I tried out a paper-cut for Carroll's do-do head which I think has turned out quite well.
I really like the paper-cut style, it looks very narrative, it reminds me of old illustrated fairy-tales. And I think it will look good for this project, and the limited colour will be a good link for all the pieces.
I edited it in photoshop to tidy it up a bit, but I think I prefer the original, more muted colours.
I will try this style out with more elements of my pieces, but I also need to do some research into practitioners who work in this style, as I haven't done it before.
We were given 3 names of people who are notable from some point in history. I got:
- the sex pistols
- lewis carroll
- ellen macarthur
I went for Lewis Carroll, because I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as well as other stories and poems he has written. But after doing a little research I found out he has done so much more than just his writing - he was a mathematician, a photographer, an inventor...so I thought he would be quite an interesting character to explore.
I got intrigued by his relationship with a friends daughter - Alice Liddell, who is thought to have inspired his character of Alice.
There are references in the book to Alice and her sisters, and the story was dedicated to Alice Liddell.
Carroll used to take out the three sisters on boat trips and tell them stories, and one of those stories was 'Alice Underground' which Alice Liddelll loved so much he asked him to wrote it down for her, and it turned into 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.
I really like the image of the four of them in a little rowing boat, while Carroll tells stories, I think it reflects his character well.
The Do-Do is said to be based on Carroll as he had a stammer and couldn't pronounce his last name properly which was Dodgson (he changed it to Carroll later)
But I really like the idea of Carroll being morphed with a do-do, it would also help communicate the fact that he was incredibly modest and shy, he didn't want to be part of the fame that his stories attracted.
In this project I want to try and involve all aspects of his life, not just his writing which everyone knows him for.
I like these camera drawings I have done, the delicate ink work, works well I think. Also having Carroll's head under the camera again will communicate his shyness - quite like the theme of hiding his face throughout the illustrations.
My intent for these pieces is to celebrate his imagination, but also his other achievements in his life.
Need to make:
- 4 stamps
- 4 postcards
- 1 A1 poster
I was thinking the stamps and postcards could depict his other interests, so his photography, his maths, his writing, but also his story telling which he apparently really enjoyed doing.
I want to try and capture the quite gentle, thoughtful character he was said to be.
- Create an illustration involving some form of transport that also has an interesting line of sight.
Some thumbnailed ideas:
- initially I thought about looking at trains, maybe empty tracks, creating quite a lonely atmosphere.
- but also liked the idea of creating a busy scene, lots of movement. So started looking at transport in Vietnam, which I went travelling around last year, and the amount of mopeds there and way they are driven so chaotically is crazy, thought I could try and capture that aspect of it.
Did some visual research into the mopeds and their drivers
I remember seeing them packed full of all sorts of produce, live animals, or up to about 5 people on one moped, so different from back home. Want to include this in my piece.
Also thought about the setting of the image, I remember being by this massive roundabout in Hanoi that got so busy it was impossible to cross
It doesn't look busy in my photo, so I did some more research to find a better viewpoint.
Started thinking about how I should compose the illustration
I wanted the line of sight to be bending around the buildings, with the mopeds driving off into different directions.
I thought this would help communicate the busyness and madness of the city.
In terms of what materials I should use, I looked at Yann Kebbi's work for inspiration, because I love his line work; the frantic and loose nature of it definitely stimulates a sense of movement
So I tried to incorporate a similar style when I began to sketch out my mopeds
composition play
I decided to move away from the coloured pencils and change to watercolour, as I thought that could work too - if I used quite limited colours but then had flashes of bright colour for the products being driven around on the mopeds.
final image -
I was quite pleased with how my final image came out, although I think it could be made to look a lot more finished, it looks a bit rough at the moment.
- I like the composition I chose, I think it does have an interesting line of sight, and your eye does follow the mopeds round the bend. Although I think I got the angles and proportions slightly wrong on some of the mopeds
- The colour scheme didn't work as well as I hoped, I do like the use of limited colour but I think the bits of bright colour should have been made bolder - maybe if I used guache or another thicker paint than watercolour.
- Also maybe if I smudged the paint a bit on the colour bits to imply a sense of fast movement, because it doesn't really communicate the busy feel that I was hoping for.
- I didn't realise the illustration was meant to be monochrome, but if I was to do it in that I would have drawn a lot more mopeds, really fill up the space to create the mental atmosphere.
