Exercise: Abstract illustration

I listened to "Summertime" by Miles Davis


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N090STPx-2M


The first time I listened to this music, I was struck by the tone of the trumpet which I found incredibly screetchy. On subsequent listening sessions, this was less the case, because I passed the initial shock and other sounds made it more subtle.  Nevertheless, I decided to try and communicate it visually.

 



Here I created marks while listening to the music, on the top of the page.

And then I forgot the paper by the computer,  my son came along and added his own doodles underneath. (Ironically, none of his characters have ears!)

I was interested by the way a change in colour, brought focus to the blue claw he drew.

I selected this section

Removed  some aspects of the image

Removed the background

At this point I realised that I loved the result, but would like to learn how to change the colour of the element which symbolises screetchy the best, and play around with the image a bit more with textures and colours as I was asked. 

example of an attempt that I find not successful

My best coloured version of "Screetchy"

I quite like this last version of my image for this exercise. The colours match an underwater feeling I experienced whilst listening to the music, and the screetchy sound that came out from the trumpet (perhaps like arc welding?)

I also chose colours that do not particularly go well together, to give a sense of uneasiness.  I am new to computer generated images and find it sometimes gives me surprising results that I couldn't have dreamt of, or perhaps realised with other media. 

Do I think any of these could be an album cover?  I don't think green is very popular, and can't imagine seeing the green version used for this purpose. The white version could be used, probably with text in contrasting colour like red. Yes, I can see this one as an album/cd cover.

Exercise: image development

I have picked an image from this site:

 http://childrens-entertainer-uk.co.uk/childrensfunparties.php?act=Workshops%20-%20interactive

I chose this picture because of its range between foreground and background, and association with children and circus.

There is a meaning to this picture, which is in the look the man in the background gives to the child in the foreground. Some of the children are looking in the same direction. If I play with this, the meaning of the edited image can be entirely different.

Using the computer, I have created edited versions of this image. Adding a word on each version may extend the narrative in a complimentary, slightly different or contradicting way: 

This is the image I chose as a basis for my illustration.  I had to draw up my artwork to make a poster, add colours and textures to emphasise my message.

Once I had drawn my artwork, I did it again with the word as part of it. I am not very good at colouring in, so I used the computer. This is how I haven't played with the textures as much as I would have liked, because I don't know how and decided that on this occasion I would prefer to move on rather than spending days learning how to do this...

My poster

Following this project, I went and checked the original pictures against drawings of facial expressions for artists, as I was not very happy. I printed the pics and glued them in my sketchbook with notes written on them, and added sketches with notes that I took from the book: "the artist's complete guide to facial expression" by Gary Faigin (Watson-Guptill Publications).  

I realised that the kids were not 'shouting' as such, but more 'laughing' or 'screeming with delight'. This misunderstanding of the image I used in the first place led to what I see as a poster that is a bit weird. Most children that have seen it have commented on the child in the yellow teeshirt that they saw as being fat. 

Exercise: Reading an image

We had to look carefully at this image:

Mark Oliver

What is the image about? What is it saying?

.  a story with two kids, characters: a girl and a boy dressed like avatars in games, or like adventurers/pirates in children stories

.  a dragon red and asleep - protecting a treasure: throne, gold coins, a chalice
.  heat seems to radiate from dragon
.  'dumped' weapons near dragon --> defeated previous warriors attempting to take the treasure from the dragon
.  girl has a torch in her hand ( => dragon is in a cave) and points to dragon with other hand.
.      boy: crouching posture, mouth open => scared, seems to point away from dragon "Let's get out of here!"

Identify the story: 
This image is from

Tom's Clockwork Dragon 

by

Jonathan Emmett (Author)
and Mark Oliver (Illustrator) http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/MarkOliver


a successful children's story. 

Use of the Palette and elements in the image 



Hot colours:
Red dragon, coins, throne (near dragon = redder)
Heat coming from the dragon: textured effect like dripping
--> melting?
Hot = danger
Dangerous beast, hell fire protects the treasure
The children are safe if they keep away


Cool and detailed: children clothes, weapons (not dangerous compared to the dragon)
     and textured: background, ground, smoke effect coming from the dragon's nostrils (his breath is not a danger as long as he stays asleep)

Hierarchy: which are the most important elements?

1. The Dragon
a mythical beast with wings
teeth, horns (warning stripes), huge claws
   The Dragon is resting
but it's red and breathing --> imminent danger
very dangerous - heat ripples (capable of melting the cavern's roof), defeated opponents

2.  Children
shadows in front of them --> entering the lair
position of arms: diagonals - dynamic and leading towards dragon
small size compared with the beast
on left - we read from left to right --> they're taking us there