Experimentation pt.4

Development of Media

I have continued to experiment with textures, mainly with gouache and water colour. Taking the stories I gathered from members of my own family, picking certain moments of the best ones I decided to try a few different ways of interpreting them. I tried adding tones and textures digitally but found that the image lost a bit of its authenticity - although it was a successful image in creating an atmosphere.

Replicating the tone of this image, I used a mixture of watercolour and gouache then dipped kitchen towel in it to create the texture I wanted. I think this has worked well and is something I want to continue to experiment with a few different images, to see if it will work across an entire picture book. 

Considering Colour

Trying not to just use a monochrome colour scheme! I am always tempted to use black and white as it's a lot easier to manipulate in an image. However, for this project I really want to create an atmosphere throughout the whole narrative of the story I will eventually produce. The colours I have chosen to use help to set the tone, and I especially like the inclusion of a red. In my mind, this signifies blood shed and the presence of danger in the theme I have chosen to focus one.

Research - Family Stories

Conversation with Nana - Father's side

Things from World War II that she remembers

• Barbed wire on beaches - to keep the Germans from invading on boats.
• Barrage balloons and learning of people bailing out of aeroplanes - becoming prisoners of war.
• The Blitz, noises of the sirens and search lights in the sky.
• The Blackout, everything in the darkness - Still has a lamp from this time, which has a hood over it. They had no radar, everything by sight.
• British spirit in the bomb shelter - Accordion players and entertainment provided by the community, morale and spirit of the people in hardship.
• Shops with no windows - Blown off by bombs.
• Coventry Cathedral - remembers seeing the glow of the sky when it was bombed, looking out of her bedroom window.
• St Paul's Cathedral was not touched by the bombing, surrounding areas were demolished - Religion during the war.
• Nana, my Great Grandmother and Great Uncle were going to evacuate to Canada on a boat but didn't want to leave my Great Grandfather who was in the police force - later found out that the boat sank and everyone on board was killed.
• Street parties.
• After the war was over, a German prisoner of war clearing the pavement and replacing turf. Nana was 9 years old and spoke to him about his family and he showed her a photograph of his children back in Germany.
• Siren suit - padded ears so children would sleep through the air raids, parents would get them and go to the shelter. Infant school, all issued with a gas mask.
• Nana went to live in Shropshire on a farm, dropped spare bombs on the fields.
• Remembers seeing a 'dog fight' in daylight.
• The bomb sites were great places to play - Collecting shrapnel from the garden and whoever had the most in their jar won the game.
• Iron sheets - Bomb shelters in the garden, had canvas beds.
• At the top of most streets there was a brick and concrete shelter - a fire made of mud and sticks, sandbags.
• An old lady down the road refused to leave her house and was killed in a direct hit. Nana was never scared because she had her parents looking after her.
• Victory party - Long table, biggest Union Jack flag ever covering the whole house. Everyone got given a book, Nana's was 'Black Beauty'.

Things I found in my Great Grandfather's autobiography 'That Dan Manton'

Dan's hooded lamp he carried in the Blackout.

• 'A peculiar breed of spinsters of uncertain age became patriotic with other people's lives and carried white feathers which they handed to young men before other people to shame them into joining up'.
• Commercial gentlemen - black shoes, pin-striped trousers, black or fancy waistcoat, black jacket, white shirt, suitable tie, white collar and bowler hat. No one was expected to be hatless.
• Men over 30 were expected to replace young regular policemen who would be signed up.
• Fitted out uniform and flat cap.
• Painted the front of cars white, white arm bands.
• 'One dear old lady would place a candle in her window as soon as the Air raid 'Red' warning was sounded so that the 'boys' could see their way. She was repeatedly brought to court and fined, but nothing cured her. She arrived in her best clothes... made her change into prison clothes which looked dirty'.
• 'If you buy me a meal I'll come quietly' - well known criminal. 'Chummy' - policemen called prisoners.
• Helped firemen get people out of the rubble after a hit. Pulled out a dead little girl an in that moment he really hated the Germans, shook his fist.
• A few seconds later the phone rang which I answered with 'Solihull Police'. Friend Allard said - 'That you Dan?' I replied - 'Yes'. 'This is P.W.R. Allard. You know that unexploded bomb. Well it ain't', and he rang off.
• There is beauty in the forest, When the trees are green and fair, There is beauty in the meadow, when wild flowers scent the air, There is beauty in the sunlight, And soft blue beams above, Oh, the world is full of beauty, When the heart is full of love. - Author Unknown. Daniel Manton 1983.

