Happy Accident 2006

INTRODUCTION

The exhibition is divided into four chapters: Early Years, Stereotyping, A New Vision and The Future? The work is not presented chronologically but the images are grouped together to indicate my understanding of my own working methods and my emotional response to them. Client feedback also plays its part in the way I have arranged the images and information contained within each caption.

I am a teacher, this exhibition is designed to be suitable for Teaching and Learning purposes.

If Students are to learn desired outcomes in a reasonably effective manner, then the teacher’s fundamental task is to get students to engage in learning activities that are likely to result in their achieving those outcomes...It is helpful to remember that what the student does is actually more important in determining what is learned than what the teacher does. (Thomas J. Schuell 1986)

This exhibition can be used as a learning resource for those interested in commercial image making. I hope that the discussions and arguments that this exhibition provokes will evolve into a larger project.

Karl Foster, February 2006

If was speaking to you now I would find this much easier. I prefer talking but writing will have to suffice. In 2005 I took part in a School of Graphic Design teaching staff exhibition held at the London College of Communication. This opportunity forced me to create some new pieces of work. The standard of this work had to be high as it would be compared to the work of my peers in the exhibition. I was pleased by the content of the exhibition for two reasons: it allowed me to see just how talented my peers are outside of the lecture room and learners were able to see that tutors have a creative life outside the teaching room. Many students mentioned this to me at the time.

Fast forward 6 months, I decided that I would like to have a solo exhibition (my first). What should I show? Could I make the new work necessary for this enterprise? After a couple of hours of reflection I decided the new work could not be made until I had addressed my existing output. I therefore considered the retrospective.

A retrospective? I had been a freelance illustrator for only 13 years not long when compared to Janet Woolleys 30 years in the business. Then I remembered Richard Parent who died in his thirties several years ago his short lifes output is his retrospective. This exhibition will be mine.

Happy Accident 2006

EARLY YEARS

I wasn’t. What did I want for my life? I had deep and meaningful conversations that stretched into the night. I knew I had to make images and that they had to be of a high quality but I left Maidstone as a demoralised person. I had been drained by years of emotional turmoil and frustrations.

I went to Leeds and joined a Fine Art studio and tried to get myself together again. I had deep and meaningful conversations that stretched into the night. Soon the south came calling and I returned to my Homeland.

Now how to Survive in this new ‘independent’ mode of my life. I never again had deep and meaningful conversa-tions that stretched into the night.

The work in this chapter is probably my most honest and pure in execution. My core values are on show. However working as an illustrator in the Design Industry began to change me and the content of my output.

At this time I was very superior minded and felt ambivalent about humanity (part of me still does) my work was above such considerations. I had to prostitute myself to make ends meet. This is what a life spent waiting for the phone to ring (no Fax or Internet then), listening daily to Radio 4 with no cat to stroke can do to one.

I have always drawn and been drawn to expressing my thoughts as visual signs. I drew all over my grandparents nice wallpaper, on my clothes and sometimes on myself. My mother was a printer and during my lunchtime visits to the Acton Vale Printworks the complex and energetic machinery had a profound and lasting effect on me. At age 5 I resolved to become an artist. But I thought humans did not make art any more because machines did the work. Leonardo Da Vinci had been dead for more than 400 years which to a 5 year old (who believed the world was created in 6 days) was an unimaginable length of time. Born too late.

I loved my art classes at secondary school, I loved Marvel and DC comics, Leonardo of course and at 18 I discovered the work of Albrecht Dürer. He is still a big influence on me. I fancied myself the descendant of Dürer and the heir to John Bryne the comic book illustrator. Illustration is in my blood.

I studied for a degree in Graphic Design at Maidstone College of Art 1985 - 1988, reality check time. I was discouraged and criticised at Maidstone. I was abused and called a fraud and that I should think about leaving.I thought fuck the tutors (in fact I said those very words to the Course Director). I survived somehow after all Dürer was my ancestor and Morrissey seemed to be having hard time and he kept going. I used the three years of my degree to discover who I was and who

Happy Accident 2006Happy Accident 2006

All You Can Eat © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink, Collage and Sketchbook cover. Book jacket design for Secker and Warburg. This is on of my favourite images because the way it developed was organic and instinctive. It comes from the days when I produced work for the love of making a piece of art. The feedback from the publisher was enthusiastic but the image was not published. The art director Angus Hyland re-used the image from the Hardback version of the book. Many people have asked me if I was inspired by the work of Jasper Johns. I can honestly say no I had never seen Johns work with American flags. I have now but I think I was after something that Johns never had to consider. I was trying to solve a problem for an illustration commission nothing more.

