MARCUS OAKLEY - CHARACTER DESIGN
The charming illustrations of Marcus Oakley capture such a great sense of fun and play, using exaggerated, unrealistic forms to communicate comical characters. Oakley's use of bright, block colours works to enhance the playful aesthetic in his work, exploring cut shapes with block colour to achieve an immediacy crucial to the success of the work. Oakley's work with black and white also achieves a strong aesthetic through consideration of texture, working with line and marks to add value to the shapes.
I am particularly concerned with the way Oakley explores rather exaggerated and free shapes, perhaps something I could echo in my collage work, allowing the knife to work more fluidly towards organic shapes. Unrealistic and irregular body shapes seem to achieve a real sense of humour and mischief, creating a playful and juvenile tone of voice.
Having started to explore character design as a means to communicate the traditions of Morris dancing, I may look to channel some of Oakley's approaches to image making, through shape and form, in order to create simplified interpretations of characters that could engage a more universal audience.
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