Jeff Soto; Stormy Skies (2006.)

Another of Jeff Soto’s pieces, named “Stormy Skies,” is a piece that I would benefit from, and be inspired by for a number of reasons.

The concept of this illustration, I feel, is a mock up of children’s playtime images, hence the cute face and unusual body structure. However this image has a rather dark side to it, showing the old and rusted (possibly bloody) face of the character, showing maybe the weariness and depression by being forced to constantly be happy.

The style of this illustration is rather simple; the main focus of the picture is in the center of the image, with a dark and contrasting background, which only amplifies the focus on the main character.

This image, like “Winter Death,” would give the inspiration to avoid making all of my characters very aesthetically pleasing and always “cute and cuddly.” And if going straight to more organic and “ugly” subjects is too difficult, I would meet it half way and design something cute and good looking, but then manipulate it, the way that Soto does, to make it seem vulgar and ugly. I could also try and create more abstract backgrounds, instead of literal ones. Using mixed media and a number of patterns, I could create a much more effective scene, which is coherent to the topic, and still maintain the levels of care and timing that I would need.

The techniques used in this illustration are simple but very effective; the illustration has been created through the means of acrylic paint on plain paper. The consistency of the paint varies depending of the solidarity of the individual pieces of the illustration. The character in the centre of the piece is very thick, bold and opaque, so the paint is extremely thick. Where as the background of the image is trying to show rainy and murky conditions, so they are likely to be slightly translucent, blending out towards the edges of the page.

 This would inspire me to concentrate on one specific media, and use different methods of applying it to the image. This, in turn, would give the image a mixed media effect, but only use one or two media in reality.