Pictoplasma Artist One: Dan Woodger

The first artist I decided to research from the online Pictoplasma conferences was Dan Woodger as I really liked their style of illustration and loved the variety of compositions within their work. They get their inspiration from the animated TV show The Simpsons which is evident within their style of work by the use of bright colours and emotive content.

Concept:

All three images were included in Woodger’s Pictoplasma event which is why I chose to use these images for my further research. The first image shows what appears to be a modern day street, commenting on the concept of technology dependency, by showing the emoji’s on each individual’s phone it makes this image fun to explore.

Visuals:

The style of Woodger’s work is clearly based on humour through their use of over-expressing characters and concepts. I love the bold and bright visuals within these images and how realistic they feel despite their lack of detailing. The visuals take on a simple graphic style I feel because it is quick to communicate and through the use of bright colours, makes it eye-catching. By maintaining a level of simplicity I feel it actually manages to maintain the interest of the audience longer in this era where we have constant access to creative media, and detailed visuals are becoming saturated within the industry.

I love the use of such bright, saturated colours and feel this style could work really well within a children’s illustration. Perhaps if given the opportunity I could take inspiration from this artist and imply it within my own work as I would love the opportunity to develop my own series of children’s books including illustrations.

Techniques and Production:

At first I felt Woodger may use vectorised software such as Illustrator to create these playful creations, however upon further investigation I managed to identify they are actually made using Photoshop.

Composition:

The first and last image share similar visuals, consisting of the same style of character design however the first image is a mid-shot whereas the last image depicts a full bird’s eye view of a race. I like how in the first image the composition feels balanced by the placement of the characters at the left and the taxi car, by placing a man on a bike alongside a second character it makes the scene more realistic whilst framing the visual.

The second image is much more simplistic, using the fruit characters to frame the placement themselves. I love how all of the characters are framed to end at the same points, yet they have extra markings which extend past in order to create a sense of movement and depth within the design.

The third image as previously stated depicts the bird’s eye view of a race; however I love the directional pull of this illustration through the use of block buildings leading to the open area of the beach at the top. This helps create a new element of interest and makes the composition a lot more interesting as it feels more realistic and natural.