Assignment Five

Application and Context 

Option two: People and Place 

After carefully reading through each of the three options, I have chosen this option due to my desire to practice documenting and sketching people. 

Research: 

'Sketch Your World Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location' 

James Hobbs, 2014 

Notes: 

• Because speed is important, it is vital to be selective in your marks. Look for the most important lines that make up the shape of the head and face. It is the character of the subject you are aiming for rather than a perfect likeness. 
• When drawing people it is best to work quickly without looking at the paper. Work blind. 
• Start by drawing the surroundings of a view, adding people when you see something interesting that will add to the image. 
• Try to get to know the people you are drawing and tell stories about them in order to help you capture their expressions and postures better. 
• Rather than focussing too closely on individual characteristics, treat each person in a similar way to create an overall feeling of movement and busyness. 

LS Lowry

Chimneys, grey smoke, red bricked buildings, Lowry conjures a sense of life on repeat, working class people in working class towns going about their everyday lives. Yet with this repetition of life there is of course the nostalgia of home. 

Lowry paints playful figures. There is never any shadows that walk with the figures. Movement is implied in this paintings but not quite captured. Are they joyful or joyless as they go about their day, on repeat? 

Colour is there, jumpers, hats, shoes. Dream like figures. 

"Natural figures would have broken the spell of my vision so I had to make them half real"

Lowry's scenes are always at a distance, with Lowry as the viewer, enabling us then to see the gift of these people

What could you bring from this to your own work?  

Lowry seems to paint each person as an individual, that I like. Like he's visioning how each figure should look, their positioning, their movement, the direction in which they are travelling in, looking towards. Their placement on the canvas is always perfect, like as a viewer you look at the scenes and there isn't a single thing that needs changing. 

Lowry included only three figures in 'The Old House, Grove Street'. A wealthy class of people I can tell. Here Lowry paints the figures as long and tall, walking tall. Their heads are up and they are looking clearly ahead. 

The figures in Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford. The people are much smaller, a little plumper as they hunched, perhaps burdened, carrying the weight of the world and far from walking tall. 

With this way of painting people, Lowry successfully creates a narrative. As a viewer I can look closely at any one of the figures and I am engaged, picturing, wondering about their lives. And collectively such a strong and recognisable visual language. Lowry creates a sense of time and place. An atmosphere and a glimpse into their homes and world. I would like to try and recreate a narrative, visual language to my figures. 

'The Old House, Grove Street, Salford' 

1948 

'A Cricket Match' 

'Dwelling, Ordsall Lane, Salford' 

1927

James Boswell 

'Street Scene' 1946

Collage: Ink, pencil,  gouache and paper. 

Believed to be a characterisation of London streets, rather than a specific location. Boswell was very interested in street scenes and it's believed he kept scraps of old magazines and newspaper in his studio. 

I love the mood of this illustration. The chimney chokes out smoke and the grey smoke hangs heavily in the clouds, similar to the city life Lowry documented. The landscape is made up of box like shapes, the billboards, the tram, the shop billboards, yet the boxes collect together to form a believable street. 

The tram tracks are drawn in with simple pen lines. The people are almost translucent, yet unmistakable. The landscape speaks much louder than the figures, yet the placement of the people add to the atmosphere by bringing the street to life. This is what I would like to bring to my own work. 

A very clever use of mixed media, particularly the use of newspaper print to create the buildings. 

Suhita Shirodkar 

Figures have been drawn in with thick black pen, they stand out from the page. Colour has been used sparingly on the people themselves, with the larger part of the figures appearing black and white. Some of the figures are shaded in black, a striking use of positive and negative space. This adds individualism to the people, separates each figure and moves the viewers eye across the scene. 

What could I bring to my own work? 

Experiment with thick black line and see how it works. 

Make use of the positive and negative space within the lines, add shading to distinguish and add body to the figures. 

A careful placement of colour, the hair, perhaps just a jumper. Key areas in carefully placed figures. 

Veronica Lawlor 

What strikes me first of all about Veronica Lawler's illustrations is the energy in each sketch. Rather that being drawing into the details, I am first overcome by the speed of the scenes. expressionistic realism of the real life chaos that plays out every day. Reflections of the energy and the ever evolving atmosphere of a place and a moment.  

When I look at the figures, they are created using black line. The lie appears continuous, perhaps this is due to the speed of the memory collecting, the pen doesn't appear to leave the page. Postures and mannerisms are collected within this continuous line. The figures are largely back and white, they stand out this way. In many of Lawler's reportage illustrations, figures are plentiful. In that snapshot of time, Lawler has been effectively able to collect an entire street of visual information. Not all figures have facial features, Lawler seems to save this detail for this figures at the forefront of the sketches. 