Experimentation Pt. 3

As well as trying different media out in my sketchbook I want to continue experimenting digitally and manipulating the images I have created to see what options I have to work with when producing more and more drawings.

 

I recall my Nana telling me the story of how once when she was very small and could only just look over the window sill to see outside, she was watching a city being bombed and the sky was alight - very far away. She later learned from her mother that that was the night Coventry Cathedral was bombed.

 

I created a few different characters using the same techniques, to get used to the media and also what expressions/stance I want the characters to have within the narrative, as well as being able to place them digitally into different scenarios I have created. Storyline is something I want to introduce into my final design, which is something I will work on when I see my Nana. I can then ask her questions and find stories relevant to the World War II subject.

 

I have also been playing around with whether I want the images to be set in day time or night time. I may want to signify the blackout in some parts, so will include minimal imagery and brighter parts to signify lighting. I know I will be able to get some stories from my own family of this period in time and what a real blackout was like - what they had to do/patrols, etc.

Experimentation Pt. 2

I started creating my own textures and drawing more houses using gouache and watercolour, as I liked the first ones I tried out. Digital collage is something I am really enjoying and may consider it as one of the techniques I use for the final imagery.

Secondary Research - Film/Books

The Book Thief

I think for this project in particular, it has been helpful to see how others tackle an emotive subject matter through other art forms (books, film, television, etc) so I can gain more of an understanding of how to handle such a narrative.

The Book Thief has been my favourite book for a while, it is cleverly written and such a heartbreaking story! It has been interesting to see how the story has been adapted to the screen, which in my opinion depicts the emotion and brutality of war very successfully.

As well as the content of the story, I find that drawing from film helps to loosen up the way I draw and speeds up the process a lot. I want to continue finding other relevant films/television programmes to watch and draw. 

Experimentation with Media

I continued to experiment with gouache, cable tape and watercolour methods which I have enjoyed a lot. It's nice to have more time over this Christmas period to just try out different ways of working, without so much as trying to achieve a final outcome straight away.

I tried using cable tape to create shapes and this lead me on to painting over the top and removing the tape. I will experiment more with layers and colours using this technique, more than anything I just enjoyed the process - I'm not sure if I will end up incorporating this technique into my final design.

I decided to merge together a few of the drawings on Photoshop, just to try out composition and experiment with digital collage and texture. I like the effect of the textures so will make some more of my own, I got this idea from the Visual Language session where we made our own texture before creating an image. I feel that texture works well for the atmosphere I want to create, bringing a worn quality to the image.

Project Outline - Before Christmas

http://www.confessionsofateachingjunkie.com/2015/01/positive-thinking-and-thematic-thursday.html

Picture Book title or theme

Humanity within War.

Idea: What is your picture book about?

Individual personal experiences of within war - ordinary people (including my own family stories), make more relatable.

Intent: What are you trying to achieve with the tone and atmosphere of the artwork?

Emotive - Highlighting the brutality of war, humanity and how war affects people's lives. Aim to make it personal to everyone, their own families/relationships/lives. Innocence.

Structure: How might this book function in terms of format, layout and sequence

Depending on final narrative, concertina made available to be read as a saddle stitch book also. Will know more about sequence and layout when a final narrative has been decided.

These ideas are based on my research into...

World War II, impacts of war in general and the way people feel after their experiences.

In order to develop these ideas, my research over Christmas will be...

Contacting different members of my family - find out what my great-grandparents did in the war as well as my Nana's (child) perspective. Talking to my Nana and listening to her father on tape - talking about personal experiences. Secondary research - What things looked like at that time, atmosphere.

Self Evaluation

What have you discovered about research over the last 2 weeks?

Ideas are produced from initial research - mixture of imagination (with narrative) and facts.

Which approaches to research did you struggle with? And why?

Producing work that reflects a feeling/reaction to what I experienced during my research trip.

Which approaches to research did you find beneficial? And why?

Talking to a range of people I wouldn't have normally spoken to. Secondary - drawing from film, helps to create an atmosphere of an event/time period. Drawing through ideas - Such as roughing.

What could you have done differently during your research period?

Maybe visited a few more relevant places - aim to do this over Christmas. More reflective drawing and observation. Having said that I was happy with the research I gained during the first two weeks and feel I have a good starting point to develop further.

