Laura Carlin

Laura Carlin
Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain Fournier

Laura Carlin is a playful, very graphical illustrator because of her use of rustic texture - heavily contrasted by minimal negative space and clean sans serif type. Her work is intensely traditional in its clear use of 'messy' paint mediums like watercolour, this however is nuanced by its contemporary page composition - scaling work like the trees above to consume the page creates a very digital, wallpaper or textural appearance - something that I find to be a very interesting and transformative use of the initial marks.

Her graphical and expressive use of mark-making is something I can both relate to my own work and look to for inspiration and improvement. However, children's illustration is something I am personally less interested in due to its more playful nature and therefore lack of 'refinement' and reduced relation to realism.
Her book illustration is very unique in its intertwined relationship with page - highlighting the division of each page within the illustration. this is evidenced within her book 'Iron man' where negative space on one page is heavily contrasted by solid black. She also uses this negative space on pages to create a sense of scale by drawing attention to a solitary figure - also reducing the significance and scale of text to further highlight the illustrated character.

In summary of my investigation, Laura Carlin's work - whilst not directly relating to my own - can be an important educational reference for any working illustrator or graphic designer through her unique and expressive use of contrasting negative - positive space. Also her contemporary use of rustic traditional mediums is an interesting and aesthetically appealing visual style that could be utilised across other mediums - not only Laura Carlin's specialisms (books and ceramics).