Research 5.0

Visual language

I chose to look at Lisk Feng’s work, mostly because I had no idea who she was and, after a quick image search for each artist, I was particularly intrigued by her style. She has also worked on children’s books recently and I was interested by this.

Lisk Feng

Key words (that reflect the visual language of commissioned work)

Media and mark-making

Lisk Feng begins by sketching and establishing the lines and shapes and composition, before finishing her images digitally, primarily using Photoshop. She loves to draw with traditional media, and this can be seen by the way she utilises these textures and layers in her work. Sometimes, she will scan in handmade textures to use in her digital illustrations, to give a traditional feel. Lisk enjoys replicating textures and layering colours, then altering the tone of the whole image to establish the atmosphere. Digital work is faster, which means she can complete more commissioned work this way, while still achieving the handmade, luxuriously layered style.

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Is her commissioned or professional work political, dealing with issues, interpretive, reflecting narrative, informative, representational, decorative or stylised?

Lisk has created illustrations for numerous clients; lots of this was editorial work, with some of her clients being The New York Times, Buzzfeed and The Washington Post. Even though this work is not necessarily narrative, she still manages to build a world and hide details that intrigue the viewer.

Lisk’s work is often representational and lots of her images reflect a narrative. Her work can also be described as stylised, due to her bold, curvaceous and slightly distorted shapes and blocky, layered colours. For example, her book Everest has an image of the mountain on the cover, which is stylised but still recognisable.

The mirror room created for Buzzfeed is an editorial piece, but we, as the viewer, start to build a story for the character by looking at this image. We know from the representational image that the woman is looking in a hall of mirrors that are reflecting her distorted body back at her. However, the story comes from the other details; a black background, so perhaps the character is in a dark mental space; shards covering the floor, possibly indicating frustration at what the woman sees in the mirrors; and the looming, curve of mirrors, almost crowding the woman, casting a shadow and potentially indicating a feeling of confrontation about her identity.

On the other hand, some pieces show no signs of distortion; for instance, the illustrations for Chanel, like the perfume bottle, which is clean, uses realistic colours and is completely representational. The pieces for Apple to celebrate the Chinese New Year show distortion in places – like the dog – but are very true to life in others – such as the bowls and chopsticks.

All pieces still show off Lisk Feng’s style, though – her use of colour and layering is particularly distinctive.

2D, 3D or 4D?

Two-dimensional work

Write a short statement of no more than 200 words to describe their work and visual language. What connections do you think exist between their sketchbooks and their creative identity or illustrative style?

Lisk Feng builds whimsical worlds within each of her illustrations that encourage the viewer to immerse themself in the hidden details. Her use of colour is layered, bold and rich; her use of texture ensures her digital images maintain an authentic hand drawn quality. Lisk’s images are stylised, distorted, but not to the point of being unrecognisable. They are representational of the subject matter; Lisk extracts essential aspects and incorporates these into her narrative pieces, creating intriguing scenes that draw the viewer in. With all this luscious pattern and colour, areas of space are used carefully to give balance to her work, whether this be a plain background or a block colour shape.

Lisk Feng’s sketchbook work is varied; sometimes black and white ink doodles, sometimes pencil sketches, and sometimes colourful, blocky drawings – still stylised and slightly distorted. It is as if her sketchbook work establishes line and shape (and sometimes palette), while her commissioned work focuses on layers of texture and colour. Lisk uses her sketchbooks space to focus on creating the composition that will have the most impact, then gives it her signature colour treatment afterwards.

Bibliography

Behance. (s.d.) Lisk Feng. At: https://www.behance.net/liskfeng  (Accessed on 22/04/20)

Chiu, C. (2017) Lisk Feng — A whimsical fantasy world. At: https://medium.com/themigratory/lisk-feng-a-whimsical-fantasy-world-8ba8253b7c79 (Accessed on 22/04/20)

Feng, L. (s.d.) Lisk Feng. At: http://liskfeng.com/  (Accessed on 22/04/20)

Fulleylove, R. (2017) Lisk Feng adopts a more conceptual and experimental approach for her latest works. At: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/lisk-feng-illustration-131117 (Accessed on 22/04/20)

Instagram. (s.d.) Lisk Feng. At: https://www.instagram.com/liskfeng/?hl=en (Accessed on 22/04/2020)

Newman, R. (2018) Illustrator Profile – Lisk Feng: “Believe in your work. Love what you do.” At: https://www.ai-ap.com/publications/article/22135/illustrator-profile-lisk-feng-believe-in-your.html (Accessed on 22/04/2020)