Part 1: Assignment 1

 For this first assignment we were to create an illustration with visual depth depicting a passage from 'Invisible Cities' by Italo Calvino.

Reading through the passage 'Thin Cities 5' several times, I began by creating a spider diagram of all the descriptive words used to explain how the city looked.

This gave me an idea of the important elements to include in my final illustration. I then went on to jot down some points I needed to consider like what mood/atmosphere would the drawing have, would it be day or night etc. I also did some initial little sketches and thought about what mediums I might use.

I then wanted to go deeper into what the mood might be like, the lighting, the colours and so I started using Pinterest.com to brainstorm ideas. I looked up the book Invisible Cities on Amazon.co.uk and read the synopsis to give me an overall idea of what the book was about and it explained how the city was actually based on Venice, Italy. This gave me a bit more direction for the colours to look at.

Since this year I have wanted to learn how to use Posca markers more and have also experimented with silouttes in a previous unit and collage in this unit, I wanted to explore these techniques further and so have kept that in mind when planning how I will approach this illustration.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/nikijacksonart/thin-cities/

I did quite a lot of visual research here, looking at limited colour illustrations, collage, colour combinations, images of some of the elements mentioned to use for reference when drawing, the city of Venice and its colours. All these images helping me to build a visual idea of what my end goal would be.

Starting to make decisions:

Now I had gathered a good amount of research, it was time to start making some decisions. I firstly wanted to narrow down the mood of the place and therefore the colours. 

Moodboard:

From the passage it seems as though the city is in uncertainty with the constant threat of the nets breaking and it falling into the abyss. I wanted to capture that sense of foreboding but with a ray of hope in the sunset light. My work always had light and hope woven into whatever I create and so I wanted to bring this into this illustration and not let it be all doom and gloom. I also felt that the colours of Venice are reflected in sunset colours so it seems a good fit.

To represent the uncertainty I want to use a silhouette style for the city itself and show a spindly effect as described in the passage.

Thumbnails for composition:

Then I moved on to thumbnails, trying out different compositions and perspectives. I was going to start with just using graphite pencil but found myself picking out Copic markers and experimenting with the atmosphere.

I used the bridge photo in my moodboard above to give me inspiration for the composition and went into a bit more detail in the top middle thumbnail.

I did further thumbnails to try out different compositions and was trying to grasp how I might illustrate the houses and the city in general.

I found the fine liner pen was great for doing very fine line work and I've enjoyed working with the medium before so knew it would be good for this particular look I was going for.

I really liked this thumbnail, I just felt it captured what I wanted to so well but wasn't sure it was quite right. I photographed it and put it into Procreate on my iPad and started to draw on top of it to work out where the illustration was going.

Initial Ideas:

This is where lot's of experimenting took place. I initially started sketching a fresh, trying to work out if Id put lighting on the buildings, how I would do the sky, the ropes etc and this is my first attempt.

It was starting to get closer to what I wanted but it didn't feel textured enough and the colours were a bit off compared with my moodboard. I thought about maybe collaging the mountains using black card or paint some paper black and cut that out but I kept coming back to this thumbnail. So I decided to explore it further.

I tried making it black and white instead of colour but that didn't look quite right, I moved elements of the original thumbnail around and tried drawing the city with more defined buildings. I was also trying to show some distance to make it look more like a city than a row of houses. I tried using different shades of the same colours.

I created this sky background and thought about collaging on top of it but again that didn't seem right either. I went back and forth a lot and in the end I used the original thumbnail, duplicated and pieced together, erasing some parts, adding in the sky and clouds in an impressionist sort of style and finally got to my end result.

During this process I looked up other artists whose work I admired that also worked with solid shapes and silhouettes.

Rob Ryan: Ryan, O., 2021. Rob Ryan. [online] Rob Ryan. Available at: <https://robryanstudio.com/> [Accessed 9 August 2021].

Jan Pienkowski:  Janpienkowski.com. 2021. Jan Pienkowski - Children's Books, Meg and Mog, Pop-up Books. [online] Available at: <http://www.janpienkowski.com/home.htm> [Accessed 9 August 2021].

Since the illustration was a passage from a book, I wanted to create a book page for the illustration to go on and so I used a textured background from Glanz Graphics and added a creamy colour to make it more authentic. Lastly I created a mock up of the full page with the passage next to it.

Lisa Glanz. 2021. Lisa Glanz - graphic resources, illustration & pattern design. [online] Available at: <https://www.lisaglanz.com/> [Accessed 9 August 2021].

Final Illustration:

Mock up before adding the passage.

Final mock up with passage.

I am so pleased with how this illustration has turned out. I was aiming to bring my personal style into the drawing, the colours I enjoy using and the techniques too. I wanted the piece to have a lot of atmosphere and be quite painterly and spindly looking, so not polished or defined. I discovered that trying to make the silhouette of the city too formal spoiled the energy of the piece and so kept in my spindly, fine liner sketches. By adding textures, it really brought the piece together. I like that its quite misty looking, which helps to show the height of the mountains and city. I don't think I would do anything differently if I did this again because I feel it captures what I was aiming for in terms of representing the passage contents and bringing my style into it.  Perhaps down the road when I have grown more as an artists things will become clear that I could change or improve but for right now, where I am at currently, I am really pleased with the outcome.

I have aimed to meet the assessment requirements as best I can at this point in the course. I have made sure to do my research before committing to a design, I have presented my design steps and planning here on the learning log and in my sketchbook. I've taken time to consider different compositions and how that affects the overall look and feel of the illustration, I have tried to look at all elements of the passage and reflect those in my drawing. Taking inspiration from the previous exercises of mixing and matching media to create a more dynamic piece and marrying in my own personal style to also build an illustration that is a truer representation of my own voice as an artist and experimenting more than I have before in previous exercises to show my growth and understanding.

Moodboard Image Credits:

Jutzeler, S., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/spider-web-on-trunk-3416648/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

Grossasteiger, E., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/mountains-near-body-of-water-panoramic-photo-1062249/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

Cabral, J., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/grayscale-photo-of-person-jogging-near-river-3309268/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/view-of-canal-in-city-258196/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

W, A., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-dock-1738675/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

Lastovich, T., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/body-of-water-near-silhouette-of-mountain-under-white-clouds-during-sunset-937783/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

Voie, P., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/clouds-2627945/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].

Nickson, R., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-clouds-2775196/> [Accessed 4 August 2021].