Here is another piece done exclusively for participation in the Illustration Fridays call for entries, this week themed ‘Hibernate’. I’ve used the opportunity for a little stylistic experimentation. This piece is a pretty big shift in direction from my usual style – far more ‘realistic’ and far more in the ‘fantasy’ genre than how I usually work. The original sketches and concepts didn’t necessarily put it in that direction, I think I planned for it to be far more ‘graphic’, it really came down to the final rendering as being the extreme diversion from my usual work. I got really into the textures, it was fun, I created my own custom ‘shale’ brush and ‘tree’ brush.

Details:

Conceptually, It’s drawing upon the same Inuit sculpture influence from the Art Gallery of Ontario exhibit as last weeks illustration did. The composition draws from works on paper by Robert Motherwell on display at the AGO as well as paintings by Michael Davidson which were on display at General Hardware in Toronto. The heavy weight of the black in the central mass and the way the both use the negative space to frame it and penetrate it creates an exciting tension in what is otherwise a very static, and grounded composition. The final reference included in this weeks illustration is the shale formation from my weekend’s hiking  excursion to Buttermilk Falls.

Above: Work by Michael Davidson, photo from Buttermilk Falls, photo of shale, work by Robert Motherwell, anonymous Inuit Sculpture.

all images ©jeff szuc Jeff Szuc illustration

I just finished this Piece off for the ‘Mmmmm… Pop’ show at Hangman Gallery. The opening night for the exhibit is this Thursday, January 21 from 7-9pm @ Hangman Gallery (756 Queen Street East, Toronto Ontario).

all images ©jeff szuc Jeff Szuc illustration

Here’s the finished piece from last week. It’s my expression of Joanna Newsom’s album Ys. I’m trying to bring some of what I’m doing in my abstract painting class into my illustrations.

all images ©jeff szuc Jeff Szuc illustration

This is a progress shot of a piece I’m working on for illustration Friday.  As I’ve said before, I like to use Illustration as a push to try something outside of my comfort zone. This piece is in a completely different style than anything I’ve done before.  It’s not quite finished yet though but it’s almost Friday so I thought I’d post what I’ve got so far and finish it up at leisure over the weekend.
So what’s it all about. This is a portrait/mock cover of Joanna Newsom’s album Ys. Joanna Newsom, for those that don’t know is an indie folk harp player. Her songs are crest from beautifully innocent to mournfully sad and back again. ‘Ys’, the title of her most recent album, is the name of a mythical city, said have been inbetween England and France before it one day sank into the sea.
Anyhow, as I said there’s still many more layers of paint to go, this is really just under-painting right now, but I did it for Illustration Friday and so I though I should post it before Friday passes.

all images ©jeff szuc Jeff Szuc illustration

I spent a little more playing around on the computer time this week – motivated by the Illustration Friday site.  For this week’s topic, ‘unbalanced’, I decided to continue along both the stylistic and conceptual themes which came out of last week’s IF piece. This illustration approaches ‘unbalanced’ from the ‘emotionally unbalanced’ angle. I wanted to illustrate the internal and external contradiction of those chemically imbalanced individuals who, though may say kind words, rage within. Thanks to Ann Marie who encouraged me to continue this line of exploration last week, I think it’s moving forward. It’s now time though to put the computer away, break out the paints, and get back to work.

all images ©jeff szuc Jeff Szuc illustration