The influence that the 1980s had on the social, political, economical and cultural aspects of society was vast, being influenced through many aspects, such as the political scene at the time, with the conservatives coming into power in the early 1980s. Similarly however, the growth in culture, aided by the developing technology came about in the form of unofficial culture, characterised by rebelling against the growing Thatcherism, particularly in the North. Official culture however was characterised by being more mainstream than the underground unofficial culture. 

Film, media and music were the most common ways in which the 1980s saw growth both through official and unofficial culture. Examples that would be classed as official culture would be the rise in Tv shows with soaps such as Eastenders reflecting the social issues that were going on at the time,  creating storylines about what was going on at the time, and continues to do so to this day. Similarly, shows such as Top of the Pops highlighted the growing music culture, and would too pave the way for similar shows following its end, it turn shaping the way trends and our lives changed as we progressed past the 80s. 

In contrast to the official culture that mainstream media brought to the 1980s, unofficial examples of culture from the same time period, had the association of being rebellious, underground, and not in the spotlight anywhere near as much as the official culture was. Examples of this culture was more common to be music as allowed individual artists to express what they wanted to in their own unique way, creating a range of viewpoints being put forwards to their audiences. However, the influence that Thatcherism had on the rising of rebellious culture, wasn't only present within the United Kingdom. Stretching across the channel, French singer Renaud also took part in fighting Thatcherism with his song 'Miss Maggie' in 1985. There are countless examples of artists expressing their rebellious ideas, from musicians, to other forms of media- making up the cultural developments that went unreported in comparison to the mainstream, American influenced official cultural developments in the 1980s. 

For this project we were tasked with illustrating an eight page book to one of six songs. I decided to go with interpreting the song 'Ring of Fire' written by June Carter and preformed by Johnny Cash. To begin with, I began by deciding what ideas I wanted to go with, a literal interpretation or a metaphorical. Researching the song, and the metaphorical meaning for desire and passion, I decided to interpret the song as something more melancholy due to the contrasting connotations with fire, as could be interpreted as passions, or equally danger. Going forwards with the idea of danger, I too went in the opposite direction of the intended meaning of the song, using secrecy as a starting point for my initial idea as contrasted the openness of the song's initial meaning. It was here that I got the idea for focus on witch trials, as a metaphor for the dangers of love. 

T​o begin developing my ideas, I first did some research into clothing from the 17th Century, as would be the setting of the book. From there forth, with basic designs down, I worked with colour until I got the set designs down, focusing of making the clothing dull to contrast the eventual flames. Then I got to work on creating thumbnails for the rough pacing of the book, deciding that I would sketch the pages traditionally and then paint digitally to develop my digital skills particularly due to the lack of traditional mediums I was able to get my hands on.

I quickly realised that due to the pacing of the song, for it to make sense in my book, I had to cut out some of the repeating lyrics, and additionally add an extra two pages to ensure it conveyed what I wanted it to convey. 

Continuing the process of sketching and refining ideas for pages, with some taking a few attempts to get correct, such as the forth page in which the viewpoint was switched around and positioning of the characters changed, it was then a case of applying colours and making colour schemes that reflected the darker and more sombre mood as the book progressed. It was for this reason, I decided to begin with lighter and brighter colours, with a softer style if shading to represent the dream like state and the happiness that had begun with the young love. But as the dangers set in, switched the shading techniques to something more eerie and less blended. 

My next challenge was tackling the fire that I wanted to put into the pages, and ended up redoing the first page in which the flames appeared as they looked too simple in shape, and complicated in colour. Layering the varying colours and brightening the layers was key, even if I did lose quite a bit of the form beneath the flames. 

For the majority of the book after this point, it was a case of replicating the colour schemes, though effecting them with a varying degree of flames, as the book went along increasing in intensity until the end. Overall from this project, I learnt that I didn't need to be so reliant on digitally sketching as I get very caught up on moving things around to make them look perfect, though usually makes them look stiff. I learnt how to combine both traditional and digital mediums in a way that worked to my advantage, and created a more paint like and eerie style that worked well and contrasted the vibrant, blended and layered colours of the flames. I also had to learn what worked well and quickly given the short time frame we had to create the book, made more difficult by the additional pages I needed to added, but, was still able to be organised, and complete the task on time. 

As an introduction to composition, we were tasked with creating abstract collages based upon six prompts, chosen to prove that to some extent, composition does come naturally. When it came to this task, initially I found starting to be a challenge, unsure on how to tackle the task, yet, once I began, I found it easier to produce pieces of work that somewhat conveyed the prompt we were given, whether through colours such as the bolder or softer colours, or whether it was shapes, either softer or harsher and pointier shapes for different prompts. All in all, I was generally happy with the outcomes, however, looking closer at composition in the following lecture, it became apparent that there was a few things that I would have done differently. One thing I would have changed was the placement of the light on 'Tokyo', as if I were to do it again, I would probably shift the yellow to be off centre, or add two to be off centre as it being completely centre is a little too jarring when looking back on the piece as a whole. 

