Counterfeiting in Fashion

Imitation and counterfeiting have always been issues to discuss about in the fashion industry. Chanel thought of imitation as a consistent measurement method of a brand’s success, saying that the more you were imitated, the more you succeeded in fashion.

Cyril Edward

Cyril Edward
Cyril Edward Power was born in Chelsea on 17 December 1872.
During the early 1920s, he was producing watercolour landscapes and townscape.
In 1930 Power was elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists and established a studio with Andrews in Hammersmith close to the River Thames, a location which inspired many prints by both artists. During the last year of his life Power completed some eighty-nine oil paintings, a format he had grown increasingly fond of in the preceding years. These were mainly landscapes of the surrounding areas, often Helford River and the Falmouth area of Cornwall as well as some floral studies. He died in London in May 1951, aged seventy-eight. His work consists of curved lines which are well created in his lino printing. His work is often colourful and interesting to the viewer. I think his work inspires me because of the various colours he uses on his lino printing which is something I would like to try and become better at doing.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Born 25th of October, 1881, was a Spanish print maker, painter and sculptor and spent most of his life in France. He was one of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, he co-founded the Cubist movement.
Picasso’s work is often categorized into certain periods. The most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1905–1907), the African-influenced Period (1908–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919).

I enjoy his work as it has a lot of creative imagery involved. For example many of his pieces consist of various shapes and boldy coloured images which are eye catching and intriguing. It is also not always easy to tell what is in the image, therefore showing how much imagination has been put into it.

Raoul Hausmann

Raoul Hausmann is an Austrian artist who focused in the Dada era. He often focuses on photographic collages. he was born in 1886. He was a photomonteur, painter, fashion designer, poet, pamphleteer, publisher, and partner of Hannah Hoch. Everything he did was done with enthusiasm and an often angry gallows humour.
His work consists of collage and mixed media which i find interesting because of the random designs. his work is not colourful, yet it is easy to connect with his audience through them.

Varvara Stepanova

Varvara Stepanova was a painter and the graphic artist. Her works were exhibited at the largest exhibitions of  avant guarde in Russia. She used a list of fabrics, setting of books and magazines, collages and compositions. Her works are distinctive and original because of their intriguing patterns and variety. Her series of unexpected graphic works "Jazz-band" is most popular. Her work is very unique and distinctive, and she uses bright, bold colours to catch the eye of her viewers.

Man Ray

Man Ray was an American modernist artist who spent most of his carrer in Paris. He contributed to the Dada era and often used a mixed variety of media. He considered himself a painter. His reputation has grown, but his work was not appreciated in his lifetime.
his work is extremely unique and often focus on people. His images are often very surreal and odd, but tis intrigues the eye. They often feature a black and white colour scheme. I think this makes his work more recognizable.

Dave mckean

David McKean was born 29 December 1963 and is an English illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker and musician.

His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art and sculpture. After a trip to New York in 1986 during which he failed to find work as a comics artist, McKean met writer Neil Gaiman, and the pair collaborated on a short graphic novel of disturbing childhood memories. In 1989, he illustrated the Batman graphic novel, Arkham Asylum. He also illustrated many childrens books.

I think that his work is very unique as the images are unpredictable and sometimes it is hard to tell what is actually in the image or what McKean is trying to tell us. His images are surreal and charasmatic  and more often than not present the faces of people. I think that each of his images are supposed to bring a story to the viewers mind, and even though they are unclear it is very interesting to try and pick McKean’s pieces apart.

Peter Blake

Sir Peter Thomas Blake was born on the 25th June 1932. He is an English pop artist and was also knighted three years ago. He has produced collage, sculpture, engraving and printmaking, commercial art and various album covers, i.e. The Beatles. Blake studied at Gravesend School of Art before being accepted into the Royal College of Art in London. He was influenced by American realist artists.
‘On the Balcony ‘ is an early work and still stands as one of the iconic pieces of British Pop Art, showing Blake's interest in images from pop culture with fine art. It appears to be a collage but is in fact painted. It is inspired by other paintings and features other artists work.

I think that Blake’s work is bright and eye catching which helps the viewer to recognise his work. It is simplistic yet unique as it has little detail however a lot of his pieces relate to music and have a vintage feel to them which makes each piece more intriguing.

Robert Rauschenberg

•He was an American painted and a graphic artist who was well known for his ‘combines’ of the 1960’s. This was a combination of both painting and sculpture but sometimes he would also work with photography. He created the ‘black painting’ which incorporated little bits of newspaper into his work. Eventually he began using different types of material i.e. wood and nails…

I think the fact that Rauschenberg incorporates different materials is interesting and original. This shows that different media can be put into images and it wont look messy or odd, it actually makes the images more colourful and fun.

hannah hoch

•Hannah Höch was born on November 1, 1889 and was a German Dada artist. She is best known for her work of the Weimar period, when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Women were used as a central theme in her work. Her latest piece combines images from news papers.

