Tutorial with Pete: first week back.

I have been a little 'all over the place' about what my project will culminate in. I have gone as far as creating images based on parts of the story and metaphors for the characters and their characteristics. But I have a few ideas knocking around about what will be the finished project. It's been slightly all-consuming yet I feel I haven't progressed. I just want it all to end.

There were a few different 'not-quite-complete' ideas that I couldn't choose between.
I had thought about staying with the novel and creating a book jacket, a few inside illustrations and maybe chapter spot drawings. I had also played with the idea of creating promotional pieces for the book; as I was creating more handmade 3D pieces I thought they would be good displayed, or used in a window display. I also thought about using the story as an imaginary theatre show and creating mock ups as concept designs; going back to the inspirations from War Horse and His Dark Materials. The models I was making could easily be made as masks or puppets.

I had a tutorial with Pete today as over the easter break I had lost momentum and lost focus and hoped to get that back. Pete liked the beginnings of the model making and said that was exiciting. So I was pleased about that and found that quite encouraging as I hoped to be able to carry on with it and not be put off. I was told to give myself a structure and use this presentation document to do so. We talked through the opitions for a culmination to this project and decided to create a book jacket and several illustrations; either full page or spot illustrations for chapter headings.


Book Jacket;
I would like to use the fox on the book jacket, even though it doesn't relate directly to the title of the book I feel the fox is very metaphorical of the character; Faina who is effectively the snow child. The fox represents a beauty and a savagery in the wilderness, just like Faina is. She is a young girl who is fragile and innocent in one sense but also extremely strong in another; she can hunt, kill and fend for herself. The wilderness is her home as it is the foxes. The foxes death starts a change for Faina as she becomes more civilised and connected with the other humans in the story. The fox dies as she reaches her later teenage years, in those times girls would start to think about marriage and starting a family. I think the red is symbolic of love, and danger. As Faina grows up, falls in love with Garrett and has a baby her wildness - symbolised in the fox - is gone.
I would like to create a fox similar to the models I've been working on. I think a mix of paper and possibly the wire would create a mix of nature and man-made.

Interior illustrations;
The drawings that I had done suggested the possibility of spot illustrations however with the paper and crafted model making the two didn't really seem to fit together. This lead on to thinking about interior illustrations similar to the paper cuts I've been doing throughout. The ink drawings were more for reference so it would be nice to incorporate them as an aid to finalised work.
There are several moments in the story that would be nice to illustrate:

Mabels grief at the very beginning of the book at having no children. I've already created some pieces based on lines from the early chapters and there are some more that spark images and emotions; 'and found herself further consumed by gray, until even her vision was muted and the world around her drained of colour'. The landscape at this time to Mabel is empty and barren and reflects her loss and inabilities. The colour is an important symbol throughout the book as is the description of the landscape.

The homestead is a place of civilisation out in the wilderness and that's another theme in the book; the mix of the wild and the tame and fantasy and reality. Early on the girl appears magical and Mabel believes her to be the child her and Jack had made out of snow. There's a touch of cabin fever about how she perceives things and it makes you question as a reader how real the girl is, or how magical the girl is. The story is set in a very real time and real place with every day events like going into town, farming the land, hunting and trying to survive through winter, and so the girl is very juxtaposed to that side of life. As the girl grows Mabel comes to terms with the fact she isn't a magical being and tries to tame her to no avail. It's later when she reaches maturity that she starts to interact with others and become more civilised.

Nearer the end of the book Garrett sees the girl killing a swan. The swan seems to foreshadow the events which will lead to Faina civilisation. Garrett only approaches Faina after he shoots her fox. The mirrored killing seem to represent the passing from wilderness into human civilisation and into maturity. The girl also later walks with Garrett and runs into a flock of white birds. They fly off and mark the change in Faina and Garrett, their freedom and innocence. Faina is very connected to the landscape and animals. She knows the land and how to move in it, she only ever comes when there is snow and gets hot when she in the homestead.

