Contacting Practitioners: Mati Rose McDonough

Here are the questions and answers from my mini interview with artist Mati Rose McDonough.

 

Q- I found that a lot of your work features a nature/animal theme with a magical/mystical feel mixed in. Who or what inspires you to work in this style?

 

I'm glad you see that in my art! I am inspired by early American folk art. In particular I found this amazing book years ago of paper cutting and wood carving of mirrored animals that inspired many pieces of mine. I also love learning about the symbolism of animals. For example elephants represent luck in many cultures and peacocks represent integrity and immortality in some interpretations. Above all, I think I paint animals because I enjoy creating their personalities and anthropomorphising them! 

Q- Many of your paintings and mixed media pieces feature multi-layered elements. Do you plan out each work completely beforehand or figure out the placing while you're making them? And if so how do you know when each piece is finished?

 

I do not plan out my mixed-media layered paintings. I have so much fun with the mixed-media pieces precisely because I approach them intuitively and don't know where they are going to end up. I start with a particular color palette and sometimes an idea of imagery, but in general what I start out with completely changes throughout the course of the painting and is usually completely unexpected.

This is such a good question of "how do you know when a piece is finished" and really the key to creating paintings. I know when my work is done when I survey the entire piece and there is not a part calling out to me to be worked on more. It has harmony and all flows together nicely and is cohesive. I often think a painting is done, but have to sit with it for a while to really tell if anything jumps out over time. This is helpful/ hard with illustration jobs as there are usually tight deadlines and not enough breathing space as you probably know with school!

Q- How long, on average, will it take you to complete a piece of work? (Both layered paintings and mixed media pieces)

 

Oh gosh, sometimes it can take an afternoon and other times a year! It depends on scale too, but on average I would say a week for a 18x24 inch painting. I work on several paintings at the same time so I can switch between them and allow them to dry and get perspective when I work on other paintings. The paintings I work on for a year are usually the most layered and transformed and usually the process is as cathartic and tranformative for me. I had a series of "dark" paintings last year where I embraced painting with black after years of using bright colors and while it took about a year of painting the layers, the final 30 or so paintings were finished in about a period of a week. 

Q- How did you go about getting your first illustration jobs after graduation? Did you find at the beginning you had to adapt your artistic style in order to attract certain clients? 

 

Let's see... I sent my work via postcards and emails to clients I wanted to work with. In particular companies that I liked that licensed work like greeting cards, magnets and wall art. I wrote to them directly via email and included images of my work and had great success because I did a lot of research into what other artists they used whose work was in a similar vein. How else? I started a monthly newsletter, blogged regularily and put myself out there with craft shows and opportunities in the public eye. In particular after one Craft show, Patagonia (an outdoor apparel company) contacted me after they saw t-shirts I was selling with my art on them to do a line of tees for them. 

Q- What general advice could you give for a new graduate starting out?

 

Say yes to opportunities that excite you! And create your own opportunities. Craft fairs, art shows, teaching often lead to illustration jobs or selling art. I think developing an artistic community is hugely important for support. I have been part of several art studios where I have wonderful friendships with fellow artists who inspire me, uplift me when times are tough, critique me and keep me in the loop about the latest art happenings.

 

Holly Wales Lecture

 

Image from Holly Wales

 

We received a lecture from freelance illustrator Holly Wales, who gave us an insight into her working methods and tips/advice on working in illustration. She creates hand drawn illustrations in felt tip marker pens for a wide range of clients.

Main points of Holly's lecture:

• Uses felt tips pens- cheap, easy to get (this was important when she was starting out)
• Loose, fast style - like and embraces the imperfections in her pieces
• Work featured on many products - Magazines/newspapers, cushions, cards, posters, wrapping paper, packaging etc.
• Fills her portfolio with the types of work she wants to get jobs in (typography) so that her clients can see what she is able to do for them.
• Continues working in sketchbooks on self-initiated work.
• Her work is content driven - by her clients
• There is a fine line between being adaptable for the client and sticking to your decisions and illustration style. This will be important when finding illustration jobs.

Finished Book Spreads

I have added together all my collage elements of my circus on Photoshop to see what they look like on the double page space. I also added the text which I had already decided on through my dummy book earlier. For the backgrounds of each scene I have scanned in collected imagery and textures which will fit in with my collage made figures and sets but not draw attention from them. After lots of fiddling with the placement and levels of each scanned in element I have finally been able to complete three of my book spreads. 

Overall I'm happy with the look of these pages but if there wasn't a deadline to meet there would be things I would change to improve them. The way in which I have cut out the figures makes them look much more stiff then they could have looked. They don't look like they are walking or moving and the lack of facial features on the two on the last spread makes them look even more like two mannequins placed on a hill. 

