24th november

From my ink observations, i need to look at line and study the way i use it. Think about blocks of colour.

I need to find an image, break it down, anaylise. How does it work?
Look at how they record it, how do they communicate.
What don’t they do? look at the relationship between space.
Try minimum background.

Look at war photography. Is there one element that makes it, that it uses to encapsulate the message?

experiments

Based on looking at how George Butler and Lucinda Rodgers work, I decided to recreate their methods.
They work outside with a large board and paper, with ink and brush or pen.

I haven’t worked outside on a large scale, as I usually work in sketchbooks as they’re more practical to put in pockets.
however, this was a really god breather for me. I set up with a coffee outside Bella Italia on the Promenade, some where I feel in Cheltenham you always get a variety of people. I also found the cafe outside section good to sit in as no one could peer over my shoulder, which often tickles my irritance.

• I found it comfortable but also I learnt some things I didn’t think about - 

• With the ink I found it very hard to draw the people as they all seemed to be in a rush! Ink however was the most efficient way to capture them ,as I tried coloured pencils and they simply don’t have enough variety in their stroke.

• I found it hard to draw the people when I didn’t have the space they where in - drawing in the background first seemed more logical to give the people perspective and an area to be located in.

• I learned to roughly sketch in shapes where the people can’t walk, trees, buildings etc and draw the people in around them, to then go back to the buildings to add detail into them. 

Different colours worked well to distinguish time zones or buildings from people. Other wise the picture would be layers and layers of black ink and be all a black blob.

• I liked the board size as i could exaggerate forms, however I felt my position sat at the cafe was too far removed from the people and therefore they appeared smaller on my page then ideal. Next time i will try a bench, or standing against a pole in the centre of the walkway. 

first exercise - ink
Here, there seems to be not many people, but as a first sketch, the composition is not ideal and isn’t going to be. A higher vantage point would be advantageous so that the people could be seen from more viewpoints and less buildings, as in this image the buildings make up two thirds of the image.

Second exercise, colour ink and pen with pencil back ground.
Having learned from the first sketch, I have altered my composition, focusing on the people passing. The overlapping colours and heads of close passers by adds more interest and creates a greater sense of movement.

third exercise, pencil background and ink people.
The different densities of ink works well.

What I could do to improve this is to bring the board out and use one image for just the people, concentrating on them and as advised, observe, observe! Draw the person from memory. That way you are capturing a person but also using your imagination to block in the information that has been lost, hereby creating characters and emphasising features that stood out to the eye in the fleeting pass.

• Work in two images - people and buildings. Put together through light box and tracing or Photoshop.

Exploring creating atmosphere of time and movement

I have been taking long exposure shots (roughly around 30s) on my phone, and with the early darkness, finding car lights to photograph isn’t hard.

out of focus.
Would be good to use as a background or as texture. It creates a bokeh effect.  

A long walk home, showing a glistening puddle bottom centre. 

the car radio at the bottom, with street lamps and three movements of the camera.

Waiting at a crossing, with one camera movement. The lights illuminating the windows (centre top) and the texture of the cement works well with the fluidity of the light trails. It helps anchor the image. 

The wind caused the image to blur as I foughts against it. The trees have turned into a paint brush splatter.

Two double decker buses pass me consecutively on montpellier.

Mark Burban
(1)

By combining multiple layers and photos using long exposure, Burban is able to produced these detailed, busy images, a technique called Timestacking. It uses a processing technique ran by coding on the computer. a look through his gallery on Pixel Whip shows the development of his process.

Bangkok Traffic

9 separate long exposure shots. 

bell street & merri creek flow 2013

Approx 25+ shots all together. 

About 30+ images are overlaid to make this photos, taken on the stairs at Southern Cross station, Melbourne.

It creates a sense of movement as the lights have a path around the image. The stationary objects such as buildings and lampposts give it a setting. What is interesting, with the centre image, is that the stationary cars amidst the trails - it gives a sense of the stopping and starting of traffic. It is like two pictures in one, (actually 25). ..
(1) https://500px.com/pixelwhip

Olivier Kugler

http://reportager.uwe.ac.uk/kugler.htm

Olivier Kugler

Kugler uses pen and digital painting to give a refined edge to his free style drawings. The notations and hand drawn text adds a note book feel. 

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/oliver-kugler-reportage-slash-drawn-from-life

Harrow road for penguin books

Use of block colour adds a snapshot frame, a sense of captured movement. 

tutorial

27th oct

• Use film, photo, not just drawings for reference and research.
• Informed by atmosphere
• How to travel to a place -  had a feeling.

3rd Nov

Documenting, drawing, reportage.
I want to explore how a place is given atmosphere, through it’s lines, colour and what is placed on the page.
Within reportage drawing, it is what is not included that makes the page engaging- negative spacing. Why have they chosen the subjects within the image, why was the artist drawn to them?
What have they drawn? The movement, the noise?
How have they done it? Through line or colour?

WHY
WHO
HOW
WHAT