Polly Dunbar is British illustrator, she graduated from Brighton University in 1999 where she studied Illustration. Her illustrations are simple in design and detailed in application. She uses a range of mix media (water colour, acrylic, collage) and pattern/textures in her work to create the dynamic and wonderful illustrations we see in her books.
ANALYSIS
Above is a page of a Polly Dunbar book I've chosen to look at and pick apart. The image itself is quite simple, there is minimal details (no backgrounds, depth) but the use of key objects and shadows allow our imagination to fill these details in. Looking at this piece you can see that a little girl has knocked over a vase of flowers. Perhaps her parents are arguing above, a feeling you get from their towering stance and only visible legs and the expression in the little girls face. The bold patterns are notable in this piece, the girls dress, the vase, the fathers shoelaces with the contrast of soft watercolouring in the girls face and the mothers tights.
If we look at the vertical and horizontal paths in this piece you'll see there aren't many too noticeable at a first look. The image itself has no background and it is the characters and objects that actually create a sense of depth in the image. The vase is in the foreground of our image, with the parents legs being in the middle of the image - both on the same point, and in the background we have the little girl. Whilst all the elements of the piece are simply pasted on to a plain background the positioning and use of shadows creates this visual dynamic for us. The use of this also tells us the story of what is happening in this image in order, the vase is knocked over in the foreground - which leads us to the discussion the parents are having in the middle and concludes with the little girl in the background, the person who knocked the vase.
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| (Key: Black - Main focus, D.Grey - Secondary, L.Grey - Details, White - Negative Space) |
Looking at the focal points of this picture it is quite clear what our focus is, depending on how to read the story. Either: The parents [legs] (primary) who are discussing the little girl and the knocked vase (secondary) or the incidetn - the little girl and the knocked vase (primary) and the parents (secondary).
EXPERIMENTS
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| Lineart/sketch and pattern page |
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| Experiments |
I chose to do an experiment of my friend Celine and her bicycle. To experiment in the style of Polly Dunbar I took forward her elements of character and design, 'chibi' characters, cute expressions and details. Using watercolours to create a pattern page which I could later cut to shape and use as collaged patterns and textures underneath a pencil sketch as my lineart. I really enjoyed the technique of layering and collaging patterns underneath a pencil sketch and I am quite pleased with the end result. I took my Polly Dunbar experiments further and created a mock-up of a page layout in the style of her books:
I used a background the same tonal quality of the page I analysed. It didn't look quite right for the image and tones in the piece I created so below I adjusted it and used a watercolour layer sheet which I thought worked better with the image.
