COLLAGEUR

IN THE CAR WITH LICHTENSTEIN

2012-01-24T15:54:00.001Z

A friend of mine used to call me Lichtenstein for a number of months, for he initially struggled to find anything familiar enough about my real name to memorize it. That was around ten years ago but about the closest connection I can find between myself and the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. Though most of his work is instantaneously recognizable and some of his canvases are about as familiar as anything else, I have never really studied Lichtenstein's art, life or technique to that matter - possibly worth having a look! However, I am now reviving the trailing World Art History Sketchbook project with a new approach: using 'The Art Book' by Phaidon Press as my guide, motivation and inspiration toward new paths, starting with collage inspired by Lichtenstein's 'In the Car'.

To the understandably worried readers of my blog, I can say that sabbatical is now behind and you can again count on finding regular updates linked to this project! There's also an interview about me and my college work conducted and published by I Like it Here worth checking out. Also, collages from the Klimt series this summer are current available through Gallery Embrace and there are some updates on my website too. So plenty of things to see before my Collageur next update!

MEDCALF CHRISTMAS PRINT SALE & NEW WEBSITE

2011-11-13T15:42:00.002Z

There will be six new Egon Schiele inspired collages in the Medcalf Christmas Print Sale. The exhibition is taking place in the restaurant gallery on 40 Exmouth Market, London EC1 and is running from 14 November to 28 December.

Here's a couple of photos from the setup:

Also I am setting up my new website! It is currently under construction, but it should be up and running in the next couple of days... You can have a sneak preview at www.sampolehtinen.com

MURAKAMI

2011-10-19T16:46:00.003+01:00

Here's my Haruki Murakami portrait, just finished quite fittingly to celebrate the forth-coming publication (25th October) of the English translation of his novel 1Q84.

HERMANN HESSE

2011-10-16T15:26:00.002+01:00

Hermann Hesse is the author of numerous brilliant novels such as Siddharta, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946 amongst other prestigious accolades.

Personally, Hesse's works have always appealed to me for their late Schopenhauerean studies on phenomenology, individuality and spirituality, but also for their warmth and folktale, almost face to face type of storytelling qualities. His later works make excellent leisurely reading for long vacations at summer cottage f.ex.!

MAJAKOVSKI & CAMUS

2011-10-15T17:00:00.001+01:00

See all the current portraits here.

LA PERDU DE VILLE DE PARIS!

2011-10-13T16:37:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since my previous post relating to the so-called masterpiece series. I have brought many of the techniques and revelations made during the process forward and under further experimentation with other branching projects, some of which have been documented within this blog. However, I haven't really started new interpretations of famous artworks of late, but I am currently going through some reassessment of the existing body of work, possibly to find directions for future works.

Subsequently, I came across with this whole spread (double A4) canvas, composed sometime in July or August and then forgotten somewhere in my sketchbook! I can state with no hesitation at all, that this illustration of Robert Delaunay's La Ville de Paris is far from being a finished article but gives a fair idea of what I am/was intending to do with it. Currently the artwork basically has just the primary layers and is still missing a significant amount of attention to detail to create a desired texture and feel.

This was one of the last works before I moved onto larger multi-canvases, cleanish portraiture and some fashion illustration, and personally, I think it's very interesting to look at some of the 'unfinished' details to find the technical difference with my more acute works. Despite the fact that I think the piece works already (at least in terms of the subject matter being easily recognizable), I would probably like to finish it at some stage. The problem I find is when you have taken a canvas beyond certain point but don't go onto finalise the work on one go it's very difficult to touch it again without the same inspiration. It's much easier to start with a completely fresh canvas.

A couple of words about the original inspiration/subject matter. Delaunay's painting was one of those that I always felt I was bound to touch within this series. I find the composition very intriguing and the approach has many of the characteristics that I try to implement in my collage work: perspective, proportion, colour composition, movement, dynamics... It's a very interesting painting - one that seems like an obvious study for collage to me! - but certainly not an easy tableau to imitate. But then again, this project is not really about imitation.

SUBJECT MATTER DICTATES THE APPROACH

2011-10-09T17:47:00.002+01:00

I thought it appropriate to write a few words about the subject matter of the series of portraits I am currently working on. I have so far published eight individual canvases on this blog, all A4 in size and on principle greyscale of colour, illustrating a selection of my favourite 20th century writers. Have you not seen them yet, just scroll down the page to see previous posts or click the portraits link in the top pane to see how the collection is shaping up.

In the beginning of this project, I had couple of technical, or practical even, issues that I wanted to address. In my previous work, it's been in the essence of the whole picture to create depth with richness and variety of surface with colour in particular. Hence, I had basically ended up with loads of rather generic background imagery from editorial and advertisement photos and wanted to make use of it somehow. I tend not to throw out any previous magazine tear-outs larger than sq 1" in size as it often provides a valuable asset upon working on the next piece, but a lot of this black & white and greyscale material was just piling on.

The other really concrete aspect was that I wanted to carry on developing my work especially using larger pieces in order to keep the fluidity and rather quick appearance in my collage work as well as to emphasize the dynamics and tensions of each canvas. I thought that perhaps by choosing subject matters that I can treat with a more impressional rather than illustrational approach would suit this sort of technical exercise.

While with the actual masterpiece interpretations I would try and understand the original artist's principals with the work in question my approach to the work is rather that of a viewer's, whereas when I begin sketching a portrait of an author my starting point would be based around the idea of the writer's character as well as his literate works. Though both approaches may result apparently similar outcome, for an original artist the conceptual difference is significant. I have virtually no previous experience with portraiture of any kind, but in my humble opinion is not a bad place to start with personalities that you feel some connection with, be it that of an actual connaisance or just an appreciation of their produce.

