Breaking Down of ILO's

A really worthwhile exercise, just so that I can remind myself throughout the project what the aims are and what I need to achieve.

http://www.citethisforme.com/

USE THIS

Current status of Illustration / Research

http://justcreative.com/2014/02/10/the-current-state-of-illustration-and-how-to-succeed-in-2014/

The future of Illustration Design Tools

http://mydecorativetree.com/2013/05/the-future-of-illustration-design-tools/#.V_9WQJMrKi4

"…brushes that don’t just offer an imitation of real materials, but brushes that can do wild stuff that only digital could do. Just as the old masters built their own brushes, so will the new masters."

"The future of art and design looks very promising, and very different."

Chris Riddell: What I'm thinking about ... a new era for illustration 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/aug/12/chris-riddell-new-era-illustration 

"But times changed and, in the latter half of the 20th century, illustration went into decline. Children's books that in Shepard's day would have been automatically illustrated were deemed no longer to require an illustrator's input. A case in point are the defiantly un-illustrated Harry Potter books. In newspapers and periodicals, Photoshop and montage replaced illustrators and cartoonists. No mainstream publisher these days would dream of commissioning illustrations to a new edition of Pepys' diaries."

The Illustrator’s Market: A Professional’s Insights Into the Illustration Industry

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/business-of-art/the-illustrators-market

"The decline of printed matter paired with the rise of the digital age and the proliferation of stock collections has put the illustration world in flux. Only a few years ago a large company’s annual report might have offered the opportunity for hundreds of illustrations. Today, that same report might exist only in digital form (and may include only stock photography). Similarly, fewer magazines and newspapers mean fewer print ads-and fewer opportunities again for illustration. Nevertheless, the profession endures, as does the need to effectively and creatively communicate ideas in the marketplace."

"How does illustration differ from so-called fine art? Though the two worlds often overlap, for our purposes we can draw a line of distinction. While fine art usually exists as the sole expressive creation of an individual, perhaps with the hope of future sale, illustration is typically commissioned by others for commercial purposes. And therein lies the collaborative nature of the industry. An illustrator must be a good listener, problem solver, communicator, and artist. All of this is for the ultimate success of the client."

Isn’t it time the world of illustration had a bit of a kick up the arse? 

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/illustration

"They probably hear the word “illustration” and think of naff murals in cafes, screen printed pictures of bears wearing beanies, or t-shirts with wistful flocks of birds across them. They probably think of in-house supermarket magazines, or bad billboards for phone adverts on The Tube. They might think of craft fairs with people selling baubles, and knitting, and etchings of girls in raincoats with fringes, or haughty birds wearing top hats and carrying pocket watches. This stuff is only a small corner of the brilliant, clever, diverse world of illustration – yet it seems to be what gets the most attention."

The Illustrator’s Market: A Professional’s Insights Into the Illustration Industry

http://www.artistsnetwork.com/articles/business-of-art/the-illustrators-market

Where Illustrators position themselves in 2011 

An rounded view of the illustration industry 5 years ago. 

History Of Photoshop

20 years of Photoshop

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/02/20-years-of-adobe-photoshop/

Adobe Photoshop Version History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop_version_history

I have been researching into photoshop - I wanted to see how photoshop has developed over time, what additions have been made to each version, so that it has become the user-friendly application that we use today. 

Also how it's simplified processes like photo manipulation and typesetting/font selection, that in the past would've been very laborious. 

Is Digital Art "Real" Art? Facts and Myths About Digital Creating

"When you look at beautiful digital art and compare it with the things you draw with a pencil, you can feel astonished and belittled. If only you could afford a graphics tablet, you could be just as good!"

"You can't be any better. And it's not your fault, it's all about money!"