Her work is very randomised and irregular, however I particularly like this aspect and it leaves the images to the viewers mind so that they can make their own assumption about the art. Her photomontages do not seem to use bright colours, but the images themselves are eye catching and oddly positioned/put together making the images surreal.

•

Artist Research: Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin's work, 'Everyone i have ever slept with' is a well known piece. Tracey Emin  has decorated it with the names of everyone she has slept with. People do not tend to make it public information who they have slept with which makes it controversial.
Her brothers name was also inside the tent which made everyone a bit confused by the message she was trying to get across, everyone thought the tent was about all the people she had sex while it is actaully the names of people she has shared a bed with. i.e. even her grandma features on it.

Tracey Emin is an english artist born in 1963. She uses her life events as inspiration for her work from painting, drawing, video and installation, to photography, needlework and sculptures. Emin shows her audience her hopes, humiliations, failures and successes and sometimes work that is frequently both tragic and humorous. She also sometimes features text in her monoprint work.

I think that Emin's work is inspiring because she is not afraid to use her own experiences as inspiration. She makes bold points using her work. The picture shows that her work is quite child like and features bright colours which are very eye catching to her audience.

Artist research : Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born in August 1928 - february 1987. He was an American pop artist who's work explores the features of celebrity culture and advertisement. He was firstly a commercial illustrator.
his work invloves various media, i.e. panting, print making, hand drawing, photography, sculpture and music and made over 60 films. He also worked on computer generated art. his works are extrememly popular and highly valued and are often the subject of exhibitions, books, etc.
He began to experiment with reproductions based on advertisements, newspaper headlines and other images which were mass-produced such as Campbell's soup tins and Coca Cola bottles. Other subjects given similar treatment included Jackie Kennedy and Elvis Presley. The same year he took part in an exhibition in New York, which was the first important survey of Pop Art.

Andy Warhol's work is intriguing because of the use of bright and contrasting colour, and even though they are simple they represent the lives of celebrities well which is what he focuses on a lot. i think that his images are also very boldly coloured whch establishes ties with celebrity life aswell since they are so popular and well known, for example, one of his most famous and well known pieces is the one of Marilyn Monroe who is obviously easy to recognise.

Mono Print Photos

Using different inks and materials I have created a series of A4 mono prints related to a relevant artist, i.e. Tilleke Schwarz. I did this by drawing an image onto thin paper with another piece underneath. I then placed the papers onto a thin layer of ink and drew over the top of my image so that the picture was printed into the ink below the second piece of paper. After firstly doing this with only black ink I then decided to add other primary ink colours to my pieces. For this I used a graphite stick to rub over the top of the area where I wanted the particular colour. This sometimes worked well, i.e. the red cat, however on some of the images, i.e. the white cat, the ink ran over my outer lines and made the image look faded and scruffy. After I was happy with my end pieces of work, I left them on the wire drying rack until I later took photos of them individually.

My first attempt was the white cat with thick black lines. I did not add any other colour to this which made it look like a simply sketch. However it was difficult to keep this image still, therefore creating two sets of outlines which I did not want. I tried to keep the image as still as possible the next few times I did this process.

My second attempt was the white cat. I felt this was my worst piece as I simply used my finger to colour in the white ink, and this made the ink smudge too far and print over the black outlines, making the cat look faded and messy. I could've improved this by using the graphite stick as I did in my last two pieces.

The third attempt was the red cat which I think is my best piece. I like this image because not only is the colour inside the outlines, it looks neat and tidy, and even though there are blank spaces in between the colour it looks as though this is done diliberately for effect and to make the image more interesting. I used a graphite stick for this effect. For this image I also added white ink to the legs, tail and ears to create a pinkier ink colour and make the piece more intriguing. I was definitely most pleased with this cat over the rest.

For the fourth attempt I used a yellow ink and a graphite stick to colour it. I also used more black ink not only on the outlines but on the legs, tail and face, copying the red cat somewhat. I am not so happy with this however as the lines look scruffy and the colouring looks more like a first attempt effort than a last. I feel I could've done slightly better on this one if I'd have had more time to finish.

I feel my work on the mono prints was successful overall and was a good learning step which I found interesting and fun. I learned that using different tools can help to make better effects and that the prints can sometimes look scruffy if care is not taken, however this is not always a bad thing. This sometimes makes the images more intriguing to look at.

Evan Hecox

Evan Hecox

Evan Hecox is a Colorado-based artist and designer whose work portrays the feel of urban environments. Hecox is fascinated with the complexity of the urban landscape. Like snapshots or filmstrips, his art captures the everyday existence of the average person. Hecox has exhibited worldwide, including exhibitions in Los Angeles, London and Tokyo.
I think that Evans work is unique and interesting throughout, however his colours are limited and this makes it more recognisable to his work. His work has a comic book style to it and is not always bold is eye catching.