Literature has always played a strong part in my life and this is why I chose to do a selection of my favourite writers for this collection of portraits. As you can probably tell by the first eight portraits already, American literature has always played a major part in my selection of reading. I have great admiration for novelists such as Steinbeck, (Henry) Miller, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Hemingway, Bellow and Faulkner as well as Truman Capote and poet E. E. Cummings to name but a few, as this list goes on. Most of these writers work very well in most translations as well, perhaps apart from the exception of Miller and Kerouac - Faulkner appearing sometimes quite challenging too.

My other geographical or linguistic preferences are, perhaps unimaginatively, major European cultures; France, Russia and Germany. Unfortunately, I have yet to master both Russian and German, but for me translated Gorky, Chekov, Majakovsky (poetry), Gogol, Turgenev & co and the likes of Kafka, Böll and Hesse on the other side are just pure gold, always worth revisiting. French existentialists like Proust, Camus, Sartre and de Beauvoir have become - in one form or another - a permanent fixture in the formative years of many a young man's struggle to find his own identity and I surely had my share of it (having studied some of the works multiple times and in three different languages)...

The rest of my perennial favourites, I guess, are kind of scattered around the globe. Particular mentions to those with portrayed in my gallery already: the amazingly imaginative, innovative and enigmatic Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, Saramago, Huxley and Hamsun, poets Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz, Japanese Kawabata and Murakami... The list goes on and on, but in terms of this project I am determined to keep it to 25 portraits only. So, I guess there's a fair hint of whose portraits may be included in those 17 remaining...

E.E. CUMMINGS & TRUMAN CAPOTE

2011-10-07T18:21:00.002+01:00

After a long pause again, in the portrait series of my favourite authors, I give you E. E. Cummings (above) and Truman Capote (below)...

WRITERS & THEIR (W)RIGHT HANDS!

2011-09-25T14:30:00.002+01:00

TYPICAL TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

2011-09-18T20:09:00.000+01:00

I guess I promised to publish another three images from the new writers portraits series today, but I have to admit that I can only partly fulfill that treat as I forgot to take photos while the sun was still out (yes completely dependent on daylight as I still only have a poor point-and-shoot camera at my disposal)...

Anyway, here's a hint (i.e. bad photo) of my take on the inimitable Italian, Italo Calvino. Please keep checking to my blog next as will try beat the technical difficulties and publish loads of new images!

WRITERS

2011-09-17T16:28:00.002+01:00

Here, a look at some of the all new stuff I am currently working on. These three canvases represent the first part of a series of portraits illustrating a selection of my favourite writers, a collection that I am spanning over 25 individual tableaux (or that's the plan anyway).

Starting off here with portraits of Jose Saramago, Franz Kafka and William Faulkner respectively, the basic conception of this project is primarily to work with black, white and a greyscale of strips of backgrounds for editorial and advertising photos and articles - all the materials I haven't been using for other projects really. The similarities with my previous art canvases are that I am trying to emphasize the image dynamics with large, directional surfaces and clear lines between them. The main differences are, that I am not drawing the line between surfaces with pre-existing imagery and I am using mainly generic surfaces in contrast to a high level of detail in the masterpiece interpretations.

Even more importantly though, I am now highly consciously trying to develop my (completely) own perspective into the subject matter - the evidence may begin to appear in a rather languid fashion though, and only over a course of a bigger body of work, so let us not jump to any rash conclusions in relation the material available at present time, please... So, rather than focusing on the artistry and illustrational aspects, I am using more than one photograph of each subject as a mere reference really, emphasizing the impression of each author in question. In other words, I am starting flirting with the intellectual qualities as well as with the originality in terms of these quick A4 sketches.

COMING UP TOMORROW: Sartre, Borges and Calvino...

HAUTE COUTURE AUTUMN 2011 PT. 1

2011-08-21T16:36:00.001+01:00

Here, as promised, the first couple of fashion illustrations from this summer. To be perfectly honest, I haven't done any fashion illustrations in a while, so to say I feel a bit rusty is certainly an understatement. Nevertheless, one has to start somewhere and I am sure the work will start developing to the better soon as I get back to the routine... Anyway, I thought I'd start off with some extravaganza from the latest Haute couture fashion week, illustrating here a dress by Christian Dior (on the left) and another ensemble by Valentino (on the right). I have another three illustrations in the series underway, but let's see how they turn out before making any promises to bring them out to the public eye...

COMING UP: FASHION ILLUSTRATION!

2011-08-18T17:17:00.002+01:00

I am finally recuperating this blog from the docks after a couple of weeks summer break... Despite the blog being idle during August, there's plenty of finished artwork as well as new stuff coming along, so loads to look forward to. The big news, however, for this approaching autumn is that I will start publishing my current fashion illustrations with relevant comments here also! This does not mean that I have stopped doing the artist interpretations, but simply that from now on there will be a bit more variety about the published images and texts. All collages will be featured in the blog as before, but I will create an additional gallery for the fashion illustrations with a link appearing on the top banner. So, keep checking back as new stuff will start pouring out toward the end of this week!

SNEAK PREVIEW ON THE PARABLE OF THE BLIND

2011-07-30T15:40:00.003+01:00

I regret that I haven't been able to write as many new posts during this week as I would have liked, despite being quite productive in terms of new collage work. In general, I prefer to recap the current process and publish stories related to the most acute artwork. Hence, some things are being kept offline waiting for the right story to be published with, or vice versa.

The current relative silence is however due to the fact that I have gradually been increasing the canvas sizes and naturally the larger artwork takes more time to finish. One of these images currently under construction is a picture inspired by Pieter Bruegel's The Parable of The Blind (aka The Blind Leading The Blind as well as The Blind) - I will covering more of impressions of the painting and the artist once the illustration is actually finished.

