Pierre et Giles
Early works from Gilles whilst he was at art school and before he met Pierre. It was great I stumbled across these – its great to see an artists early works and understand how they have refined their vision and techniques. His love of the excessive is apparent in these paintings. The repeated painted dots and patterns are showcased in his later works with Gilles.
Images from Mikado’s A la fenetre and Naufrage en hiver. You can see throughout the video the careful planning of the shots and sequences they repeated for the chorus. I realise now why I struggled with storyboarding in past projects as I wasn’t studying enough music videos. How are they doing transitions, how are the shots framed, what techniques are they using. How are they telling the story?
They worked heavily with musicians and singers throughout the 80s and 90s. Making videos for the likes of Dee lite, Khaled and Nina Hagen. Their dream like style lending itself beautifully to music videos – building extravagant sets and luxurious looking costumes and accessories. The characters in the pictures look ethereal. I would love my work to have this quality.
Stills from Mikado’s music video La fille du Soleil. Lavish use of props and fountain which I love.
Use some of the techniques/transitions/effects used in their music videos for my animation!
Music Video for Mark Almond’s – A lover Spurned. Very camp. 10 costume changes. Transition – Rotating backdrop and then same texture superimposed onto the image as a cool way to make a transition between scenes.
Surrealist imagery – use of scale and masking techniques to place the female singer inside the glass of champagne. Lunettes Noires by LNA – Rapid moving backdrop with the singer placed within the frame. Diamanté twinkle effect around the border. I love this aesthetic – will draw inspiration from this.
The cut out of a flower rotates and grows – this is a great idea for a transition. Will be interesting to experiment with this.
“Labour of Love”. Pierre et Giles Photo paintings overflow with beauty and camp passion. The composition are reminiscent of renaissance paintings, staged deliberately in an exaggerated way. Colour is refined but over the top. They work as a team – Pierre takes the photographs and Gilles paints over them. The idea is sketched out. Gilles sources the elements to make the set. Pierre photographs the models. The photograph is printed and Gilles paints over the top. Drawing inspiration from the helycon days of retouching photographs in the 19th century.
The imagery is reminiscent of soft porn pin ups with their own twist. The erotization of the body. The portraits tell a story of lust, the cult of celebrity and make the viewer enter into a whimsical dreamlike state. I want my work to have this quality – to be alluring in its erotic power but also have a strong message.
The cover of LaChapelle Land designed by the Japanese artist Tadanori Yoko.
I love this cover – what immediately strikes me is the collaged combination of photocopied figures, block colour and drawings.
SEXINESS WITH HUMOUR. Surrealism bordering on the nightmare.
“Once we were playing kickball in the apartment complex when this woman came downstairs with this giant hair-do, halter top, hot pants, cork platform wedgies and started smashing her husband’s new Lincoln with a hammer. Seeing her on all fours, screaming, crawling on that car and bashing it, with that outfit, that hair, those fingernails… well, it was a little bit of heaven.”
A scene David LaChapelle never forgot. His love for outrageous dramatic scenes started at a young age and never stopped. Renaissance sculptures were also fans of the dramatic pose. He moved to NYC in the late 70s and was a regular at studio 54. Gucci and Fiorucci pop imagery for their advertsiements were a big influence. Andy Warhol’s magazine Interview was first magazine to publish his work. Models were made to do the wildest things but they always had to look beautiful. Exhibitionists make the best models according to LaChapelle. His pictures remind me of film stills – their narrative quality is so strong. He wanted to subvert the good taste, the good life often portrayed in fashion and advertising photography. “I want to see what’s cut out, I want to feature those things.” He likes celebrating the artificial. More expression can come out when the subject is interacting with their environment or a situation they are put in. This is great advice for when it comes to me directing my shoots.
Nude photoshoot I did with cling film. I wanted to manipulate the photographs to make them look like the sea.
Experimenting with making body into waves.
Knee patterns – these were really successful.
Research into animation techniques used by Terry Gilliam. Gilliam was really inspired by Tex Avery Cartoons. Its important to look into artists that inspired your favourite artists. Inspiration finds you at work.
Turning my knees into a spinal cord.
Erotica Shoot to be able to have a lot of bodies in different poses and positions to use as collage material.
Scorpion girl guarding the gates of bad taste.
I found this but couldn’t find the artist who made them. I like the weird.
My favourite advert of all time. The Babycham adverts from the 1960s! Very experimental – blending of green screened real life actors and
Icarus at the tanning salon.
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. But then he gets too close to the sun and his wings melt. My own version of Icarus and why you really shouldn’t use tanning beds. Baby that shit burns your beautiful skin.
The landscape of the body. The body is a landscape. Icarus is very burnt now. Looks ravishing in neon pink. This led me to meat. I must draw some pork chops.
Big fan of the creative director Maurizzio Cattelan and his work for Toiltepaper magazine. The love of the surreal, the grotesque, the painful, the erotic. His imagery causes strong emotions. The cake is the same pattern as the tablecloth and the arm is painted also. Food is used a lot in the editiorials.
The landscape of the body. The body is a landscape. Icarus is very burnt now. Looks ravishing in neon pink. This led me to meat. I must draw some pork chops. My pen was running out and the effect is cool.
The Stamp tool in photoshop is the best. Helps you to repeat certain areas of a drawing you like. Then I can save the texture as a preset and use again when I like. Honestly photoshop is my crack. Every day I’m learning to use new tools and techniques that are propelling my work into new directions. Its a joy to use. I use it every day without fail.
Blue Pork Chop mountains.
Pork chop pattern turned into marble.
The body turned into mountains. Hips for days. I mean who wouldn’t want to climb that. Life is short – make the most of your assets in your work.
Love this concept – combining photography with blue pork marble pattern. These experiments taught me to always follow a thread – however random it may seem. What if? is essential to experimentation.
By the pool series. We are made of 60% water. Was inspired to make these after reading narcissus – a girl stares at her own reflection in the swimming pool. She is the water and the ocean.
By the pool series. We are made of 60% water. Was inspired to make these after reading narcissus – a girl stares at her own reflection in the swimming pool. She is the water and the ocean.
Tit fountain
Experimenting with different blend modes in photoshop. I love the ghostly outline of the bodies.
Decided to try this out using screen printing.
Learnt how to separate the colours into channels. The technician was a dream to work with. He taught me so much in just one session.
Very successful screen prints using Light blue base, overlayed with red and then dark blue for the body. This image lends itself well to screen printing as I was able to use clean blocks of colour to build up the shading.
Self portraits in an aquarium. Getting better at using the pen tool – its better than the magic wand tool for cutting out shapes. Allows for very clean lines.
Interesting wave textures I made using a 3D brush in photoshop. Inspired by the self portrait in aquarium. This would look good animated!