For this week, we were tasked with creating three book covers based around, 'The Tree'; one being a children's book, one being a phycological horror, and one being a sci-fi based around three different artists. The first challenge I faced was trying to somewhat replicate the work of each artist, getting used to the materials they used and trying to recreate the feel of their works at the same time. 

Anne Yvonne Gilbert works with coloured pencils, using them to create soft looking illustrations, that too hold a lot of detail within the pieces. When looking into her work, I initially tried to replicate the vivid colours seen within the piece to the right, even if I wasn't going to be using the use of fabric in my book covers. I then tried to apply it to vegetation, though found it to be far softer than the vivid colours of the fabrics. With that said, I was able to replicate the soft feel of Gilbert's pieces in my test samples, using various tones of brown and green to build up my examples. I found that it was harder to work on cartridge paper than watercolour board as I used for my final piece, due to the lack of texture on the paper. It was for this reason that I found doing the final piece easier than that of the test pieces and thumbnails. Looking back on my pieces, I could have built up the pieces further by applying more tones to my pieces, building them up more, even if that risked losing the softness of the piece.

                                Image by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, from AnneYvonneGilbert.com

Charles Keeping's work was the second artist I decided to tackle. Keeping's illustrations are mainly made up of watercolour and inks. I particularly liked the look of his black and white illustrations due tot he themes we had to fit each cover into, and it was for this reason I decided to go with phycological horror for Keeping's work. To begin with, I began by trying to use the dripping and wispy aspects of Keeping's work, whist too trying to find a way to use white on black that wouldn't be too time consuming. With that said, I didn't want to just do a black and white piece, and so played around with giving the background a wash with a darker colour to convey a horror theme. 



                                           Image by Charles Keeping, from Aestronauts.com

Brad Holland's work was the final artist I looked at, using acrylic to give off a dry brush technique, building up colours in various layers and blending them by building them up. This was something I found difficult to do to begin with, as naturally I add quite a bit of water when painting. Once again, cartridge paper proved to be the wrong material for this technique after a while of building up colours, the paper below began to peel up with the dry brush. However, I was able to manage by keeping the layers to a minimum to ensure I didn't push the paper too far. I attempted to find the best colours for this piece, as this was far more colourful and unnatural than the two before it, and needed to find colours that didn't clash. In the end, I believe I chose the best colours, using the surrounding area to set apart any colours that may clash such as the planet in the left hand corner. 


                                 Image by Brad Holland, from Margarethe-Illustration.com

 In the end I decided to go with using Anne Yvonne Gilbert's style for the children's book as I believed the softness of her work would be best suited for it. Secondly, I decided to use the phycological horror prompt for Charles Keeping's work due to the muted and darker tones found in many of his works. And finally, I decided to apply the Sci-Fi cover to Brad Holland's work, as the dry brush technique gave an unusual and unnatural feel to the pieces. I found this task a little stressful when it came to initially replicating some of the artist's techniques as the way in which they worked weren't the way I was used to working in my own work. However,  all in all, I was happy with the way my final pieces came out, and believe that I was able to communicate the artist's techniques to some extent.

Bonnie MacLean was an American artist, well known for her posters in the 1960s and 70s. She was one of the only women of prominence in the poster genre and took inspiration from Wes Wilson after he quit in 1967, so much so that her early work was based on Wilson’s work. Most notably, the influence from Wilson’s work came from the text she used within her work, as much like Wilson’s own work, was vibrant and in many cases difficult to read at first glance, encouraging the audience to look closer at the pieces to find out which band they were advertising for. Similarly, MacLean’s colour schemes were very reminiscent of Wilson’s work, following a very vibrant colour scheme, whilst too following similar colour palettes to some of Wilson’s work. 

Below - Bonnie MacLean Posters archived by Classic Posters.com 

Above - Wes Wilson Posters archived by Classic Posters.com 

​Although Wes Wilson’s influences on Bonnie’s work is clear, there too are differences, for MacLean was able to develop her own style of typography, setting them aside from Wilson’s work. In addition to this. MacLean’s work appeared to be far more illustrative than that of Wilson’s work, combining both graphic design and illustrations, whilst using a composition and colour schemes that would ensure the focus and more intriguing aspects of the piece would remain to be the information upon the posters. MacLean also drew inspiration for her work from other movements, such as Art Nouveau, with the free flowing of text and images that are reminiscent of the earlier movement present in her work. 

Artists such as Bonnie MacLean defined the psychedelic art scene of the 60s and early 70s, defined by its free flowing forms and vibrant colour schemes. MacLean herself was herself well known, not only for being one of the only female artists in this field of work But MacLean also grew with her own style that, although heavily influenced by Wes Wilson, evolved into something unique, and something that many may consider more appealing due to to the combination of graphic and illustrative influences both being present within her work.