PRELIMINARY RESEARCH

I have decided that i want to look at the history of lowbrow art. I likes 'lowbrow art' . I want to look at its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century. From the first comics of Winsor Mccay, to the dadaism art movement of 1916, people started to question and subvert the conventions of the fine art world. This carried on through sailor tattoos, hot rod cars and drive in theatres. Dr Seuss, and rock and roll music can all be put together under the term 'lowbrow'. People like Andy Warhol and Craig Steyk all left their imprint as did the hippy movement, which had the psychedelic concert posters. All this led up to films and shows such as Ren and Stimpy and Tim Burton's Pee Wee's big adventure. Thrasher magazine and Mad magazine also had a big impact. All of this has resulted in artists such as Mark Ryden, Gary Baseman and Camille Rose Garcia being accepted by the high-art world. I want to research and try to explain why this is. I want to look at how music such as punk influenced this movement and also what defines 'Lowbrow'.

What did you learn about the way we craft stories?

I feel that i have learned a lot about how to craft a story during this project. I have learned the technique of leading the viewer into the picture by using different angles and perspectives. I also had to make more decisions about my work and what exactly I was trying to convey. I learned to consider the opinions of others who were trying to understand my story, even if I didn't necessarily agree. From looking back over early drafts I made I have tried to summarize a scene more concisely and give more information over a shorter time period. I focused on the rhythm of the story and also tried to make the background reinforce the storyline of the particular scene; for example my first scene is bright red and dripping which reflects the characters panic of unexpectingly pooping in an open place.

Lenore by Roman Dirge

Roman Dirge is way cool. He makes dark twisted comics such as Lenore shown above. (click on them to make them bigger so you can read them) He has a dark sense of humour and has created a dark yet cute world with lots of weird critters. In an interview Dirge said 'I think it really keeps my sanity to output dark humour like that for others to see. Also, I'm kinda trying to prove a point that you can express a different kind of art style and not stick to the same crap that we see over and over again. I have been drawing Lenore for about 6 years. I've been determined to not change the humour to make it more acceptable to a wider majority. '

Dirge constructs his stories well and often uses the same frame with just a little tiny thing happening over three or four frames. This creates suspense and leads the reader straight into the joke. Dirge has a strong appreciation for the innocence of childrens stories and this is often where he finds his inspiration; ' I go to the children's sections at book stores and look through the fairy tales and fables. I always think that this is a funny visual because I have about 50 tattoos. 6 of them on my neck and throat. The little kids and their mums look nervous. Anyway, I like to take the cute stories and just "twist" them a little bit.'

Pictures and words by Roanne Bell and Mark Sinclair

I really liked this book. Here are my two favourites. (click on them to make them larger)

Michael Sieben

Michael Sieben. (www.msieben.com) Lives in Austin, TX, works for a company called Terrible One. I just really like the way he paints and the odd things he paints on, like this :- (http://www.mailmichaelsiebensentme.com/envelopes.html) and this (http://www.mailmichaelsiebensentme.com/randomcontents.html) I looked at his work a lot when i was making my most recent project. I like the way he makes characters look, and all though it had nothing to do with my last project I like the way he uses words, such as 'old chit' and 'you discussed me.'

Tim Biskup

Tim Biskup is an amazing pop-surrealist, he paints weird characters in a very painterly style.

His biggest influence is Jim Flora but he also loves Ren and Stimpy. Biskup's recent work has a taken a darker tone;

'I've been doing these more dramatic themes, and putting a lot more of myself into my work. I realized that the intensity of the images wasn't quite matching emotionally what I wanted to put into it. The emotion has ratcheted up for me. I'm exploring some really dark areas of myself.'

This has included agonizing skulls, lost girls and decapitated griffins to name just a few, all being inserted into his work.

I enjoy Tim Biskup's work and have been looking at his work more and more recently. I like the energy and oddness to his paintings, I like artists who create their own worlds especially with weird,ugly, misunderstood characters .

Gary Baseman

Gary Baseman is an amazing artist. He uses cute and cuddly characters and puts them in weird dark scenes. This creates an interesting juxtaposition and means the paintings always seem friendly in an Acme sort of way. His work is home to characters with very phallic noses, goofy wide eyed dogs, winking devils and decapitated clowns. It is the fact that the characters are so loveable and adorable that makes their disgusting actions seem ok.

Baseman claims to 'smudge the line between genius and stupidity beyond recognition' and I think this is very true. His obvious influences such as looney toons and Warner Brothers can all be found in his work, but his style is so unique and definitely influences my own work. His colours are often primary but his designs are always simple , which helps give his genuinely funny characters, such as the peg legged bunny holding a lucky rabbit foot, a charm that not many other artists can create. His world is creepy and a tiny bit sexual, but it's so cute you just want to be a part of it.

Henning Wagenbreth

Henning Wagenbreth is a German illustrator who has won several awards including 'The most beautiful book in the world' award in 1999 for his illustrations for Wolfram Frommlet's 'Mond und Morgenstern' childrens book.

Wagenbreth uses many media to create his work, he is interested in wood cuts and lino cuts as you can see in the second picture. Wagenbreth creates an atmosphere in all of his work, whether it is a moody, dark story (as shown) or a weird colourful pixellated comic about a plastic dog.

Parskid

PARSKID (www.parskid.com) is one of my favourite artists. He has created a set of characters and a style that is instantly recognisable as his own. He works a variety of different mediums but I especially like his paintings and installations. I'm not crazy about his drawing/digital work as I feel it doesn't have the character, energy or spontaneity his paintings and installations seem to have.

Parskid has done a few gallery shows and has shown several series of paintings telling stories. His most recent being the 'Fire and Ice series' which was mixed media on wood. He has an odd autographic language and tends to focus on small weird creatures in a big patterned environment. Paint sploshes and splishes are usually thrown in for good measure.

There seems to be an almost child like innocence to his work; his characters are constantly out of proportion, with their arms and legs constantly being too long for their bodies. There seems to be a theme of loneliness and wonderment in his paintings with his characters seeming to be searching for something, which could represent his own personality as art often does.

Travis Millard

Travis Millard (www.fudgefactorycomics.com) is a great artist i found in www.Juxtapoz.com about a month ago.

He creates odd scenes that don't really relate to each other but somehow tell a story. He draws weird characters but also has a strong sense of pattern in his work. He has collaborated with a bunch of cool artists such as Michael Sieben (who I will post about later) as well as a 4 year old named Cohen Morano.