ILTN1001 Illustration Origin and Function - Week 9 (24/11/2011)

This week we had bee set the task of creating a presentation on an illustrator of our choosing from the 20th and 21st centuries.

My chosen illustrator was Mike Mignola an artist that has had a big influence on me, my art and my interests.

Here are my notes from my presentation.

Notes

Side 1

•       Mike Mignola is an American Illustrator specializing in comic books,

•       He was born in Berkeley California in 1960.

•       His career began in 1980 and he has do work for various comic book companies such as the big 2 of DC and Marvel eventually joining Dark Horse Comics

•       But he is most notable for the creation of the comic book series Hellboy a Demon from hell destined to bring about the end of the world but instead fights against it very nature to fight the forces of darkness and its off shot B.P.R.D. which stands for The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense.

Slide 2

•       Mignola’s style has been compared to that of German Expressionism.

•       It uses a lot of shadow and make his artwork very dark which helps give a feeling of mysticism to his stories.

•       This dark and dingy feeling is aided by the simple use of colour (or some time no colour at all) in which there are single shades with little to no tonal variation.

•       He also occasionally makes use of Negative space.

Slide 3

•       As for the cultural background his work and in particular his Hellboy and B.P.R.D. work is very heavily Engrossed in folk lore of various cultures.

•       It takes bits and pieces from everywhere although one key source it draws from is Christianity and the Bible albeit with a few creative liberties.

Slide 4

•       Mike Mignola has draw in influences from a wide variety of folk lore, myths and legends from countries all over the world.

•       He has also drawn Influence from things such as the old pulp magazines, vintage adventure and horror fiction.

•       But one of his main Influences has to be the author H.P. Lovecraft, his writing of the Great Old Ones, vastly powerful alien beings who’s very appearance is enough to drive someone insane, monstrosities that exist in dark vistas of realities that exist beyond space and time.

•       This was a big influence from Mignola which is clearly seen in his work as he creates his own menacing monstrosities and revolve large story arcs around powerful dark beings imprisoned long ago and waiting to be let out so they can deduce the world to ashes.

Slide 5

•       Mike Mignola has influence me because I love his dark almost noir like style.

•       I also like the various subject matters that he tends to work into his stories.

Slide 6

•       Mike Mignola helped to open up a vast world of influential references and material in the various religions and folklores across the world.

•        He also led me to older pulp and horror fiction as well as H.P. Lovecraft who I consider to be one of my favorite authors.

•       All of this is having a huge impact on my work by giving my a wide range of sources which are helping me to develop my own style.

 It's not much and doesn't go greatly in-depth as it was only supposed to last roughly 3 minutes.

I am quite happy with how I presented it going 3rd even though I was really nervous.

I do wish i had prepared for the after questions a bit more as I had a little bit of difficulty answering them but aside from that I did pretty well.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading :).