Inspirational work: Peepshow Collective

The Peepshow Collective

I have been a fan of Chrissie Macdonald's work for a while now, and recently I found this collective she is part of; Peepshow. Peepshow is a collective of illustrators Luke Best, Jenny Bowers, Miles Donovan, Chrissie Macdonald, Pete Mellor, Marie O’Connor, Andrew Rae, Elliot Thoburn, Lucy Vigrass and Spencer Wilson. I really liked the various artists I discovered in the collective and one artist that I really like was Andrew Rae, who uses a mix of humor and personification to make some interesting illustrations.

More about the Peepshow Collective can be found here on http://www.peepshow.org.uk/

Andrew Rae

Andrew Rae has worked for various clients including Nike, MTV and The Guardian. Similar to the work of artist David Shirley another illustrator with work I like Rae creates pieces that mix of art with comical. I really like the combination of illustration and comedy, as the piece provokes a response from the audience. I like the way in which Rae presents people and animals in his pieces, giving them characteristics and qualities which show through the picture. The rabbit on the left has been drawn in black pen on a white background. It is a line drawing but even despite it's simplicity it is skill, and makes the rabbit look quite mischievous. The images with all the characters below is one of my favourite by Rae as it has a range of various character on it. Each character is individual and different from another. When you take a closer look you can see a different personality in each character, as if each have their own story. The use of colour especially in the illustration below is very important to highlight the differences in personalities, as colour can suggests various things, or give perceptions such as pink for girls. Rae plays on this giving one of the male illustrated characters a pink T-shirt, whilst he has a shaven bald head. This contrast with perceptions we would usually have of men causing humor. This highlights how colour can also provoke emotion from the audience as well as the illustration itself. When creating my piece I will take into account the various colours I use, as I want to interest the audience and provoke a response, so selecting an appropriate colour will impact on the response (if any) I gained from the audience.

I think Andrew Rae's work is great to look at for Journeys, Encounters and Meetings because the use of 'people' show different things Rae has encountered through life whether it be a dream or in real life.

The personification of animals and objects adds to the humor of the illustration making it fun to look at. In the illustration below there is a blue bear with a walking stick this and a horse with a gun. I think creating drawing that have personality is a great way of connecting with the audience and Rae does this well.

More of Andrew Rae can be found on http://www.andrewrae.org.uk/

My Andrew Rae inspired pieces

I used fine liner pen on graph paper to create this Andrew Rae inspired piece. I cartoonised my oyster card, as relating to how Rae cartoonised people. This trail did not come out as I had hoped, and to make it more like Andrew Rae I could have made the illustration more humorous.

This is my second Andrew Rae inspired piece. For this I created various characters, giving them each different characteristics. I noticed Rae used this technique to make his cartoons interesting and wanted to try drawing various characters with their own personality. 

Chrissie Macdonald

Chrissie Macdonald is also part of the Peepshow collective and a different style artist to Andrew Rae. I really like the work of Macdonald and she has inspired a lot of previous work I have created. I now look at her again, as I believe the paper pieces she creates could be something I consider for my piece. 

With clients including Central Saint Martins, Creative Review, Dazed & Confused and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Chrissie Macdonald is a successful artist, who uses predominantly paper as a medium. Her use of photography and paper creates exciting scenes. 

Above is Chrissie Macdonald's commission for Orange phone company. This too is created by paper. Here Macdonald has uterlised paper to create shapes that have become characters. Similar to the work of Andrew Rae each character has been given its own personality. I like this because then each character is eye-catching and you want to look at each one. I really like the use of different shapes, there is a range of size and shape, which suggests something different. The cuboid with the top hat is really interesting being the tallest of the shapes.  It looks quite clever, and businessman like, relating to our perceptions of British businessmen; suit wearer, top hat, eye glass and tall. The use of the orange is a clever way to promote the phone company Orange through the piece, and therefore the Orange logo is very small and place in the corner of the piece.



This is a piece created for The New York Times Magazine. I like it because of the mysterious almost ghostly atmosphere created by the green lighting. It looks like a scene from a horror film with black cats, a lift and a small child, creating a sense of spookiness or even fear. I think this mix of photography and paper is something I will practice and use in the future within my piece because it is great to look at.

More of Chrissie Macdonald can be found on http://www.chrissiemacdonald.co.uk/

Chrissie Macdonald and Andrew Rae

Chrissie Macdonald and Andrew Rae teamed up together to create an installation for New Royal London 

Hospital, routes to childrens' theatre. The piece is mixed media created with paint and fabric. I think the piece works well to target young children because it is playful and fun. It creates characters a boy and a girl and it appears like they are going on an adventures, because of the different scenes captured in the work.

Work can be found here on Andrew Rae's website http://www.andrewrae.org.uk

Photographer and Illustrator - Heikki Leis

Heikki Leis

Illustrations

Photography

I really like the work of Estonian artist Heikki Leis. When I initially came across his photographic work, I found it really quite interesting how one object or prop was used to describe someone. It is quite intriguing looking at his work, as I begin to imagine the story behind it. Leis photography grabs my attention and this is probably why I like it so much. When I saw this I wanted to create something that had the same affect one my audience.

Heikki Leis is both an illustrator and photographer. Leis illustrations created from pencil and pens are amazing to look at as well, appearing almost photo-like.

Work such as this is inspiring because through a photo you begin to think of a story. Although my final piece may not definitely be a photography only based piece I think when I do create my work I will take Leis' work into account. Creating something that tells a story, draws in an audience to think.

More of Heikki Leis work can be found on http://www.heikkileis.ee/