Kay Nielsen and Sam Pierpoint

Here is Sam's website.

I came across Sam's work whilst browsing online, it instantly stood out to me because his images have a variety elements to them, including three dimensional aspects as well as collage. I was intrigued by how he manages to create what look like sets from a variety of materials. There is a lot happening in the images, they are very busy to look at, however they seem to work as compositions as an image in a photograph. Because his images have three dimensional elements in them they look as though they are 3D and his compositions seem to have a sense of depth as they all have a clear foreground, middle ground and background.

He uses a great deal of contrast colours, vibrant blues and yellows against grays and blacks. In the image with the wolf he has used brighter colours in the foreground and darker colours in the background to emphasizes the distance in the image. I have tried doing a similar thing in my ‘house image’, I have tried to keep the background and the foreground colours much darker as it is the forest and then I have used brighter colours in the middle ground on the house to make it more welcoming and so that it draws the viewer's eye in straight away.

I was inspired to get this effect when I first saw Kay Nielson’s image (the very top image) on Hansel and Gretel. Kay Nielsen is one of my historical influences, a Danish illustrator from the early 20th century, 'The Golden Age of Illustration'. I am a big fan of his sense of composition. In this image the house is central which draws the viewer's eye straight to the most important element in the story and because the trees have been painted so they are long and twisted, they move the eye upwards to the top of the image. Not only does this emphasize that the children are in the middle of a dark evil forest but it masks the real danger of the house (the evil witch inside) and literally 'paints' the house in a good light.When viewing this image the house is a great contrast against the dark evil looking forest, it looks really welcoming which is effective because in the tale of Hansel and Gretel the house stands for hope and safety for the children who are hungry, lonely, lost and scared in the forest.