Contextual Studies: Task One

Following my meeting on contextual studies I was tasked with choosing one subject of interest to explore and investigate further. I have chosen to discuss the question "Explore how printed and digital media coexist" I feel this is an extremely interesting and important topic to discuss considering the current climate with Covid-19 and how this has affected an illustrator’s capacity for work.

For this question I have decided to look further into how digital media can be used to support printed products. In one instance by advertising work online it widens your platform and can introduce you to a much broader audience as it can be viewed worldwide. However, due to this accessibility does it mean people are now less impressed with the artwork they see online?

During my exploration into ‘The Age Of The Image’ one of the points discussed was how, due to the new levels of constant accessibility for the everyday person it has become more and more difficult for your work to be deemed impressive and stand out, especially when competing against the world of other illustrators. It is especially difficult to maintain a platform without a consistent style of working, where your audience is unable to recognise your work, which makes it difficult for growing artists to be noticed online.

However, on the other hand when these platforms are utilized successfully they can be incredible tools for boosting the sales of your printed media. As an artists who wishes to go into a format of selling printed media whether this be through my children’s books or elements of clothing, I feel it is important to look into this closely to see how the digital world can be manipulated in order to support your growth as an artist and what this means in today’s day and age.

Craftwork

Brad Cuzen

Another component to consider with the creation of digital media and its accessibility though, is the fact that trends and styles have become less unique to the individual now due to their influence on other artists and their ability to reconstruct said styles. A good example of this is the current editorial graphic style commonly seen within animations, where the characters are highly simplified and have over extended extremities. I have included examples to depict this, each of the images I have incorporated within this post were created by separate artists and it really shows how the dilution of a style can occur and become less impressive Due to this it is now harder for your work to be chosen from the thousands of possible illustrators who are possibly working under the same techniques and mediums as it has become common.

Minkyung

In my opinion I feel the traditional skill set is now more attractive as it is becoming uncommon for certain types of artists to understand these traditional methods of working and mediums, due to this I feel it has helped enhance the appeal of one of a kind works of art as it is something more uncommon and unique to the artist which interests people more when searching for personal printed works. It makes an illustration feel a lot more personal if it were say hand painted rather than commercially printed. Despite the use of commercial printing being effective to allow multiple sales, is it more effective to focus on one larger piece of work which is more ‘special’ to the audience?

There is a much different experience viewing these types of illustrations online than viewing them online, which I feel will ensure the maintenance of traditional skills and printed media, as it creates a much more immersive and attractive experience for the audience.

There are a lot of components to explore for this question and I would be interested in developing my findings on this subject further as I proceed through this module.