I am a 19-year-old illustrator who specialised in Visual Communication during my foundation studies course. My aspirations for this year were to push myself out of my creative comfort zone and produce new, high-quality work that I could be proud of.
The title of my project was ‘Eco-Dystopia’ and I aimed to illustrate a dystopian narrative that informs and, potentially, shocks people about the consequences of ignoring our environmental issues such as overpopulation, pollution, urbanisation and deforestation, whilst also exploring how these issues connect.
This foundation year has narrowed down my interests and presented the practice and potential of illustration to me. By specialising in visual communication, I have been able to develop my drawing techniques, have been introduced to new materials, from screen-printing to ink drawings, and has helped me to refine my art style.
My starting point for a project is always to use a mind map to express my ideas in words and either create a mood board in my journal or a digital pinboard to visualise my ideas. I communicate the development of my work through researching artists, including images of their work, and combining their work to produce something new and original. I use my journal consistently throughout my projects, it holds most of my original work, photographs of larger pieces and has detailed and analytical annotations.
A starting point for me was some of my favourite dystopian films: The Day After Tomorrow, The Hunger Games, Divergent, 2012, Blade Runner, Metropolis, etc… These popular movies depict the type of world we could have in varying futures showing the collapse of governments, human-caused environmental disasters and revolutions using striking and inspiring visuals. I also broadened my research by looking into computer games such as The Last of Us 2, Metro 2033 and Remember Me.
My biggest influences throughout this project were collage artists David Hockney, with his ‘joiner’ photography, Steven Quinn and Mateus Szczypinski, who used vintage imagery, cityscapes and planetary aesthetics. I also found inspiration in Michael Wolf’s ‘Architecture of Density’, a book capturing how life is sustained in mega-cities in tight and compact high rise apartments. In terms of illustration, I was drawn to Paul Citroen, the artist who inspired Fritz Lang’s 1927 ‘Metropolis’, Liz Steel and Paul Chadeission.
Before this project, I had not used fineliners that much, I mainly created digital pieces of art, specifically portraiture, so I wanted to challenge myself. I created two A3 illustrations using predominantly 0.03mm fineliners, to capture the intense details, and highlight how crowded this dystopian city is, alongside wider fineliners and black watercolours for shadows. I thoroughly enjoyed working with fineliners.
Instagram:https://instagram.com/louisasillustrations
Email: 13whitel60@gmail.com
Foundation Diploma in Art, Design & Media Practice - Rochester 
Zachariah Deakins | Pre-degree & Foundation Studies
