As I wrote in my previous posts, I wanted to look into different art movements from the era that the books were published (late 1800s-1907). HG Wells books are science fiction based and hugely influenced by future events so I wanted to look at art movements which might depict this.
I looked at De Stijl, Art Deco, Futurism and Russian constructivism.
Futurism however seemed the most obvious, appropriate art movement to look at. Futurism was all about the notion of futuristic and extraordinary technological development. It conveys an idea of scientific and technological advance. The art movement was made up of themes of classic science fiction. Futurism also suggests an idea of time, this hugely influenced Victorian writers such as HG Wells.
I bought a book from Amazon to have a look at the style of Futurism. There was one photo which inspired me, it looks futuristic and something that is inspired by the industrial revolution. It gave me ideas for a black and white line drawing type of design. It looks like a technical drawing and a design like this would work well on one of the books such as The Time Machine.
I then thought about how to go about designing for The Time Machine.. I thought about “What is time?” It is a concept of space – the past, present and future.. time zones. Time is an illusion and reality is timeless. The idea of time being a concept of space made me think of negative space in a design, that I could use “space” as part of the design.
I then thought about how to illustrate time on a book cover without using the obvious thing which is a clock itself. Also what style would I do this in?
When I think of The Time Machine I think of clocks and cogs and mechanical movements. Another art form came to mind… Steampunk.
I know absolutely nothing about Steampunk other than it is where people rally around wearing Victorian costumes and flying goggles and go to Steampunk festivals! I decided to research into exactly what it is, the style of art it produces and try and find links to HG Wells.. which I did! From researching I found that Steampunk is hugely influenced by Victorian Literature and in particular HG Wells and The Time Machine.
What is Steampunk?
Here are some images which give an idea of the look and feel.
Steampunk is a genre of Science fiction it combines historical elements with Science Fiction. It is influenced by Victorian writers; In particular HG Wells and his classic The Time Machine.
Steampunk features steam powered machinery, clockwork and electricity. It is influenced by cars, planes and machines. Steampunk was very much the Victorian eras view of science in literature and the industrial revolution in Europe in the 1800s. It is the Victorian era reimagined with modern technology that simply runs on steam power.
“What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner.”
It is all about mixing old with new. Steampunk is a visual style. It is machinery and elegance, Gothic Victorian. “Retro-Futuristic”. It is dark, dirty and grungy.
From reading my feedback from Assignment one, I was told to keep experimenting with different media. I decided that for this piece I wanted to go back to what I enjoy most and do some hand drawing. I love doing black and white ink drawings. I wanted to get a feel for what Steampunk drawings and designs look like. I watched a Skillshare tutorial by an artist called Sara Blake, her drawings are amazing. The video shows you how to take your hand drawings and alter them in Photoshop to make several different variations to us on different projects. I think that this is what I want to do. A black and white ink drawing inspired by Steampunk for all 3 of my covers and then take them into Photoshop and alter them, add colour, add effects to make it suitable for digital print such as books!
Here is the link to the skillshare video and some screen shots of Saras work.
I then decided to look at tutorials showing me how to draw Steampunk inspired drawings. I came across one on Skillshare by an artist called Charlotte Jordan in Florida, she takes you through step by step some of the techniques and methods behind achieving Steampunk.
https://www.skillshare.com/classes/Making-Your-Own-Steampunk-Masterpiece/203111889?via=watch-history
The above images are screenshots of her class. I love the Tiger piece, I love the smoke and colours from the bottle. This inspires me to try and do similar with my own designs, Tono Bungay for one in particular. Smoke is a big part of Steampunk.
pinkangeleno.com 