Finn Clark Illustration

Illustrated Song

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:05:00 +0000

What's that? A Tom Waits illustration you say? Oh yes...

As you've probably guessed by now, this project was about visually interpreting a song. We had to create an illustration based on a choice of four different pieces of music. I thought this song might have been a bit constrictive in terms of imagery, and very nearly went for Billie Holiday's 'Strange Fruit' instead, but in the end I couldn't pass up an opportunity to work from a Tom Waits piece, so here's what I came up with.

I was thinking about the different ways that a weather report could be issued, and decided on a newspaper because I could draw it as a physical object with its own individual appearance. Weather reports probably weren't printed in newspapers any sooner than they were aired on radio/tevlevision, but I think that a paper has a greater sense of history attached to it, and I really wanted to get that across. Tom Waits was born too late to be a part of the generation that inspired him; the era of Burlesque and Vaudeville, Cafe Society and the growth of Jazz, the glitz and glamour of the roaring twenties, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression, the temperance movement and prohibition, the speak-easies, silent films and the birth of Hollywood, the American dream etc etc. I think its amazing how much it shows through in his songs.

I drew the newspaper from a reference picture that I took, and tried to make it look crinkled and old. The headline says 'my' instead of 'our' so its more personal, and the images on the paper were other initial ideas that I drew in photoshop. The lyrics of the song form the text on the pages, and I used the warp tool to fit them to the form as best I could. The spacing of the slots in the drain relate to the black notes on a piano keyboard, and I drew the road littered with dead leaves and cigarette butts. I wish I'd put some puddles and bottle caps in there too though.

* * *
This wouldn't be much of a blog if I didn't voice my
meaningless opinions on things I like, so...

Leaf art by Christoph Niemann
Pig and elephants and more elephants by Andrew Shek

Easy Star All-Stars - With a Little Help From My Friends
from Easy Star's Heart's Dub Band
Tycho - Coastal Brake
New single
The Slew - 100%
Kid Koala + Wolfmother Rhythm section

Illustrated Quote

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:04:00 +0000

"The Thames is liquid history"
- John Burns

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this last piece. The idea I went for was a panorama showing the Thames flowing through London, surrounded by the historical events, landmarks and developments etc. that have shaped modern Britain. One of the problems with this idea was that it required a lot of referencing, and there was no possible way that I could have gotten the city to look accurate in terms of proportion or geography. Its just an illustration, so no snooty comments from Londoners please!

I didn't know where the quote was from when I was assigned the project, but to me it sounded like a tagline for a museum exhibition, so I went for the most informative illustration I could. It was quite exhausting, and I'm looking forward to working on some more liberal drawings now.

EDIT: I was told that in order to get the marks, my piece needed to look less like a rough, and more like a finished illustration (which is fair enough), so I put it in Photoshop and messed around with it for a while. Added a paper texture and used the dodge tool to accentuate some of the more important features (such as the Globe Theatre, The Great Fire of London, The Blitz etc.)

* * *

Also, I recommend getting this EP by Sun Airway.

Its good and its free - 'nuff said.

An Old Tree Full of Songs (Plan)

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:03:00 +0000

I know I said I'd make an effort to draw something other than trees, but this idea really tied into what I was doing in Visual Studies. We spent a couple of days exploring different ways of using line, and were then encouraged to apply those ideas to an illustration. I've been really enjoying the Conceptual Thinking classes, and I had this idea floating around for a while, so I used it as an opportunity to get it down. This is just a plan but I intend to finish the piece in my own time. I'll probably lightbox it, and do a more detailed version.

It's based on something Tom Waits said after Johnny Cash died in 2003. I just experimented with the idea of breaking the quote up across the image, and I think it helps tie the quote to the piece a lot better. I think the writing will look much better when its handwritten as well. The fruit of the tree are music scrolls, which fall to the ground when they're 'ripe'. The boy will be wearing a classic Tom Waits style hat and clumsily playing a large guitar, to symbolise the fact that he's not yet a fully refined musician. I'll try to make these ideas more clear on the final version. I hope they're not too cliché already.

