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.

Method and Reasoning so far in my MA Illustration

Now I am a couple of months into my MA Illustration I am having to carefully study my methodology and what is driving my thought process and ideas. I think the direction of my illustration has had a number of influencing factors so far:
 
Firstly the media I am using is currently and simply black Indian ink. This is influence by the black wood block prints of Leonard Baskin and their use in illustrating the work of Ted Hughes. They are brutal and primeval and I see these images tapping into something basic in nature, something gritty.

One of my latest drawings combined with a Ted Hughes Quote

I also enjoy the process of using the ink. I like the emphasis of the line and feel of the quill in the creation, this process an important part of the making. The organic nature of the ink  and it's sometimes unpredictable mark making gives the work a freedom. Yet, there is something exacting about the high contrast and permanent nature of the mark.
 
Secondly the subject matter has been inspired by nature and poetry written on this topic. Works by Ted Hughes, Emily Dickinson and Lionel George Fogarty - conjure up a range of imagery that I intend on illustrating. Much of what I have drawn so far has featured a range of motifs from the 'Crow' by Ted Hughes, including the crow its self and settings such as fields.
 
Thirdly I'm driven to understand a process of iconization and simplification that these sometimes pagan symbols, an ancestral interruption of nature, go through. These forms of nature that are symbolic images from history.
 
Fourthly I intend on trying to represent the collected imagery of a whole poem in one picture, a form of tableau or two dimensional totem. Potentially with the ability to convey a range of ideas or even present some overview or sense of the poems meanings. Each of these tableaus would be large and a work of art in their own right but yet an illustration. This final work would make up a series and as a whole potentially represent the poet's overarching themes.
 
I am interested in how the motives of the artist illustrator overlap with the work of the poet. Where the boundaries of people's interpretation exist and how together the works sit beside one another and enrich the overall meaning. The story illustrated, the meaning interpreted, a sense communicated?

Speculation and Discussion on the Arisman's short thesis Is There a Fine Art to Illustration?

Marshall Arisman states in his short thesis Is There a Fine Art to Illustration?  that there is an 'outdated formula created by the art faculty' (the art faculty referring to the broader classification of art education across a range of universities) and that in relation to this outmoded contextualisation that 'All painters know that the word "illustration" is the kiss of death."

In his extravagantly written extolment, that sits proud at the front of a series of essays dealing with the identity of Illustration, he punctuates his distaste of the institutionalisation of art and the perception of illustrator. He says, "The fine arts world does not want illustrators in their club".

But he writes about a process of integration between Fine Art and Illustration and briefly explains a process that he himself introduces to the classroom. He explains that "working in a series allows students to introduce the concept of time into their work and pushes them out of the habit of creating single symbolic images, which is the trend in illustration."

For me the interesting words here are 'series' and 'time' which I discuss here:

1.

Series

If the role of Illustrator is to translate a language or statement of meaning into image, as an example of a how some may perceive the word illustration, then what place does series have? How can an image take on a series of meanings. The context in which Arisman uses the word series seems to imply an exploration of the theme? Yet does this not imply that the illustrator is expanding beyond the meaning?

If a series is produced based upon a statement of any length then potentially many images are taken as a narrative or a proceed collection of elements of the story. If a single statement is made with limited input, for example five words or line from a poem, then the expansion of the content is purely in the hands of the illustrator? At what stage does this become more about the illustrator's mind and experiences and less about the content of the meaning of the script, a script being a fragment from another individual's creation, within which the originator has their own set of conceptions and understandings.

How can a series of images work beyond the pure definition of the text without the illustrator becoming a fine artist? Where does the artist appear beyond the first drawing in a series? At what boundary does the Illustrator disappear?

2.

Time

'Introducing the concept of time into their work'? To think of time draws us into an illustrative process. Whether this be a memory or a tool to pictorially display the passing of time it is a process we try to crystallise and understand but ultimately it is very difficult to understand what Arisman means when he says time.

Could time mean cycle and then be a reference to series? Is the use of time a nod to evolution, a process that allows us to see change. But ultimately the result of time is the diminishing of everything, the death of everything.

Is the subconscious meaning behind this use of Time a direct reference to the death of what we know as Illustration and that in the end we must consider the illustrator an artist and not bracket them into a single place in time with archaic labels because in the end  Arisman finishes with a roll call of sorts, "I believe that it is possible to expand the boundaries where fine art and illustration meet into an image-making process that redefines our tired old definitions." 

ARISMAN, M. (2000) Is there a fine art to illustration? In: Heller, S & Arisman, M. (eds). The Education of an Illustrator. New York, USA: Allworth Press

 

Examining the opening Prepace of Alan Male’s “Illustration: A theoretical and Contextual Perspective”

The preface to Alan Male’s “Illustration: A theoretical and Contextual Perspective” leads with “Illustration: a definition. Applied Imagery; a ‘working art’ that visually communicates context to

audience.”

It seems like a straight forward approach to start with the dictionary definition but in the delicate understanding of what something actually is it can throw up more questions than answers. What is a working art? What is applied imagery? And what is the context being communicated to the audience? This could be a context of understanding, but realistically this would be many contexts, every situation a bridge between numerous perceived cultural contexts or situations. Also is the assumption that it is a context which is communicated visually?

This definition does not actually say how the illustration physically manifests. What actually is an illustration? How can we identify an illustration from another image that, through a range of satisfied agendas, is seen as something different?

Potential the word ‘narrative’ could exist within the canon the words that classify illustration. To illustrate is to tell? Is the definition of Illustration illusive or does it even exist? Alan Male says in his preface, “Illustration can also be applied to anything and is not driven purely by fad or trend.” This implies that Illustration can indeed take on the disguise of ‘anything’ it likes, as if it floats freely absorbing a range of cultural and technological tools for its own use.

But it seems that Alan Male is concerned that this appropriation can be seen as devaluing the basis of Illustration when he says, “The notion of illustrator as ‘colouring-in technician’ must be discarded!” This for me says that the identity of Illustration is open for debate in many discussions and potentially revealed an underlying worry in Male’s mind about the credibility of Illustration as its own unique and valued art practice. How can we discerned illustration?

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Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective - Alan Male - AVA Publishing SA 2007