The seasons in the book mark the coming and going of Faina. In the winter when the landscape is full of snow, she comes and goes frequently. When spring and summer arrive the land can be farmed and crops and grow, then Faina leaves and heads towards the mountains where there is still snow. The changing seasons mirror the cycle of growth and life, as Faina stays and has a baby. It also mirrors death and she leaves and dies.

Spot illustrations.

I've been working on a few rough ideas to do with illustrations to with the motion of the story. I've been thinking about circular paper cuts; they link with snowflakes in a way and thats where the idea sort of came from - looking at different shapes of things. With the idea of the seasons and the cycle - Faina coming and going, the cycle of life and death and the connection to the characters and the landscape a circle seems to be a good metaphor.

I feel a bit better about working towards something in context. I think I have a lot to work with and a lot to decide upon. I now have various images to actually plan and come up with imagery for but I know how I want to create them, and I am looking forward to playing around with different parts of the story.

Fox sketches

I decided to do a few more detailed sketches of the head of the fox to help my work further.

This was helpful as I got to grips with proportions and shape and size and the position of the head I am keen to model.

Brass wire modelling

I've been struggling a little with pushing my work forward with this project at the moment. I took about a week off due to some reasons beyond this project, so I think work is going to be slow moving for a while anyway.

I think looking at the time I have left I felt I really needed to come up with the final piece, and I got a little panicked thinking about it. The break from work had a bit of a silver lining, as I chilled out a bit and found the best way would be to just keep doing what I was doing, and something can come from that rather than trying to push an idea forward. I decided in my last week at home to carry on with a number of ideas and images and book in a tutorial to talk about them all when I got back. 

I ordered some brass wire and set about testing it out. I went for a non-descripted animal shape at first and didn't try to make it accurate to the dimensions of a particular creature. It's my first time using the wire to model and so I used things I'd gathered from using papers to model and just went for it really. 

The wire I first got is 0.3 and it was very flimsy. It bend easily and so holding it meant it changed it's shape. I stuck with it though to see what I could do. 

The wire was hard to attach with only hands. I think I did ok with the ears as they hold their shape. It was good to get to grips with the material though and I didn't think this was too bad for a first try. I used newspaper as I didn't want to be too precious about it and why use nice paper on something you know won't be the best? 

My dad gave me some 1.5mm wire which is a lot thicker and holds it's shape. It will be good for keeping the shape secure. I also bought some 1mm wire and both the smaller wires will be good at looking at the smaller details. 

I was trying to piece together the features of a foxes face using an opened brown envelope for paper. I've been thinking about different papers and what weight of paper to use to make models. I think heavier would be sturdier but harder to manoeuvre. I quite liked the grainy texture of the inside of the brown envelope. It would be quite nice to have textured paper as it would appear more natural. 

I also painted a little on the paper for markings and fur colour. 

I made an ear structure again out of slightly thicker brass wire. Having the drawings already done helped with knowledge of shape and size. I really now need to think about putting things together. 

Here I've sewn together parts of the features to create a reasonably accurate shape of a foxes head. Sewing holds the paper together well and is more reliable than anything sticky. I think ascetically it looks nice as well. I would use thread of a different colour for a final model. 

I also wrapped around the thinner wire to see what that would do in creating the shape. It took it's time coming together and bunched up at the top. I think the inclusion of paper in the model would be the best mixture as it would create a more realistic look, and be closer to nature. It would also connect well with other work I have done and will do. 

I liked the process of making these and finding that things are actually pretty different when you start bending and wrapping the wire than just thinking about it with pen and paper in your book. Being able to walk around the object and see if from all angles helps you to look at how pieces can fit to retain their shape. I think I definitely want to carry on with this process into a final piece.

Life drawing foxes

I've been awol for a little while, I've gone home for easter break which has turned out to have both pros and cons. I have taken over the study in my parents house and have access to a large table, computer and scanner all in the same room which makes life a lot easier. I also have access to all my dads tools, paper, tape and pens which is fun. I've found a load of old school books in the loft (it's spring cleaning time) and have ripped out long forgotten notes and algebra sums to use as a sketchbook paper.

I decided that I needed to get some good drawing in my book. I want my final work to be accurate and informed.