This is another idea that may get worked up at some point...

Also, I can't stop listening to these right now...

Midlake - Roscoe (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix)

N.A.S.A - Spacious Thoughts (Feat. Tom Waits and Kool Keith)

Team Teamwork - Ocarina of Rhyme

Header image

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Just a quick post to say that the new blog header is one of the personal projects I’ve been working on, and although its not quite finished yet I thought I'd put it up anyway. I'll try to have some new stuff ready to post soon.

Also, I’ve been working to some great music by Ólafur Arnalds recently, and I wanted to share it here as well.

You can download the 'Found Songs' EP for FREE here, and the song 3055 here.

Hylophobia

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:27:00 +0000

Our last ‘Conceptual Thinking’ project was to illustrate a phobia, and I chose the fear of forests (unsurprisingly). A portrait composition would have been arguably better for this sort of thing, but I generally prefer landscape and I thought I’d try and make it work.

I had a few ideas floating around for this project, but somehow managed to leave it until the night before it was due to start on the final piece. This meant I was up until about 5:00am getting it done. However, I was relieved to find that I wasn’t the only one in this position, and might have ‘given up’ much sooner otherwise.

This is what I managed to get done. Someone suggested to me that the escape symbol might look better on the right side of the composition, so that your eye is led across the piece. I wish I’d thought of that before I started. Until I figure out why Blogspot hates me, you'll have to click the link underneath to see them bigger.

Enlarge

This is it again with about 30 minutes of photoshoppage. The symbol is perhaps a bit too eye catching? I may try it with a few different colour keys as well. It’s a work-in-progress.

Enlarge

Looks rather nice with just coloured lines as well. I like that it’s got a more raw quality, but I don’t know if I’ll do anything with this.

Enlarge

Here are the drafts for the piece. I think that some of the thumbnails are perhaps a little more hard-hitting than the image I produced, but I could always come back to them with some other project. Having said that, I really need a break from drawing trees!

* * *

I came across the work of Colin Stimpson a few days ago. If I was better at interpreting and portraying briefs, then my illustration might have looked something a bit more like this. Here are a couple more that I really like – Castle and River.

This ‘lost in the woods’ picture blows mine right out of the water (by David Hong). A few more of his that I like – Sketch I, Sketch II, Sketch III

I was nosing through the new Illustration Now! 3 book, and one of my favourite artists in it is the Brazilian artist Kako. Amazing.

The best finds for this week though, have to be these amazing sketchbook pages by Daniel Robbins - San Remo, Building and Ripples.

Hope someone out there enjoys these links.

If you don’t enjoy them, then I will fight you.

Over and out.

Life drawing.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:31:00 +0000

The life drawings I did in the last session weren’t very interesting by themselves, but I thought I’d use them to try out some new effects, like halftone etc…

The course is going well and we’re being kept quite busy. I haven’t got any class work that’s worth posting, but this a piece I’ve got going on the side. I might use it as the new header when it’s done…

* * *

More art I wish I could make:

Rock Studies by Bruno Gentile

River by Bruno Gentile

Canyon by Bruno Gentile

Ruins by Bruno Gentile

Songs I can't get enough of:

Dirty Little Secret by Sarah McLachlan (Thievery Corporation Remix)

Service Bell by Feist & Grizzly Bear

Lost Verses by Sun Kil Moon

Frank's Wild Years by Tom Waits

New songs from The National!

Illustration (BA)

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:32:00 +0000

I’m now in Falmouth again and have started work on the Illustration course, which is really amazing. It’s great being around so many other people that are passionate about drawing, and I’ve seen lots of creative ideas that I really like already. The tutors are really cool people too, and I’m already excited about the trips we have on our course.

Year I – London

Year II – Paris

Year III – New York.