The backgrounds of the scenes are collected in different ways. For larger buildings, and in parts, Lawler uses black line to create blocks and then layers these blocks. These areas appear big and simplistic. In other areas, smaller details are collected, windows and guttering, symbols on buildings, doors. There are areas of vibrant colour that add energy to the scenes, this vivid colour adds to the busy atmosphere. I think only colouring in sections of the illustrations is a clever move as it almost makes the black and white more striking, unusual as I would have guessed it to be the other way. The black and white is where the viewer finds the figures. Sometimes it is just the sky in colour, what appears to be a watercolour wash, in other illustrations it is parts of building and sky. The illustrations look complete, even though only partly coloured. 

The 9/11 reportage illustrations have a different tone. There are speedy pencil drawings, ink drawings with brown watercolour washes. Billows of smoke has been captured using what appears to be the flat of a pencil pressed hard against the paper. I can imagine in such an intense situation, Lawler was working hard to capture what she could in the quickest way possible. Yet the chaos and anguish is there too, figures looking on, moving speedily with phones to ears. The atmosphere and energy is all of the scene, it consumes the viewer, I feel the intensity and see the smoke as it rises around the line drawings. 

The broken towers have been diarised with thick ink line and a spontaneous and continuous line of what appears to be brown watercolour. The structure is realistic and believable. The devastation has been caught on a sheet of paper. 

Lawler works as if her sketches were living diaries. expressionistic realism. 

What could I bring to my own work? 

Lawlor draws with energy producing dynamic and busy scenes. There is negative space on the pages, but you don't really see them as the fast pace of the landscapes engulf the viewer. I'd really like to create a full final scene. 

Lawlor draws many people in her scenes, crowds of people. As you zoom in, they are captured with black lines, some are almost just shapes but collectively the lines produce believable crowds. Like in areas if you look closely, there is just the suggestion of a person, and it works in amongst all of the other lines. I want to work quickly in my sketchbook. 

Lawlor produces reportage journals, some sketches are only 5 minutes. With a pencil she successfully captures the correct lines. I would like to learn this skill. 

Working in line so confidently is also something I would like to master 

The Plan: 

I have spent some time during this chapter of the course by selecting the areas of practice I would like to concentrate on. These are capsulized into this 'Study note' sketchbook to act as visual prompts along my way as created in exercise 5.3 'Constructing a Visual Journey'.  https://naomianillustrationsketchbook.blogspot.com/2021/12/5.html . 

• Be more inventive 
• Interpret
• Work in sequence
• Write words
• Use different surfaces 
• Use line 
• Use colour 
• Become braver
• Draw people 
• Think more about meaning 
• Make mistakes 

As we are navigating our way through a pandemic, safely accessing indoor activities at this time is challenging for any length of time. So I decided to opt for an ordinary, everyday event that was outdoors, regular and bustling with people. A local, Saturday market. This would be the perfect place to take note of the everyday, and sketch people in action. 

Reportage Sketchbook: 

People 

I take out on location some scrap sheets of brown paper. I decide on this as I don't want to feel pressured, I want to try to sketch as loosely as I can. My focus is to take note of the environment around me and the outline of people. I also carry with me a HB pencil, a black pencil crayon, a limited coloured crayon palette including a white. I want to try and highlight some of the light within the scene. 

The market is busy and changing by the second. Using the advice of 'Sketch Your World Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location' 

• Rather than focussing too closely on individual characteristics, treat each person in a similar way to create an overall feeling of movement and busyness. 

I use a pencil to capture the shape and form of the crowd of people. I focus on one male figure and draw him in a little more detail. Shading with a pencil helps to build his form. 

This is a 5 minute drawing of the main stretch.  

Words noted on route: 

Hustle & bustle. Lights. Damp. Grey (weather).  Energy. Busy. Busyness. Buzz. Lively. Colourful. Spirit (atmoshere).  Food. Variety. Chatter. Music. Together. Inventive. Shopping. Entrepreneur. Bargains. Nostalgia. Purpose. Traditional (market stalls). Different. Occasion. Drinks. Alcohol. Christmas. Age. Cakes. Pretty. Loud. Living. Community. 

I move closer to the stalls. This feels challenging as I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable and do feel a little self conscious. However it is important to my development to capture the movement of people and so these seem to be good angles. 

At this point, the movement and repositioning of people is super fast. 

"Because speed is important, it is vital to be selective in your marks. Look for the most important lines that make up the shape of the head and face. It is the character of the subject you are aiming for rather than a perfect likeness". 

