Liam Brazier

All

Animation

Character Design

Conceptual

Fantasy

Graphic

People

Pop

Visual design for Netflix TUDUM – A global fan event

Zoom

Find similar

Ghostbusters Tribute Artwork for Galaxy Comic Con 2020

Zoom

Find similar

All the Credit, All the Reward' – Star Wars Commissioned Artwork

Zoom

Find similar

Paris Games Week Event Features Watch Dogs

Zoom

Find similar

Eye-catching listings artwork commissioned by Radio Times

Zoom

Find similar

The man with the digital scalpel

Somebody say something about corners and edges.

Training

After completing a National Diploma in General Art & Design at Southend College of Art and Design, Liam specialised in illustration and completed a BA at the Kent Institute of Art and Design.

Approach

When he first started out, Liam would painstakingly cut each shape out with a scalpel, using different coloured papers to construct a final piece. Today, he has distilled this process down to a digital one, drawing and colouring his shapes in software. “I am also a fond of strong saturated colours, often using them to suggest depth. Overall each piece becomes a giant puzzle I create, and piece together, and see complete as a work,” he says.

Styles

Liam’s goal is to use shapes and colours to show the planes of an object, depicting three-dimensional forms on a two-dimensional surface. He tries to use as few shapes as possible in doing so. It is often likened to low poly art, but his intention is different. Using both his imagination and Adobe After Effects, Liam pushes the boundaries in both still images and animation.

Impressions

Interview

Website

Send Enquiry

Interview

What led you to become an illustrator?It was certainly one part people telling me I was somewhat adept at drawing at a young age, and an equal part being wholly inadequate at every other profession.Did you study illustration at college?I studied art and design at college (near my home town), specialising in illustration in the third year, before undertaking my BA degree for the same at a now non-existent university (nothing to do with me!) in Kent.Where did you grow up?In a town on the estuary of the Thames. With sea air in my lungs, and a chip on my shoulder.Where do you live now and what drew you there?My now wife and I moved to London about eight years ago, primarily to be nearer her workplace, but also to escape the confines of small-town mentality. London, and indeed many cities, have a vibrancy and life that’s hard to verbalise, but you notice it hugely when it’s absent.Describe your studio for us.I work from home, so a succession of bits-of-front-rooms generally. My wife works from home some days a week also so we share a big desk and flip a coin on what music gets played.Who or What is your biggest inspiration?The illustration style I’m best known for was really an organic evolution from coloured paper collage work I was doing in the 90s. In retrospect I believe taking a lot from Charles Sheeler’s paintings of buildings (which I adore), but ultimately just a student trying to produce work on an extreme budget, that had a stack of colourful paper and a scalpel. How do you get your ideas?I am a sponge for mass media generally - I mean even I have limits but popular culture is my jam. Whether it be riffing on something well known, or an editorial piece of something entirely new I do always attempt to visualise something in a new way however.Do you collect anything?I probably have more Star Wars toys now than I did as a child of the 80s. Young me would be jealous.What are your interests outside of illustration?Playing guitar kept me (relatively) sane throughout art university, that’s for sure. It’s a hobby, but one that tunes out all the otherwise busy parts of my head. I am also a self-taught animator of course. Which, while I love it, is really a natural extension to the illustration for me.Tell us about a favourite project you’ve recently completed.A close friend and their partner have very recently come to the end of a long, extremely arduous journey of opening their debut restaurant. I was very honoured to be involved in a small way by providing some artwork for the dining room. What would be your dream job/commission?I’m a huge Star Wars and Disney Parks fan. I think my head would comically explode if I ever saw one of my doodles when walking around Disney World or similar. I am utterly fascinated by the process of film production also. And while in no way a concept artist, I would love to be a tiny cog in those machines behind those curtains for sure.Why is illustration such a powerful medium?Illustration, by its nature, says so much by not saying anything at all. There’s something in the process of sparking connections from viewers eyeballs to their brains within an instant, that cannot be beat.How much of your work is hand drawn?Although digital these days, every image I produce is with my hands, one line at a time. Computers streamline the process, they don’t do the work for you.How do you envisage illustration evolving?Motion becomes more and more intertwined. It seems inevitable really.Who is your art hero?My work shares practically zero connections with it, but Mike Mignola’s constant output of beautiful, minimal pieces in the comic world is overwhelmingly astounding.Do you have a method for dealing with the feeling of having no ideas?Ideas form on their own. It’s best to distract yourself and let them get on with it.