Roman Macrae Illustration

  Looking into current wars I thought about the recent tension between North Korea and the USA. However while I was researching I found quite a 'fun' article about how North Korea have been militarizing dolphins. I found this quite funny and thought it could make for a very fun illustration but I think it would also highlight the absurdness of North Korea. North Korea secretly training dolphins for WAR - 'Human swimmers cannot compete'  (Link) Looking into the more serious side of North Korea I looked into the worries of North Korea's growing nuclear power. The Unthinkable: What Would Happen If North Korea Nuked Los Angeles? In this article it humors the idea of the possibility of nuclear war with the USA and also talks about the sheer amount of destruction and chaos that would occur. I really like this article just because of how weird it is to read about. The article almost feels 'happy-go-lucky' which is really strange and almost sinister to read. I have ...

  When looking into more civil wars I looked in the Yemen Crisis. I found some recent opinionated articles that looked at how the new Biden-Harris administration should make ending the conflict a ‘priority for both strategic and humanitarian reasons’. I liked how this article had a focus on the recent news of the election and gave a very positive and proactive stance. Ending the Yemen war is both a strategic and humanitarian imperative  (Link) In the article it also highlights the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organisation and also describes Prince Muhammed Bin Salman as having ‘no military training’ and having ‘engaged in multiple human rights violations’. I do think this article almost idolises the USA as being the only thing that can stop the war and doesn’t touch on their involvement in it enough. I do want to perhaps look more into the effect of war on civilians and I think Yemen is a perfect example of this. Looking at the countless photos and videos of the destruction ...

  https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/23/the-yemen-civil-war-arms-bonanza/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/11/16/ending-the-yemen-war-is-both-a-strategic-and-humanitarian-imperative/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/opinion/armenia-azerbaijan-peace-deal.html https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/19/ceasefire-agreement-azerbaijan-great-risks-armenia https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/fragile-ceasefire/article33119969.ece https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0H3TJchQ4U&t=33s https://globalriskinsights.com/2020/11/north-koreas-recent-nuclear-advances-what-are-the-implications-for-european-security/ https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/rethinking-north-korea-how-bad-would-it-be-to-let-kim-jong-un-keep-his-nuclear-weapons https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1359809/North-Korea-news-Kim-Jong-Un-war-dolphins-military-satellite-images-world-war-3-latest https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/trend-lines/29239/the...

 

  Researching around the topic of War and Conflict I looked heavily into civil wars and I looked into the conflict of Armenia and Azerbaijan. I came across this article in the New York Times which had some language that I found really interesting. In the article it talks about how the conflict has 'frozen' and refers to it as a 'frozen conflict' which I think could be made into a very interesting illustration. As well as this it talked about how this was only temporary so there's this tension that I think could be used in an illustration, perhaps over a two page spread. A Quick End to a Dangerous War  (Link) This conflict also presents ideas of foreign intervention, religious conflict and the affects of war. The images used in the article were quite powerful with images depicting buildings on fire and giant tank vehicles. These gave me visual direction and also gave me even more ideas about tension, one of them being people being frozen in time or in blocks of ice t...

  4 – Magazine Topic/Genre (discovering   magazines on your personal interests) PUNK was a magazine created by cartoonist John Holmstrom in 1975. It was a vehicle to talk about the underground punk scene in New York at the time. The magazine uses a combination of illustrations and  photography. Each issue is vibrant and striking and I love how each of them looks.  My favorite cover is this one of Patti Smith illustrated by Steve Tailor who was a recurring illustrator in the magazine. I love how bold and vibrant it is and it almost feels like a comic book cover which I love.

  3 – Magazine Design (page layouts, type, photograph and illustration) Kinfolk is a magazine focused  on bringing more and more nature into peoples lives. The way that their covers are laid out and the colours used brings a very calming and soft feeling. The use of bright colours  like white paired with very soft lighted photography brings a calming affect.  I think that this way of setting out the covers is intentional to create this very clean and simple look.