visual journal

I did some more work in my visual journal, developing the little figures I have been working with, trying to create more of a composition with them, using stencils and my inkpad.

I wanted to try and create the feeling of isolation/separation from the norm; because in 1984 Winston (the protagonist) feels there is more to know, and believes in the idea of a revolution but he is in the minority. 

I feel like these were quite successful in communicating this, using colour only on one figure makes him stand out a lot against the rest of the composition. 

I particularly like the top one, it has a strong composition and is quite striking with the colour scheme, I will develop it further, possibly working it into my animation somehow. 

I also tried mixing a bit of collage in with my printing, which I felt worked well. The textures of the buildings contrast with the bold shapes of the people. I think the red paint is a bit much and unnecessary, I think it could be stronger if the whole thing was in monotone.  

I've been looking at depicting these little houses after reading the quote

'Were there always these vistas of rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides  shored up with baulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions?' 

I have been visualising scenes where the workers are walking through their poverty stricken areas to the massive, concrete buildings where they work which tower over the bleak city. 

The 'Room 101' is an important element of 1984, it is where the state takes people when they have tried to rebel against the law, it forces them to face their biggest phobias until they give in and accept what the state says as true. Winston is taken there, he has a cage fastened to his face with hungry rats at the other end, and they come and bite at his face until he gives in. 

So I started looking at some rat imagery.