Encouraged by the positive results from previous increases in canvas size, I chose to do this one in an A1 format (60 x 84 cm, roughly), equalling four A3 or eight A4 canvases! Admittedly, the artwork has come along surprisingly rapidly, but as you would expect, the number of details significantly slows the visible process down. The photograph above is illustrating the current state of the development and is already offering a fairly recognisable image, despite the artwork still being some way off the finishing line. Basically, I have now covered (not even all) the white areas with my material, in other words created the preliminary surfaces, but actually I have drawn less than 5% of all the lines between the surfaces...

The main reason for publishing an image of this unfinished artwork was to illustrate the very concrete discovery I have made while working with these larger canvases. It is one of the basic principles of painting and what the Pointillists in particular experimented with; Already setting out the your colour palette and applying it to your compositional surfaces successfully and purposefully, will result in a surprisingly accurate illustration without an underlined indication of an artificial line... Simples! (to paraphrase a popular advertisement campaign) - I know, but sometimes you have to witness it at first hand to actually understand. Well, I did anyway.

FRIDA'S SISTER

2011-07-29T18:19:00.003+01:00

Here's a recent study on a portrait of Cristina Kahlo by her famous sister. Frida Kahlo is, of course, particularly well-known for her staged, somewhat psychological and rather persevering series of self-portraits. Although her numerous versions of the most popular subject matter offer a broad range of approaches, atmospheres and compositional variations, having already interpreted one of them within this project (link), I decided to tackle an altogether different subject matter.

Frida Kahlo is, judging by her artistic approach I guess quite typical female artist of her generation - or a generation or two after or before her, to be quite frank. Primarily she used painting as therapeutic means to project her feelings, frustration, anger, fear and whatsoever, especially during the life-changing recovery period from a car accident. Her blatant explanation for opting to study herself as the primary subject matter time and time again, was that she would spent so much time by herself regardless and if nothing else it would be a subject that she knew best. I reckon that narcissism may just have played a teeny, tiny part in the game as well, but to her defense and on the larger scope of things, similar biographical details have unfolded in different means of expression on numerous occasions with a very similar syntax and vocabulary.

What seems to have happened with this study, is best explained as a sequence of accidents rather than set of premeditated choices... In other words, like many a time before the work just conducted itself to a certain direction, which in my opinion goes long way explaining details like the head being completely out of proportion - despite the virtually accurate scaling before commencing the work, that is. Sometimes, or even most of the time, the reason and hard facts just have absolutely nothing to do with it...

Have a great creative weekend people!

THE STORY OF TWO COLLAGES PT. 2

2011-07-24T13:14:00.001+01:00

Last week I portrayed the process and development of two of my illustrations, in a post titled The Story of Two Collages. I am now publishing here images of both finished artworks. In relation to the inspirational original Gustav Klimt canvases, both more or less square shaped, I decided to crop mine to fit the proportional, vertical 2 x 3 shape and A3 in size.

FULL ENGLISH WITH BACON

2011-07-23T14:27:00.001+01:00

Inspired by that Lucian Freud study yesterday, I appropriately found the drive to push for another sketch, this one imitating a portrait of Freud's contemporary Henrietta Moraes by yet another fellow artists and friend, Francis Bacon. I began the work on this illustration last night and put the final touches on it this morning (hence the title).

It is one of those paintings that I have been planning to tackle for a while now but never quite found the right moment or inspiration - without trying to sound too much of a cliché, last night the work just conducted itself! I have previously made, what I now think a false or at least inaccurate remark about occasionally being unable to find the right materials. Yes, it is very difficult (albeit not impossible!) to turn optical blue or grey into a desired shade of green where necessary, but above all - as long as you have some materials - collage work is all about riding along with the right inspiration and vision of the finished article without getting transfixed on a single solution. Collaging with magazine imagery, in my opinion, is about treating the material initially as a set of pixels only leaving the acute connotations to take place only in terms of the finished artwork, e.g. an original photograph illustrating an arm may become a piece of chin or forehead etc, but its singular recognition is unimportant in terms of the complete picture as some hints and references will survive organically regardless.

I am fairly pleased with the outcome of this exercise, but similarly to my first Bacon imitation, first and foremost I find them educational, inspiring and revealing studies to make. As with any of your heros, its about rejoicing the cultivation of expression, trying to absorb a drop or a few from their capacity.

A TRIBUTE TO LUCIAN FREUD

2011-07-22T16:26:00.001+01:00

One of the most significant artists of our time, Lucian Freud died earlier this week at the age of 88 it was announced today. To pay a tribute to the remarkable, influential body of work in portrait painting in particular, I created this collage inspired by Freud's 1985 painting The Reflection (self portrait).

A grandson of the neurologist Sigmund Freud, Lucian became associated with the Surrealist movement but went on to develop a specific style in portrait painting. Emphasizing the relationship between the artist and the subject matter in portraiture, he often chose to illustrate people with whom he had an established real life bond as many of them were close friends and colleagues.

Like many other celebrated artists, Freud was apparently a lively character and lead a somewhat controversial life. However, in the public eye he will be remembered for his unique contribution to modern art history.

THE STORY OF TWO COLLAGES

2011-07-18T13:54:00.002+01:00

While developing the concept of multi canvas artwork and seeking the best way to execute the project, I decided to create more individual illustrations in the process. Upon creating the first multi canvas artwork, I realised the logistic and artistic advantages of working on a series of images simultaneously and went on to experiment with it on two separate canvases. Yet again, these collages were inspired by the Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt: this time paintings Adele Bloch-Bauer I and Hope serving as my frame of references.

