For this research exercise, I was tasked with reading an article by Pam Smy, and her work in illustrating the character Lob, the Green Man for a novel. I really enjoyed the article and appreciate the explanation Smy gives about her process.
I like the idea of research turning into a two-way process. That through observing we open a non-verbal dialogue. You can see this in her research sketches, like the one above. She is recording details but is also making choices. Those choices represent an emotional quotient to the sketch. They represent what calls to her.
The research sketches themselves and the final illustrations have remarkably similar characteristics, albeit the final images are obviously more conscientiously constructed.
What I noticed was the way that the final illustrations have much more obvious editing. The research aspects feel to me to be about assimilation. The final illustrations seem to emphasise distillation. They carefully weave and place items, so the reader gets a sense of place.
The depiction of Lob as a background character that you have to search for is an ingenious one. She made a connection that Lob was a shared secret between the Grandfather and girl because only they could see them. In making Lob a figure amongst the flora that we have to notice and discover the secret is shared with us and we become part of the relationship.
I felt that it was a lovely metaphor for the relationship with the allotments that Smy herself had built. Unfortunately, given the content I have chosen for this section of the course, it's been hard to identify any drawings that evoke the same kind of connection for me. Neither are there any texts that come to mind that connect me to my drawings in the same way.
Honestly, I find that question a little misplaced at this stage of the unit, given the very specific direction given by the exercises so far. Nonetheless, going into the next section I will now be keeping my mind, eyes and heart open for more connections.
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