'Sketch Your World Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location' 

James Hobbs, 2014

Further 5 minute sketches in pencil on scrap brown paper. I practice here with Suhita Shirodkar technique of using positive and negative space. I use my pencil to shade in areas : 

I try further sketches of people in a thicker line, inspired by the works of Suhita Shirodkar.. This time I use a small white pocket size sketchbook and a brown felt tip pen. I swap my media to see how the interpretation of figures communicates on the page. 

I block out out the surroundings to focus on body and movement. I am on location and I need to be speedy. I also tip toe into capturing some quick facial features. 

I then move onto a thinner black line, inspired by the works of Veronica Lawlor, continuing with the pocket size white sketchbook. 

I do not have the time on location to colour in my figures as the change in scene is so rapid. I take my drawings home and then develop the figures further by adding watercolour to them. This enables me to create the fast sketches I currently have into characters, real people I saw. Aided by my notes on the environment, little bits of chat that I heard I am able to start bringing the figures to life.

I want to create a visual language of ordinary people, who do not know each other, but are entwined together at the market.  I want to create a busyness, a hustle and a community. A visual language of the energy of the market.  

Colour and fine line help to start to build this visual language by creating individual people. My initial sketches were focussed on the collection of a number of people, the study of the crowd and environment. Here I can communicate family and friends browsing and shopping together. Where people become human. 

Fine line and bright watercolours best communicate character on the page. I enjoyed LS Lowry's interpretation of people, the narrative he created. His figures are bright, real and playful. I hope to capture a little of the same, but in a different media. I would also like to capture a little movement. 

Reportage photo material: 

To support my work on the market, I collect a selection of photos to help me with the development of this assignment once I'm home. 

As I have chosen to study a local event  for this assignment, I have decided to create 'A poster to advertise your event' from the assignment selection.  I have stood in the middle of the market and absorbed the people, the sounds, smells and environment. I feel like I know the market and it makes sense now to advertise this to others. 

Using the photo reference material I captured. I spend a little time studying the shapes of the location. This will act as the setting or my people. 

I continue with the black line to draw more resolved sketches of the location. Here I draw on a larger scale, A3 white paper. I use a little colour to highlight the market stalls.

I have enjoyed these drawings, however they have been created at home and lack the atmosphere of the market. This is a good point to apply my desire to be more inventive. 

I revisit my research of 'Street Scene' 1946 by James Boswell and use collage to communicate the vibrancy of the market. 

Using the surface of the white paper, A3 in size, I experiment with different surfaces. I cut up magazines, papers and materials to build the collage. Scamper reference - Adapt. I adapt what I have to try to create a believable but different scene. 

I then colour photocopy sections of my collage setting. This is to allow myself chances to make mistakes. Scamper reference  - Modify. By copying the collage, this changes the shape, look and feel of the scene. Copied, it is no longer the collage but a complete visual scene. 

I also colour copy the ink and watercolour people sketches. 

Scamper reference - Combine. Here I hope to integrate my people into my collage setting. My hope is that they will all become as one, as the real essence of the market. A complete combination. A hustle and bustle all together. 

I spend some time playing with the placement of the people within the copies I have made of the scene. 

Final Scene: 

Scamper references used - Adapt, combine, modify. 

This is the final collage. My initial sketches, combined with elements of collage. 

I like the energy captured here, the vibrancy of colour. I feel noise and chatter. Lowry always successfully communicated a time and place, that is what I wanted to this illustration. 

In my action plan I also noted that I wanted to be more inventive. The top study card from my sketchbook was inspired by the work of Art Director and Visual Designer Murat Akyol as researched in exercise 5.2 'Making Connections' https://naomianillustrationsketchbook.blogspot.com/2021/11/blog-post.html

Here I experimented with wrapping the illustration up, so see if this added anything further to the scene. Scamper reference - modify. My thoughts here are that as the market is a shopping experience, could presenting the final illustration as a gift add to the advertising? 

I used torn pieces of scrap brown paper to try and create the impression the scene was being unwrapped. I also tried wrapping these scene with ribbon. As the scene is of a community shopping event, I wanted to see if I could create further reference of this to the illustration. 

I decide that as the illustration is to advertise the event, that perhaps the wrapping is unnecessary. A fun experiment, but I think they are failed attempts to add to the message I am trying to convey. I park this experimentation to one side. 

Become braver. Scamper reference - Reverse. 

Now is the time to push myself further and see if I can turn what I have created into something totally different. I scan the illustration into Photoshop and look at the colour and tones of the scene. I reverse the colour. I use an invert colour feature to do this which turns the colours into opposites. My daytime scene, now appears as night! Unexpected, surprising, diffferent and effective. 

Final Illustration: 

As I selected the option to 'create a poster to advertise your event', I develop my scanned image with the addition of wording. As my original colours are now the opposite to what they were, I decide on a light yellow as the font colour for the 'Late Night Market'. This stands out from the dark tones. I then add further event details, I use a white for this as white is bright on the page. I keep the font style classic and readable. 