It proves very difficult to fully focus on more than one illustration or even more than one specific detail or area within the image at a time. However, the collecting, organising and processing (as in tearing up!) of the material for larger areas seems to save plenty of energy from shuffling the ginormous pile of magazines and separate pages to the actual creation and manipulation of the image. Obviously, I will have to go back to the pile every now and then, but it definitely helps to have a good stack of potentially suitable material to begin with and when working on more than one or on a lager image I sometimes find a surprising, new repository for a piece away from the original target.

From an artistic point of view, spreading and borrowing the same material across several images creates natural cohesion and unity over the body of work. It's an important visual element, especially when producing a collection or a small set of images. In general, I tend to focus and to try and find more creative and visually interesting solutions for the most obvious surfaces and details, and the employment of juxtaposed, somehow recognisable imagery helps to produce a dialogue within the canvas as well as across the portfolio.

Here, I present the followers of this blog with a rare opportunity to have a peek at the process behind these two collages. There is six photographs taken along the course at quite consistent intervals, however none of them are intended to illustrate a specific stage or part of the development but a rather spontaneous documentation of the project.

Pictures of the finished artwork will be published here soon.

Ps. I haven't figured out a better way to do the survey yet, but I promise to create another poll in the near future...

PROBLEM WITH THE POLL

2011-07-15T10:51:00.000+01:00

I released a poll about your favourite collages here yesterday. However, I had to take it offline while I am trying to figure out how to make it work properly. The truth is I was just copy-pasting some code which clearly wasn't quite enough as the poll was registering but not storing any of your votes. Let's see if I can find a better way to do it, and I'll release another poll later on. Apologies for the inconvenience and thank you to all of you who already casted your vote.

FIRST IN THE MULTI CANVAS SERIES

2011-07-13T14:23:00.000+01:00

After the disappointing venture into Renaissance portraiture (see my previous post) I fast moved back in with more familiar modern influences and began developing some ideas with multi canvas artwork. After last weekend I haven't had the time to do much but decided it was now time to publish the first glimpses of how the work is developing at the moment. This is the first in the series of multi canvas collages, of which I intend to do at least a few. The photographs are not optimal in terms of colour saturation and contrast (naturally it looks much better in real life, honest!) but surely it gives an idea of what is currently under construction here.

Inspired by another famous Gustav Klimt canvas, these two vertical A3 size images are illustrating a female nude and a fish of some kind (exactly) in the the midst of various colourful drapes and jewelry - at least that's how I see it! It is a real treat to work with some of these Klimt tableaux as they provide me with an opportunity to combine and excessively experiment with two of the most pleasurable elements of the collage work, in my opinion: creating random, yet detailed surfaces and manipulating the clear, drawn lines between them.

I must admit, if I haven't publicly already done so, that I didn't envisage my work within the fine arts context at all, as originally I developed my technique solely for commercial illustration purposes. However, I guess due to the nature and the subject matters of this current project and ultimately a surprisingly popular demand, I am now focusing on producing more individual tableaux of original artwork rather than digital images of sketchbook illustrations. Nevertheless, I simultaneously try and nourish the sketchbook aside with more raw ideas' development in mind.

There is a fine line between doing enough and overdoing these images, especially with rich, detailed canvases like these that constantly ask questions whether one more detail should be added or altered - in contrast to more sleek, stylish and clean images, just "killing the white" is never quite enough with the amount of detail! There are still a couple of minor issues within this particular illustration that I am not 100% happy with but it's also a matter of finding exactly the right piece to perfect it or then leaving it as it is.

I have sketched out yet another Klimt inspired tableau as well as a massive project on Seurat and will start working on one or the other next when I have the time for it.

OLD SCHOOL

2011-07-09T18:38:00.000+01:00

These couple of sketches were attempts to illustrate some classic masterpieces for a change... An imitation of Raphael's auto-portrait (on the left) and Giovanni Bellini's portrait of Leonardo Loredan both turned up very feminine and rather different from how I had anticipated. The originals have amazing compositions of course, which proves out to be an effective way to begin any interpretation, but it doesn't, however always pan out quite so straight forward as thought initally.

The truth of the matter is that I have no real passion for the Renaissance painting and only choose to illustrate some of these pieces in order to add a modern perspective and somehow make them more interesting to myself. Recognisability of such celebrated works is another aspect of obvious motivation, but in this case I whole-heartedly believe that only a selected few can claim to have spot the original influence...

With the Bellini one, I thought I'd play a little with the surface construction and decided to patchwork the traditional Venetian robes - how successfully, I am really not so sure - but at least made it look a bit more colourful than the original. I also thought I could play with some cross cultural references throughout, but at the end capturing the Doge (or Duke) Loredan's tough facial expression provided too much of a challenge as he resembles more Mother Teresa than a demanding commander...

These two tableaux will mark the end to my brief peek into the Renaissance era as I am currently sketching out a multi canvas series with much more modern inspiration.

PARASOL

2011-07-08T14:45:00.001+01:00

Seated Woman with a Parasol by Georges Seurat was the inspiration behind my first commissioned piece of this fine arts series and was completed earlier this week. The original is a delicate black & white study for the artists most famous painting Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte from 1884.

My version is in an A3 format, unlike the other portraits in the series so far, as they have all been of A4 size. Bringing the collages to larger formats provide some difficulties due to the fact that most magazine imagery is smaller scale, whereas closeups usually illustrate faces, initial details and awkward body shots. Other complications revolved around the black & whiteness as fast consumer fashion magazines appeared not to be the ideal source for relevant material - something I will undoubtedly be aware next time around!

However, this has been an interesting exercise and I must say that I am rather pleased with the result. Its not an image I would have necessarily picked up myself but that alone is half the charm!

