Tim McDonagh's Illustrative Portrait (Digital Arts )

In Digital Arts magazine I came across an article called 'Portraits of Personality' which highlights seven leading UK illustrators work, in particular portraits which they have produced of iconic people. The illustrator that straight away caught my eye was Tim McDonagh and his portrait of footballer Joey Barton (see image below). The illustration depicts Joey Barton dressed as a sailor covered in tattoos with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth with his arms crossed in an intimidating stance. He is placed in the centre of the piece, and behind him is a dock and various pubs and people laid about covered in blood. The colour scheme of the piece uses various tones of blue which is effective as it gives a moonlit effect which works well as the piece is set at night. There is also splashes of red on Joey's tattoos, and then splattered across his shirt and over the people in the background which looks like blood. The contrast of the red over the blue is effective as they are contrasting colours due to the coolness of the blue and the warmth of the red. This makes your eye instantly focus on the red, giving it an importance over the other colours. The piece as a whole doesn't reference Joey Barton as being a footballer which is what he is commonly associated with, but instead depicts him as very rough and perhaps dangerous person that you wouldn't want to confront without expecting trouble. The artist has created this effect on purpose paying close attention to formal elements such as colour and composition with the rough setting and the intimidating stance and the prominant red on blue, trying to make the viewer look at the subject in a way that they perhaps normally wouldn't.

Matteo Calligari, Flash Art Number 291

In Flash Art journal I recently came across an article called 'Questions...about painting'. which featured various artists, including painter Matteo Calligari. In the article there was a photograph of one of his pieces, East 2013, (below left) which I was particularly drawn to. The Piece consists acrylic and transfer onto canvas, which is built up to create various blocks of different sizes stacked upon each other in a pyramidesque shape. The blogs use a variety of pastel colours with some greys and more neutral colours mixed in. The darker colours are situated more on the bottom blocks of the piece, and as the eye moves up the painted canvas display, the colours become lighter and more pastel. The colour used have a relaxing effect, and the way the colours have been blended and blurred into one another appears like a summer sunset sky. These qualities give the piece a sense of calm yet the square, rigid and tall structure also gives a strong, proud feel to the piece. I think that these two qualities combined give the work an unimposing importance which is a refreshing change to a lot of modern art in my opinion.

Underwater Photography by Harry Fayt (Professional Photographer, October 2013)

Photographer Harry Fayt recently did an interview with Professional Photographers magazine where he talked about a series of underwater photos he took. "The model and I will work by normally holding our breaths, so we will go down for 15 seconds or so, I will take some pictures and then will come back up where i can say what I want the model to do next" Harry stated about the method of his work. The images I were particularly drawn to were of everyday situations including a women sat drinking wine in her living room. I think the way the wine is escaping from the glass and how the phone has floated off the stand gives the photograph a dream like appearance and I think how the light hits the water gives an amazing effect as it creates a fluidity that you wouldn't see in a day to day photograph of these situations which is what makes these photos so interesting.

Isabel Marant for H&M (vogue-vol.203, issue 7)

Isabel Marant has recently collaborated with Swedish fashion house H&M on a collection of clothing and accessories. In a vogue interview she is quoted as saying "I create something real, that women want to wear in their day to day lives, with a certain carelessness, which I think is very Parisian". The preview of the collection shows clothing in a neutral colour palette with black and white prints that are loose fitting and slouchy. I think this collection is ideal for people who live a busy lifestyle, which often relates to people that shop at high street stores such as H&M. In the image below, found on the vogue website, Marant models one of her dresses from the collection.

Architectural Fashion by Zaha Hadid (View2 Magazine, issure number 15)

Zaha Hadid is an architect who collaborated with fashion company United Nude to create architectural inspired shoes. Her work was featured in View 2 magazine showing 'the first shoe in history to employ rotational mouldings' I love the futuristic look of the shoe and how the lines and curves create shadows on the reflective surface of the shoe, to add a tonal interest that creates depth in what is otherwise a single coloured material. Although the shoe is made up of curves, it's overall apperance is very sharp and strong which gives it a defiant edge in my opinion. Below is an image of the Nova shoe designed by Hadid and featured in the View2 article.

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