The Where I'd Rather Be Series was Annie Lee's first self-initiated project with the intention of trying out 'responsive' illustration where she really took her time to look at particular images or ideas and then responding to those images by creating her own image. It was inspired by Slim Aaron's Photographic Works. Slim Aaron was a kind of lifestyle photographer who took a lot of photos of the rich and famous in leisure or on vacation.
I did these series also as a kind of escapism for my own rather depressing school holiday where I spent most of my time working in retail. I decided to try decontextualise small elements like certain figures, colours and shapes from a few of his photographs that I really liked and then compose a new image. I used gouache to paint the figures and then edited them digitally with Photoshop and Illustrator.
-Annie Lee
Slim Aaron's
Although the title of the Series is Where I'd Rather Be, there is no definite sense of space in my final works but rather a feeling of a place or motifs and symbols that hint a place. The whole series ended up being quite decorative so I decided to print them as postcards and then send it off to a friend who was abroad in her holiday.
-Annie Lee
To my fellow aspiring artist, I would tell them to keep at it and not to fear mistakes or making bad works because that's what I want to hear as an aspiring artist myself. :D
-Annie Lee
About Annie Lee
Annie Lee is a student and currently completing my BFAs at College of Fine Arts in Sydney majoring in Drawing and Graphic Design. She is inspired by a range of different images and ideas from various pop culture, films, documentaries, books, design and art but she feels like there are too many images and ideas thrown at us today; so constantly and from everywhere. You can see more of Annie's work at Behance or Tumblr.