Chris Dent

Chris Dent

Chris Dent's work is technical and detailed which to me makes it less interesting. However I like they way in which he uses limited colour on random parts of his art as this makes it stand out and become more interesting. I think that this particular image is very intriguing as it presents two images (a city and a skull) but the skull is partially hidden, making the viewer pay more attention to fine detail. He sometimes uses shading in his art to make images look more realistic.

Tommy Penton

Tommy Penton

Tommy works as an ilustrator and painter and has done this for the past 10 years. Tommy's paintings show an intelligent yet unique approach to perspective art. His style is bright and fluid with a gentle sense of humour.

His artwork uses little colour and mainly involves black and white cartoon/comic images. His images sometimes include a photo image as the background where his drawings are placed to look as if they're in the photo too. His drawings are surreal and odd but also bring forward his unique style. Therefore it is easy to recognise his work.

Olivier Kugler

Olivier Kugler

Olivier Kugler was born in 1970 in Stuttgart, Germany. He has been working as an illustrator in London for clients all over the world. Olivier enjoys drawing people he meets and places he visits, and colours them afterwards on his laptop.
Oliviers style is simple, sometimes with minimal colour, yet includes unique images. The way the art is drawn makes it look childish, as if only a small amount of care is taken with the images. The colours are solid without shading or a faded effect.
I think that this particular image is intriguing as there are less objects involved and compared to Oliviers other pieces this is rare. I think his other pictures are busy and filled with objects to look at, hense why they are eye catching and interesting. I think the fact that the artist draws people and places he has seen and been to means that his art ties in with his life, making it much more personal. I enjoy Oliviers style as it resembles a comic book type of look, especially because of the use of block colours.

Featured Blogger - P.Owsley

Patrick Owsley is available for all of your publishing, advertising and licensing cartoon art needs! He's also available for commissions. E-mail Patrick at powsley@flash.net.

Featured Blogger - Abduzeedo

Ive (Ïve) Bastrash, a Canadian illustrator was really inspired by some classic movies, like Aliens, Blade Runner and Raiders of the Lost Art, and he came up with fantastic illustrated posters for these movies. I must say that he should definitely come up with more of these! There are so many great movies out there for him to illustrate... he should definitely keep these going. For more of his work, please, visit his DeviantART portfolio! I'm sure he'll enjoy your visits. Cheers! ;)

Featured Blogger - The Black Wing Diaries

The Black Wing Diaries. Animation story artist. Calarts '90. Author of "The Art of Disney/Pixar's Brave", coming June 2012 from Chronicle Books.

Featured Blogger - The Art Cake

The art cake is an art blog where I share my favorite art/design finds. I'm Christi, a girl originally from the south, but now living in the wonderfully quirky and perpetually rain-drenched city of Portland, Oregon with my cat Gizmo. I love discovering new art and sharing it with other people.

Peter Strain - Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth Artist:Peter Strain 

The mood of this picture seems to be dark and mysterious due to the use of colour i.e. the blue’s, blacks, browns and greens. There is a fair amount of colour used however it is limited to those dull shades. The writing is eye catching because of the contrast of white letters on a dark background. Because the letters are going down in a triangular shape, your eye is then drawn to the picture at the top. This is creatively incorporated into the text to create part of the image. The use of swirls in the background makes the image look claustrophobic and possessive of the writing.

Shepard Fairey

This image is interesting because of the use of limited colours which are eye catching and intriguing. The use of a little girl could represent innocence within America, but the fact that the flower is covered by the grenade could symbolise that the innocence is being destroyed by the American system.‘E Pluribus Venom’ are artworks designed to question the symbols and methods of the American machine and American dream and also celebrate those who oppose blind nationalism and war. Shepard Fairey’s work contains politically-charged paint, screen print, stencil, and collage mixed media pieces which use metaphor, humour, and seductive decorative elements to deliver provocative but beautiful results.

The title ‘E PLURIBUS VENOM’ which translates “Out of many, poison” is derived from “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one) an early motto adopted by the U.S. Government which appears on U.S. coins and dollar bills. ‘E Pluribus Venom’ could be interpreted as saying both that there is poison in the American system, and that many individuals are motivated by venom and anger toward this system.

This print is a collaboration with NYC-Based Photographer and Filmmaker Kai Regan.  Shepard used a photograph of a model that Kai shot as the subject of this illustration and print. Fairey creates reimagined propaganda style posters, in which he communicates his anti-war stance and dedication to fighting for peace.

This image again uses limited colours which are effective. Most of his images have this style featured. I think it is interesting because you cannot see what is behind the mans face because of the pilot mask covering it. This makes you wonder who he is or what his significance is in the image. The flower shows a peace sign on one of the petals, but the fact that the man is holding the flower makes it look as if he is threatening the peace around him. I think that this means the story behind the image could be an interesting one, again including propaganda.