Alex Williamson
Alex Williamson is a commercial illustrator and graphic artist based in the Southwest of the UK. He uses different printing techniques and digital collages to produce bold and striking graphic artworks. He is experimental with various textures, forms and colours, which he exploits to portray different stories and enhance different emotions. Alex Williamson starts his process by formulating collages and then enhances specific textures and colours to see how the juxtapositions create different emotional responses. This is important, since I want to produce digital collages that reflect the impacts of air pollution, therefore I will need to enhance certain aspects to trigger emotional responses.
With each of these digital creations, they tell different stories and imply different attitudes towards particular things, places or events. From the sue of numerous photos overlaid on top of each other and the use of either complimentary pot conflicting colours, it evokes different emotions to a particular topic. For example, in 'The Economist/ ISIS', which is the creation to the right, the decision to use primarily red depicts the spilling of blood and the notion of conflict. Therefore from looking at this creation it advertises the impacts of war and the danger it poses because of the physical harm it can cause people.
After studying the different styles of JMW Turner, John Virtue and Supmanee Chasinsuk. This digital approach will be an effective method of collating the skills and styles of the different artists that I have learnt, to produce a reformed idea. Moreover, the different primary source photos I have taken in response to my previous artists can be cut together and digitally overlaid to demonstrate different ideas of air pollution. Similar to the styles utilised by Alex Williamson, I will be experimenting with enhancing certain aspects of the collage, to see how that would evoke particular emotions and imply certain attitudes towards air pollution.
The digital work that i produced after researching Alex Williamson can be found in the 'idea development' segment of this website. Below is an example of one of the digital collages i made depicting the impacts of air pollution.
This is one of several collages that i made after studying Alex Williamson and his methods for presenting information digitally. This collage was made to demonstrate the effects air pollution can have on both people and places. The girl is seen clutching her throat whilst wearing a mask, which is significant as it suggests how air pollution can cause sever diseases such as throat cancer or lung cancer, which as a result is causing her to choke. Furthermore, the skyline of London is completely covered by a thick layer of red mist which is symbolic of air pollution and how it creates an apocalyptic environment, due to the damage it causes. All of these photographs are primary source, with the red mist being an enlargement of my ink photos. Alex Williamson ultimately inspired me to create my collages digitally since it enable me to layer and alter the photographs i have taken, which allows me to present information in a new format.