Sara Fanelli is a Childrens illustrator who works largely with collage taking influence in surrealist methodology often linked to German or Czech surrealism. [1]

"I look at photography and film - Bauhaus, Russian constructivist, surrealist, 1960's art - and i also find inspiration from popular art and primitive art"[2]
Her influences such as surrealism can be seen in her simplistic, yet unique character design, with her mash of patterns, textures, words and photography.

 

this was my first experiment trying to emulate Sara Fanellis work,taking influence from the onion's great escape by working outside the intended size akin to the books mix and match nature having a smaller book within it, creating it's own narrative when separated from the book.

 [3] The onion's great escape 

This piece is a collage using textured paper and news print alongside vintage photography.

The second Experiment was based off Fanelli's experiment "think of an elephant"

 

[4] "think of an elephant"

She describes her work as [4]"an organic process" which is apparent in her loose and contemporary style, using watercolour to create a base shape and then acrylic and photography to give definition to it's features, using cut out letters to annotate it.

 

I feel that this experiment turned out the best, looking at how Fanelli creates characters, I used digital process for this giving me more free reign over the textures and materials I have used. 

This piece looked at how Fanelli created collaged characters.

[5] royal mail stamp

 

[6] Ron Arad Milan show invite

Body shapes are more often just one shape containing a pattern or texture, I liked the heart or bean head shape she had used in the Milan show invite as it extenuated the nose. using red and blue as my main colours with a light yellow to dissipate any harshness created. Adding a graphical but mild background to contrast with the organic shapes in the foreground.

This ink work was based of Fanellis sketchbook pages, she would often work in ink on lined, toned paper and black and blue ink. Fanelli often incorporates quotes from surrealist artists in her sketches as well.

 

[7] [8] sketchbook pages 

using brown paper, blue ink and using a quote from k.j.bishop i took inspiration from these pages using the same kind of methods fanelli would using only brush right on the page without any fore-planning.  

[9] "It's bolder than a pen and I like to allow the mark itself to suggest the direction the drawing should take; but you have to draw with knowledge - it's only when you have control over the drawing that you can let it have that freedom."

References:

[1] The Guardian.
[2] Heller, S.
[3] Fanelli, S.

[4] Phaidon.

[5] Fanelli. S.

[6] Fanelli. S.
[7] Fanelli. S.
[8] Fanelli. S.
[9]Carey. J.

Bibliography:

Carey. J. 2004.  Dynamic doodles. [online]. [accessed 4th December]available from: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/apr/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview8
Fanelli, S. 2012. The onion's great escape. England. Phaidon Press.
Fanelli. S. [Date unknown]. royal mail stamp. [online]. [accessed 4th December] available from: http://www.sarafanelli.com/docs/portfolio/10.html 
Fanelli. S. [Date unknown]. Ron Arad Milan show invite. [online]. [accessed 4th December] available from: http://www.sarafanelli.com/docs/portfolio/17b.html
Fanelli. S. [Date unknown]. Sketchbook pages. [online]. [accessed 4th December] available from: http://www.sarafanelli.com/docs/portfolio/18b.html
Fanelli. S. [Date unknown]. Sketchbook pages. [online]. [accessed 4th December] available from:http://www.sarafanelli.com/docs/portfolio/18a.html
The Guardian. 2011. Sara Fanelli - a life in pictures. [online]. [Accessed 2nd December 2015]. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2011/mar/31/childrens-books-7-and-under
 Phaidon. 2012. The thought-provoking illustrations of Sara Fanelli. [online]. [accessed 4th december]. available from: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2012/april/02/the-thought-provoking-illustrations-of-sara-fanelli/