Artist Research: Alex Heywood ✓

Alex Heywood is a digital artist. He studied animation at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design and graduated in 2017. His work is influenced by the wildlife around him and goes into areas that have a lot of nature while drawing, like forests or his backyard. His career allows him to travel often, which allows him to find different inspirations in the world around him. A lot of his work reminds me of colouring books I was given when I was younger with fine line art and plants which is nice. His work also focuses a lot on fantasy which is a book genre I loved as a kid so that also gives me nostalgia.  

The main features of his art are: 

  • Low saturated colours 
  • Thin line art 
  • Lots of plants 
  • Animals or fantasy creatures.  

Here are a few examples of his work and why I like them.

I love the bright colours. It reminds me of waiting at the bus stop while the sun is shining in my eyes.
The main thing i like about this is the variation of types of shading used. The shading in the background reminds me of the sea which fits the fish, and the fish looks almost smooth with the smoother shading
I love the detail that he added to this photo and how you can tell that there’s wind in the picture based on the direction of the hair and grass.

Here is my favourite piece of his that I found while I researched him:

I quite like how this piece looks. In this, you can see a blue ocean and a bright pink and white alien-like creature swimming through. Surrounding it, you can see plants and Algae framing the creature in the front. Your eye is drawn to the creature but once you look past that you can see that the creature eating from a school of fish while one in the background holds a shelled animal that looks like a snail. Under the creature is a collection of plants, but also a bird-like skull and a plastic shopping bag. Once I noticed the plastic bag, I realised that the image is full of little bits of plastic and rubbish that has made their way into the ocean. So, because of this, I think the artist wanted to show the side effects of littering, and how this beautiful ocean is now littered with plastic that should’ve been thrown away properly. 

I also like the artist’s use of shape, form and space, since they help improve the drawing. The colours in the image look like they have a blue tint to them, which makes sense since the picture is drawn in the ocean. The centre is vibrant, but the colours slowly get darker as it goes towards the edge.

If I do make a transcription, I think that I would start by doing a light sketch in my sketchbook, maybe doing some thumbnail sketches or sketching in areas with nature to gather ideas and inspiration. Then I’d upload the sketch and finish drawing it on there. My line art is usually much thicker than Alex Heywood’s so I would have to try and draw with a thinner one which might feel weird.

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