Although Liam Stevens‘ skilful drawings are impressive enough, we like his work because he’s taken it a step further, creating miniature sets, which are then softly lit and beautifully photographed.
His drawings themselves are rich in contrasting textures and tones. Often showing vast natural scenes, areas of smaller, more precise detailing are set next to deeper, more expressive dark shades drawn with a heavier hand, giving a nice range or feeling throughout one piece.
In other work such as Vol. 7 of ‘Living Things’ by independent publishers, Little Otsu, Liam deconstructed his drawings and rebuilt them as these amazing dioramas.
They literally bring a new dimension to his work, with lighting bringing mood and atmosphere. We especially like the jaguar skulking in the shadows, while its prey graze in the softer light, unaware. He tells us more about how he works.
I predominantly work with my mechanical 0.7mm Pentel pencil, scalpel, paper and a little digital for slight adjustments etc. I keep a note book handy whenever I possibly can as I find ideas suddenly manifest at any time – It’s always good to make a jotting for future reference and work through them as and when.
I have been working on an animated music video for a while now and that is due to be released soon-ish. So, my illustration work more recently has mainly been little visual experiments and one off pieces to keep my brain refreshed while I am engaged in this heavier, more time-consuming animation project.
At the moment I am trying to learn and sharpen my understanding of the animation process so that in the not too distant future I may be able to more confidently work towards a short I have loosely storyboarded.
The picture below is the view from my desk.
© Liam Stevens, 2012
