I'm coming to this research task after undertaking some of the practical exercises. So I am less 'cold' in my experience (however brief!) which I am grateful for, as the need to speculate decreases.
The research task itself doesn't seem to require me to take any action apart from doing some background study on Veronica Lawlor's reportage work, appreciating the different aspects to it.
Having completed Exercise 3.0 by this point, I had also been exposed to a number of other illustrators who had a quicker style like Lawlor. I decided to build upon the research that I had done (see references, below) by trying to build on my reflections from Part Two. One of the things my tutor had recommended was to try and emulate an artist's stylistic choices myself to understand how they create their imagery. So I decided to combine some research (study of style, materials, subject matter) for two other illustrators as well as Lawlor.
Lucinda Rogers
The first thing I noticed about Rogers' work is that a lot of her images seem to have a slight fish-eye perspective. She seems to use thick black ink lines with a brush to draw the eye to areas that she wants you to focus on. There seem to be combinations of strong patches of colour which are more noticeable combined with pale, low-contrast colours for the backgrounds. I think this helps with achieving a sense of depth.
Her Marrakech sketches seem to be extremely vibrant and full of colour. It made me wonder if the location and subject matter influences her decisions regarding colour use.
The sketches in her A5 sketchbook are really different from the ink and wash images, and I could see similarities with some of the sketches I had in my own sketchbooks. This actually reassured me and gave me hope that my work could progress in quality as well.
I tried to emulate some of the choices that Rogers seems to make. I particularly liked using my ink brush pen to emphasise certain lines. I also tried to consciously use some coloured pen, which I also noticed in some of Rogers's work. I think that there are elements to this style which come naturally to me, so I will see what I can do to incorporate more into my reportage work.
George Butler
I was really inspired by Butler's work, and I learnt a lot about how he goes about capturing his images from this video:
Ink seems to be Butler's primary go-to, complimented beautifully with watercolours. He works on a big sheet of paper attached to board. I was amazed by his ability to balance his ink and water! There seems to be a big difference between Butler's 'quick' work and the other artists I am reviewing; All the work looks like it has been done quickly but some obviously has taken longer and has been more purposeful and planned in its execution.
One of the tools that Butler uses extremely effectively is the use of negative space and gestalt theory to fill in narrative elements.
Based on the images on his website [2] he seems to take narrative notes alongside his artwork but doesn't seem to include narrative elements to his images. In contrast, he will often use diagrammatic elements to some of his work, using labels to describe components of a scene.
I am unclear if most of his work is done by dip pen or brushes, the varying tone suggests he uses black ink watered down for washes. A lot of his linework has a washed-out quality which gives the work delicacy. It also means when he uses pure black it'd done with great effect.
I'm less happy with my attempts here to emulate aspects of this style. There are a few things I am pleased with though - the figure I included in my first sketch is pretty successful even though it's a very simple representation. I feel that when I sketch I feel almost obligated to try and capture everything, and I think I really need to work on being more selective and work out which parts of a scene are the essential ones to tell a story.
Veronica Lawlor
Last but not least is the subject of the initial research, Veronica Lawler. I really enjoyed this video about her work:
Her linework is often in ink, and she uses black sepia and sometimes coloured inks. She will also use pen and pastels as part of her work which means predicting the linework is almost impossible! It's very loose, often with splashes of watercolour. Her work is actually a combination of on-location and studio, but she obviously has a lust for getting out amongst things.
Her work is closely observed, and she likes to remain focused on what she is looking at. It likely contributes to her lines and style, and at times it feels like some of her work is like a blind contour drawing (albeit done by a master of hand-eye coordination!). Her small sketchbook sketches are very loose indeed and this surprised me a lot because it shows that her ink work has a lot more thought in it than I originally assumed.
She is very obviously drawn to movement and activity and uses that for her storytelling. The work is quick and expressive, and I am amazed by how she manages to capture the energy of each setting.
I tried to complete these drawings quickly and concentrate on the photo references I was using. I'm pretty happy with the Christmas tree. After I laid down the ink, I used some Posca markers to capture some other details. I think both images have an element of energy about them, I'm just not sure if I captured the right amount of detail or not.
References
Butler, G. (2013). Destroyed buildings in Syria. [image] Available at: https://static.fabrik.io/wcj/5e09b48b7b7ee5a.jpg [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Butler, G. (2020). Reportage. [online] George Butler. Available at: http://www.georgebutler.org/reportage [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Embury, G. and Minichiello, M. (2018). Reportage Illustration: Visual journalism. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury.
Lawlor, V. (2016). The urban sketching handbook. 2nd ed. Beverly, MA: Quarry Books.
Lawlor, V. (2017). Asakusa district in Tokyo, Japan. [image] Available at: https://www.studio1482.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Asakusa1_for_web.jpg [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Lawlor, V. (2020). NYC 2019 Marathon! – Veronica Lawlor. [online] Veronicalawlor.com. Available at: http://www.veronicalawlor.com/?p=3338 [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Lawlor, V. (2020). Reportage/Travel - Studio 1482 Illustration. [online] Studio 1482 Illustration. Available at: https://www.studio1482.com/artist/veronica/category/reportage-vl/ [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Rogers, L. (2001). London Bridge and Saint Magnus the Martyr. [image] Available at: http://www.lucindarogers.co.uk/images/london/medium/lucinda-rogers-London-Bridge-and-Saint-Magnus-the-Martyr.jpg [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
Rogers, L. (2020). Lucinda Rogers - Drawings. [online] Lucindarogers.co.uk. Available at: http://www.lucindarogers.co.uk/drawings.php [Accessed 18 Jan. 2020].
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