Attitudes describing how the success of a digital artist relies on their wealth and access to technology, rather than their skills. The tools make the art? this is quite a dangerous view in terms of measuring the worth of a piece of digital art. (Worthless/skillless/technology makes the art what it is)

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/is-digital-art-real-art-facts-and-myths-about-digital-creating--cms-22010

It's Nice That: The problems with digital art and why moving image is so important: a chat with Daata Editions

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/daata-editions-season-two-digital-moving-image-art-david-gryn-200416

"We need to define art processes and work with artists who make art, not “content”."
Daata Editions - Moving Image Curation 
The Tate also unveiled the IK Prize, an annual award for digital artwork ideas.

Digital Art: Beyond The Hype

http://www.ignant.de/2015/11/24/digital-art-beyond-the-hype/

Some good examples of current practitioners that use graphic software to make their artwork. They are mostly from a fine art background however. Need to find more practitioners that use art in a more commercial context. 

The Philosophy of Digital Art

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/digital-art/

A slightly more academic piece of writing that will definitely aid my research. Woohoo.

COP3: Organising Your Research

Deadline: Thursday 12th January (2-4pm)

Reflection > Theory > Action : Praxis

Learning Outcomes of this module:
Project Management
Self Motivation
Organisation

400 Hours of study: 

6-9000 word dissertation

Related practical work

w/ 2.5 hours of support

Aim to have a substantial draft by christmas

Methodologies and Critical analysis
Resolving your research project 
Keeping to academic conventions

Planning The Project

- Write Down all the questions that you want to investigate

- Consider each on their merits and focus on 2

- write an A4 first thoughts sheet for each

- What is the purpose of the study?

- Is your question researchable?

- Working Title - Should provide an answerable question

- Make notes of key questions that your research raises as you go along

- Title should be no more than 15-20 words

Project Outline

- Stick question on the wall/somewhere you will always see it (remind yourself, is what i'm doing relevant?)

- Think about your working title and the different components that need researching

- Aim to have title and project outline for first tutorial

Literature Search

- Sampling - Who gets mentioned over and over again?

- 100 hours of reading/research 

- www.jstor.org < USE IT

- Structure dissertation into chapters. Complimentery but with different focuses/different theoretical or methodical approaches.

Tasks

1. Write down all q's that you want to investigate
2. Write A4 first thoughts sheet for each
3. Working title
4. Project Outline

Industry expert reveals what the future holds for illustration

"If there is an underlying direction in illustration, it's that the practice is getting more physical, more craft-like and more 3D, while also becoming more immaterial in exploring the creative opportunities of movement in digital channels on the internet and on tablets."
http://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/industry-expert-reveals-what-s-next-illustration-21514274

"Divergence Culture" an extension of Henry Jenkins' idea:http://henryjenkins.org/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html

"As Handsome Frank co-founder Jon Cockley notes, social media followers don't want to see re-hashed content, they want bespoke content that's purposely made for a smaller screen. The past 12 months, for example, have seen some cracking work where traditional illustration has got subtly mobile."

One of Andrew Davidson's incredible series of hand-crafted wood engravings for the covers of adult editions of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels

"It looked like something found in an old shoebox, stored away in someone's loft from the 1950s. Its visual language – the engraving, the sculpted visual information of the subject matter – was so unfamiliar and so not-at-home in the second decade of the 20th Century."

Will Terry Interview

- Artists are learning from each other; school of visual storytelling, online ways to learn, education is getting cheaper, easier to attain.

- Elements you get from university study in creative field, that you don't get from online school- financial aid, long term exposure to your intended field, learning from other students, networking.

- The talent pool is sky rocketing. internet has made it possible to find talent all over world. Deviant art, pinterest, Art directors have access to hire so many more people. Is there going to be room for all these talented people to get picked? 

Reflection

Interesting points about how the internet, despite being an excellent tool for getting your work out there, could infact be threatening in terms of creating more competition. Also the concept of how learning something through craft/study is becoming a much more accessible commodity through the internet. 

