Tim McDonagh

Tim McDonagh is an artist and illustrator that creates a lot of portraits and landscapes with a twist. His pieces are very unusual but very recognisable. He has a very personal and unique style and his illustrations are very detailed and are at a very high quality, they are very professional. He has created artwor for Nike, Penguin, HMV, Virgin, Harley Davidson, Ryanair, Random House, Activision (Call of Duty 4) Hodder & Stoughton New York Magazine, New Scientist, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, Total Guitar, Rayne Longboards, Creative Review, The Hollywood Reporter, PORT, Howler, Vibe, CNBC, Bloomberg Businessweek, Wired

This here is one of my favourite and most relevant pieces of work that Tim has created. The image shows Joey Barton stood in the centre of the page and he is stood in a strong pose. It is a medium shot, showing just the torso and no legs. The image is very detailed and has been done by drawing out the design and inking it all on paper. This is them scanned in and coloured digitally. The image is very packed and it has a lot going on in the background. The colour is quite dark in the background and the subject in the design was lighter, this makes him stand out more. The image doesn't use much shading, this is because of the style of his art, he mainly uses block shading. The image mainly has subtle colouring and all of the colours are all similar types of colour. However, there is highlights of bright, vibrant pink. This catches the eye because of the high contrast between the pink and the dark blue. The image is very bold and could be used on a magazine cover. 

His work appeals to my genre of music and my target audience because of the themes and the people in his artwork. For example, the image above has a man covered in tattoos and smoking. Rock's audience is often associated with having lots of tattoos and smoking. Because the man is similar to the audience, they will relate to the magazine and feel like it is aimed specifically at them. I really like the image above because it is bold, it stands out, it catches the audience's attention and it is very detailed.

This next image is much more toned down than the last. Again he man is in a very similar pose with a medium shot showing just his torso. This image only features the subject and has plain background. However, it isn't plain white. The subtle, pale background works well with the strong bold vector image of the man, this is because of the high contrast levels created by the variation of dark and light in the piece. The image shows a man with a skull painted on his face and he has horns. This could be suggesting he is a devil. Either way, this makes the viewer intrigued and interested in the piece, because of this it would make a great magazine cover. It is unique and it stands out, this is what I want to have on my magazine cover. The man again has lots of tattoos all over his body, again this is relating to the audience of my magazine and my music genre. His style of art is very detailed and very cool. The thick black lines featured throughout this portrait make the image very bold and eye-catching this is important to have because it makes the audience pay attention.

This research will help me in lots of ways. Firstly, it shows me what would work on a rock magazine cover. This art style is very dark and in no means fun and bubbly. It is dark and intriguing something that a rock music should have. Secondly, it gives me an art style that I can try out myself and experiment with, I can try different poses in the same style and see if they have the same effect. I like this art style and I think it is a definite possibility to look into and develop for my magazine cover.