Wow, the final assignment. It's been ten months since I started this module and I really get a feeling of progression from the starting point. I still haven't exorcised all my demons but I have crossed many bridges and I am definitely better equipped to move forward and improve my skills, creativity and sense of fulfilment.
The brief in my coursework has the title Seven Days. It was left very loose and open to interpretation: objective or subjective, one illustration or many, open media and methods, open context, and audience! Whilst this did give me lots of room for manoeuvre and be creative, it also made me quite anxious as I like to know what my constraints are.
So, drawing on what I have learnt through this module, I started by brainstorming content ideas using a mind map.
I tried to cover a variety of possible concepts. I tried to see if there were any historical events that took exactly seven days, allegorical events and to look at 'mundane' aspects of normal life that could possibly make a good story.
I also explored music, myths and more random aspects too. I found this process quite hard, but I am pleased with the breadth of potential ideas that I came up with.
I remembered the old poem "Monday's Child" which was told to me by Mum and Nan when I was little, and as an old poem, I envisioned it being quaintly illustrated in a book of poetry. That led me to remember another old poem "Solomon Grundy" which tells the life of a man over the days of the week. The name was also used for a DC Comics villain, but I didn't think that would be appropriate. I did like the story aspect of the original poem.
Five of the days of the week are derived from Norse Gods, so I thought about doing stylistic illustrations for each of them (plus one for the sun and moon, the other days). My third favourite idea was to merge the idea of a seven-day weather forecast with a life event - in my head an argument. The weather would become a metaphor for the interactions we saw. I thought this would make a good comic.
I couldn't decide between the poem and the comic, so I decided to take them both to the next stage to help me decide.
I came up with a synopsis for the comic and played with layouts to think about flow before I would write a script and plan out the comic properly. I thought there would be a real challenge in trying to tell the story on one page (with seven frames) but in the end, I thought that a double-page spread would probably work best to give me a few extra frames to set the scene and close.
I moved on to thumbnails for my poem - I had decided that this would be an A3 poster that could be used in a classroom or child's bedroom, so it needed to be quite light in tone. My thought was to use it to emphasise and teach the days of the week. I had some interesting ideas going through the thumbnails. One of my favourite ideas was to layer an illustration of a church with acetate layers painted with the seven days, so you could layer each day on top of each other. Whilst a cool idea, it didn't really fit with the brief of a poster. The top right thumbnail seemed like it would be the most successful and still be a challenge to create.
Looking at the two sketchbook pages, my heart really wanted to do the comic, but I thought that the premise I had devised might be just too challenging for the assignment to be completed on time. So I opted for the poster, this will actually release pressure on the comic, so that way I can still do it, but not be constrained by a deadline to do it justice. I really like the idea that much!
The Brief
Create a poster for primary children. The poster should help children learn the days of the week in a fun way through the poem "Solomon Grundy". The poster should be A3 in size and use colour choices and imagery suitable for Key Stage One children.
I went back to my small sketchbook to do a slightly more detailed rough, and play with the composition. I sketched in pencil first, and in starting to draw the church, it made me feel like this might a Nordic church and setting. This let me think that maybe it was by a fjord. I added in the u-shaped valley walls I remembered so well from my GCSE geography, and then added in a colour study with watercolour pencils to try and get a feel for the setting.
I really like the composition, but I was really concerned about how the words would fit into it. I wondered if changing the horizon line to give a more overhead perspective would give me the space I needed, but it really didn't feel right so I abandoned this option quickly.
If I was going to place the setting in a fjord, taking that perspective would mean losing the valley walls which I thought at the time would provide a great atmospheric backdrop to the illustration.
I sat and thought about the problem I had about creating a good blend between the words and imagery. I then realised that I hadn't considered using a landscape orientation for the poster. I went back to my sketchbook and had a go at an alternative composition:
This time I started to place the words as well, to get a better feeling for fit and composition. In creating this landscape I ditched the fjord and instead thought more about a remote church by the coast. Somewhere that could Scandinavian or maybe even North American. This composition seemed to work, so I started to block out the shapes involved.
I sketched a rough pencil layout. Then, inspired by the other work I had done in my sketchbook I tried to emulate a more painterly approach. First I used a tool to create a colour palette that was limited enough to be interesting but also would allow me some freedom in the render. I laid down some washes for the main blocks of colour and started to add in texture and detail in the clouds, sea and grass. I got to the point above and stopped being happy with the render. I didn't know how to take the illustration further and didn't feel confident in my ability to draw or paint well.
In reflection, this is something I think I need to work on for my own peace of mind. My future OCA modules don't cover the skills I feel I want in drawing and painting specifically. So this is some extra-curricular learning I am going to have to source and pursue myself. This is really to start reducing the gap between ideas in my head and my ability to render them. Just because I have been working digitally a lot of late, does not make that medium superior. Working digitally gives you a lot of tools, and it allows you to explore ideas and change direction quickly. But a PC is as much a tool as a paintbrush. The best artists can make good art with the most mundane tools. I need to improve my base skills.
