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So, the band Gorillaz have a new album "Plastic Beach" out next week, and it's re-ignited the slow-burning coals of adoration in my heart for one man - Jamie Hewlett.
This guy, if you've not heard of him before, was the artist who brought the world Tank Girl. Gorillaz is similarly themed: dark, post-apocalyptic, punky, funny, very tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking, pop-cultural. His work is so inspiring to me, every time he releases a new piece of Gorillaz artwork I just want to....consume it somehow. It fills me with this intense longing, need, to draw, right now, this very moment. He's the one biggest and most defining influence on me, both creatively and otherwise. If it wasn't for the massive Gorillaz hole I fell into around the time I was applying for university I wouldn't have (for better or worse) chosen to study Illustration and Animation as my degree.
He and Damon Alburn (of Blur), who together created Gorillaz, also wrote, scored, designed, directed and produced the amazing "Monkey: Journey to the West" opera that I went to see last year and loooooved.
Here's some of the Gorillaz artwork:
This is 2D the lead singer (voiced by Damon Albarn). I love how textured it is now, how it's grown and moved away from the hard lines and bright, blank Manga-style colour fills - now it feels to me more like traditional Japanese artwork, with that lovely textured and watercoloured feel, keeping the pencil lines instead of inking. It's funny, because I started off copying Gorillaz and Tank Girl images, and through this developed my own style, where I kept the pencil lines and textured feel - which is where Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz stuff has ended up also.
Above is an illustration of mine. I think you can see the theme and the style has come originally from his work but I think (I hope at least) that I've found my own direction and style.
( And as a treat here's some more Plastic Beach artwork: )
Okay, I'll leave you now. :)
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