What kind of media, skills, tools and processes are you going to explore?

Try more watercolour and textured gouache - works well to create an atmosphere. Black gouache and pencil details/texture. More mixed media such as collage and maybe try stitching into drawings.

Roughs

Rough 1

I wanted to use these roughs as an opportunity to experiment with a few different types of media. I am really enjoying using watercolour wash with black gouache over the top, I find that gouache gives a depth and texture that pens or ink do not - want to do more experimentation with gouache in this way. Fits the tone of the narrative.

Rough 2

Giving an emotive tone to the story was something I was very concious of trying to achieve even within the roughs at this stage. I think it has been great practice to get used to telling a story and depicting a certain atmosphere in my work.

Although that was my intention, I am not sure about the readability of my roughs, from my feedback it was evident that the stories were a lot clearer once I had explained them. The second rough was probably the most understandable, and the use of a teddy bear was quite emotive to an audience (my peers).

Rough 3

If I am being honest, the last rough I produced was very quick and I spent much less time on this one, this was because I think I got a bit carried away testing materials and developing ideas for the other two - I don't think this is a bad thing because I feel I learnt a lot about how I wanted to proceed with the project.

The idea behind this rough was based on a quote I found 'we go into battle wearing the key to heaven around our necks', which I found insightful - how soldiers must have felt when going into battle. However, I definitely could have executed this idea in a better way and even combine it with one of my other ideas. For the final book, I will have more pages and room for development/ideas which will be helpful. I also think it will be more interesting/fitting to the brief to focus on ordinary people (rather than soldiers) an their untold experiences.

Influences - Practitioners

Serena Katt

Having not been familiar with Serena Katt's work before I was very interested in what the ideas were behind the images. It is clear that drawing is a driving force behind the success of her image making and illustration.

After reading Katt's blog it is evident that her work is heavily influenced by history, her own relationship with it and the way in which it is recorded. In a similar way, my project is headed in a direction of discovery of how my own relatives were affected by world war 2 in particular and the stories I find from this period. Therefore, I aim to create a personal reflection and interpretation of the things I find out, as well as being relatable to an audience.

I also enjoy the sequence of Katt's images and the approach to media - something I aim to bring to a conclusion with my own project over Christmas.

http://serenakatt.co.uk

http://serenakatt.co.uk/Sunday-s-Child

Edward Ardizonne

I am a huge admirer of traditional illustration and hand drawn looking processes. You can really feel the hand of the maker when viewing Edward Ardizonne's work which I think is partly due to his stylistic approach and the textures he used. Especially after the visual language session, texture something I want to experiment more with. In Ardizonne's work they are balanced around the page, which for me creates a depth and light/shade within the work. 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/95/9e/00/959e00d23dd514d6447843c11d507967.jpg

Laura Carlin

The shapes and textures Laura Carlin uses to create characters is what drew me to her work in the first place. Shape is a difficult nut for me to crack but I am trying to incorporate it into my own work and experimentations. I am so used to using line work straight away and want to get out of this habit.
I think its great when you can see a process in someone's work, Carlin definitely has mastered subtlety and how to make an image show authenticity. I have quickly learned that I prefer a more traditional way of producing imagery than a completely digital method. Using digital tools just to add colour/texture and touch up, in my opinion, produces a much more authentic and hand crafted looking image.

http://anaglorya.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/laura-carlin.html

Olivier Kugler

I have been familiar with Olivier's Kugler work for some time but recently it has been great to learn the process of what makes a successful illustration. Kugler's approach to illustration is heavily research based, which I think is why his work demonstrates an element of real life and real situations. In much of his research, quotes and stories are included. Being able to portray humour/emotion is something I am really trying to get a grip on in my own practice, in many ways this is the key to illustration, to make someone feel something that is personal to their own life.

http://www.designplayground.it/2015/09/i-reportages-illustrati-di-olivier-kugler/

Texture - Self Portrait

This has definitely been my favourite Visual Language session so far. It was a very playful and freeing way of working for me to create textures to work with first before worrying about the actual image.

I always get a bit nervous when working with shape and away from reference. But placing the shapes on the page and moving them around was actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed the process of cutting, tearing and gluing a lot. To try and make the portrait look a bit like me I was thinking about the things that define me visually, probably my hair, eyes and eyebrows!

