Artist Inspiration Showcase - Animation background artists

After recently completing my fourth project whilst studying my foundation degree at Newcastle collage and before I finish this blog as my fifth project I wanted to produce one final post covering a topic I am extremely interested in and that topic is Animation backgrounds. Outlined at the beginning of this blog, the aim of my aspirations as an animator and illustrator is to create an animated short or series in the hopes of generated a mass emotional reaction to an audience. This goal is something that is constantly on my mind during production work, outside production work, at home, on the bus, even in bed. 

This desire to express myself through my art is uncontrollable and a niche that I find great pleasure in is animation backgrounds. I feel that the setting of a scene is so important for the tone and mood that a scene portrays that it is a wealth of potential that has been tapped into, can be tapped into, and should be utilised and played with. If creating a film doesn't come for a while or after the film I want to move onto something else been a background layout artist, background painter or environment visual development artist is a role that I would be head over heels to call my own.

Needless to say, that means I have a plethora of artists who take my interest, invigorate me with inspiration and inspire me consistently whose work I study, enjoy and spend time investigating. In today’s blog post I shall be sharing some of these artists with you to show where I draw my influences from regarding background design and hopefully where some of you can too! 

James Gilleard (Fav at the moment)

James is an art director, illustrator, graphic designer, and animator who has produced and contributed to an insane amount of artwork across the years he has worked. In recent years he has forged himself a style that I would argue is signature to himself and this style is something that resonates with me at a ridiculous magnitude. I perceive the style to be a combination of graphic and illustrative techniques which begin with sketches then graphic element constructs in Adobe Illustrator before been transferred over to Photoshop to have textures applied creating his master pieces. 

The reason I feel that I resonate with his illustrations is due to the effective manner that James adds detailing into his illustration adding depth, appeal, and charm into his work. For example, he combines several geometric elements into a scene where in reality there are none, with textured effects, brushes, and large expansive lighting effects to portray a uniquely gorgeous expression that you can't help but fall prey too. He contrasts detail with simplicity in form to dominate the perception that the viewer has to it with absolute victory captivating and inspiring his audience. I am very keen to experiment and study from James illustrations to grow and learn from techniques and design outcomes that I admire greatly.

Animation background for a project he had contributed too

Visual development for a tunnel construction advertisment

Editorial for Fast Magazine

Eyvind Earle (Also fav)
Eyvind was an artist, author and Illustrator who grew a massive following for his breath-taking illustrations that he created for Disney over the years of his life. I personally resonate with his work due to the unique impression that his style portrays to his audience. He captures all the essence and detailing that is present in reality and twists it, adds to it and mixes in new colours and shape forms to create works of pure fantasy that have an appeal that captures you gaze lost in immersion.

The process that he used when creating his backgrounds was to paint them with acrylics, oil, and watercolours to produce organic, textured and reminiscent artwork that does justice to reality in some regards and transcends it in others. I believe the greatest potential in his work is how he portrays atmosphere through visual alone. Each scene weather a closeup or wide pan expresses a level of intimacy with the viewer that is hard to achieve the way that he did. Like others I am interested in studying the magnificence that Eyvind manages to capture in his work in an attempt for personal growth.

Painted animation background for Disneys Sleeping Beauty

Painted animation background for Disneys Sleeping Beauty

 Painted animation background for Disneys Sleeping Beauty

 Jasmine Lai (Okay they all my fav i have alot of passion)

Jasmine identifies herself as a visual content creator for multimedia communication businesses such as advertising and entertainment. Primarily working as an illustrator for most of her projects Jasmine also has worked hard to be the art director on multiple projects from lead background designer on Cartoon Networks Steven Universe to her current position as art director at the animation studio Chromosphere.la. 

The reason that I resonate with Jasmines environment illustrations so deeply is due to the way in which she captures life in such a unique, intimate, and stylised format. There is a level of sincerity in here work that conveys such a gentle impression that is calming in nature. This nature takes the viewer into its experience and shows them reality’s beauty in all the right ways. The charm that Jasmine brings to her work through her technique and process is something I am very keen to experiment and apply to my own animation backgrounds.

Depiction of a route towards home

Illustration depiction of Downtown Los Angeles 

Personal environment Illustration

Brian Edward Miller (Cannot get enough of these guys!)
Brian is the spiritual product of a family filled with talent and passion, son to both a photographer and to a painter, grandson to 2 very talented wood carvers and father to an inspirational and loving family Brain is an illustrator who brings his family to the heart of his passions when creating engaging, appealing and phenomenal environment illustrations. I personally resonate with Brains work so highly due to the grainy/textured brushes that he informs his work with heightening the impact that his high standard compositional pieces portray. 

Previously within my studies I have spent time studying and experimenting with the textured effects that he utilises by making use of a custom brush set I created because of a study I did on him. Needless to say, that his illustrations have had a massive impact on the development of my own concepts and ideas in response to the appeal I find in his illustration work. I am keen to continue to study and develop artwork in response to Brains making sure to always analysis and deconstruct his processes to invoke personal growth.

Promotional Illustration comissioned by 'Every mountain'

 The Umbrella Factory animation background

Narrative based illustration commisioned by 'Opera'

Conclusion
I cannot say with confidence that creating environments and animation backgrounds is something thatt I will move away from any time soon. In response to this fact I highly doubt that these talented artists will ever cease to be the inspiration that they are too me, I will continue to use them as reference, material for study, and as inspiration as I continue my creative journey towards directing my own animated film. I hope that by expressing these artists I have been able to express my thinking’s and ambitions clearly so that this relationship ends on a high note. 


Thank you for reading! and I shall keep you all updated moving forward.