Michael Kirkham

Michael Kirkham
The Guardian, 2016

Michael Kirkham's approach to figures was an interesting feature of his process. He described 'carving' people from a black mass within Photoshop. From my understanding, this 'working from a point of low detail to high' is a way to be more spontaneous with design and less reliant on reference - reference being something which Michael said was not required with his style of working.

Another interesting feature and philosophy of Michael's work was his firm belief that his illustration should be innately 'clear' in its conveyance or 'illustration' of ideas, themes or scenes - even when the meaning is metaphorical etc. This is clearly evidenced within his work's simplistic but tactile and physical nature - utilising features like perspective and what he referred to as 'little men' positioning features of the illustration like the set of a play to intensely affirm what the piece visualises and describes. This play with scale and use of small modestly rendered characters is something I find especially visually appealing and helps to further overall characterise Michael's work beyond his distinct visual style.

Michael talked about how having glasses introduced to him at the age of eight could have enabled a fascination with depth visible in some of his work - describing how his new, corrected, vision enabled his perception of depth within environments that was previously more mysterious through its lack of focus.

In summary, Micheal Kirkham's accomplished, refined and graphical style of illustration can be a useful educational reference for my own work. Also his style of working is something that I can both appreciate for its creative benefits and also utilise within my own style of working.