I was assigned to create a Beetle that incorporated the designs of three artists at minimum. The initial objective of this task was to produce a professional appearing design, influenced by a variety of art movements and artists.
The separate parts of the Beetle must be dedicated to a different artist and manipulated through digital programs such as Photoshop. The Beetle must appear realistic and convincing, which will be achievable by using a diversity of effects to create light, texture and shade.
Artist One: Alice X Zhang
My first chosen artist is a full-time freelance designer, who is also known as Alicexz or Silverqe and is a Hong Kong based graphic designer and illustrator. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2006 and is now a portrait artist with a penchant for cinema and television.
She is well known for her mesmerising paintings of celebrities of David Tenant, Matt Smith and Benedict Cumberbatch. I thought this artist would influence my beetle design, as I am fond of the vibrancy and watery textures evoked in the piece. The dark tones used within her art can be represented as the dark shell of the Beetle.
The artist has used digital media to create this composition and several layers that add a variety of tones and shading.
They appear to have used many texture brush tools, but could be easily mimicked using watercolours and Acrylic brushes if someone wanted to incorporate this design using traditional media.
Her work consists of warm and cold colours, inflicting contrast and attention to the main foreground. The lower left of the compositions are frequently seen gradually descending into darker tones and her work, often created with short brush strokes to convey an illusion of movement depict this.
Looking at this composition I find it intriguing to view. The perspectives are dynamic, featured with exaggerated tones for surroundings and skin to appear livelier.
Artist 2: Yolanda Kloppenburg
Yolanda Kloppenburg was born in New Zealand and works full time as a designer and illustrator. She is currently based in Hamburg, Germany and is famous for her design brand business ‘Tiny Kiwi’’.
Mostly recognized for her unique geometric animal designs are a combination for her love for nature, colour and that ‘’less is more’’.
Using geometric fragmentation will represent how our eyes adapt to simplifications. The abstract realism will be used to highlight the texture of the hard head of the Beetle.
Artist Three: Misa Funai
Misa Funai born in Kyouo, Japnan createds wall-mounted oases out of mirrors, transforming entire rooms into enchanted landscapes. The mirrors act as a portal, carrying the viewer back and forth between 2D and 3D.
Installations of mirrors are on display in the lobby of Mt. Rokko Hotel. They are usually a large-scale representation of mountains, birds and other wildlife.
I plan to use this artist for the case of the Beetles wings; the connecting theme of wildlife will be reflected in the Beetle’s design. I consider it a challenge for me to reflect the Beetle as if it’s created from glass and will require my experience on Photoshop to make it appear convincing.
Here is the finished image of my beetle design. I used a series of tools on Photoshop that allowed me to create a montage of the artists I chose. A beetle is usually the same colour throughout, so I wanted to keep the same colour scheme of teal and orange. These two colours contrasted fairly well, which allowed the design to be clear and easy to see. There are parts of each artist that I overlayed with (Such as Misa Funai) whose work made great use of a pattern for the bettle.
The wing case has two images created by Alice X Zhang that I merged together looking as if it was one image. To do this I used the eraser tool with a soft brush, alongside a low opacity so there was no hard edges when erasing. This feathered the image and made it blend together.
I then touched up the image by changing the second image to a similar hue (teal) as the other. I done this because it would continue with the modern art that Yolanda Kloppenburg does. Which brings a very modern/graffiti vibe to my beetle.
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