Martin O’Neill is an English illustrator and artist, living on the South East coast of the UK with his family. Although he was born in London, he is of Irish decent. He creates his work through collages, photography, paint and digital techniques/software. He has a large and diverse range of international clients who are based doing design, installation, advertising and publishing work.
O’Neills work has an easily recognisable style which is rather unique. He has a pop art kind of style, as he cuts out, alters and layers very colourful geometric shapes which usually sit on top of a black and white image that is incorporated into the piece. I am specifically looking at O’Neill’s digital skills, and how he uses software such as photoshop to create his work.
When I was using Photoshop for my work, I created layers which after being altered to certain specifications, would build up my piece. O’Neill uses the same digital technique as I did with my work. I believe that he also creates piece by hand, then scans them into a computer to be altered further then reprinted and manipulated more by hand.
Image 1
The piece below seems to be of a boxer that has either been defeated, or has just won. Either way, his emotion can’t be seen, therefore it can only be assumed how he feels. To create this work, I am unsure as to whether he has created it all by hand, all digitally or a bit of both. I think he has created the background digitally, as there are so many layers, which are all perfectly straight lines.
I really like the colours in this piece. This is because there is such a range of colours and patterns. I also believe, the colours may suggest the boxers emotion, as they are all vibrant and celebratory, is very happy. He may be lay down with over excitement or exhaustion. I find the shapes are satisfying to my visual eye because they are all directed the same, as well as being nice clean edges.
Image 2
The piece below is a portrait of a male, that has gradually come apart as it gets further up his head. I don’t think this is of O’Neill himself. I am unsure exactly what he is trying to suggest, but there is an implication that as you look at a person, the closer to the brain you look, the less you are aware of what is going on for that person. To know a person is almost like a puzzle and you can gradually put all the piece together to make a person, and looking at this male, we are completely unknown to what happens in his mind, therefore the pieces are missing. There is a small range of colours, which I don’t know if there is any meaning to. Most of them suggest the extremes of emotions, such as blue being sad/calm feelings and red being lust or anger.
I like the geometric shapes and and how they are scattered across the image. They are very bold shapes with sharp edges therefore they are clear and strong. This picture plays on a variety of my emotions. Initially I feel frustration because I cant work out what message O’Neill is trying to portray. Then I begin to identify other emotions such as what the male in the image is feeling, either misery or happiness, which makes me feel conflicted about the positive and negative emotions.
I would really like to work using this technique of having my own style, such as the black and white image then pulling it apart with geometric shapes. I would also like to further my skills on photoshop, and develop the knowledge to alter an image like these pieces.
Lotti Ducksbury 