Field Studies

I was looking to source imagery for the my illustration of Ted Hughes poem's and so one of the places I have looked is out in nature, seeing this is the subject of Hughes's work. Going on a series of walks in the countryside to observe and see what I could take from the experience was and still is one of the processes I use to source content.

I took a series of photographs.

One of the things that struck me was the shapes of the actual earth in the field. The patterns and textures, browns and greys. One of the concepts I played with was taking strips of the brown earth, cut them into rectangles, and try to extract the shapes of the clods. But on some level this seemed disingenuous to the actual location and perhaps too abstract to use in the final work.

I could use these images as backgrounds for my drawings, the question of backgrounds having been prominent in my latest studies. Potentially these fields of brown could be abstracted and worked up as grounds to draw upon, but would this have the same effect as my abstract drawings of the clods of earth?

Further development

I plan to take more photographs of the landscape and more importantly some of the individual 'characters' within it, such as the trees and birds. These are the elements that at the moment make up the core messages and narrative of my illustration. I may also source the colours from these images, although at the moment I am using black and white.

Reflective Blog Post

The starting point for my research and practice has been a collection of poems called Crow by Ted Hughes, illustrated by the artist Leonard Baskin. Hughes's gritty poems and Baskin's dramatic wood block prints seemed to drive to the core of something bleak in nature which appeals to my sensibilities. But more their combination also reflected a powerful symbiotic working and understanding that so enhanced the project and questioned the role of illustrator.

I began to try and create my own versions of the crow. I drew using ink as a mirror to Baskin's technique and sought ways of manipulating the crow's image into something obscene, trying to reflect the words of the poems. But on some level this didn't work for me and the illustrations I preferred were very much closer to the original image of the crow and relied more on an aggressive posture of the bird, in the chosen photograph. I looked at other Illustrators experiences such as Lord's A Journey of drawing an illustration of a Fable for insight.

 

But in what respect did this reflect the status of illustration today? Delving deeper into what Illustration is perceived to be (the book The Education of an Illustrator being of particular interest) and an area that is much discussed today, I recognized the concept of Illustrator as Author and that on some level Baskin was embracing. The boundaries between the ownership, or originality, of the visual imagery of the illustrated words was blurred. An illustrator could quite easily own the visual language of a text more convincingly, than the writer, despite the work being their original concept. 

I saw this could create a confused identity for the Illustrator, through my own drawing and reading texts like The End of Illustration by HELLER . When did their work move from being a work of art to an illustration? How much ownership of the visual concepts did they have when working on illustrating a text? For me the prints by Baskin exist separately from the words but so clearly illustrated the meaning of the poetry, which also reflected an unfathomable nature.

 

I felt like I had to grasp more of the narrative of the poem though text like The Author/Illustrator by Brodner informing my practice and decided that I would try and present a whole poem through one illustration. I produced a series of studies that I combined in one image depicting the poem Crow's Fall by Ted Hughes. I supported the content through walks in the country and a trip  to a zoological museum, my own photographs and range of secondary sources.

I stood before the black and white Illustration of the work and felt that something was missing potentially. We then had a workshop with Kerry Andrews where we looked at grounds on to which we might work and I began a series of studies of a range of mid tone papers. I also found the alabaster drawings of Tacita Dean inspiring. I worked up grounds, painting on mid tones and effecting the crow with white paint. For me at this point they engage with the question of what is an illustrator and when does a work become an illustration, but also they reflect something primal that the words of the poem embody.

Illustration Grounds?

Dean also used chalk boards to draw on

The main focus for me has largely been on what I've actually been illustrating but the grounds which I've been working on have become more of a focus since the workshop with Kerry Andrews. Having looked at some of Tacita Dean's Alabaster drawings in one of my last posts and contemplated the wall as a surface through looking at the Gond Art from India I have decided maybe there is some way I can produce a surface that is in some way related to the content and context of the work.