SCHJERFBECK

2011-07-04T18:27:00.000+01:00

The Finnish followers of this blog in particular may recognise the inspiration behind this collage. And that is not to say that anyone else shouldn't be familiar with the works of late Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1942), one of the most significant Finnish modernists, who began her career as a highly skilled Naturalist painter but gradually developed her style toward Expressionism after 1900. Needless to say, a major illness played a part in her life too...

In Finland, Schjerfbeck's earlier works bear the similar stature to those of say Pierre-Auguste Renoir everywhere else. Again, they would be some of the endless lines of posters and postcards in every gift and souvenir shop. However, the well-read, intellectual artist grew an interest in the subconscious of human mind and the literate works of people like Dostoevsky and Proust. Her readings translated into her paintings, first evolving into a more realistic direction and eventually into her signature style that can only be branded as her own and consisting mainly of a series of self-portraits. Her later works have earned wide international recognition, albeit mainly posthumously, and numerous books are now available about her equally fascinating life and works.

The reference for this collage is a self-portrait from 1912. Once again, I altered the mood and colours of the original work but at least for a hardcore Schjerfbeck fan, it should look somewhat familiar.

TANGIBLE PHOTOSHOPPING

2011-07-03T13:15:00.000+01:00

Taken during the process of my recent Fernando Botero inspired collage, this photo illustrates the level of detail manipulation going into the work. The technique is what I refer to as tangible photoshopping, bending the lines within a photographic image by using another image without the aid of any computer software.

With the rapid development of digital editing tools like Photoshop and Final Cut, we have come to expect incredible (or should I say supercredible) visual manipulations. The results of the undeniable digital artistry are overflowing through our senses from every possible channel and can, and frankly does, easily have a numbing affect; the photoshopping of photographic subject matters - and the term itself - has become a norm rather than an exception or an art form of it's own right! And it is not only due to the fact that there are far more bad professional photographers than 15 years ago, it is what we expect to see.

Although I personally have never been too keen on developing skills and expression primarily within such mediums or with such aesthetics, the digital applications can sometimes offer very interesting conceptual or (excuse my scepticism) even visual inspiration. The key in my mind is the old truth that the tool is never more important than the hand using it, no matter how intelligent or automated the tool maybe, but clearly when you look around, these words are more often than not unfortunately lost. The other thing is that the sort of tactile, crafty feel of a materia that most people feel naturally bound to is, not impossible, but very very hard to achieve with any digital editing tool whatsoever without a coherent vision or grasp of the contextual entity.

So, it goes by saying that my illustration style has been affected, influenced and inspired by many a digital manipulations despite my own work literally sticking to same old ways. And yes, it can sometimes be very frustrating to try and find a matching, or even close to matching, image with similar contrasts, colour balances, angles and levels, all of which would be fairly straight forward and simple to alter within Photoshop. But it is also incredibly rewarding to eventually find that pieces, make a match and take the ownership of an image by manipulating it to which ever way you fell appropriate!

Keep checking back for new updates in the next couple of days.

SHAPING UP THE BOTERO WOMAN

2011-07-01T15:42:00.004+01:00

My first contact with the inimitable style of the Colombian figurative artist Fernando Botero (b. 1932) came during time as an exchange student in Madrid ten years ago. It was that massive bronze hand on Paseo de la castellana that captured my imagination and then several other pieces scattered around the Spanish capital after that. While in Madrid - which, by the way, in my opinion is probably the best town in the world in terms of art museums - I fell completely in love with the incredible works by Antoni Tàpies, but Botero was definitely amongst the other artists that left planted in the back of my mind.

Here I took inspiration from a Botero portrait, admittedly changing the colours and a mood of the painting quite a bit. The artist himself has claimed reputation by reproducing Renaissance masterpieces with his naïve, plumb characters, so I see it very fitting to pay a homage to his work during this project - yeah, it would be Well post-modern to do a Collageur Mona Lisa by Botero! And very confusing too.

As I have come to realise during this project, modern figurative artists tend to use a lot of green in the dress and background of their portraits to compliment the skin tones. However, in contemporary fashion magazines that really strong shade of green is only playing a bit part in accessories (and natural backgrounds, obviously). I have previously struggled to find good materials for the dress in the Schiele and Lempicka collages in particular and hence opted here for a blue background and a cream/yellow dress to replace the original green.

GLUE STICK, RULER AND A FASHION MAGAZINE

2011-06-29T21:43:00.001+01:00

As I keep receiving feedback about the project, I sometimes wonder how people see my collages - technically, I mean. There must be as many different styles of collaging as there as collageurs, but personally I keep it to three basics: glue stick, ruler and a fashion magazine. No, I don't use Photoshop, I don't use scissors or paintbrushes, in fact I don't use any kind of paint, visual editing software, pens or whatever. Just those three elements and an occasional pencil to sketch out the basic composition. Then obviously I either scan or take a photograph of the sketchbook page/collage to publish it, but they go online completely unedited.

I have previously tried to develop some Photoshop techniques to facilitate certain elements of the process. For instance, sometimes it might be impossible to find a foot photographed from a certain angle, but you happen to have the exact reflection of the desired foot in hand and could just scan it in to make it all a bit simpler. 2-3 years ago I started to constitute a database with key elements like that, but Jesus! Did the work assembled with Photoshop look sterile or what! I am not saying it's wrong or worse or anything, but personally, I feel like my collages are all about the manipulation of the limited materials you can find and making the most of that and keeping it as rough as necessary - alternatively, my creativity with Photoshop is far more limited than with tactile materials.

