For this exercise we were to get a thin, small sketchbook and take to a place where we could sketch for a few hours all the elements about that place.
I enjoyed working on this exercise, it was quite challenging to keep going and fill the whole sketchbook. Initially I found myself wanted to capture all the details but soon realised it would take me a lot longer to complete if every page I sketched like that and the point of the exercise was to fill the sketchbook up fast.
I took basic art supplies with me, a few pencils, micron pen and some glitter pens as I knew the cafe I wanted to visit had just put their Christmas decorations up and I knew I wanted to draw those.
The idea of sketching quickly appeals to me because it forces me to simplify and learn to work faster however I didn't like the way my sketches looked, kind of messy and I'm not sure how much of the atmosphere I managed to capture. The more tired I got the messier my sketches got.
Here is a flip through of my sketches:
Reflection:
I found this exercise both enjoyable and challenging at the same time. It was fun to sketch in one of my favourite local places. I met friends there and we sketched together. The longer time went on I found myself struggling to know what to sketch and it became harder and harder to keep going.
The supplies I chose were fun at first but I soon ended up keeping to simple pencils as I realised it would take me a lot longer to keep up the detail I started with.
Knowing how I felt about sketching in public in part 3 and how uncomfortable I was I think I would really struggle in a different environment. I picked the cafe so that I'd be more comfortable and could make it a social thing at the same time. It surprised me how hard it was.
Having a friend with me helped me to relax and so I would keep this in mind for future sketching. I'd like to improve the quality of my sketches and perhaps use watercolours next time because I enjoyed working with those in the previous section of work.
I think overall building my confidence is something I need to work on going forward.
Looking at the visual diaries of Myfanwy Tristram to begin with...
I Googled Tristram's name first of all to see what images of her sketch diaries were available to view online.
The first one I came to was her page describing her daughters Christmas stocking contents:
myf draws apparently. (2019). Sketches – Page 3 – myf draws apparently. [online] Available at: https://myfanwytristram.com/category/sketches/page/3/ [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].
I like how colourful Tristram's sketches are, they are very detailed and she includes some text to explain more about her drawings.
I then typed in sketches in the search feature on her website and came up with my next page:
myf draws apparently. (2019). Sketches from Kendal. [online] Available at: https://myfanwytristram.com/2016/10/30/sketches-from-kendal/ [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].
These sketches were in preparation for a comic based on events that happened on their trip to Kendal. The initial sketches were mainly of people and I believe they were created using watercolour pencils, using washes and pencil detail.
These sketches are bright and colourful and the way they have been drawn reminds of my Raymond Briggs style.
I then headed over to Flickr and found Tristram's sketch diaries of Barcelona:
Flickr. (2019). Barcelona page 9. [online] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mockduck/23842052355/in/photostream/ [Accessed 27 Nov. 2019].
This album had a lot more sketches in, all very bright and detailed. Quite a lot of text in these and collages of collected elements stuck in on various pages. A mix of people and places in Barcelona this sketch diary was very detailed of their trip.
Tristram has a cartoony sketching style, using bright watercolours and pen to document her travels and experiences in life.
Whilst I like the way Tristram has documented her life and the bright colours she uses as a viewer they are very interesting however the complexity of her sketches is not something I feel would work for me in my own sketchbook because I find too much detail overwhelming. I'm interested to look at others visual diaries for further inspiration.
Other references used:
myf draws apparently. (2019). Gallery. [online] Available at: https://myfanwytristram.com/gallery/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019]. Instagram.com. (2019). Myf (@myfanwytristram) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/myfanwytristram/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019]. myf draws apparently. (2019). Florence sketch diary, day 7: you will not believe what we can do with balloons. [online] Available at: https://myfanwytristram.com/2017/11/24/florence-sketch-diary-day-7-you-will-not-believe-what-we-can-do-with-balloons/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2019].
For this research task we were to research as many other artists journals/sketchbooks as possible. I began my research on the website 1000journals.com
1000journals.com. (2020). [online] Available at: http://www.1000journals.com/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].
I looked at the different categories of visual journals and looked at lot's of different artist's work. Out of all the types of visual diaries I found the personal diary style the most interesting to look at because the writing draws you into their world and experiences and this is really fascinating to me.
Then went onto Instagram and typed in the hashtag #visualdiaries So many interesting pages came up, so many ways of exploring and interpreting the world we live in. The types of pages I found myself drawn to the most were the abstract ones. As an abstract painter myself I found these really exciting and they inspired me a lot. Here are my favourites:
Popova, M. (2020). Lynda Barry’s Illustrated Field Guide to Keeping a Visual Diary and Cultivating a Capacity for Creative Observation. [online] Brain Pickings. Available at: https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/12/02/lynda-barry-syllabus-book/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020]. I found her style very interesting and a bit similar to the way some of my sketches come out, sort of heavy lines and more doodles. Barry uses a lot of words on her pages and I am interested to check out some of her books. Researching all these different styles of visual diaries was so interesting and inspiring. There are so many ways of keeping a visual diary and I hope to find a style that works for me in the near future.