Two of the surfaces from the workshop

The random nature of the reworked surfaces I produced in the workshop are one some level rich with some kind of earthy content, the materials working hard at the fragile surface, breaking it down and opening the grain of the paper. The patterns I created were the result of a process that was generic but what if there was a way of creating a ground in nature seeing that is what I'm illustrating?

One idea I have is to have birds and even crows create a surface themselves. I'm unsure if this even validates the process because it is linking the subject of crows with the actual birds themselves but it seems like an interesting place to start. The concept has formed like a science project in my mind and the process will be as follows:

1.       Mix black food die into fat

2.       Spread this on to sections of a sheet of paper

3.       Sprinkle seeds on to the surface to attract birds

4.       Place outside and hopefully birds land and leave their foot prints on the paper

I'm unsure if this will work yet but the surfaces may be interesting and might enrich the final illustrations I do over the top. Results will follow.

Some Useful Illustration Links - Part 1

I wanted to put together a series of links that I have found over the last few weeks for reference or for anybody wanting to find out about what is going on in the Illustration world.

This is a link to The House of Illustration which is a new space in near Kings Cross in London. This will have a range of exhibitions to visit.

http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/home

Illustration House in London

This link takes you to the World Illustration Award Catagory Winners and a good way of seeing some current and successful Illustrators. http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/home and the link for 2016 competition entry form is here: http://www.theaoi.com/awards/enter-info.php

The directory of Illustration is a comprehensive database of Illustrators and artists with loads of information: http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/home

The Association of Illustrators has many links and networks as well as the magazine Varoom which is one of the leading journals. http://www.theaoi.com/

The Journal of Illustration is one of the few Illustration focused publications and can be found here: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=233/

The Australian Association of Illustrators can be found here and is a country I am looking to forge connections with especially seeing I am interested in Aboriginal drawings: http://www.illustratorsaustralia.com/

Illustration web has a list of commercial illustrators and has a range of portfolios to browse: http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists

These are for my own reference and people interested in this area may find them handy.

If illustration is meant to be reproduced then is the reproduction the Illustration?

While reading Michael Lobel's book John Sloan: Drawing on Illustration I came across an interesting statement when the author was considering what Illustration was and is so that he can more clearly interpret the work of John Sloan. He talks about the a series of definitions that classify illustration and states that they are "images meant to be reproduced" and that "Illustrators recognize that the images they create are meant to be viewed not in the original but as reproductions."

This definition he draws from the Joseph Pennell and his book published in 1896 The Illustration of Books, a publication that began the redefining of what Illustration was, and one that Lobel uses as a way of identify the key features of illustration as it emerged in the mid to late nineteeth century, and help frame the context of the book around John Sloan. These may not even be his own opinions but pose an interesting question that may drive to the root of a definition of Illustration and potentially a clearer understanding of where my work sits.

If illustration is meant to be reproduced then is the reproduction the Illustration? And does the original remain an independent piece of artwork? If the reproduction is a mirror of the original art work is the physical nature of this original the aspect that makes it an artwork rather than an illustration? Could the individual identity of something make it understandably unique and therefore more clearly defined? Does this controlled process of reproduction result in an illustration?

The format of the illustration will also vary dramatically. It could be a framed print or in a newspaper, poster or made into a tattoo. Does each style have its own value? Is a framed print more valuable than a illustration in a newspaper? The mass media will produce thousands of newspapers and copies of that image where as a print will be of a limited run. Is the value of the print higher, not just it's monetary value but it's currency increased, by it being closer to the artist? A print seeming as if it has been touched by the artist themselves and that in the newspaper further from the origin.

This also makes the a clear statement about the presence of the artist. By possessing a framed printed potentially the owner has something of the artist. The original work is also an individual object where as a reproduction in a book is framed with the context of the narrative. It is part of another piece of work rather and potentially the identity of the original artist is lost.

M. Lobel, John Sloan: Drawing on Illustration (2014) USA, Yale