation on memes and modern culture, then please send me it I’d love to read it.
continuing to make work during the COVID-19 crisis? If you have adapted your practice at this time, please tell us how? Have there been any positive outcomes to this?
Adapt and overcome – I can’t visit my studio because Im in contact with a lot of different people for work, and it would be completely irresponsible to come in a rub germs all over everyone else. I haven’t even seen my studio (or my friends and family ha) in months! Being stuck inside alone is incredibly frustrating, but I work best when I’m lonely and overthinking anyway, so how perfect.
My recipe was for toast
As someone who values traditional drawing and painting techniques, I was obviously loathed to try moving to digital art, but I supposed it was that or do nothing (tempting). Over the last few weeks I’ve been learning to draw with an iPad & a copy of Procreate. And. Wow. It’s more difficult than it looks! The lack of resistance between the pen and the drawing surface was something I did not expect to be a problem.
Learning to draw in a digital medium was tough, but as I got better- I started excitedly messaging people to tell them how much fun I was having, and how quick it was to try new colours and styles on sketch ideas quickly without having to re-draw everything. I’ve finally been able to put together a body of sketches around illustration ideas I had months (and years!) ago.
I’m looking forward to using these to inform physical paintings, or as a medium in their own right. I’m currently taking part in a ‘lockdown art challenge’ on Instagram, which keeps me engaged and sane. I think a lot of people are approaching new ways of working (Including art classes and life drawing via Zoom, Online gigs and variety shows, even online nightclubs!) it’s been great to watch this happen, as the art world rises to the lockdown challenge.
Aimee Charlotte 