Caribbean Nations © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink, Collage and Sketchbook cover. This self initiated image was designed to convince publishers that if they had a Caribbean cookbook, poetry book etc. I was the person for the job. No job ever came out of this piece of work and I dropped it from my portfolio after 18 months. Making this image was a pure joy I can still taste my excitement. The technique I used was inspired by the image All You Can Eat - also featured in this exhibition.

Happy Accident 2006

Happy Accident 2006

Top - Brooklyn Lager © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink and Collage. This image is based on the All You Can Eat book jacket design - also featured in this exhibition. I felt I had discovered an excellent method of image creation and realised the striking power that national flags can have when included in a design.

Bottom left - Tea cup © Karl A. Foster 1993 Acrylic and Watercolour. This commission could not be more simple - “paint a tea cup with tea in it please.” I also managed to paint this image in only a couple of hours.

Bottom right - The Key to Poetry © Karl A. Foster 1993 Acrylic and Watercolour. I had to research musical notes and scales to produce this image. This tiny jewel of an image was a real pleasure to create and it took me a couple of hours. My work rate had started to speed up. I felt more confident as a professional.

Three images created for the Observer Magazine.

Anthills of the Savannah © Karl A. Foster 1992, Acrylic and Watercolour. Book Jacket cover idea. Painted for showing at a group exhibition Picture This.

Happy Accident 2006

Anthills of the Savannah © Karl A. Foster 1988, Acrylic and Watercolour. Book Jacket cover idea. Painted during a state of meditation. I was inspired by the work of Australian artist Sidney Nolan. The blue pigment in the red earth is painted onto raised texture 2 mm above the support.

Top - Native Son © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic and Watercolour. Image created to reflect my interpretation of a scene from the Richard Wright novel. This image originally had a blue section to help illustrate the stars and stripes flag better (see example bottom left).

Bottom Right - W. Tell © Karl Foster 1994, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink and Collage. Self initiated image for exhibition with potential for Design Company commissions. The creation of this piece of work came through much violence against the original much more static image. I refer to this method of releasing creativity in my feedback to learners. Destruction is an act of creation.

Happy Accident 2006

Happy Accident 2006

Above - The Outsider © Karl A. Foster 1989, Acrylic, Watercolour and Collage. Self initiated image inspired by the novel by Albert Camus. Use of the photograph of the boat came after looking at my Aunt’s Barbados photos. Luckily she let me have the photo to use in the image.

Right - Arabesques © Karl A. Foster 1989, Acrylic, Watercolour and Ink. Actual book jacket design for the Anton Shammas novel. This image came to me in a dream. This novel is fascinating and has stayed with me since 1989. The green sky came from an fragment of texture that I had painted green to pass the time between jobs. I was asked to produce a colour rough by the art director and in an attempt to show how the textures in my work would look I grabbed the green sky texture and red paint and quickly complied a rough and rushed to Penguin Books. This was the start of a great career as an illustrator - how wrong I was this was a high point. It was 1996 before I felt that things were back on track.

Happy Accident 2006

Apple Computer or Acorn? © Karl A. Foster 1991, Acrylic and Watercolour. Newspaper article Illustration. This images proves why I should never be asked to produce a finished Illustration in black and white and I should have refused the commission. Colour is essential for maintaining success in my work. I did not enjoy painting this image when it was published I liked it even less.

The Guardian (detail) © Karl A. Foster 1996, Acrylic and Watercolour. Magazine article illustration. Some times we produce things that show how near madness we really are.

I hope that students of art, design and communication will look upon this image and realise that they should never follow this example when it comes to their own work.

Happy Accident 2006

Loyalty © Karl A. Foster 1996, Acrylic and Watercolour. Magazine article illustration. Black and white commission but successful this time. I like the way this image is constructed almost as strong as my colour images.

The use of hand rendered typography in this image is very necessary and I was happy to use it in my work.

Happy Accident 2006

Invisible Man © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink and Collage. Self initiated book jacket image inspired by the Ralph Ellison novel. I used to read a book and then design an image to work as a book jacket design. In my portfolio of 1989 when I started out 99% of its content related to book jacket ideas. By 1997 there were no images designed as book jackets left in my portfolio.

I wanted to make sure that my work showed subjects that related to people of African origin. I saw this as a strength in my work but no art directors understood this and none of my commissions ever contained an afro-centric content.

Happy Accident 2006

Borneo Man © Karl A. Foster 1992, Acrylic, Watercolour, ink and Collage. Self initiated image intended to convince Anita Roddick of my new age credentials. It did not succeed. Currently on a friends wall as a wedding present.

I enjoyed the freedom of the painterly approach in this image. I would use this technique in a more controlled manner when I developed my new vision in 1996.