There on the upper left hand side corner of the picture you can see the whole pile of magazines I have been using for this project apart from perhaps one or two sunday and saturday pullouts that I have already destroyed. In the pile: about six months worth of Stylists and Grazia and a couple other similar magazines. Mainly however, I am working from the pile on the right hand side: the stuff that I already pulled out for a previous collage, but eventually didn't use! It's amazing how much more inspiring it can be to work with very little than with too much...

However, as one of the main features of my collaging technique is to utilise and manipulate the lines of the original image, it sometimes seems like there's a lot less work in place than there actually is. With the illustrations employing small pieces to cover surfaces you more easily grasp the scale of the process, but with the cleaner images beginning to look too perfect I tend to use contrast pieces to break down the photographic impression. In case you wonder how many different images I use to create my illustrations, recently upon creating the collage inspired by Schiele's Seated Woman I kept count and it run up to 33, which is probably a bit below avarage in terms of this project.

L'ANGE DU FOYER (OU LE TRIOMPHE DU SURRÉALISME)

2011-06-29T10:49:00.000+01:00

Using the word surrealist for the first time to describe his own play, Guillaume Apollinaire had little idea what a massive movement with unrivaled cultural heritage it would evolve into. Basically, Surrealism emerged on the foundations of Dada, largely thanks to André Breton's persistency and personal flirtation and experiment with Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Breton had joined the Dadaist gatherings after the WWI and began developing an automatic writing technique, aiming to translate the subconscious unedited on paper. His published writings attracted the attention of contemporary artists and poets and while many of them had found dadaist activities somewhat destructive and hostile in its attack toward prevailing values, Breton's ideas were taking a different tact.

Amongst the enthusiasts were a number leading Parisian poets and visual artists like Paul Éluard, Man Ray, Hans Arp, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel. A number of former dadaists like Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara and Max Ernst also followed, while other high profile artists chose to stay clear from the movement, notoriously Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. Personally, I believe the first was too hurt or too proud to join after his beloved Dada had collapsed and the latter, though he was associated with some activities and many of the individual artists of the movement, was probably too far in the development of his own personal expression to commit to the society of artists, many of them 10, 20 years younger than him. But the movement didn't require the stature and presence of Picasso or Duchamp to gain significance. Out of all modern art movements, Surrealism has arguably had the most obvious influence on all walks of art and design since its hay day in the 1930's.

In my first published two-page collage in a while, I have taken inspiration from Max Ernst's surrealist painting, L'Ange du foyer ou le triomphe du surréalisme (1937). During his long, successful and somewhat controversial career on both sides of the Atlantic the German painter ventured over many different styles and techniques. He was also one of the many artists to collaborate with Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.

GALLERY NOW OPEN!

2011-06-26T18:19:00.001+01:00

To ease the navigation through the blog I have added a new page called Gallery featuring all the artwork published during this project. In the future all new collages will be presented with a small article in the blog just like before, but in addition the artwork will also appear in the gallery.

I am currently working on four new collages and hope to publish new stuff in next couple of days! In the mean time, enjoy the sun (here in UK) while it lasts and feel free to browse through some of the works already out there:

gallery

FASHIONABLY SICKENED SCHIELE

2011-06-25T12:30:00.000+01:00

I believe only a few artists have had a more significant, however belated influence in the post 1980's fashion design, photography and illustration, than a certain early Austrian expressionist figurative painter, Egon Schiele. So it is probably given that I was always going to look at his work at some point during this project, taken account my considerable affiliation and background with fashion.

For me personally, however engaging and unique his way of painting may have been, he is not the or even one of the most important artist influences in my illustration let alone earlier design work. But the obvious links with 90's and early 21st century fashion trends and tendencies are there for anyone to discover: his somewhat decadent, elongated and malnurtured female figures have far too many resemblances with the catwalk muses of many a celebrated couturiers a few years back.

Despite all the controversies in Schiele's personal life, which I wont be portraying in terms of this article, it must be added to his defense that he led a very troubled life surrounded by plenty of sickness and poverty. It is therefore nearly a disgrace that the luxurious land of plenty should look for aesthetic inspiration in the frailty of such tragic circumstances - pot calling the kettle black, I guess in some sense the same could imply with a bulk of my own work too! But, like I already said, Schiele's work is still very unique and has definitely influenced numerous artists and creatives alike.

As anyone who's ever done any life-drawing will gladly testify, seated figures always prove out to be proportionally fairly complex to illustrate. I may also be just a question of practice too as personally I opt for standing poses any day given the choice. It is especially challenging for collages to find the right pieces to balance the interplay between light and dark areas and was a little bit cautious upon choosing this tableau to imitate. But big part of the idea of this project is to cross some adopted ways and approaches, comfort areas if you like, and try and find something new. Also I was positively surprised how well my impression of Femmes de Tahiti (especially the lady on the right) came out last month and took courage from that!

WHAT'S WITH THE LONG FACES?

2011-06-24T20:03:00.003+01:00

I don't know whether Amedeo Modigliani found the artist community or the habitants of Montmartre particularly gloomy, but while portraying many of his contemporaries he certainly went on to develop a style of painting characterised by stretched faces and figures. On the general note though, it must be said that if you flick through the catalogue of Modigliani canvases you will notice that most of his (male) artist portraits sport rather bulky and square faces, so the elongation could have also been his idea of female beauty.

Nevertheless, Modigliani developed a very recognisable, individual style steering himself clear from any obvious categorisations that became to brand most of his colleagues and friends. Apparently, he had an extremely eccentric personality even for his surroundings (and this is 1910's Montmartre and not some middle-classed suburbia!) and really became the archetypal story of a tragic artist. Taking account the fact that he struck acquaintance with the likes of Picasso, Cocteau, Max Jacob and Juan Gris amongst others and still stood apart from the movements like Cubism, Dadaism, Surrealism and Futurism, his behaviour probably goes a long way explaining the somewhat art historical isolation.

