Alice Rebecca Potter (Digital Media/Surface Decoration)
Alice Rebecca Potter is a young British artist that we as a class have looked at. Based in London, Potter works freelance, selling her illustrations to design companies. She also makes some products herself which can be purchased through her own website, or through some third party websites who help her manufacture her items. These products vary from greeting cards to mugs to clothing (most commonly children's clothing). Her style is brightly coloured (often with a limited palette) and simplistic in it's form and composition. Some of her designs can be repeated to create patterns and textures. Potter has also experimented with typography in her work.
Aside from looking at her commercial work, we also looked at how she creates her work. Potter has talked about her process in depth, giving us a great insight to her creative process. She explained how she starts by simply taking a walk and observing nature, or other elements of our surroundings that may inspire her, or be relevant to her particular theme for a given piece of work. Like with most forms of observational art, Potter then draws animals and items from her surroundings in a sketchbook. When she returns home, she then uses these sketches to collate and composite a final design and stylised image of her subject.
Once she has a drawing or image she's happy with, the sketch will then be scanned and digitalised where it can then be moved into Illustrator (or Photoshop) where it can be altered and coloured. She explains in detail the process she uses when working digitally, explaining how the pen tool is used to create cleaner, crisper line art, as well as solid, yet still organic seeming shapes which can be coloured and textured to fit her designs as needed. Once an image is completed, it can be duplicated to create patterns (as well as easily be recoloured). Final designs can then be printed, onto paper or fabrics for commercial use and distribution.
I can't deny that I enjoy Potter's designs. They're wonderfully simple, yet imaginative (almost childlike) and her use of colour is always striking and interesting without being overbearing. However, I do take issue with her process. I have experience with digital illustration, and in my work I use a graphics tablet to digitally draw. I have used the pen tool myself, and the experience is not a creative one, but a mechanical one. I feel it takes some of the artists intent away from the image. As such, I consider the pen tool to be a tool for a designer, and not an illustrator. Is there a difference? I feel illustrators are more focused on drawing and the act of drawing. The pen tool creates a certain disconnect. To put it simply, someone who is not creatively focused or has any artistic ability could take one of Potter's sketches, and create the digital image using this tool.
Potter adds to her designs by using a varying degree of line making and textures. There's usually some element of this in her work, and it helps to give more depth and (oddly) a more natural feel to the images. Digitally, these will be created using overlays and clipping masks. Despite her work being highly digital, it has a nostalgic feel to it. It reminds me very much of card that's been cut out and turned into an image and pattern. These factors combined mean her images are inoffensively pleasing to the eye, and are the perfect sort of imagery for greeting cards and household goods. I'm not surprised by the level of success Potter has had with her designs.
Potter can take simple ideas and turn them into clean easily recognisable shapes. I decided to try and mimic her method (though not her subject matter). For Surface Decoration, one of my other subjects, I had been working on simple repeating patterns using images that were kid friendly. I took one of the sketches from this subject and applied the same process that Potter uses. I took a pattern of a rocket ship and used the pen tool to create these images as 'digital cut outs' and then created my pattern.
The above is my attempt. I think the aesthetic shares similarities, but my lines are not as prominent, and my colour choice differs a great deal. I think there's a lot of potential in this method of work, I just fear a lot of creative potential can be lost to it.
Aside from looking at her commercial work, we also looked at how she creates her work. Potter has talked about her process in depth, giving us a great insight to her creative process. She explained how she starts by simply taking a walk and observing nature, or other elements of our surroundings that may inspire her, or be relevant to her particular theme for a given piece of work. Like with most forms of observational art, Potter then draws animals and items from her surroundings in a sketchbook. When she returns home, she then uses these sketches to collate and composite a final design and stylised image of her subject.
Once she has a drawing or image she's happy with, the sketch will then be scanned and digitalised where it can then be moved into Illustrator (or Photoshop) where it can be altered and coloured. She explains in detail the process she uses when working digitally, explaining how the pen tool is used to create cleaner, crisper line art, as well as solid, yet still organic seeming shapes which can be coloured and textured to fit her designs as needed. Once an image is completed, it can be duplicated to create patterns (as well as easily be recoloured). Final designs can then be printed, onto paper or fabrics for commercial use and distribution.
I can't deny that I enjoy Potter's designs. They're wonderfully simple, yet imaginative (almost childlike) and her use of colour is always striking and interesting without being overbearing. However, I do take issue with her process. I have experience with digital illustration, and in my work I use a graphics tablet to digitally draw. I have used the pen tool myself, and the experience is not a creative one, but a mechanical one. I feel it takes some of the artists intent away from the image. As such, I consider the pen tool to be a tool for a designer, and not an illustrator. Is there a difference? I feel illustrators are more focused on drawing and the act of drawing. The pen tool creates a certain disconnect. To put it simply, someone who is not creatively focused or has any artistic ability could take one of Potter's sketches, and create the digital image using this tool.
Potter adds to her designs by using a varying degree of line making and textures. There's usually some element of this in her work, and it helps to give more depth and (oddly) a more natural feel to the images. Digitally, these will be created using overlays and clipping masks. Despite her work being highly digital, it has a nostalgic feel to it. It reminds me very much of card that's been cut out and turned into an image and pattern. These factors combined mean her images are inoffensively pleasing to the eye, and are the perfect sort of imagery for greeting cards and household goods. I'm not surprised by the level of success Potter has had with her designs.
Potter can take simple ideas and turn them into clean easily recognisable shapes. I decided to try and mimic her method (though not her subject matter). For Surface Decoration, one of my other subjects, I had been working on simple repeating patterns using images that were kid friendly. I took one of the sketches from this subject and applied the same process that Potter uses. I took a pattern of a rocket ship and used the pen tool to create these images as 'digital cut outs' and then created my pattern.
The above is my attempt. I think the aesthetic shares similarities, but my lines are not as prominent, and my colour choice differs a great deal. I think there's a lot of potential in this method of work, I just fear a lot of creative potential can be lost to it.
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