Reflections

Wow! Where the illustration ended to where it began, is a destination I didn't expect. However an ending I feel excited and encouraged by. The scamper references pushed me through this assignment, and the reference 'reverse' is how I felt inspired to turn the colours of my original collage into opposites, as well as the personal desire to be braver and more inventive.

The reading of 'Sketch Your World Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location' by

James Hobbs offered constructive tuition that I noted before I went on location.  

My tutor had advised me to make notes of smells, the environment, noises that I heard whilst sketching. This expanded my mindset beyond the lines on the page that I am still practicing at. The words I noted on route described to me the feel I wanted of the illustration, rather than the look of it. I knew I wanted to capture a snapshot of the energy I felt at the market, and actually the end result is my best attempt at it. As Veronica Lawlor creates full and busy scenes, I wanted to have a go at this. Lawlor's are so organic and so natural to the viewer, mine is far from that at this stage. However the more confident I become and reportage sketching, I hope that I will one day be able to create this atmosphere without the need for collage. Collage, inspired by the works of James Boswell has been a creative way to collect a living scene together. I enjoyed the opportunity to work with different media and on a variety of surfaces. 

Having an action plan guided me through this by reminding me what it was I wanted to attempt. I have never created a study card sketchbook before, but it was incredible effective as acting as visual prompts, bite size reminders. 

I am at the very early stages of drawing people. However I do feel that my lines are becoming more confident, there are accuracies to the figures. I am also content that stylistically, there is a continuation and consistency to the visual language.  LS Lowry created such individual and unique people, however couldn't communicate movement on the page. I would like to learn to do both as I progress. 

The small pocket size sketchbook was incredibly easy to carry around and I am pleased with the figures I collected. The fine line is where I felt most comfortable. I didn't go far enough with trying to capture facial features, I am very aware of this. However I felt so challenged by time restraints as people move every second. I need more practice and confidence with line to develop emotion and expression. I selected the stronger figures I had collected to include in the collage. There were weaker drawings of people that I didn't include. 

Scrap brown paper was very good at giving me the confidence to make a scribbly start to by drawings, it was more inviting than white pages and felt far less precious. 

My final illustration is A4 in size. To progress this idea further I could create a larger version, taking a snapshot of a much larger section of the market. Filling it with multiples of people. 

I am inexperienced at digital media, however the surprise final outcome was only possible through Photoshop so I do hope to gain the necessary skills to continue this way. Despite my illustrations being hand drawn, Photoshop also allowed me a way of adding a professional finish with fonts. 

I am developing an ease when drawing on location. Reportage is interesting, spontaneous, different and always fruitful, I hope this is the very start of my journey. I need further practice with line and I need to develop my own visual language of the street. Time and development. 

Tutor Feedback: 

"Focus on: Intention of designs, what and who is it for. This will change the layout, format, choice of materials and design aspects. 

Experiment with tonal values and contrasts in order to separate elements. Include more flat colour or white into busy images to allow for more space".

In response to feedback I have taken some time to research poster designs and on reflection my final illustration is too busy as a whole piece, the words do get lost on the page. My tutor has suggested the inclusion of more flat colour and white space to busy mages and I can see the use of this in established posters. I note font, message of the poster is of equal importance to the images and the font is set in a position to stand out, instead of getting lost in the busyness as I have experienced. 

Note to self: If I were to develop my poster further, I could rearrange my poster to include a block of flat colour on the page, and this is where I could position my text. I could split the illustration into blocks to allow for this space. I need to allow for more time to develop a poster design before I start laying out the final piece. 

References: 

Hobbs, J. (2014). Sketch your world : essential techniques for drawing techniques on location. London: Apple. Accessed 1.12.21 

the Guardian. (2013). Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life – review. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/30/lowry-modern-life-tate-review [Accessed 28 Dec. 2021].

The Lowry. (n.d.). LS Lowry | About Us. [online] Available at: https://thelowry.com/about-us/ls-lowry/.

Tate (n.d.). L.S. Lowry: Curatorial walkthrough – TateShots. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/l-s-lowry-1533/ls-lowry-curatorial-walkthrough [Accessed 28 Dec. 2021].

Tate (2019). “Street Scene”, James Boswell, c.1946 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/boswell-street-scene-t02253.

Suhita Shirodkar. (n.d.). Illustration. [online] Available at: http://www.suhitasketch.com/illustration [Accessed 28 Dec. 2021].

Anon, (n.d.). About Veronica Lawlor & Studio 1482 – Veronica Lawlor. [online] Available at: http://www.veronicalawlor.com/about/.