COP3: *Reflection* What Am I Doing

Once again, like every year I've had with COP on illustration, I'm finding it difficult to condense down my research to gain a clearer focus of what I'm actually investigating. 

Ultimately my research has been focused on the concept of digital vs analogous methods of making pictures, how this effects contemporary illustrators, and if or not the development of creative software e.g photoshop/illustrator is beneficial to the growth of the industry or not. I feel that over time the role of the illustrator has changed due to technological developments, as 50 years ago, an illustrator was a craftsman with a pencil, who had to have a high level of craft. Nowadays, especially with an undo button (referring to digital creatives) they are doing something that anyone could do with enough experience? (this may be a completely offensive view which I'm not entirely sure I believe, however I feel it is a view that is shared - "digital art is not real art").

My personal view on the matter is that modern day creative software are becoming easier to use, encouraging more hobbyist creatives, making it more difficult to stand out as a practitioner. I'm not sure how I'd go about researching into this, questionnaires? 

I'm also struggling to find academic sources relating to this, as it's quite a modern topic. I really need to do more research into philosophers(?), looking at theories to do with nostalgia perhaps? why society craves artwork that is not on a screen. 

MY RESEARCH IS JUST FLAT LINING AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO NEXT

Maybe look into how technological advancements are changing the role of the illustrator? technology is changing therefore so must the illustrator. Having an online presence is now a key part to being a successful illustrator, as at the end of the day IT IS A JOB and that's what's needed to be successful? All illustrative work will be refined/photographed in a certain way to display in digital format, so can they really be craftsmen with their dependence on technology? 

This reminded me to go back to this article: The Death Of Freelance Illustration, Passion Projects & Why we quit our dream jobs. (http://chrisoatley.com/freelance-illustration/)

There are many points about how Trends are having a huge effect on freelance illustration:

"Scarcity Drives Value. Generalist freelance illustrators are ANYTHING but scarce. There’s nothing special about generic “freelance illustration” any more. Generic artists attract generic clients.Generic clients offer generic work. Generic work attracts more generic clients. This pattern will eventually attract bad clients (if it hasn’t already)." 

I think this is a really important issue that needs further exploration.

The Drawing Renaissance: Digital Illustration vs. Hand-Drawn

https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/digital-illustration-vs-hand-drawn/

"Whatever the medium for the process of mark-making (and whatever the digital die-hards might proclaim), the art of contemporary illustration is still integral to the creative interpretation of the 21st century."

Digital Art Revolution?

http://www.digitalartrevolution.com/digitalartrevolution/Artist_Interviews.html
- book/online experience based around how Photoshop is changing the way people make art. Kind of irrelevant, however there were some interesting interviews with artists, for example, a gallery artist in Second Life (virtual reality).

Contemporary Art in Digital Media: Learn To Be Creative
http://www.designjuices.co.uk/2011/08/creative-digital-media/

"While expressing an artist’s visualization, creativity or passion tools should not be given utmost importance. It is high time to realize computer as just a medium through which art is expressed."

"Digital Art Is Not Real Art"
http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/digital-art-is-not-real-art.html

What Is The Point of Critics?
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/13/ao-scott-critic-better-living-through-criticism-film
{valid points about digital developments possibly killing off print}

Why Digital Artists Are (not) Big Fat Liars
Does The Medium Matter?
http://skinnyartist.com/why-digital-artists-are-not-big-fat-liars/

What is Illustration? Where do Modern Illustrators position themselves?

Defining the Art of Illustration 

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/defining-the-art-of-illustration/
Isn’t it time the world of illustration had a bit of a kick up the arse? 
http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/illustration 

"an illustrator is an artist, but not all artists are illustrators." > CONTEXT

CreativeLive Asks Photoshop Experts to Open Photoshop 1.0

"May I please return to the creative cloud now?"

I found this video to be a really interesting experiment that asked creatives to try to operate one of the first versions of photoshop. Overtime it has become apparent that with each update/software release, photoshop has become increasingly easier to use (perhaps too easy??) adding functions and features that really simplify creative processes down to a t. 

