Exercise 5.2 - Making Connections

 5.2 - Making Connections 

For this exercise I am going to combine selected elements from images of my sketchbooks by collaging them together creating new images through editing, modifying and re-using content I have already produced throughout the entire unit. 

With reference to the SCAMPER section in part three, and unable to print in this moment in time my images, I will digitally collect my pages and use them on my iPad Procreate app at different scales and be playful with them, having several versions of them helps stopping me of being precious of them.

I will lay my action plan and images here in my learning log so I can look at them altogether.

This exercise was challenging and fun, challenging because is so open-ended or it gives too much freedom of creation making the possibilities endless and . I practically selected most of my sketches up to the end of part 4.

To start with, I assembled most of my sketches together, creating a mood board with them in no apparent order with the intention of figuring out how to better combine them. 

What I was looking for was to combine and redraft a sketch that involved figures with an environment that had a similar camera angle .

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I later reviewed my action plan and worked out how to apply it to what I had available within my sketches. My objectives were:

• Practice technical skills
• Work in sequence 
• Explore composition 
• Draw people
• Sketch my everyday
• Have a more pragmatic approach towards the process of creating an illustration, be more methodical in my approach 
• Apply the SCAMPER system and cement its roots in my artistic process in case of "artistic block"
•  Take steps that connect the assignment with elements that can be used in my graphic novel
• Draw buildings
• Draw more thumbnail sketches 
• Make various iterations from one drawing in order to find the best composition ( Explore composition )
• Have an Imaginative approach to my drawing
• Refine/redraft old sketches

Drawing 1

I selected these two drawings as they had the same camera angle and therefore could be combined in a seamless way as well as they had potential to build an interesting non linear narrative.

I picked one of my sketches from the "Fill it up fast" exercise to combine with my illustration from the "Conversation with pictures" picture. 

First step was to cut the figure from the background 

Next step was to observe this picture to ascertain how to best incorporate the figure into this sketch and consequently make a narrative with these two pictures

I added the character in the corner so to not obstruct the middle ground figures as well as setting him in a correctly within the picture plane.
Next step was to add the character in one layer in my digital software in multiply mode, making this a transparent layer in order to add colours in another layer without compromising the original linework.
Since this was a WW2 uniform, I kept true to its original colour.
I later added another 2 layers, one for light and another for the shadow, so it was in accordance with the light source in the bus stop picture as well as unifying them harmoniously.

In a final stage, I added a speech bubble to the WW2 character  giving a humouring touch to the picture with some social criticism in the mixture.

Drawing 2

I used a similar approach for this drawing by merging one element from one picture into another picture. Both pictures had similar camera angles or at least I could work it by distorting it a bit so that the pictures fitted. I will outline the steps as captions underneath each stage.

This picture and the bottom one had a common thread, "the kitchen" and a similar camera angle.

Next step was to cut the figure and add her in the other picture and finding where it would best fit.

Drawing 3

For this last drawing I have combined some people sketches from part 3 with some textures/experiments with material from exercise 2.4 "drawing with tea bags". 

I had a vague idea on what I wanted to accomplish, to make a crowd in a park on a sunny day, I took a more imaginative approach with this picture by refining and creating a park from imagination.

My first step was to merge all these sketches into one followed by setting on multiply mode the figures in order that only the black ink marks were shown as well as re-scaling the yellow background so it shows only a portion of it.

I then erased the speech bubbles, leaving on just the figure black ink marks spread across the yellow turmeric wash with shades of charcoal.

Next step was to create a digital rough background on top of the traditional one to ground the figures since the latter was too pale and therefore it needed a colour "reinforcement". 
After that I trimmed the different figures and laid them across the "ground" adjusting their size and contrast as they move farther away from the viewer in order to have a more effective sense of space and perspective.

Added a tree next to the figures on the left, on another layer on multiply mode with reduced opacity I added the buildings on the background followed by another layer with slightly less opacity  to add another batch of man-made structures. In the latter I also shaded the characters and added their reflection in the ground as well as subtly darkening the soil as it got closer to the viewer.

In this last step, I added another layer in colour dodge mode to add the illusion of sunlight and its reflection in the soil and figures, adding a some white marks to portray the reflection of the sunlight and it came to mind to add the lens flare effect.

Reflection

What went well:

• I feel the end result of these connections were quite effective 
• This method of combining sketches I found to be a useful way to generate ideas in those days you feel uninspired
• I managed to combine sketches from part 1 until part 4
• This exercise was useful in that I could "recycle" abandoned sketches and ideas 
• In conclustion it was interesting to see how this way of connecting different ideas can be a bit contra naturam at first, but once the idea settles in, it is just encouraging to note down even the smallest ideas or things that I might consider pointless or irrelevant at that time, but I know that at some point in time, these same ideas might give birth to an excellent idea.