The three counter culture images I selected are from the magazine “Oz”, and two illustrations from a magazine called “Gandalfs Garden. They were all produced in the 1960’s and were inspired by psychedelic graphics and hippie philosophy. It was difficult to find images relevant to my interests because I’m not particularly interested in this movement, but I do like certain aspects of these illustrations. In the first illustration the subject really surprised me- you don’t expect to see Mona Lisa, a traditional oil painting, surrounded by psychedelic doodles. The colour scheme is also well chosen- it’s bright and gets your attention but it’s not too vibrant and difficult to look at. The artist took LSD and you can see the influence of this in his work.

For the second illustration I admire the level of detail that went into the work. The symmetry in the illustration really gives it the distinctive style in psychedelic art, and I like the collage effect and they used different mediums to create one illustration- for example photography, screen print and traditional drawing. The pastel colour scheme also is not overwhelming despite the crowded illustration- this was a good choice as a brighter colour scheme might have been too overwhelming.

For the final image I like the simplicity of it- just one surreal image of a man emerging from a egg, which fits in well with the psychedelic movement. The colours are simple and complement each other well, and it shows you don’t need over the top patterns and colours to be linked with the psychedelic movement and the art style. The magazine is a spiritual one, and I think that’s why they went for this certain look- it’s so simple and it has quite a calming effect.

Bronwich, K 2017, ‘Covering the counterculture: the 60’s underground press’, Accessed 4 December 2017, <https://www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2017/sep/23/covering-the-counterculture-the-60s-underground-press-in-pictures>

Gandalfs Garden, Issue no.1, 1968, Front Cover

Gandalfs Garden, Issue no. 3, 1967, Front Cover

Sharp, M, ‘Oz’, Issue no. 3, 1963, Front cover