Anyway, I don’t think this blog has ever suffered so much neglect. I've wanted to update for a while, but our house has been without internet for the last month. Now its finally up and running though, so I have no excuse any more.

I did this portrait of my dog a few weeks ago. I have lots more photos to work from, and I want to do some more quick studies from them. Might put them up here, depending on how they go. (Click here to see the detail).

Jones

Biro and Photoshop

This is part of another project I started before I came back to Cornwall. It’s based on a short piece of creative writing I did, about an astronomer and his observatory tower. I’m not confident enough in my writing ability to put it up here, but maybe one day I will do some more on it, and bind it all together nicely. For this piece, I wanted to show the whole room, and because it’s circular I thought I’d just do a cutaway view like a set design (I had this picture by Ben Mauro in my head before I started). The perspective drawing was done on paper, and the tone and lighting effects were added on computer. To me, it makes sense to work that way, just tackling one artistic discipline at a time. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to get the colour stage to work, even with the magical tool of photoshop. Please just try and imagine this picture with Disney colours, and you can kind of see what I was going for. I might do a character piece on the Astronomer himself if I find the time.

Observatory WIP

Pencil and Photoshop

We had a lecture a while ago on how to make the best use of our sketchbooks, the salient point being that we shouldn’t be too precious about how we work, or what we choose to show people. It’s made me more comfortable to work loosely, but I’m still inclined to turn back towards more careful and precise drawing. This is a page from one of my new sketchbooks, clearly not breaking any boundaries just yet. The colours are a little garish, but it’s not a bad foundation to work from if I decide to do some digital painting over the top.

A not-quite-finished piece, of some randomer smoking a rather unusual shaped pipe. The smoke looks rather tame in comparison to the Nimit Malavia piece that inspired it though. (Calm down Finn, it’s just a sketchbook.)

This was my contribution to the induction project we were given when we started. Each person drew a small section of the Falmouth High Street, and then it was stuck up in the studio in two long lines, so you could walk up and down between all the pieces.

A quick moleskine piece with some funky colours...

A bird.... "Nobody really knows what they are."

A few other sketchbook pieces...

The workload has really stepped up this year, which is a good thing because it gives me something to structure my time around, so hopefully I’ll be far more productive now. I plan to revamp this blog soon. Not sure how yet, but we will see.

* * *

Some more inspiring art I've come across recently...

Rift by James Jean (Scroll along)

Nostalgist by Sam Weber

Mulan Sketches by Alex Nino - I II III IV V

Forever/Never by Nimit Malavia

Airborne by Ed Kwong

Battle by Ken Wong

A sketch by Paul Felix (A Disney veteran, whose work I can't find much of on the net unfortunately)

And a couple of good tunes...

Lemongrass - Winnetou Melody

Bent - Cylons In Love

Wolves

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:21:00 +0000

First of all, a big thank you to Linda, AKA Shadowdancer, for letting me draw the top wolf from one of her photographs. I hope I did it justice. It came out more or less as I hoped, but I’m always open to constructive criticism. I put those squiggly things in at the last moment; they're meant to be fireflies. I’m not sure whether to keep them or not. I think they add more charm to the image though (just so long as you can tell that they're fireflies, and not just random squiggles).

I was tempted to put a moon in as well, but I fear it would have too closely resembled the infamous three wolf moon t-shirt. Nevertheless, I had fun with this piece and I followed the same process I did with the Fisherman picture, which explains why they look so similar. I am going to do some more animal pictures, maybe birds. I’m not sure yet but I’m open to suggestions.

More moleskine...

(Yay, the link works. Cheers Jean!)

I read this. It excites me…

“The cool thing about being an illustration groupie is, sooner or later, you end up meeting most of your art heroes. The cooler thing about illustration is how often they turn out to be humble and gracious people.”

Irene Gallo

Listen …this is literally the greatest thing I have ever heard. Click it!

