YEAR 1 - Professional and Contextual analysis - 2/5: Jamie Hewlett

Jamie Hewlett is a British illustrator and animator. Born in 1968, Jamie grow up in an artistic environment; his father being a cartoonist and his mother into ceramics. It was quite natural, then, that Jamie enjoyed drawing from an early age to 'relax', and often went to an art college as a child to experiment with this hobby. It is in his childhood that Hewlett found some of his early inspiration - in the cartoonist Chuck Jones, he loved many of his creations; Daffy Duck, Wile E Coyote and Pepé Le Pew to name but a few. His love of the French graphic bible Metal Hurlant opened up the avenue of exploring artists such as Jean Giraud. It was through the inspiration of Hayao Miyazaki, however, while watching Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle in the Sky that gave him a love of animation. Hewlett went to Northbrook art college, and it was through college that Hewlett started making connections and collaborations to launch himself into the professional world.

I took a lot of influences from Studio Ghibli, which is the Japanese animation studio that made Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky. They're like the Japanese version of Disney - but without all the schmaltz. They make beautiful films that are also a bit dark, which is how I want Gorillaz animation to turn out. Another influence was the knockoff art that you see in Mexico. They've got such an eye for color and design there. I love it.

Atomtan was created by Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin and Philip Bond as students in Northbrook art college. Atomtan was a fanzine that was self-published, but only ran for two issues. Despite the limited success of the fanzine, it caught the attention of comicbook artist Brett Ewins, who is known for his comic Judge Dredd. Ewitt recruited both Hewlett and Martin to create content for his fledgeling magazine Deadline (the Magazine was discontinued in 1995). For Deadline, Martin wrote, and Hewlett illustrated, the comic Tank Girl. Tank Girl first made an appearence in Atomtan, however it was through the creation of Tank Girl that Jamie first got his taste of success. The popularity of Tank granted it production a movie in it's namesake. The movie, Tank Girl, was a box office failure. Although Hewlett had a small role in the production of the movie by providing concept art and storyboards, the failure of the movie left his career unscathed, and the movie fell into obscurity.

Although Tank Girl was his first popular success, it was his next product that catapulted him into the limelight, and would distinguish him from above-average comicbook artist into world-renowned illustrator. While Hewlett was working on his comic book illustrations and working on various small briefs, he met with Blur Frontman Damion Albarn. According to Hewlett, 'We'd spend hours watching MTV and wondering why everything on it was so terrible. I think Damon was tired of being the frontman for Blur, and I was just aghast at how boring most pop groups are when they're interviewed. Look at them, on television, all sat on the couch with nothing to say. So we said, "Let's make up a fake band".' It was with this that the Gorillaz were founded and worked upon. Gorillaz is a virtual band, that brings together various styles of music - from pop to trance - and the exploits of the band members Murdoc, 2D, Russel Hobbs and Noodle in the quirky tracks and music videos. Albarn and Hewlett have released 4 albums, with track Dare from their second album Demon Days reaching #1 in the UK. Unlike most cartoons where the characters mostly stay the same age, Hewlett has documented the changes within the band along the 10+ year timespan between the first album and the fourth album - 'The idea was to break some of the rules of animation. You know, cartoon characters aren't really supposed to change over time'.

When somebody asks about Jamie Hewlett, most people know him for the Gorillaz.

'But apart from the Archies they all already existed as pop groups. But Gorillaz now to us is not like four animated characters any more - it's more like an organisation of people doing new projects.' - Jamie Hewlett on reflection on the Gorillaz.

Following on from their work on the gorillaz, the partnership of Albarn and Hewlett has become a vast business venture, with many other projects of work consisting of Albarn's musical production and Hewlett's art direction. With two of their most high profile projects alongside the gorillaz, BBC Beijing 2008 animation 'Monkey' and Chinese inspired legend oprea 'Journey to the West',  they are inspired by chinese culture. On drawing inspiration when developing projects.

“I’ve always been interested in Chinese culture. I’m fascinated about everything to do with China and its history. It’s a country with a pictorial and visual culture. If you’re gonna tackle such a big project I think it’s really important to go to the country of origin with a good guide who can take show you all the right places – to immerse yourself in the culture and get a clear understanding of what you are doing. It’s all about drawing inspiration from the smells, the taste of the food, the weather, the people, the scenery and the atmosphere. It could be anything from a cigarette kiosk in a dusty side street to a Buddhist temple. So many parts of their culture feel much more real and exciting than our own. It’s an ancient culture that is still intact and not ruined by globalisation in many rural areas. There’s such a great sense of history, like the people that en masse are doing the tai chi in the square every morning before they go to work. It’s those small things that are a great source of inspiration.”

 

Bibliography

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/jul/20/art

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Hewlett

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hewlett_jamie.htm

http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/jamie-hewlett-talks-gorrilaz

http://www.bbc.co.uk/imagine/episode/damon_and_jamie.shtml

http://www.factmag.com/2009/01/01/interview-jamie-hewlett/

http://fuckyeahjamiehewlett.tumblr.com/

http://www.britishdesigninnovation.org/?page=newsservice/view&news_id=4604

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/gorillaz.html

http://www.mtv.com/bands/archive/g/gorillaz01_7q/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/monkey/7521287.stm

http://www.the2012londonolympics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11859

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Jamie_Hewlett

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/neil-gaiman-journeys-east-pen-166497

http://gorillaz.com/

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/09/damon_albarn_and_jamie_hewlett.html

http://ask.lc.mwh.reference.com/related/Jamie+Hewlett?qsrc=6&o=10601&l=dir&qid=C7BB367FF81568529FBA1C4032EB94C9&frstpgo=0&page=3&jss=