Exploring creating atmosphere of time and movement through reportage.

Bjorn Lie, surface and texture.

He is using a technique where he cuts into the papers surface with a scalpel, and using charcoal or pastels, he rubs in slightly, giving an airbrushed effect. With stencil cutting, if there’s a mistake, you have to incorporate it and enjoy the mark making. 

I used his method of scalpel and paper, rubbing charcoal into the exposed paper.
 There are some difficulties i came across, how on earth does he get it so clean cut? Obviously he has had a long time perfecting it.

I tried using the scalpel into paper, taking only a slight layer off. This was hard if you miscalculated the pressure and went through the paper, of didn’t press evenly enough through the line and end up peeling sections off and making a mess.

 I used a paintbrush to place charcoal in the areas and spread it, occasionally using the stick directly for saturation. I haven’t achieved the high finish Lie has, where it looks as though he has used stencils or something to keep the paper clean. 

 I have chosen his aspect of cutting into the surface and will create a woodcut.

His work is of botanical, nature, strange animal creatures....

I have chosen a quirky shop front from Stroud to work with, as it has difficult reflections to capture and because its a building i had to make up interesting marks to describe flat surface. I just about remembered that with woodcut, you have to mirror the image and work from a backward image, so when it prints the text is the right way!

reference point : I chose the aspects of carving and cutting into the surface... I followed wood cut as the next thing. It was very enjoyable to do and I would like to produce more.

A pencil rubbing of the relief, to show texture 

Woodcut in teal, with use of stencil print for the texture on the walls. The text is a bit  misshapen as when i was cutting into the wood, slight layers would lift off and then you lose the height of the wood needed for ink.

I intend to sell these at a stall in Stroud on the 13th February. 

I painted watercolours and gouache onto one of the prints. It was relaxing to do, and i spent a day working into it with limited colours of peach, yellow, blue and dark blue as well as the use of teal from the print.

 I used opacity of watercolours by mixing with white gouache. 

I love that now I have two completely different images from one starting point..... referring back to Bjorn Lie, He drew some botanical studies, inspired by Ernst Haeckel. Daiz, an Australian fashion company, asked if they could use the prints for shirts. An email from a friend who had just released a vinyl record asked if he had any work he’d like to give for the cover - flowers! A german teeshirt company also saw the work and printed it on teeshirts, and the art director of the New York times (Alexandra) asked him to create an editorial per ice for an article about opiets.  From the drawings, he also was approached to create labels for Scarlett Spritzer, featuring a prehistoric duck... all from one image, he had many outcomes. 
I feel that my print has the same potential of becoming separate art in their own means.

I liked working in the multimedia way and will try out more methods. 

Languages – Mechanisms of communication./Surrealism/ Humour/ nonsense/ Abstraction, decorative, pattern./ metaphor/conceptual/symbolic/ montage/juxtaposition/emulation /documentary, reportage/ interactivity/ realism/ anthropomorphism Aspects of production / Composition/ Viewpoint / people/gesture/expression/performance Character/ / Simplification/stylization / Scale . Narrative structure/sequence/ Time colour / place/context/background / 3d elements, made objects / platform- – Layout.

Charlotte Ager, wordless narrative

http://charlotteagerillustration.tumblr.com

Intent -
Observing a place, time after time, and creating a wordless narrative from it...

Content - 

view of the library, the use of masking tape is intuitive. 

waiting at an airport lounge - the fact that not every detail is shown makes us imagine the rest of the scene, we know what seats look like and most of us have sat in departure lounges. A minimalistic approach.

The pastel colours  adds beauty to what I can imagine as the grey concrete city. The people sitting and watching the busy life continue adds a sense of observation and them relaxing.

Observations at a swimming pool. I like her use of simple colours, the white and blue and the technique of using collage. 

dynamic with the diagonal cut of water.

What is it?

A wordless narrative about an everyday activity. 

What does it communicate? 

Charlotte Ager has used only two characters, wordless in speech, But we look at the technique and composition more. Her observational sketches of the one place has restricted her in a way and made the attention focus on the movements and people within the space rather than the space itself. 

It communicates the tranquility of an activity participated alone, and the interaction of another in their own world (the passing of the woman swimmer). The use of black and white at the beginning and end show his routine in life, whilst the colour in the swimming pool shows, as the title suggests, his escape, his meditation and relaxation from the mundane world of black and white.

 reference point: ....

Communication Objectives:  study one place/environment e.g shopping centre, post office, kitchen .... create a wordless narrative describing the beauty of everyday actions.

What do you want people to think or feel when they see it?

To be able to relate to the actions of the character and feel  an appreciation in ordinary actions.

How does it work?

Languages – Mechanisms of communication./Surrealism/ Humour/ nonsense/ Abstraction, decorative, pattern./ metaphor/conceptual/symbolic/ montage/juxtaposition/emulation /documentary, reportage/ interactivity/ realism/ anthropomorphism Aspects of production / Composition/ Viewpoint / people/gesture/expression/performance Character/ / Simplification/stylization / Scale . Narrative structure/sequence/ Time colour / place/context/background / 3d elements, made objects / platform- – Layout.

experiment ...

I chose a seat from above so i could see what they were doing without getting in the way and without the staff noticing me.
Here I sat and noticed the movements at the till, processing money and the card machine. 

I studied the use of the milk steamer (top) as well as some of the customers (bottom).

A study of the atmosphere within the canteen, the strong sunshine is coming through and casting great shadows, adding dramatic lighting.

I put a warm tone for the background to portray the warmth felt by the sun and the happy chattering in the hall. I added light yellow for the strong sunlight in a textured brush. The contrast between peach and teal works well.

Again, playing with warm tones but making it more dramatic. 

 I looked at what the barista and staff were doing, how they interacted with people, what they did in a moments rest.

trying to come up with character design... it is difficult to know how much or little detail to include...

The set up - a sign, till, coffee machine including stacked cups and a hot water boiler.

rough story ... trying to organise paned. I changed the pencil into a blue tone and contrasted it with a mustard. The background colour works well and is effective running out of the boxes.

several hot water boiler frames (top left) and a study of milk. I will add more frames later. 

(1) http://charlotteagerillustration.tumblr.com