Foxes and cheap paper;

I started off with pitt pens, but found them too restricting for first sketches. I felt I needed to work with something looser to get going as it's been a while.

I switched to a brush pen and found I could work a lot quicker. I am familiar with using a brush pen as well and felt more comfortable keeping more of an eye on the foxes and their movements.

I think these are quite good, eventually I got into the swing of it and found more and more I was picking up on the stances, movement and positions of the foxes. 

I used the squared workbook paper first as I didn't have to be precious about it. I knew I was going to be quite rusty and so thought using rough paper was the perfect fit. 

 I put the sheets together and bound them together afterwards.

I was quite please with some of the drawings that came out of my exercise. It's helped get me back into observing and drawing and recording. It will also be useful to any final work I do with a greater idea of movement and shape and size of these animals I am most likely to use in the project. 

Drawings

As I've been back at home for easter I decided to get some pencils out and just do some drawing. As I had been doing self promotion work before finishing for easter I'd not done much on the project and thought it would be a way of getting back to it.

Foxes are becoming more and more apparent in what will be in the final pieces. I think with the symbolism of the fox in the story it will definitely be used symbolically in the final images 

I was also thinking about the character of Mabel, and trying to capture her character. 

This was more out of want than need but it was really nice to spend a few days drawing. With paper cutting, and using watercolour, I think it's good to have good drawing behind it as that will create a better image. So it's always nice to go back to basics sometimes. 

New Images

I was thinking about my self promo project and what I would have done differently. I thought it would have been better to have made a wallet for the pop up rather than cover. This lead on to thinking about possible new images based around the actual project.

I came up with this idea, using the fox footprints as a container for other images of wildlife. I thought about different seasons, seeing one as more of an autumnal scene and the other as more of a spring scene. I chose deer and a hare as it seemed universal enough to not be specific to one area but were also animals from western countries such as America. The fox in the story represents the wildness and so I thought using the fox footprints were a good symbol of that. It also relates to tracking and hunting; finding footprints in the snow is a common feature in the story. 

My details I hand wrote and then cut out. I used a hand drawn type as I feel it relates better to my way of working traditionally.

This side project has brought out quite a few ideas for my final project. I would like to continue looking at the representation of the wilderness and the changing seasons and how they are used as metaphors in the story. I think I'll keep these pieces aside to look at possibly using them for self promotion after my project has come to an end. As the project is finished now I want to concentrate on my final major, of which this can be a part of. 

I printed off pictures of the northern lights again and placed them under the cut. I like the mix of colour behind the muted colour. 

Johnny Toaster presents: Pointless Posters

Wednesday 21st March was the opening of The Pointless Posters exhibition I was part of. 20 of the 3rd year Illustration students created designs to be screenprinted for a 'pointless poster'. The range of ideas and images are as diverse as the title allowed us to be. Posters are there to advertise, inform, persuade amongst other things; they have a purpose. The idea came from thinking what if images were put up that had no real meaning to them; they weren't trying to effect you for any particular reason. 

The pieces are going to be displayed for two months, I think, at The Soul Cellar in Southampton. And there are copies of each artwork available to buy. 

My design in on the far right, it's a section of lyrics to a Lana Del Rey song; Video Games. 

This was a piece done by Nichol which I've included to show the diversity of ideas. The colours used were CMYK; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. All posters were printed on a light grey paper and all were one colour on top. This was to create a unity in the collection. 

Here is one of my unframed posters which are up for sale. While I was trying to think of what to do for this exhibition Lana Del Rey's album had just come out and I really liked 'Video Games' of which this line is a lyric. I thought it would be fun to take a line and use that to play with type and handwritten text. With the brief being so open, pretty much anything was accepted so long as there was no point to it and there we have it. There is no point to this design. 

These are just in and around the cafe, the work is dotted all over the place. 

Here is my hand drawn draft for the poster. I was originally going to cut it out but decided I liked the fainter lines where I had been adjusting to get right placements and shapes. These would be picked up when the work got exposed for screenprinting and so I decided to keep it like this. You can see the marks came out in the screenprinted version. 

(All above photographs are my own. All artwork seen is either my own or work of 3rd year students at Southampton Solent University)