ASS 2 - Project 1 - Reportage

Exercise Drawing The Familiar

   For this exercise I have got to pick space that I know well and sketch it - make notes and observe the area. I have decided to sketch out my kitchen as I am in there every day and it's quite a busy place as three people share it. I have to think about how I am going to capture people in the area and show movement too. I am not very good at drawing from real life so by stretching every day and this course I am hoping I am going to really improve. I am going to do a few sketches of the room to acknowledge the space.

This is the kitchen above which I am going to start sketching

   Now that I have done a few drawings I have grasped the space of the room and where things are. I have decided to leave a few things out such as the cooker and table. The table is never used so I decided it's not important to put it in the image. The cooker we do use a lot but as I am still learning perspective and as it is one of my flaws I thought it was a bit too technical for me to draw it. I have impressed myself though, I think I have drawn a good perspective view of the kitchen I really want to get the grasp of drawing rooms and the outdoors. Over several days am going to capture people busy in the kitchen in my sketchbook.

   Whilst drawing I came up with the idea to use tracing paper. I was asking myself how am I going to show my people in the scene I have created of the kitchen? I thought that by using tracing paper that I could draw people several times on separate pieces and then layer them on top to show the movement of that person or multiple people in the room. Here are my images below which I created:

   As you can see this is a male I live within the house who I captured making his dinner - I layered them on top of each other and then put my light up tracing board underneath to help see the male images within the kitchen clearer. With all the poses layered on top of each other with the kitchen drawing underneath it creates a sense of movement in the room and brings the area to life. I am now going to attempt to get the female person who I also live with to capture her movements in the kitchen. It will also be interesting at the end of it to mix the male and the female images up and layer them on to the kitchen drawing to look at how they work with now two peoples movement in that one area.

Exercise Courtroom Dramas

Franklin Mahon

Reference:

http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/the-emmett-till-trial-illustrated-by-franklin-mcmahon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr2SnUutShA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIZBBRT2XNk
http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/the-emmett-till-trial-illustrated-by-franklin-mcmahon
https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/search?filter_text=prfx%3Achh+emmett+till&x=0&y=0

   Here above are links to where I have looked at Franklins work and printed off imaged to report and annotate on them.

   From having done quite a bit of research on Franklin I have come to discover how well he used illustrations to report from life and world events. The exercise asks me to look at the 1955 murder of Emmett Till a black teenager. He was murdered by two men because he wolf whistled to a woman who was one of their wives. He was badly beaten and the two men were found guilty. This was a big thing back in 1955 as there was still a lot of racism within the white and black communities, so for a court full of white men to find the two men guilty had never been heard of and was a sign of changes on how people perceive each other in the world. 

   Cameras are still banned today in courtrooms and it is fantastic that reportage illustration is still going strong - Technology has taken over in a lot of traditional art areas in todays world but its like a hidden treasure that it is still going strong for traditional illustrators.

   Franklins drawings on the 1955 court case for Emmett Tills murder are full of character and movement. His sketches make me feel that I am there at the scene and can see familiarity in the characters each time he draws them in different illustrations. Being a reporting illustrator, gives people am idea of victims, judges and the blamed personalities and how they are on the day such as strained, sad, or arguing between the people of the court to decide on a verdict. I think his work ties in with the notion of journalism and truth because he is drawing from what he is seeing and trying to show the viewers what is happening there and then. Also he is note taking making notes of colours, moods, names of the people and discussions between people and more - he captures all the main goings on to keep it truthful and real to the viewer. He looks at each person and memorises their expressions or body gestures and doodles them down quickly. People are constantly moving so he has to work fast to get the main details on the page for the viewer after the event to report on.

Exercise - Drawing on location

For this task, I have been waiting for an event to come up which I am interested in. I have picked the BACS

Here are some pages from my sketchbook from the day:

   I had such a great day, Alpacas are such lovely natured animals and are so funny looking. Throughout the day there were shows and competitions such as the bet fleece competition, fancy dress and pedigree.

   I also got talking to some breeders from information which I have added to my sketches such as facts about Alpacas, pricing and what is required to have them as a pet. I spent time with the alpacas, felt their fleece coats and got sketches up close of them. There was also a few stalls selling alpaca products such as wool, socks, rugs and more, I also did a sketch show the venue.

   The tools I took with me was a watercolour pen filled with water and brown paint, a fine liner and a white Posca pen. I picked these out because I have drawn on site before with just using a pencil and wanted to see how I cope with taking watercolour paint to do some reportage illustrations.

Did your choice of sketchbook, materials and approach to your drawings work to capture your chosen location?

   Im my sketches my style is loose and fast in some areas because of movement with people and the animals. In some cases, there was no movement in the quieter areas where the Alpacas were resting at times which was great to capture a bit more detail. My sketch book was just the right size easy to handle and draw whilst standing. Sometimes I just painted the shapes of things, Alpacas and people, I then back home worked more on top of theses made shape adding details. I also took photos so when I got home I used these as a reference to add detail to my work. The watercolour pen worked great, however carrying it around, it sometimes leaked and also once ran out, I had no way to refill it up. Next time I could carry some more paint with me. I also think by using one colour, it helped me to concentrate on what I was looking at rather then the colours. Again this is also where my photos came in handy to see the colours of the things I had drawn, after the event.

   Overall it did work well. The event was not busy but I reckon if it was, I may of struggled with the crowds to get to see the live events going on and missed chances of getting up close to the Alpacas.. My tools captured the textures of the alpacas and also helped to portray their gentle personalities.

How might you amend your approach for this exercise?

   If I was to go to an event again like this I maybe would have taken a fold-up chair, so I can sit and look at what is going on around me instead of being on my feet, This I feel would have helped me produce neater drawings that I have done. I would also take extra water and paint for when I start running low.

   After the event I was inspired to draw and create one of the Alpacas that I had sketched into a paper form. Here are the images below.

   I think I captured their characteristics very well and their cheeky charm shows through. I also tried as best as I could to capture the texture of the fleece using pencils and pens. The photos I took are of the portrait placed on to a fur mat to enhance the texture of the Alpacas fleece and is a great contrast to highlight my Alpaca portrait.