I really enjoyed this exercise and found myself really immersed in trying to capture the atmosphere both inside and out. It was fun sketching all the elements and also coming up with descriptive words and where to put them on the drawings.
Using my library card I created the frames for each section and a simple graphite mechanical pencil to sketch with. I am most comfortable with this type of pencil and I wanted a fine point to get the details in a small space.
I really enjoy writing so this was a very enjoyable exercise for me. It wasn't hard for me to write to my imagined friend 'Sally' and I liked thinking about what words to use to describe what I was seeing, experiencing and feeling.
Attempt 1:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Attempt 2:
1.
2.
3.
4.
This exercise has taught me a lot about what I enjoy, which is adding in a narrative or meaning to my drawings. Creating stories are fun for me and give my drawings more depth. I will definitely keep this in mind for my future work. It'll be interesting to see how this develops in the future for me.
Whilst I liked coming up with descriptive words to add to my drawings, I think I prefer to have the writing as a separate part of the work, for example underneath the drawing as part of a narrative instead of within the drawing itself. I've never been keen on using words within my sketches, preferring to keep them as separate works. For me I think the words almost clash or conflict with my sketches, It's hard for me to make them fully part of my sketch, I'd rather try to communicate through sketches alone, or words alone.
Coming up with the words first did have some influence on how I drew the next sketch, however I'm the kind of person who notices little details that others miss so in this case it didn't impact the sketch a great deal as I already knew how I wanted to describe the place.
It's great how you can sketch a place and take a different focus from each time you visit. This was a really interesting exercise and something I would be interested in exploring further.
I began my research into the work of Brandon J Wallace on his Instagram page:
Instagram.com. (2020). Brandon J. Wallace (@bwallzdraws) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/bwallzdraws/ [Accessed 1 Jan. 2020].
Wallace's sketches are fascinating to me, how he is able to capture such mood and emotion including narrative into such a small space. This research task really inspired me and I found myself very excited to try this exercise for myself in 4.2.
Wallace's screen sketches are so interesting to 'read' and inspire me to improve my own work in this way. It's definitely an area of interest for me and something I'd like to explore further.
As I looked through more of Wallace's work I came across his environment sketches, especially ones drawn digitally. This is something I've been really interested in lately and so have included my favourites of Wallace's environments here too.
This research task was a great introduction before exercise 4.2, I will included my further thoughts about this on the next page.
I also looked up Wallace's blog and enjoyed viewing more of his screen sketches and his descriptions of them.
Studies, F. (2020). Fresh Prince Studies. [online] Bwallzdraws.blogspot.com. Available at: http://bwallzdraws.blogspot.com/2017/05/fresh-prince-studies.html [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020]. Studies, G. (2020). Get Out Studies. [online] Bwallzdraws.blogspot.com. Available at: http://bwallzdraws.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-cinematography-in-this-iconic-scene.html [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].
Learning about Nigel Watt's Eight Point Arc Structure for constructing an interesting narrative was really eye opening to me and will be a very useful tool for my future illustrations.
Having written my own children's book before and having a basic knowledge of story writing, learning about this way of constructing a story is so useful for future works. I think it will help me to create a more engaging story of more depth and interest.
Thinking about other stories that use this type of structure I immediately thought of Raymond Briggs stories, specifically 'The Bear', where a beautiful big bear comes to stay, that can hardly fit in the house. You would think such a thing would be very scary for a little girl but she takes care of the bear, even cleaning up his mess and bathing him. The little girl gets so used to the bear staying with her but the bear is yearning for home. He soon leaves and the little girl is sad. Consoled by her Father, the little girl has to return to playing with her toy bear, whilst the real bear goes back to enjoying his natural habitat.
Briggs, R. (1996). The bear. London: Red Fox.
Now I know about this plot structure it will be fun to use it for my own illustrations to help me to create more engaging work and to really go deep into story. I will keep the simplified breakdown to hand so that I can remember to use it in the future.
This exercise was very enjoyable for me, I was so keen to get started on it and the first tv clip I chose was from an emotional scene on the tv programme 'Gilmore Girls'.
I sketched out some frames first and then went through each movement and tried to describe the scene in a simple yet telling way. It was actually really hard to do but I did notice some really interesting things that I'd never noticed before when just watching.
For example in this particular scene the programme makers used very little colour except for the purple of Lorilai's jumper. The lighting was very dark at times and the way they zoomed in on a character and the way they framed the characters was really clever.
