Something I think really clever and have great admiration for, whatever the medium, size or range…is sculpting. I was delighted therefore to be contacted by Lizzie Campbell, who sent me a link to her portfolio and with a view to featuring her work. Lizzie works predominantly in polymer clay and re-imagines film characters and creates her own posters, which I love and was keen to feature her. I asked Lizzie to tell us a bit more about her work.
I’ve been interested in art and illustration all of my life, after being hugely inspired by Jim Davis and Tony Hart as a youngster in the 80’s. After some twists and turns in my career, I made the decision to return to study a few years back, and swiftly signed up to do a visual communication degree, specialising in illustration. This really allowed me to focus on different aspects of the illustrative arts, and to really experiment with different ideas and mediums.
Although I love to draw, I was having difficulties in finding a style or medium I was happy with until I stumbled across air-dry clay at a creative workshop. I felt an immediate connection with the material and began work on a fairy large scale project, ‘May Contain Spoilers’ – where I re imagined around 40 horror and dark genre movie scenes using clay models, props and miniature dioramas. You can see the project at HERE (and see how many you can guess while you’re over there!)
I still felt quite limited by air-dry clay as it’s a fairly cumbersome material to work with, both in terms of sculpting and painting and I wasn’t always achieving the results I wanted. Luckily, I discovered polymer clay a short while after and I was hooked straight away. It’s a very different medium to air dry clay as polymer has to be conditioned before use – which can be a killer on the hands, and there’s a constant battle of wits when sculpting against tiny airborne fibres and contamination of colours. It’s all worth it though as I love the boldness of my finished pieces as I think they really come alive through photographic illustration.
And so, Clay Disarray was born at the end of last summer. I named the project after the madness it brought to my minimalist studio, as my desk is now situated among boxes of polymer, props and various works in progress at any given time! It was quite a difficult transition for a neat freak, but at long last, I’m kind of getting used to it.
Through Clay Disarray and my love of movies, I’ve worked on a number of alternative movie posters which has helped me to establish an overall aesthetic for my work, and I’m really excited to see it progress and evolve in the coming months and years.
Although I think of myself primarily as an illustrator, I’ve also adopted an artist title as I’ve recently started work on a series of miniature sculptures and dioramas to sell through my own online shop. Through promoting my work on Twitter, Facebook, et al, I’ve also been contacted by various stockists, which is brilliant news – and this more than demonstrates the power of social media for all artists out there. Get stuck in, folks!
I’ve loads of plans for the future of Clay Disarray, and I’d like to experiment with some animation in the months ahead, as well as offering some video tutorials. I think because it’s still a very young project, I’m not limited by any expectations of myself or others – so I guess it’s really a case of watch this space!
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