Books for college. A great many words arrived in the post over the last couple of days. A book called visual methodologies by Gillian Rose, illustration research methods by Rachel Gannon and Mireille Fauchon. Beginning Theory by Peter Barry and Picture This by Molly Bang. I hope the information in them will sink into my brain. Such a lot to look at and try and understand. It’s hard to take in so much, and this is just a small piece of the puzzle. I must improve my knowledge of crytical analysis. To go from descriptive to forensic. That’s hard. Generating new ideas and opinions without being opinionated. I want to try not to be cruel or condescending. To be honest and to use understandable language because some of it just feels selfish and snobbish. Hmmm.
Today’s college workshop, we had to create an image from random bits of things we had around us. I made a motorbike with mine! Can you see it?
Post it notes and bits of monoprinted paper, and a bit of maroon tissue paper as a bit of foliage. Is that a small white wheel at the front or a square orange wheel? Green handlebars, pink headlight. Black and white seat.
I’ve just got this on one of those delivery websites it only took a couple of days to arrive. I got this because of the subjects but also because each woman has an illustrated portrait. I like the way there are different styles of illustraton even thought they are by thr same illustrator. Each has different characteristics and the illustrator shows different ideas for each person.
I want to explore the work of this illustrator as she does things in a very different way to how I do things.
Where to start a story? From experience? Imagination, or a bit of both?
This was my first panel in a 9-panel illustration. You may have seen it on another blog page. Where could this go? My idea was about the problem of hoarding in the present day, consumerism, the need to have objects to comfort you. But maybe it could have gone a different route. Perhaps she visits an antiques fair and finds an undiscovered painting or a jewel that has been thought of as trash. Maybe she goes to a secondhand shop and discovers a first edition book by H Ryder Haggard. Or adds some new kittens to her family.
Is she alone, does her collection cause a conflict with relatives. Has she got enough money to feed her collecting hobby? Where does she fit all of her belongings? She might have a lock up garage that is broken into causing despair when her family heirlooms go missing. Perhaps she meets a like minded collector or the Police investigate her for keeping stolen goods?
Maybe, even, it could be a murder mystery, a jeweled dagger is amongst the effects she receives following the death of a maiden aunt from Glastonbury? Why Glastonbury? Because I’ve always wanted to visit it!
I’m doing a single page narrative of how someone’s life has changed for the worse. So I chose hoarding as it’s insideous and creeps up on people. This is close to finished but I may add more. What do you think….
We had training at work about how to try and help hoarders. You can’t just tell people to throw things away, it won’t work. People become attached emotionally to their objects, an empty biscuit box might remind them of a relative they have lost. A pair of old shoes, a romantic holiday. Each item can be invested in memories and if they lose the object they fear they can lose the memory…. Sometimes people’s lives are overwhelming, if they live on their own with not many social contacts or an illness they may no be able to cope. Who do they turn to? And there is the embarrassment factor as well. Turning friends and family away because it’s hard to admit they have a problem. That’s what this little 9 panel story is about.
This image is in CYMK colours as it may be printed later. The size has to fit an A4 page with enough margins so the ink doesn’t bleed off the edges.
Part of the college course is narrative and storytelling. The webinar today was to write a short story then retell it in different styles. We had to use headings such as metaphor, dream, vision, retrograde etc.
For instance for the subject ‘dream’ I could say :
The day was quiet when a sudden roar was heard outside the door, a figure wearing a helmet and visor appeared in the room. I shall tilt at windmills on my steed he said. I will search out dragons. I watched as he rode up our street but as he rode the landscape turned to a seascape. He was riding a seahorse, his sword raised to kill the Kraken, but it turned into a wisp of smoke and he was swallowed whole..
From this you can see I probably don’t have the ability to write fantasy stories!
As part of my illustration course I have to learn about narrative and storytelling. This weeks subject is about building tension in a story and we had to chose a book to look at:
I don’t have any graphic novels to look at, so I chose ‘Guards! Guards!’, by Terry Pratchett.
It tells the story of how Carrot, a human who was brought up as the step son of dwarves, and who may or may not be the heir to the throne, comes to join the City Guard of Ankh-Morpork and ends up fighting dragons to save the city.
The book cover is illustrated by Josh Kidby who helps raise the tension of one of the crucial scenes whilst including many of the cast of characters in the book. The illustration is full of drama but also emphasises the emotions of the guards.
Pratchett’s writing style is humorous and descriptive, he also uses the device of writing a continuous narrative, with no chapters, but swapping between different scenes which create a series of cliffhangers. His narrative carries you through the book with the images he creates almost visible to the mind’s eye:
The dragon accelerated. The drunken rooftops of Ankh-Morpork blurred as it passed over, wings sneering at the air. The neck stretched out straight ahead, the pilot flames of its nostrils streaming behind it, the sound of its flight panned across the sky.
Just reading that makes me want to read on. I can see the flames and smoke billowing around the dragon. Will Carrot and the guards overcome this monster? Does Carrot die in a blaze of heat and fire? Will a million to one chance with an arrow save them?
You can see how much I have enjoyed this fantasy story by the state of the well thumbed cover. I often look through the characters on the cover and try and match them up with those in the book. There is sometimes a mismatch between the words and the image but I think Kidby handles it well.
I don’t have permission to use an image from Guards! Guards! So I did a quick doodle.
This was one of the portraits I did in a student led portrait group at college during the last few months.
The face was mostly drawn with one of those ink rollers you can use to blank out your address on letters so that you can throw them away without anyone seeing your details and stealing your data. Its quite hard to use because you have to sort of turn and twist your hand and press firmly to sketch curves. AfterId done that I added colour using pastels and the thick black lines were done with black calligraphy pen (most of these have run out so I need some more).
I quite like the strong feel to this. I am trying to find my illustrational voice. I have been told to look for illustrators that my work resembles, but I think mine is different? Is this a good or bad thing? I’m definitley developing my analogue skills. Digital work is more difficult for me.
I looked at all my book cases and realised how eclectic my reading must be. I’m not sure exactly how many booked I have but I gave up counting after I reached over 1000.
Sci-fi, science (biology, chemistry, physics) novels, biography, art, graphics, illustration, history, old books, new books, even magic Eye books from a couple of decades ago.
Can your reading be too chaotic? I’ve got a book about chaos theory… There are a few cookery books and travel books. There are books that were Christmas presents, birthday presents, and ones I bought for my college course. Too many? I don’t know….
Another post-it note and monoprint collage, drawn over with fine liner ink pen. The subject I found was mythology. The unicorn/ zebra/pegasus is adding all the elements I like together, the merman is holding a cornucopia from which fish are leaping. A bit of fun.
Mallaband-Brown 