Of the obvious influences, like so many others of his generation, Modigliani was clearly dazzled by the studies by Paul Cézanne, but highlighted a rather different note than say Picasso or Braque. Some anatomic and compositional similarities can be drawn with the works of Henri Matisse but, in my opinion, that's about as far as that path goes. Whether he was always drunk while painting I do not know (though very much suspect so), but if he was sober, perhaps the long faces he created were a testament to his alcoholism.

NAÏVE INSPIRATION UPON RETURNING TO OLD WAYS

2011-06-23T17:49:00.001+01:00

Over the past ten or so years that I have been doing collage illustrations my style has constantly evolved to different directions. Like all illustrators, I tend to experiment with new ideas to further develop my expression and technique. However, I do find that no matter how much I experiment and adopt new nuances to my work, eventually I always return to a certain accustomed style. I guess that's kind of natural, creative way of working, building onto your discoveries. But it's still surprising to see how much your current work resembles with some very early pieces.

Previous to this project, nearly all of my illustrations have been directly linked with fashion. They are usually floating full body length figures with a white background, whereas these collages have been more about the colour composition and atmosphere of the whole frame. With fashion illustrations, my main focus is usually with anatomy, movement and proportion.

Inspired by Henri Rousseau's Portrait of a Woman, this collage has some very typical characteristics to most of my fashion illustrations. The main factor, I guess, is that it's a full body (or nearly) image and somewhat playing with the anatomic proportions and compositions. The main divider I find is that it's a little bit static to be a typical fashion illustration. However, I am not or never was a massive Rousseau fan, but I think his Naïve and Primitive Post-Impressionist style of painting in general translates to a fashion context much better than most artists' and is widely used as inspiration for fashion advertisement in particular.

Currently, I am working on a piece inspired by Modigliani, which I will hopefully be publishing later this week. Also Egon Schiele is another challenging artist I'll probably be looking at in the near future.

THE STRAY MUSKETEER

2011-06-20T16:37:00.000+01:00

Marcel Duchamp could have been the third musketeer of Cubism along side of Picasso and Braque had he obeyed curator Albert Gleizers request to rename his painting Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 for the highly regarded Salon des indépendants in 1912. But Duchamp was never a pushover, so he took his work underarm and walked away, and the rest is history. Although he was better known for his Dadaist and Surrealist work, Duchamp had a very interesting approach toward Cubism and would have had a lot to offer for the movement. Picasso and Braque were mainly interested in the possibilities of multiple perspectives, whereas Duchamp had an obvious interest in using the fragmentation of the canvas to illustrate movement of the subject matter.

Despite the fact that the aforementioned painting eventually became one of his best known works, it must be said that Duchamp's contribution to modern art could have been far less significant had he stuck to his early cubist aspirations. Duchamp introduced a new kind of an artist, one that's producing art through his relationship with the society. Instead of developing an astute skill in technical expression, he opted for a constant dialog with his audience, challenging the conventional conceptions of art. Due to his curating work and time spent in New York his influence was particularly significant in the development of modern American art.

Personally, I have always been more interested in Marcel Duchamp's ideas and biographical person rather than his works of art. I have always seen Cubism, albeit in retrospect of course, with very similar ideologies to those of Duchamp's with a particular interest in the passage, time, movement and its certainly something I have been trying to develop further within my collage work time and time again. So, here I took inspiration from that famous painting and personally I am very pleased with the result. It may also be because, I don't specifically like the original - just the thought behind it.

CUBIST BROTHERHOOD

2011-06-19T12:02:00.001+01:00

I have always been an admirer of productive collaborations and one of the most prolific joint efforts between two creative masterminds in the modern art history must have been that of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The pair of them found common interest in developing Cezanne's experimentation with multiple perspectives which evolved into the foundation of Cubism. They had an intriguing relationship, especially after the movement had peaked during the later stages of their careers. Picasso went on to further experiment with his style and to collaborate with younger artists, whereas Braque, working mainly by himself, remained fairly committed to their earlier revelations.

The relationship between the pair was also illustrated by Françoise Gilot in her excellent book titled Life With Picasso. Gilot, a painter herself and a spouse to the late artist, understood the works and characteristics of Picasso like only a few did and files a brilliant account to the life and times of this 20th century colossus. Gilot is also a decent writer and this is certainly another piece of essential reading I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Here I was planning to make a study of one painting by each of the cubist brothers. Although I find Braque's paintings more inspiring than the early cubist works of Picasso, they are visually so complex that I have so far been unable to translate the clear visual inspiration to my own style of collage. Hence, to represent this article, I am only publishing here a collage inspired by Picasso's Girl with a Mandolin, which I think came out surprisingly well.

A LAMP FOR A RUSSIAN PIPE

2011-06-17T21:39:00.008+01:00

There was that wonderful exhibition about the Ballets Russes at V&A last autumn of course. It sprung back to mind so many great artists of the era, I mean other than Picasso, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Chanel, Apollinaire and the other usual suspects. I had nearly forgotten the likes of Malevich, Stepanova, Popova, Larionov and Goncharova amongst other Russian greats, but after seeing the exhibition I got completely sucked into that unbelievable circle of creativity and just sheer enthusiasm and determination, all of which was pretty much orchestrated and conducted by Sergei Diaghilev. So, I read through the excellent Diaghilev biography by Sjeng Scheijen, a Stravinsky biography and a hole bunch of other related titles and articles - can recommend these readings to anyone struggling to find a creative inspiration!

So guess its fair to say that Diaghilev is another one of my absolute heros, but the V&A exhibition was visually lit up by those wonderfully cubistic/futuristic Goncharova backdrops and set designs. Admirer of her visual ideas and style, here I have chosen to revitalise a Goncharova painting far from my favorites. I find the original a bit flat and cold somehow.

