Fine art as a factor in the development of modern art animation in the UK

Abstract

The subject of the study is the specificity of artistic and visual techniques used by the British creators of animated films, using the example of the paintings "Shaun the Sheep" and "Van Gogh. Love, Vincent." The object of research is the artistic animation of Great Britain at the beginning of the XXI century. The article reveals the trends of British animation in recent years by analyzing the elements of the visual series of cartoons created using the expressive means of classical art. The works considered in the article demonstrate the author's approaches of modern British directors in relation to the artistic and figurative solution of cartoons related to various types of fine art, for example, sculpture in plasticine animation and oil painting. The aim is to identify and characterize the visual techniques in British cartoons of the early 21st century. The research methodology presents the greatest difficulty, since it has not been fully developed in relation to the characteristics of the artistic and visual specifics of animated films, but at the same time opens up opportunities for interdisciplinary analysis. The research uses an art historical analysis, in particular a structural study of the plot and compositional features of animation. The novelty of the research is due to the fact that in Russian science the stated problem remains practically unexplored. For the first time, the paintings "Shaun the Sheep" and "Van Gogh. With love, Vincent" are considered from the point of view of means of artistic expression and in terms of meaning formation. Based on the results of the analysis, it is concluded that modern British animation proceeds by creating films in which visual arts are actively involved. This sets a high level of performance of paintings, because it requires the authors to have impeccable command of visual literacy, which allows them to achieve maximum expressiveness of images. It is likely that in the future, reliance on the artistic language of classical art and the manual labor of animators will continue to form as a specific feature of British animation.