Negative space was definitely something I wanted to include when making my image. I felt that the use of texture/collage was a bit busy if I used it all over the page, therefore I decided to emulate the shapes of my chin, hair line and shoulder using the white space around my face. I still think the final image produced was a bit busy in areas, but in a way I quite like that, it makes it more interesting to look at.

So messy! I felt a bit like I was back in primary school, when we didn't really care about the outcome of my work but had fun playing around with the paints/materials, etc. I like it when a process causes me to remember what made me love art in the first place, being able to express my own visual voice and having a way of projecting my thoughts in my work.

http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-art-of-wow-featuring-doris-jackson.html

Following the session, I had a look at the presentation and noted down Doris Jackson's name. I really like her work aesthetically and the use of a speckled texture in this case has been very successful accompanying the line work. Also, the patterns in the background bring a sense of depth to the piece which I admire and would like to experiment with in my own practice.

Feedback Session

Peer Review

How well did I make sense of my field trip? What impressed my peers?

• Impressed with the depth of the research, particularly the interviews, quotes and the effort into secondary sources (films) etc.

My use of drawing as a research tool

• Very good use of drawing in response to the research. The visual element with selected quotes is something that I think has a lot of potential image wise. Such as the keys to heaven.

My use of Secondary research as a research tool

• Museum - factual, Museums films. Provide accurate retellings of events. Could continue looking at books, online if need be.

Which proposed themes/concepts/narratives at this point do my peers feel has the most potential for further development? And why?

• Looking at the war and your families viewpoints has a lot of potential and is really personal, especially the contrast between England and Germany.

What do my peers think would be their next steps would be if this was their research?

• Maybe focus on the one theme or interview and gather more facts/quotes/drawings from it.

Can my peers identify any issues with my research? Is it too complex? Vague? Lacking intent?

• No, I think it has a strong intent and a really interesting focus. You just need to narrow your ideas further in order to go forward and do more research.

What I gained from the Peer Review

The session today really helped me to hone in on the possibilities of where I could go with this project, I felt today was a very reassuring day (probably part of that was to do with getting my results back from the first module) but also in regards to what I was doing so far in this project. I also have lots of ideas of how I can research when I go home for Christmas, which include delving into my own family history. My Great Grandfather on my mother's side fought for Germany whilst my Great Grandfather on my father's side fought for Britain, so there could be an interesting contrast or similarity of stories somewhere there. I also want to ask my Nan what she remembers as a child during the war and how she feels about it in reflection now. From my experience talking to Frank Tolley in particular, I felt extremely thankful that people like him carry the burden of guilt, and all of that was to ensure our freedom today. Incorporating my own personal view on war and a narrative that can evoke an emotion out of a viewer is something I am very interested in achieving.

Research Initial Response

Following the research at the Imperial War Museum and The Playhouse I wanted to focus on the personal experiences of people during the war, especially children and the way people feel afterwards. I aim to link this research with the experiences of my own family, what they did in the war and how they were affected afterwards.

The whole notion of evacuation must have been terrifying, not just for the children but for the parents who were sending their children away. The state and future of the country was not determined, and children may not have had parents to go to after the war was over. For many, evacuation meant goodbye.

My favourite quote from my day in Manchester was 'We go into battle wearing the keys to heaven around our necks'. I found this statement very emotive, it highlights the sacrifice of war and the way soldiers might have felt when going into battle for our country's freedom.

At this stage, I am just experimenting with initial drawings, trying out a variety of methods and keeping an open mind of where my project could go.

The Playhouse Wardrobe - Research

Behind the scenes of Costume Making

We had a great opportunity to go behind the scenes of the Playhouse's costume making. We spoke to a lady who was currently making costumes for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Interesting secrets of Theatre Costume

• They use cheap vodka to clean the costumes, just spray it on.
• The wigs are made by hooking individual strands of human hair through a net, very time consuming and have to have particularly skilled people to do it.
• Have to make replicas of all costumes for the understudies for the shows.
• Repairs daily, after every show.
• The lady worked 80 hours last week, but rewarding to see the show finally come together.

The Wardrobe

The most fun we had was in the room with all the costumes from past shows! They had everything, from huge pantomime costumes to medieval and Tudor dress. I managed to find some military outfits and some school uniforms from 1930s, which was helpful for my research into World War II. To be honest today was probably more of a fun day, I am not sure how much of it was useful for my project but was very interesting nevertheless.