The struggle that is seen by the artists is really interesting, as it strangely mirrors the effect of returning to using analog methods? The first photoshop is so archaic that it could be considered a traditional process. 

It is clear that it takes alot more time and consideration, in comparison to modern day tech. 

Adbusters - Panting For Breath On A Virtual Shore

http://www.adbusters.org/article/panting-for-breath-on-a-virtual-shore/

This text was recommended to me by a friend - about society's dependence on technology.

"What extraordinary feats we were suddenly capable of in locomotion and adventure! Not til generations later did we realize that cars were a leading villain in the destruction of the planet. What will we discover in 100 years about the internet, smart-phones and other harbingers of virtual life?"

This idea that technology is created for a benefit but then becomes a threat is really key to my argument.

I came across this term 'primitivistic luddite' which I think is quite interesting, referring back to a movement during the industrial revolution that ultimately opposed machinery. Could this be applied to modern day 'haters' of tech?

Does Modern Technology Help Or Hinder An Artist

http://inspiredm.com/does-modern-technology-help-or-hinder-an-artist/

There are countless varieties of desktop software such as Photoshop which enable professional creativity and artistic ability in an easy to-learn way.

Plato infamously said that that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’

Technology has evolved into a medium of art – it is merely another set of tools in addition to the paintbrush and the canvas.

The Greatest Digital Artists Of The 21st Century

http://uk.complex.com/style/2015/05/the-greatest-digital-artists-of-the-21st-century/

Research into existing digital practitioners, I want to understand what Digital technology gives them that anolog doesn't? 

Alot of these artists are very conceptual/fine art where the medium is a big part of the message. 

Analog Is Not The Opposite Of Digital

https://fringefocus.com/2010/analog-is-not-the-opposite-of-digital/

"Ones and zeros, on and off, digital is all about numbers."

This was purely part of my research into what the term 'Analog' actually meant. The quote above creates an idea of the algorithm and cold engineered elements that are used within digital design tools.

Digital is all about numbers - can digital be authentic/warm/have personality???

Analog In, Digital Out - Brendan Davies

Key quotes; 

"How can you have a beautiful ending without making beautiful mistakes?"

"A world without undo"

"I think it would be nice to find a balance between constant start-from-zero cleanliness and natural evolution born out of risks and errors."

"Evidence of use" - "Lack of evidence that a digital artefact has been touched"

"A ten year old file icon looks exactly the same as it did when it was created."

"what are we losing in this super clean, time irrelevent medium? do people want to see evidence of use?"

"The page has a story impregnated into it, a narrative that has been permanently stuck to it."

"I love all the cool things that digital media has give  us; i'm just saying that these tea stains, bent corners, and smudges from the physical world are really important to us - the help mark who we are as human beings, and they tell a story."

"Those accidents, those little scratches, those moments in time are some of the things that separate us from the machines."

Reflection

I have highlighted some quotes that offer an insight into some attitudes surrounding digital artwork that will definitely benefit my essay. It is clear that there is a negative attitude towards it because of it's lack of tactility, relating to attitudes displayed in Made You Look film.

Made You Look film - Quotes

People involved in film:

Attitudes to technology in creative industry:

• (print club london)People do forget that having pc's and apples is only since our generation, so thats something that we feel that we rely on
• Suzie Wright does alot of illustration where she inks on top of acetate and builds it up, avoids using computer
• [computers] Just makes life easier and quicker, opened it up to people that cant draw. [with screen print] It does allow people who aren't illustrators or print makers by trade make a piece of artwork.
• (no brow) If everything that we create - if that just exists in a digital cloud then i think thats an incredible shame
• (anthony burrel) because we're so used to everything being perfect and things on screen being very seductive and lush and glossy, that when you see something like an old bit of wood with some ink kinda being roled off a piece of paper, its got more value to it rather than just knocking out something on a computer
• (print club london) people would want something that are handmade, people don't want to go to Ikea and buy a digital print, they want to go and buy something that is hand made and is signed and is original artwork
• (print club london) because there is a massive amount of creative people doing stuff that primarily is just digital, it doesnt ever become a physical thing, so i think there is a real desire even for the sanity of the illustrator to have something that actually can be physical otherwise it's like a little bit of digital data that gets lost in the etha of the world wide web
• You dont throw away books, you dont throw away prints
• Your whole life's on a cloud, everythings invisible 
• Everything starts with a pencil sketch, remove that from my creative process and i don't have a creative process
•  (jon burgerman) it doesn't really matter, a blank screen is just as bad or good as a blank page, youve got to bring something to it either way, doesnt really help you if you have no ideas
• (ed cheverton) when something becomes quite popular, theres always gonna be a backlash, positive and negative effects where suddenly everyones drawing in photoshop or illustrator doing vector illustration theres gonna be another group of people we dont wanna do that we'll do the opposite
• (ed cheverton)i think alot of people after the excitement and wonder of computer died down, people remembered its so nice to make work with your hands its so nice to cut paper with scalpel or put pencil to card, do anything with your hands rather than just being sat in front of a screen
• (hattie stewart) stephen fry is kindle gonna replace books? is elevator gonna replace stairs? they just become one of the same depending on which is easier or more convenient at the time
• (jon burgerman) I don't think we should look at the digital tools as a replacement i think thats the wrong way to talk about them, theyre a new tool

Attitudes to the internet:

• (kate moross) now that every single second year student has a website, how do you stand out from the crowd?
• shouting from an enormous crown, difficult to be heard 
• millions of people putting their hands up and screaming look at me

Kyle T Webster - Big Heads Interview

Big Heads 14/10/15

- Winston North Carolina
- Grew up in Pakistan, Singapore, Cyprus and Taiwan
- Diversity of work - Adaptable confidence with drawing
webfolio showing range of approaches (aslong as he thought it was good work) always brought in more work 
- Once described as The Working mans illustrator
- More realistic approach to making work to make a living
- Computer + Brushes: huge variety of aesthetic 
- Custom Brushes - "When i was still working for the design firm, I had to draw an annual report for krispy kreme doughnuts... They wanted 8 paintings in 2 weeks... I said well that's not going to happen, At the time i Photoshop 7,  I had heard about people trying to emulate media with custom brushes
Build with what photoshop lets you do, settings you can mess with, shapes.. alot of stuff you can do adjust the flow 
- Alot of cynicism in regard to digital brushes
- people making brushes were engineers, not artists
- i've noticed a resurgence, 40s esque shape and colour through a print process, 
- Is there an appropriate way to engage with brushes? Brushes won't be any good to anybody that doesnt know what the actual media feels like
- Need to know how to draw before you use the brushes
- The craft and psycho manual motor skills can't be replaced 
- Digital tools are the same as Manual tools, you just need to have good digital tools. 
- iPad pro - technology is fantastic, doesn't run photoshop, with professional artist you need professional tools 
pencil is superior to wacom. 
- Photoshop is the best application for that
- Apple technology great for hobbyist 
- Astropad mirror image on iPad 
- what do you think makes a piece of illustration really great? something that does more than decorate a page
- What advice would you give yourself? Pay more attention to colour theory and colour

Wireed Magazine (on the topic of Kyle + his brushes)

“These digital tools allow artists to recreate the look of scratchy technical pens, flowing watercolor paints, and dusty pastels all within the pristine confines of a Photoshop file.”

"Oil painters swear by certain types of bristles and purists will even mix their own paints. Webster is just as picky, but more digitally inclined."

“Kyle’s brushes mimic the ‘happy accidents’ that make painting so magical, and allow them to occur in digital work,” says Samantha Kallis, a concept artist at Disney."

