Presented roughs:
Working with roughs is something I hadn't done before this task. I'd planned before, but never in the same strategic process that roughing entails. These are not just ideas, they are plans and maps for my proposed concepts.
Vultures
The concept of this set of illustrations was comparing the behaviour of male 'lad culture' to that of wild vultures. I wanted to take the article less literally and produce a set of illustrations that subtly communicated the tone of the article rather than relying on the obvious motifs of men and women.
Drawing on the figurative language of the article, I picked out the term 'sloppy bird' and constructed scenes of these vultures attacking and eating a small, dead bird.
I would like to use collage to create the feathered texture of the birds.
Dogs
This series of illustrations focuses on the phrase 'pack mentality'. The images illustrate the damage that dominating lad culture can have on vulnerable women who are used as 'banter'. I have attempted to create anthropomorphic dog characters that have fierce, threatening expressions but also demonstrate a sense of community within the pack.
I would like to colour these illustrations digitally and use pink and blue to represent the gender divide between the animals.
Umbrellas
My final collection of illustrations attempts to communicate the misogynistic issues of 'lad culture' by taking a more literal approach. I drew men under umbrellas ('umbrella term') and visually noted the decline in gentlemen culture as opposed to this new lad culture.
What is the tone/atmosphere I'm trying to achieve?
Trying to portray a serious issue in a sensitive manner, mostly through anthromorphic characters and methaphorical analogies.
Intensity, forboding, dark atmosphere.
What strategies am I proposing to achieve this?
Dark silhouettes and looming shadows representing the terror & anxiety of the scene.
Is there anything you're not happy about in regard to these roughs? What are you finding difficult? What do you think you could do more of?
Portraying expressions - I'm not sure how angry the dogs should be, how scared the cat should appear. I'm not certain how to document the situation. More research required. Visual references needed to fully understand my subjects.
Proposed media, method and processes for final pieces
Gouache, water colour, paper cut, photoshop.
I think that Photoshop would be the quickest way to apply colour and to explore several different processes (different brushes) in the short amount of time I have, but I would really like to use traditional media to create a scene with depth and texture.
I was paired with Sophia, who had not seen what my article was about. I was challenged not to speak whilst Sophia looked at my roughs, hearing her try to work out what my article was about without being able to answer her questions.
I found this task really difficult because my instinct was to defend my creative decisions and to discuss her questions. I had to restrain myself so not to respond to her comments.
I've never taken part in such an activity before, but I think it was really useful in that it forced me to listen to the audience and to consider that I would not have the chance to defend myself to readers in the actual context of this work. It was an opportunity to see how other people see my work. I was able to see my work through Sophia's eyes as she deconstructed the images before her.
It was obvious that Sophia was struggling to understand the meaning of my artwork, though she really liked it and said that it conveyed lots of action and drama.
This means that my roughs may not have been very successful at communicating. I need to re-rough in order to make the meaning much more obvious.
She did notice some key themes in my roughs, such as 'community' and 'bullying' that relate to my article, but she was also thrown off course by the theme of 'nature' in my more abstract concepts (representing lads with dogs and vultures) and guessed that my article was about the environment or wildlife.
Once allowed to respond to Sophia, I explained how she was on the right lines in some ways, but discussed what my article was actually about and how I'd taken an unconventional approach to representing it.
Sophia liked the abstract approach and once I'd explained, she understood. She said that when presented with the article, it was clear what the illustrations were about.
She suggested some ways in which I could improve these roughs, such as using colour to add extra information to these drawings (pink and blue to relate to gender) and working from reference to further understand the anatomy of dogs and how they growl.
The pack mentality subject was Sophia's favourite because she felt that it told several stories in relation to the topic and that they acted as a sequence well. They would draw her in if she saw them in a magazine or newspaper.
Some of the roughs need re-drafting because the subject was confusing - e.g. my landscape bird illustration was interpreted as two parents worried for their dead baby chick, whilst my intention was to imply that these larger birds had caused the death of the smaller bird. Sophia suggested that I add at least one more large bird to this scene to move away from the idea of two 'parents' in the frame.
I looked at Sophia's own work, which communicated very obviously what her article was about. Her drawings successfully reflected the tone of the article she was working with and I was impressed with how clearly they read the subject of biodiversity. I gave Sophia some advice in terms of which roughs to take forward and how she could make them visually exciting as well as clear to read. One point I made was that her use of scale added another sense of power to these illustrations and that she should keep manipulating this in order to alter the balance of the image. For example, making a hand bigger than trees would suggest that humans deem themselves superior to the world and other creatures. 'The hand of God'.
I really liked the way that Sophia used composition and she has clearly understood the breif. I'm excited to see what she produces for her final three illustrations.
I also spoke to Eva and we discussed which of my roughs were the most successful.
Eva preferred my 'Umbrella' concept because this made the most obvious connection to what the article is about
I explained how my interests lie in children's book illustration and that this may be why my concepts seem a little naive and cute. She pointed out that this is not a childish article and that I need to make myself more versatile and expose myself to more editorial illustration in order to get into the mindset of this context.
Just as I had advised Sophia on her scaling of subjects, Eva explained how adjusting the scale of my animals could instantly chage the tone of my illustration. Making the vultures larger makes them more scary. Making the sloppy bird smaller makes it appear more vulnerable.
She also suggested that I conduct further visual research into vultures and birds so that the subjects are easier to identify.
Eva had a very tricky article to respond to, a subject of politics. Some of her roughs made the topic quite obvious, whilst others were quite vague. She agreed that once she'd characterised well-known political faces (David Cameron), these illustrations would be much more immediate and obvious.
Eva had done lots of sketchbook work and was making a great attempt at roughing. I am sure that she will make the dry article she was given much more interesting!
There was no one else in this morning's group with the same article as mine. I was really looking forward to learning how they had interpreted this article, but I will have to catch up on their progress next week. I must focus on my own work and success rather than worrying what other people are doing. Perhaps it was a good thing that I didn't get the opportunity to fret over their work in comparison to my own today.