Even though time was tight, I decided to ditch this attempt and start the render again. I went back to techniques I was more confident with - using vector shapes as container for more painterly aspects. This seemed to work well. I studied how concept artists use texture and shapes to give them a sense of depth and life.
The image still felt quite flat - I had not been consistent with my shadows. Some shadows I had rendered with my painting, but others I had left out or forgotten. I added an adjustment layer to the image to allow me to paint in shadows. The image started to pop more. I am not 100 happy with the stylistic choices I have made, but there are some aspects like the baby's face and the clouds that I think have worked well. The next step was to add the text. I tried many different variations. Things didn't seem to immediately work, so I enlisted the help of fellow OCA students on the Discord server to get feedback. I did have to marshal that feedback from simply being a general opinion about what people like to specific aspects from the different images that they thought were good (or not!).
I found this process really helpful as I was getting too close to the work. I printed off some copies and pinned them to the wall so I could stand back and imagine them as posters, and see how effective the text was in a real-life setting. As I got feedback and ideas from my fellow students I started to incorporate them into the piece:
The final edit was close, but there was still something not working with the text. I had been working solidly at this point, so I decided a break was needed; I would come back to it later. When I returned there were a few things that I felt were missing. Those pieces didn't seem to come together tonally, so I added a colour overlay to try and homogenise the piece. Space was also still feeling cramped.
Some of my fellow students had suggested playing with the size and line spacing of the poem text to try and get it to straddle the sea. The other idea I had was to emphasise the last line of the poem that features Solomon Grundy's name.
I made it more prominent and moved it over to the right. This allowed me to drop the title. That way I could move the text up, and the last line also became the title. I still wasn't happy. But then I realised by moving the last line to the left and making it the title, I might not need to straddle the text at all. And that is how I ended with the final version:
While I am not happy with my ability to render yet, I am still pleased with the concept and finished poster. I have shown it to my 6-year-old son and he has managed to read it successfully even at a distance. He really likes the colour and sees the basic story. I hope that slightly older children would also be able to get the metaphor of the characters.
So, this is the end of the module. I am pleased with the work that I have done, and I think that I have some strong pieces to take to evaluation. I am not sure if this is one of them, so I am keen to hear my tutor's thoughts. I am quite nervous at the prospect of going to evaluation. The good thing is that there is time for me to go back and review older pieces and see if I can take them further, and also to do some self-directed elements off the back of the coursework, such as the seven days comic.
I've already signed up for my next module - Illustration Sketchbooks. I really want to become friends with my sketchbooks and this is also a great reason to draw, draw, draw - which is going to be essential to improve my skills and thought processes.
Follow-up
After the assignment was done, something didn't sit right for me. This feeling was confirmed when I received my tutor's feedback. There's nothing really 'wrong' about the final image, but it's not nearly as successful as I would have liked it to be. It felt like, somewhere during the discovery process, I opted for more and more safer options. Like I was stripped of the bravery that I had developed throughout the module.
Rather than be hard on myself, when it came to choosing pieces to send for assessment, I decided to listen to my heart and respond to my tutor's feedback. I decided to just go for it, and pain the whole thing again, traditionally, using watercolour.
I first did a small study to think about the composition, and made notes about ideas and thoughts that I could take forward. Then, I did a whole lot of procrastination! I realised there was a fear there, so I thought about what I could do to gain more confidence. I responded to the feedback that I hadn't thought enough about how real coastlines, grass, and paths behave. So I took a trip to the coast with my son and took some reference photos. When I got home, I stored the photos in my sketchbook and played around with trying to achieve the right effect.
With some experimentation under my belt, my thoughts went to the colour palette. I didn't want to use too many colours, so I did some research and devised a palette of 12 colours: a warm trio, a cool trio and a tri with interesting properties. I created a watercolour swatch for each of the paints so I had a reference.
I felt a lot more confident, so set to do the painting over the next couple of days. I really enjoyed myself. The final piece seems to have much more life to it, and I am particularly proud that I allowed myself to be looser in my work. I did get a back-run into the sea, so hard to work with it and I created a bush at the edge of the coast. I really enjoyed making the mistake work, although I anticipated that it would cause me problems when it came to text.
For the text, I scanned the image into the computer, and then on a separate layer on top, experimented with hand-drawing the text as suggested by my tutor. I spent ages trying to get it precise and was too influenced by the previous image. In the end, I started to write in a way that was a bit looser, and I really got into the unorthodoxy of it, so continued with it. My first pass was hampered, as I had expected, with the presence of the bush. So I experimented with the tools available to me in the software and was able to digitally remove the bush for the purpose of the illustration being used as a poster. This allowed me to move the words around and achieve a better layout.
The final image is a stark difference from the first one, and it's by no means perfect. But it feels so much more authentic to me, and I am hugely proud of myself for being brave again, and going with it. I think it's a much better stepping-off point to the assessment and new module!
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