And of course, I wouldn’t dream of ending this post without attaching some new art links, so here are some of the more beautiful/interesting pieces of art that I’ve found recently.

Riot by Mike Puncekar

Sans by Eric Fortune

Mystic by Jason Thielke

and a few amazing watercolour paintings...

Pass at Glencoe, Scotland (1882) - Thomas Moran

In The Lava Beds, (1892) - Thomas Moran

Autumn (1893-97) - Thomas Moran

Antler

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:11:00 +0000

This is all I have to show for the moment, but I wanted to post anyway. I found the antler when I was out on a walk, and decided to to draw it. I painted the background and the deer with acrylic, and then added in a couple of textures on photoshop. Badda bing, badda boom.

p.s Jim and I have updated the joint blog...

Summer profty.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:07:00 +0000

I found this massive beetle on a walk yesterday.

Floaty buildings.

Little elf/alien character. Experimenting with acrylic.

Perspective practise with custom brushes in Photoshop.

(Sorry if they won't enlarge, it sometimes does that to them but I

have no idea why. If you know how to fix it please let me know!)

* * *

More links...

Crows by Takashi Okada

Drawings with creases by Simon Schubert

Gabriel Moreno

Cooked Art - An animation blog

Landscapes.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Newsflash!

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:12:00 +0000

The great pioneer Andrew Bosley aka Sketch Hunter has just done something incredible. Something astonishingly groundbreaking, cutting edge, and truly revolutionary. Sort of...

Take a look at his automated brainstorm generator here. I think all artists need to prompt their imaginations sometimes, and I personally can't wait to make use of this. Thanks Andrew!

* * *

I haven't been following the digital art scene very much recently, so anyone who has will probably have seen this already, but take a look at Steamnocchio, the winning entry for CG Society's Steampunk competition by Fabricio Moraes.

I'm reading Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" at the moment, so I might have to do some steampunk style art soon. In case you're confused...

“Steampunk”, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the fictional concept of a world in which Victorian technology is projected against modern concepts, e.g. mechanical analog computers instead of digital electronic ones, airships instead of jets, and, of course, steam power in place of internal combustion engines and electricity. (Steampunk is a literary sub-genre, rooted strongly to Jules Verne and H.G Wells).

* * *

Also, James Clyne finally updated his website! I realise that by directing people around the web like this I'm pretty much doing the same thing as Drawn! and Lines and Colors.

...but whatever.

End of the Year.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:37:00 +0000

Well, my Foundation Art Course is finally over. This was the main piece to my Final Major Project, a study on characters and portraiture. I arranged the composition as a book jacket to give it a greater sense of narrative, but it wasn't based on any particular story (Death of a Salesman perhaps, but I think that's a play). The piece was never actually finished, I got bored of it. I don't think I will finish it now, it reads well enough as it is.

I don't have my scanner with me these days, so I've been trying to get back into working digitally on photoshop. These are a couple of excercises at trying to communicate environments, with simple use of tone. It's quite refreshing working without lines for a change.

Moleskine scan. I don't know what I was thinking when I drew this.

I have set up a blog with one of my illustration comrades here at Falmouth - Jim Boswell. I draw trees, he draws armour, hence the blog name. We are going to kick things off by interpreting and illustrating some song lyrics, so keep an eye out for that.

Also have a look at the playful and puntastic work of Arthur Hamer.

And the juicy and erogenous graphics of Roz Edenbrow.

This week I'm going to work on a couple of drawings to be sold at a local coffee shop called Babahogs. I don't know if I'll be able to scan them or not, but I'll try and get a photo of them at least. Also I have epic plans to design and make a deck of playing cards. Kings, Queens, Jacks, Jokers, and some cool typography for the Aces. I'm excited.

Finn Diesel out.

Environments

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:55:00 +0000

I sold a drawing this week to a couple of swiss tourists.

I've never sold anything before.

Feels goooood.

Anyway...