I did find that the more complex the scene the harder it was to draw it in such a small area. It would be good to practice this further and try to improve.
Gilmore Girls:
Mr Robot:
1.
2.
3.
This scene in Mr Robt the Amazon Original series was a powerful emotional one. I chose this in particular because it was an unusual scene for the show with it being heavily focused on Elliot not wanting to be touched and trying to keep going on his own. By this scene everything had come to a head and as he was saying goodbye to his sidekick Darlene and for the first time he hugs her and doesn't want to let go.
The camera angles and framing really capture the emotion of the moment, zooming in on each of their faces in turn, blurring out the background and barely showing any colour at all. The facial expressions of the characters said so much, a very powerful scene.
Reflection:
This was a really fun but challenging exercise. I really enjoyed it but found it hard work at the same time. I learnt a lot about composition/framing to communicate a mood or emotion and how colour is used or taken away.
I definitely need to improve my drawing skills, especially my confidence in simplifying a scene and it still being readable. This is something to practice further.
For this exercise we were to add narrative to previous sketches and think about Quentin Blake's 'suppose we make it different' principle. I started by purchasing the book;
Blake, Q. and Blake, Q. (1996). The Puffin book of nonsense verse. London: Puffin.
I found the illustrations amusing and silly but the principle helped get me thinking how I could create the narratives for my own sketches. Going through the sketches I had drawn in part 3, I used sticky note tabs to write little narratives on my favourites. It was a lot of fun coming up with ideas to go with the scenes and characters and really brought my sketches to life.
Here are the ones I created the narratives for:
The next part of the exercise asks us to re-draw some of our sketches to include the narrative. I picked my favourite two.
This first attempt I took from my original sketch of 'Michelle making coffee' and wanted to use the same style with the brown paper bag and fine liner but try to make it more cartoon like and change the colours. I added her narrative as a thought bubble.
This first attempt didn't exactly go to plan. I used the wrong side of the paper bag so it was too shiny to hold the pen and pencils well. The colours didn't seem to work that well either, I didn't think it was as strong as my original sketch.
So I decided to attempt it again this time remembering to use the right side of the paper bag, scrunching it up so it looked more like my original and using the same colours and supplies as the original. I think this worked better in some ways, but I'm still not convinced that the thought bubble works very well.
The next character sketch I chose was my miserable 'Erynn'. For some reason I just loved how her expression came out in the original sketch and so I wanted to develop that further. I found it was quite difficult to replicate her expression but did my best and tried three different ways to include her narrative and used watercolour in limited colours to add to the scene.
It's interesting that depending on where the text is placed, it really changes the overall feel. I think I like the top one best as the text is under the illustration and it emphasises her mood while her face looks downward.
I enjoyed doing these illustrations and look forward to taking them further in future exercises.
The next part of this exercise was to write a letter which included illustrations to either a character or place that I had sketched before. I chose 'Sally' who I created in exercise 4.1 and used the scene to form the basis of my illustrations.
Since the scene was primarily about getting out of the cold and into the warm, cosy cafe, I decided to use that as a theme for my letter. This time I wanted to use digital drawing so that I could use features such as the luminance brush, the grunge brush and the glimmer brush to create the effect I wanted.
Originally I planned to create the background and illustrations digitally and then print that off and hand-write the letter in pen.
However, when I started to play around in Procreate the letter evolved itself. I started with light sketches of the illustrations I wanted to include and then copied those onto a textured background. I started off with the intention of doing a light coffee coloured textured background, influenced by my 'paper bag' sketch earlier but when it came to start thinking about the text things changed.
Letter.
After I had completed this stage, I went into Procreate's text options and saw the 'Chalkduster' font. I tried it out on the coffee coloured background and it didn't really go that well. The reason I was attracted to that particular font was because the cafe has blackboard table surfaces and offers children coloured chalks to draw with on the tables.
Of course I then thought, what would the letter look like with a chalkboard style background, so I changed it and loved the effect. That then influenced my decision to stick with that and use the 'Chalkduster' font.
The illustrations themselves I tried to keep fairly simple and stick to my influence from my 'paper bag sketch' of black and white. The only other colour I wanted to add was the glow of the lights to express the cosy feel of the cafe inside.
For the letter itself I based it on the original postcard content from exercise 4.1 and the general feel I was aiming to get across. I did want to include some Christmas illustrations but found it made the whole letter too cluttered and didn't leave enough room for the text so I chose to leave that out.
Final Letter Design:
Letter Time-Lapse:
Reflections.
Overall this exercise was a lot of fun and really interesting to me. I found myself very involved with the narratives and enjoying using my creativity to make up stories for my characters. Its been great to see how the previous work in part 3 of this course has been built on in part 4. Its very rewarding to see that progression and to develop ideas more fully. I look forward to building on this for assignment 4.
