To Hide or Not to Hide?
For the longest time my sketchbooks were not personal things. They were functional workbooks, part of my studies. After some feedback from my Key Steps in Illustration tutor, I was trying to evolve my relationship with sketchbooks and to experiment with a wider selection of media.
As I stared at the daunting, white, first page of a new sketchbook, I had no idea what to put down. I was also not in a great place mentally. I decided to use the pages to try and get some of what I was feeling down onto paper. It helped.
I had left the sketchbook open to let the media dry overnight. I hadn't anticipated that my wife might stumble across the open sketchbook. When she brought it up with me later I felt raw, ashamed, exposed. Those thoughts were just for me and I felt that my wife had somehow been (albeit unintentionally) invasive. I haven't put anything as vulnerable like that in a sketchbook since. I like showing my wife what I've been doing, and I didn't want to risk her seeing private aspects of my thoughts.
So this exercise was intriguing for me. I hadn't thought of hiding, obscuring or obfuscating any of my work before. I was keen to explore this. I started, as suggested, with the given Pinterest board, and then started to work from that point to create my own board that captured things that spoke to me.
I had read ahead a little in the coursework, so I knew that this exercise was coming. In anticipation, I had bought a selection of different pockets, envelopes, tapes, clips and pins from stationers. I had started to use some of the pockets in preparing for my Key Steps in Illustration assessment, using them to store loose sheets in my sketchbooks so that they told the whole story of my work at those times.
When it came to creating hidden elements for the books I had made for Exercise 1.2 I had actually made a bit of a mistake - the last exercise called for me to comment on the process of making each of the books, so I had stuck two of them into the sketchbook before I realised I needed to hide them in this exercise.
Rather than panic, I used it as a challenge - I had been given a new specific constraint that would help me come up with ideas I wouldn't have otherwise. I started by trying to hide the first two (stuck) books, using later pages to come up with some diagrammatic plans to solve the problem. I am pleased to say both of my approaches worked! For books three and four I had less constraints, so I continued the diagrammatic planning and tried to great paper prototypes of the plans in situ.
Once I had created solved the problem of hiding the books, I continued to think of ways to hide information in the future, a bit like a reference sheet. So I could take it out in the future I used a small envelope to store the ideas. But I then thought the page was a bit boring, so I drew atop the envelope and reference sheet to make them more fun and humorous.
One of the ideas on my sheet I liked the idea of was using windows to hide information. I ended up getting in 'the zone' and just started making. Given the unprecedented political turmoil that is happening at the time of writing, I ended up starting a caricature of Boris Johnson. In drawing his features I was reminded of a political commentator likening his behaviour to that of the titular character in the Danish fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes". I found some quotes from a musical retelling of the tale, which I found very apt indeed [1]. I created a reveal effect using a window of an uppermost page with the reveal hidden in the page below.
To take the experiment even further, I was reminded of one of the winners at the 2019 World Illustration Awards, Ed and James Harrison. Their self-initiated project "Under the Skin" [2] jighlights the plight of endangered animals. They do this by creating illustrations of the animals, and then adding their skeletons using UV ink, which can then only been seen with a UV torch. I loved the interactivity when I saw the work at Somerset House. I saw some florescent ink in a local art store which reminded me of the work, so when later I came across a cheap kid's 'secret diary' set using UV ink with a tiny LED torch, I thought it was an opportunity too good to miss.
I went about using the pens provided to add hidden information to both pages. True to the claims, I could only see it under UV-A light! I really love this idea, and I am wondering how I could add in hidden 'Easter Eggs' to my work in the future once printed.
Gross, Ruth Belov & Camp, Hamilton. (Narrator) & Arquette, Lewis. (Narrator) & Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875. Kejserens nye klæder 1977, The emperor's new clothes, Scholastic Records, [Englewood Cliffs, N.J.]
Harrison, E. and Harrison, J. (2019). Under the Skin of Endangered Animals. [online] Undertheskin.co.uk. Available at: https://undertheskin.co.uk/ [Accessed 8 Sep. 2019].
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