Futuristic environment

A couple of quick sketches with the palette knife brush in Photoshop.

I really missed doing these, more to come.

* * *

Some new favourite pictures...

Tom Scholes is amazing

Jaime Jones is too

A few moleskine pieces.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Moleskine stuff. I was going for a Joao Ruas / Audrey Kawasaki style on the top one.

I've put up a sketchbook thread on ConceptArt.org

* * *

Some good art stuff I've found recently:

A moleskine by Juan Berrio

Heat Death - a painting by Jeremy Geddes

Pencil and ink scenes by Karl Simon

Frog and Eros - illustrations by Sam Weber

Typography made of coins by Stefan Sagmeister

I bought a moleskine. Hooray for me.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:43:00 +0000

See Full Page

I now have a place on the Illustration course here in Falmouth.

Not much to else to say really, but I'm feeling more inspired at the moment so hopefully I'll have more to post before too long.

* * *

A street performer and a quick attempt at matte painting

Airships

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:03:00 +0000

My last project...

...adverts/designs for an airship cruise company.

Here is the article that helped with the inspiration, and some of my prelimary designs.

Long overdue.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:19:00 +0000

One day I'll draw something other than trees. More here.

This post definitely comes in under par considering its been so long since my last. I'll try to update it with more stuff by the end of the week.

p.s If there's anyone out there - go have a look at Tycho Cafe. It's a feast for the eyes.

Foundation.

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:09:00 +0000

Unfinished sketch.

Pencil, Watercolour and Gouache.

Photocopied drawings, cut up and collaged to create a new image.

Mono Print and pen.

* * *

An exercise in defining space using tonal value.

Paper and Bubblewrap fish from the construction part of the course.

Sand sculpture of an engine component [group project].

More Trees!

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks I was keeping a close eye on the Totoro Forest Project, and it inspired me to draw more trees. I can't wait for the book to be released. This drawing (the intro to my art journal) will probably be the first in a long series of organic objects made from mechanical forms. There are some older drawings here and here.

Here is a small doodle from a lecture last week. It was inspired by KofieOne, whose draughtsmanship I really admire. I'd love to do some larger pieces in a similar vein.

This is a portrait of Bryan Devendorf, the drummer of my favourite band, The National who I was fortunate enough to see live at O2 Wireless this year. This blog is named after one of their songs.

Finally, a confession. I gave up on that Daily Sketchbook ages ago, which is not to say that I haven't been drawing, but it was really tough to keep up with. It was Lauren Nassef who inspired me to start one in the first place. The portrait above was also influenced by her style.

Patience

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:37:00 +0000

So here it is at last. I think the composition might be a bit crowded, but I like the overall design. See those curly decorative things around the text? It took me ages to find out what they were called (flourishes, in case you wondered). I copied those from reference, but the type is my own design.

Scans

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:08:00 +0000

Some scans for a new piece...

and a couple of older pictures...

Daily Sketchbook

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:41:00 +0000

The first two weeks of my Daily Sketchbook...

I tweaked Day 1 on computer and here is the result. Its unfinished, but I like where its going. I might update this later if I make any big changes to it.

And finally, some abstract shapes...

I'll think of a better title later...

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:10:00 +0000

Started as a light pencil drawing, added colour with watercolour and gouache. Then scanned, darkened, and painted over again to bring out the highlights.

More stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Finn Clark) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:05:00 +0000

I usually draw quite tidily, but there are days when I just can't get it right. Today, being one of those days, I decided to take a piece of paper and blitzkrieg it with a biro. So here it is; a 10-15 minute scribble of an armoured car.

I got a place on the Foundation Art & Design course at Falmouth (Cornwall), so in a few weeks I'll be down there doing that. As part of the application process we were asked to interpret the theme of "Layers" so I drew fallen leaves (among other things). These three are my favourites, and the ones which I spent longest on.

Here's another tree doodle from my sketchbook.