TWO FRENCH LADIES

2011-06-15T13:38:00.003+01:00

Growing up I always had a special interest in the impressionist painting, like many young kids do. My favorite artists would have been the likes of Seurat, Renoir, Degas and Monet - probably not completely independent from the fact that their works have been popularised through masses of poster prints, postcards, shopping bags, umbrellas and what not, for several decades already. However, I always found something very engaging about the use of light, visible brushstrokes and ordinary subject matters in particular; studying an impressionist masterpiece was like watching a moving image full of emotion and of which you grew tired of!

Toward the end of teenage I shifted my infatuation toward post-impressionist painters, Cezanne, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec and, above all, Vincent van Gogh. I guess my personal taste has since evolved toward post-modernism and other 20th century movements, but I find that impressionism and post-impressionism are like an archive, constant source of reference worth revisiting time and time again. I have only ever had very limited formal studies in art history, but from my perspective impressionism is the foundation of all modern art movements and understanding its development and principles really do help grasp even the most contemporary fine art discussion.

Here, I have taken on a couple of oldies and strange birds to the impressionist social club: A Young Girl by Degas and Berthe Morisot by Manet. Morisot is an interesting artist of her own right too of course, but the especially captivating qualities of this Manet portrait were the reason for the selection. I must admit, that some elements of these two illustrations just single-handedly conducted themselves and neither outcome is quite like I imagined them to be. Although I am quite pleased with the results, and despite the fact that these to are not your out and out typically impressionist paintings I find it difficult to combine the principles with my style of illustration where the emphasis is on the line, contextual references etc, rather than surface and color composition.

Next I'll be looking to experiment more with the figure composition and dynamics. This was an exercise worth doing though.

KILLING YOUR DARLINGS

2011-06-14T12:59:00.008+01:00

Taking heed from William Faulkner, this one is an imitation of a piece by one of my absolute favorite painters, Francis Bacon. Generally, I tend to follow a rule that one shouldn't touch something they didn't believe they could make better - I guess I have more or less trashed that belief out and out with this project - but the way I see Bacon's work is such a source of inspiration more than anything else! My style of collage has without a shadow of a doubt been developing with a massive influence from Bacon's paintings over the past ten years or so... And it isn't so bad to kill all your darlings after all! It's a shame that Antoni Tapies hasn't got too many portraits...

BACK IN BIG PIECES!

2011-06-13T17:17:00.002+01:00

A few people have pointed out to make me realise that my collages were gradually going toward using smaller and smaller pieces of imagery. This is happening non-deliberately and was, in my opinion, the source of many complications. For instance, like in all fine arts, drawing, painting, whatever, some of the fluency and natural flow gets lost in the way of overdoing a detail, surface or line. I also like to emphasize the hazardous nature of these collages - initial details, part of a text, additional foot, leg or arm popping up here and there - and big part of that is down to using BIGGER PIECES! I still have several unfinished pieces in my sketchbook as I keep editing and adding more material to them, unable to call it a final cut. From now on, as with the 'Frida' portrait from yesterday, I shall try and maintain the original inspiration behind an image by going back to more spontaneous visual expressions. Remember, this project is very much a working process and I will try and keep my style constantly evolving. Hence, I really appreciate all further feedback from You!

FRIDA

2011-06-12T15:16:00.002+01:00

YOUNG LADY

2011-06-11T11:25:00.003+01:00

NO TIME TO UPDATE

2011-05-31T10:51:00.002+01:00

Its been a busy week and a half and I haven't had any time to post new images, let alone create new illustrations! And this week doesn't look much brighter in that sense either. However, I have four new pieces in the process at the moment and will try and find time to finalise and publish some of them during the next few days. So please keep checking back - its not motivation or inspiration but the time I am short of!

CECILIA

2011-05-22T19:32:00.007+01:00

LA RINASCITA DI VENERE

2011-05-21T15:26:00.008+01:00

This is one of those pieces that has taken me a long time to complete, as you probably can imagine. I have just kept adding and altering details endlessly, just clattering more stuff onto it; layers upon layers, 6 or 7 at best spots I guess! I am quite pleased with it now though and basically just want to move on. I might however go back to work a bit more on it later on...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

2011-05-19T16:47:00.009+01:00

This one was composed today with relatively limited resources and is dedicated to my friend Christian. I appreciate that the inspiration behind this piece maybe somewhat more obscure than with the other work previously published here, and - although it maybe just my interpretation - for those of you who struggle with your Scandinavian art history, I recommend to turn your eyes to C. W. Eckersberg (1783-1853).

FEMMES DE TAHITI

2011-05-15T10:02:00.007+01:00

KISSING GUSTAV KLIMT

2011-05-15T09:55:00.007+01:00

CURRENTLY WORKING ON

2011-05-12T17:19:00.000+01:00

Last week I posted the first two images the project. I am currently working on six new illustrations, drawing inspiration from Klimt, Degas, Gaugin and Delacroix, to name but a few. However, I am struggling a bit to find good feet!!! The angles aren't just quite right or then they're always wearing really bad shoes - irrelevant to the 19th century barefoot styles... Also, I have minor problem bringing the images into digital format since I haven't a proper scanner to operate here at the moment. Will sort that out soon and publish more stuff shortly!

FIRST COUPLE OF ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION

2011-05-07T15:49:00.008+01:00

STARTING A NEW PROJECT

2011-04-20T10:05:00.000+01:00

This blog will serve as a platform and portfolio for some of my current illustrations. In the next couple of weeks I will start posting images and recaps from my latest (on-going) illustration project. It's a less than serious take on some celebrated masterpieces of western art history.