Paradise Lost © Karl A. Foster 1992, Acrylic and Watercolour. Self initiated image inspired by Milton’s great poem. I was born in the same village that Milton spent the last years of his life in (blind and in exile). I felt an affinity towards Milton and his depiction of the first anti-hero. The original of this image was exhibited in the Martin X show ‘Start’ in 1995.

Happy Accident 2006

Happy Accident 2006

Madonna with Camcorder © Karl A. Foster 1991, Acrylic, Watercolour and Collage. Early example of humour at work in this image which was created for a group exhibition Picture This where it was sold. I am influenced by cave, fresco and icon paintings and have used them for inspiration many times. I wanted some of my work to have an aged appearance to simulate the authority of the past.

Happy Accident 2006

Morocco © Karl A. Foster 1991, Acrylic, Watercolour and Collage. Self initiated image designed to impress art editors to commission me to produce travel article illustrations. Also exhibited in the group exhibition Picture This.

Happy Accident 2006

The Prophet © Karl A. Foster 1991, Acrylic, Watercolour and Collage. Self initiated image designed to show that I can produce portraits. Feedback on this image by one art director is that I should paint a portrait of someone famous so that he could conceive my work in a real design context. I never did paint a portrait of a famous person.

Riddley Walker EUSA in the Hart uv the Wud © Karl A. Foster 1988, Acrylic and Watercolour. I have had an intimate relation-ship with the post apocalyptic novel by Russell Hoban for 20 years, I have read it 5 times. I often created the scene of EUSA in the Hart uv the Wud and I am thinking about producing a short animation next time.

Happy Accident 2006

Riddley Walker EUSA in the Hart uv the Wud © Karl A. Foster 1991, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink, Collage and Sketchbook cover. The Christ figure in this image was taken from the image above. I liked the image of the Christ and did not wish to recreate it.

Top - Othello 2 © Karl A. Foster 1992, Acrylic and Watercolour. This version contains more emotional depth and has a stronger composition. I find this image more satisfying to look at.

Bottom - Othello © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic and Watercolour. This image was created for the month of July for a mid year calendar. I was happy with this image and think the expanse of colour contrasts with the detailed painting of Othello’s appearance well. I found that I was not satisfied with the image after a few weeks. I did however sell the artwork in a group exhibition a year later.

Happy Accident 2006

Happy Accident 2006

Penelope’s Island © Karl A. Foster 1989, Acrylic, Watercolour and Collage. Book jacket design. This image is the result of a commission from an art director at Hodder and Stoughton who took great pleasure in spending an hour telling me how inadequate modern illustration is. I simply informed him that “I am a professional and I know my job.” He commissioned me on the spot. His art direction was heavy handed and the resulting illustration is disappointing and the final book jacket which he over-designed is one of the most appalling things I have ever seen. This was the type of job where you realise how little respect there is out there for illustration and illustrators

Happy Accident 2006

Software Help Line © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic and Watercolour. Magazine article image. I have included this image because it is so poor. It is one of the worst images I have had the misfortune to create. It is so poor because I had very little understanding of the subject of computer software back in 1990. My research methods still needed some fine tuning I realised that as an illustrator I needed to become more of a generalist and to tackle subjects that I was totally ignorant of. This approach has helped me to improve as a designer and support learners in my role as an academic.

Happy Accident 2006

Top and Middle - Texture No. 1, Texture No. 2, Texture No. 3 © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink and Collage. These three images are abstract in nature and were produced to help me develop texture as expression in illustration.

Bottom - Texture No. 4 © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour, Ink and Collage. This image was once part of a CD cover design for Decca Records. It is inspired by Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata.’ I decided that an abstract image could more accurately convey the emotions that the music stirred within me.

Happy Accident 2006

Top - The Water Purifier © Karl A. Foster 1990, Acrylic, Watercolour and Pencil. Magazine article image. Finished illustration rejected but painted on reverse of initial rough. Back in 1990 necessity was the mother of invention. I often over painted on weaker images to create commissioned work. Get me that x-ray machine please.

Bottom - The Water Purifier. This image is the initial rough submitted to the client and rejected.

Top - The Master and Margarita © Karl A. Foster 1987, Acrylic and Watercolour. Book jacket image for the Mikhail Bulgarkov novel. This work was produced during my time at Maidstone College of Art it is as close to an honest painting that I have achieved. Reading this novel gave me a new understanding of the nature of faith.

Bottom - The Lion of Boaz Jachim and Jachim Boaz © Karl A. Foster 1987, Acrylic and Watercolour. Book jacket image for the Russell Hoban novel. This work was produced during my time at Maidstone College of Art is also an example of honest painting. It was my first professionally published illustration. I have always included the proof in my portfolio, it has brought me luck and some success.

Happy Accident 2006