TYLER CLENDENEN

ARTIST STATEMENT

In my illustrations I create realistic but imaginative scenes in an editorial style with a focus on atmospheric depth and sensational textures. Starting from analog sketches transferred digitally, I build up layers of opaque color onto a digital canvas based on researched (or hand-taken) photos. In my most recent work MN LOVE, designed for an article about the Minnesota Polar Plunge, the primary experience focused on is the submerged feeling of being under ice cold water. I want the viewer to have a sense of what it might feel and look like under an ice covered lake. Using only dark blacks and a range of blues as a monochromatic color scheme I am able to portray not only depth of water but also temperature. The colors used are local colors but then over-brightened to emphasize detail and contrast. I also blend multiple referenced backgrounds together for the initial framework of my subject matter in order to achieve a realistic landscape but remains unrecognizable as well.

            Creating work for a calendar spread enabled me to work in the same manner as MN LOVE but exploring a different sensation for the viewer. St. Petersburg July 18 is an illustration depicting a soccer game in the heart of a Russian forest highlighting the hosting of the FIFA World Cup 2018 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Stripping away the noise and hype of professional athletics the goal was to isolate the viewer and their attention, dropping them straight into the environment remaining from an aerial view. Local colors are used in order to feature the unique colors of the Russian trees.