Exercise 3.4 - Interpretation and Communication; suppose we make it different?

Exercise 3.4 - Interpretation and Communication

The aim of this exercise is to “take me through a process of working with external content and will continue to build awareness of, and increase confidence to create observed narratives, through processes of editing and stylization.”.

“Illustrations don’t only exist to explain but offer up an opportunity to invite imaginative possibility.” (Beth Dawson)

The quote above pretty much explains the premise for this exercise, to take some of my earlier images made in unit III and put them through a process which changes their visual form. Not taking to full extremes but to be as creative as I wish.

Some key points for this exercise:

• To review the drawings I have made so far for the unit and select three which I think have the potential to develop further visually.
• They don’t have to be good drawings already, in fact if they are only half-realised these are often the best.
• To use a strategy called SCAMPER* for creative thinking, working towards making a clear statement that describes a real or imagined narrative of the location and what happens there.
• Take visual information from various sources like past sketches, photographs that were part of the exercises, books, magazines, google, and combine them.
• The aim is to choose one place and create a narrative as a result of my interpretation of it.
• Use at least three processes from the SCAMPER system to generate new drawings that explore how to build the narrative 

——————————

*SCAMPER - (S) substitute - change an aspect of the drawing for another; (C) combine - for this process I could either combine different pages from my  sketchbooks or add in images to the mix from other sources, photographs taken, words, other drawings etc; (A) adapt; (M) modify ; (P) put to another use; (E) eliminate; (R) reverse

————————————-

My Approach

This exercise was both stressful and fun. Stressful because of the way I approached some images, where I dived into ideas that ended up requiring more time to execute them. Fun because I enjoyed the unknown and the opportunity to try different techniques and mediums. Collage for example, was something that didn’t have much inclination towards but I decided to take a shot at.

I created 3 images, 2 were digital and one on a 9”x12” size paper.

Image 1

This picture I used the following images as reference and texture for the finished illustration.

SCAMPER processes I used:

• Combine: I redrew the portrait of the girl in the sofa plus I added the images above as texture,

the roses were used for the shirt, the sofa texture was used to render the sofa itself and the old paper was used as an overlay texture in the final illustration.

• Modify: Used different media in comparison with the original sketch. Instead of using pen, I used a gouache type brush mainly as well a making a collage with the eyes, shirt, sofa and background. Used a digital pencil for the underdrawing and layered over with the above mentioned materials, left the pencil marks for adding extra rough texture.

• Adapt: Looked on Pinterest through different images of Dave McKean, a British illustrator, to get my mind into the world of collage. There was a multitude of images I looked through just to get the feel, didn’t base my drawing on any specific reference.

Picture of Girl reading an e-book on sofa - Composite image illustrated using Procreate

Image 2

Used the following references and photographs:

SCAMPER processes used:

• Combine: Four people I sketched in the local park, a girl texting and a bus stop were combined into a single picture.
• Modify: The original sketches were redrawn and in terms of material I added colour pencils on top of pen.
• Put to another use: Changed the original theme, where before it was just a bus stop, I added the four people using their mobile phones and added the bus stop poster which I drew spontaneously as a result of not finding online a poster to substitute the one the original photograph had.

Bus stop on a summer afternoon  - Pen and coloured pencils.

Image 3

Used the following sketches and photographs as reference.

SCAMPER processes I used:

• Combine: Added my Brush Man character , a group of radiation suited men to combine with the street sketch as the environment.
• Reverse: The picture was to be initially drawn on paper, later digitised it and reversed to improve the composition and proportion of the characters.
• Eliminate: Removed the cars parked on the street so that the group of people would fit.
• Put to another use: With the addition of characters, the flying zeppelin and the colour choice, I changed the mood of the drawing.
• Adapt: The leafless trees were modified to contribute to this post-apocalyptic vision I had to my drawing, as well as the addition of the Zeppelin plane and the choice of colour. The choice of colour was by trial and error, by adding different types of layers and experimenting with different colours and degrees of saturation and hues until I was pleased with the result.

• 

  First attempt on paper which later was digitised.

  

  Series of thumbnail sketches to rehearse the composition and placement of the characters as well as idea generation .
  
  
  

  
  

Brush Man in trouble - Composite image redrawn and coloured on Procreate and final picture filter and framing on Square Fit.

 Reflections:

What went well

• I enjoyed giving continuity with some sketches I’ve made on part 2, particularly being able to help build a story for the Brush Man comic. This helped me to keep motivated and finding a purpose for previous sketches , putting them to good use.
• Keeping my tutor feedback in mind, I made a conscious effort to step outside my comfort zone and experiment with different techniques such as collage.
• I was happy with the narrative and energy I created for the three different sketches.
• This exercise was a good to study and understand a bit more about the use of colour and contrast.
• I avoided redrawing the same thing ,added other elements into the pictures like people and placed them within the environment effectively.

Even better if:

• I could improve on my composition and be more pragmatic on its approach, as well as understanding more about colour and how it contributes to the mood of a picture although I feel some improvements have been made.
• Gesture, Anatomy, Perspective, Form and Construction, Proportion and Placement and values are the fundamental skills to be a good comic book artist, being able to draw a figure from imagination requires moving forms and shapes in space with the right perspective. I feel I’m still a long way to go in all those aspects. To improve on that I’m studying other courses in parallel with this one.
• I’m still very tempted to make a detailed and refined drawing, often forgetting the essence of Illustration sketchbooks, steps are being made to counteract that.

-