Keyword Project

 

These are a few of my collage pieces made during the keyword brief. I had to work experimentally and build up a collection of 20 or so images without a final end piece. All are based on my thoughts and interpretations of the word STORAGE. 
I ripped up the papers I used instead of cutting the shapes out , in my opinion this has made the characters more engaging and aesthetically pleasing. I am happy with the way these have turn out.

 These were all influenced by the 20 images I had gathered to begin with which I felt had some sort of connection to my keyword. These images, displayed in my workspace, inspired me to create the work I did and helped further connection in my context essay.

 

Images displayed in my workspace.

Circus Characters and Details

I have now completed my characters for Lost at the Circus and am happy with the way they have turned out. I decided to continue cutting out my collage figures in the same way as I have for the circus setting so that they look like they belong in the scene. These are a few that I have finished:

My circus strong man but without his weights. I was unsure hope I would make the features on the face out of collage and thought about doing them separately in ink and putting them together digitally but in the end I stuck with collage and found type/shapes in my books which could be used as his features. 

Some multi-coloured bunting which I will use in each scene for decoration. These have also been made in collage and I have tried to change the colours for each and add in patterned paper in each.

This is the human pyramid of my circus characters which will feature in my last double page spread i will be making for the preview. I haven't yet added their faces but have made sure that each member is in a different costume. This page will feature lots of colour and pattern which is what you want in a circus and in a children's book.

Circus Illustartions

By this stage in the project I have managed to finish most of the setting pieces for my book spreads and some of the characters. The research I gathered earlier, looking at Victorian and modern circus images, has helped me to make colourful images which my intended audience (4-7 year olds) would like. They don't include small detail as I know that they will be shrunk down when I put together my double page spreads, so most just feature block shapes of colour and pattern which I think will look striking when seen all together on one page.

Fight the Nothingness

 

Article/Image: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/february/where-is-the-content

 

 

On the Creative Review Blog artist/lecturer Lawrence Zeegan wrote the article 'Where is the content? Where is the comment?' after visiting the 'Pick Me Up' show, to question why designers seem to be making work which has no meaning and conveys no message.

 

Main points in discussion:

 

- Zeegan against crossing of pathways/creative approaches, illustration looked down upon by many in art world (commercial)

- 'Art' doesn't have to have a meaning, Illustration has to convey a meaning/message to the audience.

- Zeegan feels illustrations on products (bags, mugs, t-shirts etc.) should not continue- says that these things are meaningless. But the people who do this are doing it to live on, not something Zeegan would have to do in the position he is in now.

 

Is there room in the industry for decorative illustrations? Does it cheapen our work? Should we only illustrate issues?

 

-Illustrations on products is what the public wants- continue to buy them

- The work is out there for more people to enjoy

-Products bought and seen will also help illustrators gain a 'following'

 

'Artists' (fine art, graphic designers etc.) crossing over into other pathways isn't seen in the same way as they have 'profile', awards, a claim to making work with a higher meaning.



 



Macmillan Childrens Book Research

I have been researching both artists work and images for my circus to create a sense of place sketchbook to help me start my own work. I want the setting and the characters costumes to look realistic. These will fit in well in a children's book as they will be strange and colourful.

 Image from Sara Fanelli

Circus image accessed here

Bringing up the work of collage artists like Sara Fanelli, Kate Slater and Susan Farrington, as well as looking through lots of existing children's books have helped me to plan out the style in which I will begin my own work in.

I have also photocopied my pencil drawings done for the storyboard to make a dummy book for my story. This has helped me to view more easily how the book would flow and the composition of each page.

 



Emma Reynolds Lecture

Picture book Narrative Structure and Character Design

Today we received a lecture from freelance illustrator Emma Reynolds who is currently working at Kilogramme animation Studios. She gave us advice and info on our current children's book designs and for working in this in the future. These were the main points from her talk:

- A story can start from anything: script/text,character idea, situation, meaningful doodle etc.
- Minimal text: text for dialogue and main events in the story.
- The pictures do the describing that the text doesn't, each has own role in the book and have to compliment each other. Don't overstate things
-Break down the story, highlight key events, identify themes: how do I want this to be shown? How do I want the reader to feel here? colour scheme throughout book
-Vary readers angles/viewpoints: think of film shots
-Character development: do first hand research as reference (helps with colour/sizing/proportion/environment) Think of personality/how the reader would feel
-Shape/composition: do multiple drawings of each character from different angles, remember they are 3D figures (as shown below from Emma's website)

http://emmareynoldsillustration.com/#/kilogramme-test/