Kyle T Webster

Reflection

Some really good stuff here for my dissertation - it is interesting how the ease of the custom brushes have allowed him to push his practice in different ways, which has resulted in success.

COP Research: Some key texts/articles

""Digital media, and specifically the PhotoShop extension, has had a profound influence on the way that art directors and designers currently view illustration. Once graphic designers depended on the rendering skills and conceptual acuity of illustrators. Now they can assemble ersatz illustration-collages by themselves. PhotoShop has certainly not replaced illustrators altogether (and many fine illustrators employ PhotoShop as a tool), but this tool is far more threatening than any previous technological development in the history of illustration."

http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00073

- Rise of computer aided design and the general loss of handmade and handcrafted art skills
- Threatening the role of the illustrator, less need for them as photoshop is cheaper alternative

Drawing A Comparison 

"The so-called Golden Age of Illustration is generally considered to have been bracketed by the years 1880 and 1920." 

"Grove said talent and distinctiveness are still the gold standard: “The bias of the industry is still to nurture and reward illustrators who strive for a very personal style.”"

"“The ‘graphic designer’ who makes things has merged with the illustrator, as the same plasticity I mentioned above applies to all sorts of richly visual designed things: packaging, environments, motion graphics, whatnot. We are enveloped by designed surfaces now, many of which are pictorial to some degree.”
He added, “’Graphic design’ and ‘illustration’ are a little less descriptive as terms than they used to be. … But the nouns still have utility, and people still self-identify as one or the other kind of practitioner, save for a subgroup of hybrid people who think of themselves as in-betweeners.”"

"The idea that something essential about all this was lost in the transition from nondigital to digital creation is largely a fiction, according to Steven J. Eskilson, art professor at Eastern Illinois University. “That’s a matter of opinion to a large degree,” he wrote in an email. “It would make sense that illustration by hand would be a more expressive, personal form of communication … but then again many graphic designers have developed signature styles while utilizing technological means. … It is true that technology has perhaps brought more homogeneity to graphic design because the software steers people in certain directions, but if you look at the mass of illustration from early in the century most of it was boring and conventional. So, no, I don’t think much has been lost overall but it would be nice as an art director to have talented illustrators as part of the crew.”
Kuo said the “real estate” that illustrators and designers have to work with and on is wider than ever: “The area where images need to be designed is broader. There seems to be an endless number of things that are asking to be created.”

http://www.brittonmdg.com/the-britton-blog/drawing-a-comparison

Digital Media and the Creative Process

"the challenges and the possibilities that designers encounter as they integrate digital tools into their daily work flow"

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5QwlAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=what+are+creatives+losing+to+digital+design+tools&source=bl&ots=bmv42MGHjm&sig=ywhv00ut3A2J5A63h7jgLPKVjYc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisq9X8u7rQAhXCiiwKHRnlC34Q6AEIKDAD#v=onepage&q=what%20are%20creatives%20losing%20to%20digital%20design%20tools&f=false

"Digital Fabrication"

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sq7ABgAAQBAJ&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=what+are+creatives+losing+to+digital+design+tools&source=bl&ots=99iPXByMrH&sig=PBJY_PN76eTORhY2829MJG7jVQI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5ucr3vLrQAhUBoBQKHc6iAdE4ChDoAQggMAE#v=onepage&q=what%20are%20creatives%20losing%20to%20digital%20design%20tools&f=false (page 216)

Some really useful articles/texts that have started to shape the core of my argument. 

David Hockney - iPad Art

David Hockney's iPad Art

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162

"Charlie Scheips believes that we are at the beginning of an artistic revolution for professionals and amateurs alike." - Artistic Revolution?

"You can make a drawing of the sunrise at 6am and send it out to people by 7am" 

- David Hockney, 

David Hockney: I am not an iPad artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8R3Wd2zh9s

David Hockney: Photoshop is boring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAx_aYGmpoM