I edited the drawing in photoshop slightly to bring out some of the colours, and make it look more finished.
I am pleased with how they all turned out, I feel they do answer the brief in that they clearly represent a particular city and also link together in someway so that they work as a set.
I feel the composition for this one is the least strong, the gondola looks too far to the left, but there wasn't enough space to move anywhere else. If I had longer I would work on this one more.
It also looked very empty in the space between the gondola and the cathedral as it wasn't clear that they were on water. But I think adding the specks of white, though subtle, helps a lot.
I really like how this one turned out, I think the colours work really well together. I had to play around a bit with the composition of the sun and towers but I think this works well.
Although I like how the colours work together, I don't think the represent St Petersburg very well, this looks more like a postcard for India or somewhere similar.
Also, all the other postcards are shades of blue, this one seems like the odd one out, so they might have looked better if they were either all different colours or all the same but different shades.
I feel like I probably should have worked harder to make more of it on illustrator, so that I could have learnt more about the tools available to me. But I do feel like I managed to keep a bit of my 'style' within these pieces which I like, and I do feel like I have been able to use illustrator in a way I would be more likely to use in future practise.
I liked how the limited colour worked out for Brugge, so wanted to keep the same style for the others. I found the eyedropper tool really useful for deciding on the right colour for the right atmosphere, as I could just place an image off google and scroll around the image until I found a colour that fitted.
I tried using colours that represented different times of day, so for Brugge I used quite a dim blue to represent dusk.
London - deep blue/purple for late night
Venice - bright blue for middle of the day
St Petersburg - orange/red for sunset
I then drew out all the aspects of each postcard separately so that I could easily play around with the composition on illustrator, as I was not completely sure on how they should look.
With Venice, I again thought I would be doing it landscape, but when I was putting the elements together, it seemed empty in the right hand corner
So I tried doing it portrait, which I think worked a lot better as I was playing around with the scale of the gondola and the cathedral.
I started with my Brugge postcard. I hand drew the elements in the postcard first, but did each bit separately so that once scanned into illustrator I could move them around and play easily.
I had initially thought to do all the postcards landscape but once I had scanned it in, the composition seemed rather empty.
I recently went to Brugge, so I looked through some of my photos to get more of an idea of what is recognisable there.
When I went the trees were all full of little sparkly lights, adding a very christmassy feel to it. I thought this might be a good addition to my illustration of Brugge.
The tower and the tree I hand drew and then live traced, but I then added colour and highlights on illustrator, as well as the balls of light.
What I liked about working in this way was that if something was missing from the image, I could easily draw it out, scan in and then play around with scale to fit it in, instead of starting again.
I did this with the cobbled floor, which is another aspect I remember from Brugge.
I think the limit on colour has been quite effective, as it is not too convoluted, and the highlights help bring out the building, illuminating it slightly.
I scanned in some sketches onto illustrator so test out what I could do to my original drawings:
I tried creating the shapes of the tower completely on illustrator, but I found it difficult to be happy with what I had done, as I much prefer hand-drawn lines to digital.
I found out about the live trace tool, which I tried and was happier with the result. I played around a bit with how I could add colour, and also use the illustrator tools to my advantage.
It took quite a bit of time working out how to use all the layers properly, as I couldn't fill in colour behind the lines for ages but once I worked it all out the process became a lot quicker.
Although I did feel using live trace was cheating slightly, as I wasn't creating the shapes on illustrator, but I was learning how to use illustrator to edit my own drawings which I think will be more relevant to my practise.
I decided that what I wanted to depict, with the whole scenes of rivers was going to be too complicated for the short amount of time I had, when I still hadn't got to grips with illustrator either.
So I have moved away from the rivers idea, and am now focusing on specific buildings that are famous to the cities:
St Petersburg - The Church of the Saviour on Blood
I love the design on this church, though doing the whole thing might get a bit complicated, I think focusing on sections of the detail would be rather effective.
Brugge - the Belfry of Brugge
This is probably the most recognisable thing in Brugge, I really like the imposing nature of it, will try and incorporate this in my illustration. Also the way it is always lit up at night, making it appear much grander than everything else in the city.
London - Big Ben
Very recognisable sight for London, might be effective to have all these monuments slightly in the background, but compose it in a way that still draws attention to it.
Venice - St Mark's Basilica
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