Michael Swaney

http://www.michaelswaney.com/

Michael Swaney is an illustrator that works across several different media and in many different styles, however, I feel that his strengths lie in his paintings. The paintings I have chosen all appear to depict household scenarios, however, they are fairly unusual and playful due to the inclusion of people where they are not necessarily expected. There are characters in costume, a snake poking its head out of a wine bottle and levitating men, for example, that all add a bizarre element to what seems, at a first glance, to be ordinary scenes. The people in his paintings seem perverse and distorted. Each painting is very flat, with bright bursts of colour between muted tones.

http://www.doodlersanonymous.com/entry.php?entryID=1400

http://shelleysdavies.com/?p=1512

Jonny Hannah

Jonny Hannah is a British printmaker who specialises in poster-style art. He has published beautiful screenprinted books and a lot of other screenprinted epehemera from his own business, Cakes & Ale Press. He uses text a lot within his work, and like Alice Pattullo, I feel that he looks quite deeply into traditions and groups of people. His work is heavily influenced by music and also poetry, which he has illustrated in books in the past. The similarity that his work bears to posters is really exciting to me; it feels very direct and to the point. He uses text as an integral part of his illustration, it is often paired with a figure that is within the image, even occasionally placing text on the subject, as seen above. A lot of the books he publishes are aimed at children, and so the images are a lot of fun and very light-hearted. 

Illustrations by Alice Pattullo

http://www.alicepattullo.com/

Alice Pattullo is an illustrator that is heavily influenced by tradition, superstition and myth; she focusses particularly on maritime traditions. I connect so well with her work because I grew up by the seaside, and have lived my life with the coast around me playing a big part. She uses print-making heavily in her work, most of her illustrations appear quite smooth and finished. This also allows her to use repetition a lot within her work, whether it is with pattern or, as seen above, faces. She also uses typography a lot within her images; they always feel very educational and informative as well as being beautiful pieces of illustrative art. Her work feels very nostalgic, and the colours she uses seem to nod to a different era. 

Till Hafenbrak

http://www.hafenbrak.com/illustration

Till Hafenbrak has really successfully created a host of characters here. Pretty much the whole image is completely full of them, yet it doesn't feel crowded or overdone. He has used a few different colours with differing shades which is partly why this illustration works so well. Each character seems to relate to each other and creates a story, giving this image a narrative feel despite its vertical composition.

Henry Darger

http://southissouth.wordpress.com/2010/12/25/a-henry-darger-xmas/

This illustration by Henry Darger feels like it came straight from a dream. The strange creature he has created appears to be just floating calmly on a desolate landscape. The text at the bottom of the image looks like a note to himself, the artist, which makes the painting feel very personal. He used a fairly limited pallet here, and little tone variation within the colours, which makes the whole painting feel quite light. Like the cat-like creature, the whole image just appears to be floating.

Sergio Membrillas 

http://www.sergiomembrillas.com/

I love this screen-printed image, it feels very simple, using only a few colours. The use of lines makes it feel map-like, as if it is a map of the brain and matter surrounding it/entering it. The use of shadow makes it feel not completely flat and two dimensional. The four corners of the image are covered with the lighter area which really draws the whole thing together.

Jockum Nordstrom

http://www.ilikethisblog.net/?p=5112

Jockum Nordstrom is probably my favourite illustrator. In this collage, everything is very flat and separate, yet he manages to link the people together with the objects and create a very fluid composition despite the seemingly nonsensical perspective. I admire his way of working, cutting out many different shapes freehand, painting them and then organising a composition with all the shapes he has cut out. It is a very free and childlike way of working that manages to produce sophisticated illustrations. 

Joana with Valerie, and Reine in the mirror, L'Hotel, Paris, France, 1999 by Nan Goldin

http://kadrikarolin.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/motlesin-et-kaasan-oma.html

I have long been a fan of Nan Goldin's work because of its integrity and grip on reality. Looking at Goldin's photograph is a portal into her world and the world of the people in her life. This image, however, works for me more than others due to the composition. It is less head-on, less blatant and lets you see much more, although very subtly. The tones are very subdued, and feel quite warm. The red curtain in particular gives it a very warm feel. 

Chicken Knickers by Sarah Lucas

http://www.artvehicle.com/events/204

This photograph of a raw chicken covering the crotch of what appears to be a young female has a shock factor quality as well as showing a sense of humour. I like the tight crop of it, and the anonymous nature of how the subject has been presented. The tones are soft and the colours desaturated. The chicken here could reference a derogatory term used to refer to women. The presence of the chicken, twinned with the typically 'old lady' underwear, seems to quash all sexuality often linked to photographs of women.

Screenshot from Bad Education, a film by Pedro Almodovar

(screenshot)

This is a screenshot from one of my favourite films, Bad Education, directed by Pedro Almodovar. The film was very multi-faceted and tackled a lot of issues, and I feel was very artistically done. There were a lot of shots which I felt would've worked as stills, and this one in particular stood out to me. The contrast between the delicate china and remnants of food to the presence of a syringe and distorted reflection accentuates the ugliness of drug addiction. Although the image does not directly represent the character in the film, he is still centred in the shot through the reflection, which is a very powerful way of maintaining human presence.