Sunday, 8 July 2012

Assignment 4 - Magazine Illustration


The brief for this assignment wasn’t as specific as some of the ones that I have done previously, as we had to choose one of four words, to work with.

I started out by brainstorming each word using spider diagrams, then seeking a definition so that I fully understood what each word meant, or could mean.















lost |lɒst| past and past participle of lose
adjective
1 unable to find one's way; not knowing one's whereabouts: Help! We're lost!
• unable to be found: he turned up with my lost golf clubs.
• [ predic. ] unable to understand or to cope with a situation: she stood there clutching a drink, feeling completely lost | I'd be lost without her.
2 that has been taken away or cannot be recovered: if only one could recapture one's lost youth.
• (of time or an opportunity) not used advantageously; wasted.
• having died or been destroyed: a memorial to the lost crewmen.
PHRASES
all is not lost used to suggest that there is still some chance of success or recovery.
be lost for words be so surprised, confused, or upset that one cannot think what to say.
be lost on fail to be noticed or appreciated by (someone): the significance of his remarks was not lost on Scott.
get lost [ often in imperative ] informal go away (used as an expression of anger or impatience).
give someone up for lost stop expecting that a missing person will be found alive.
make up for lost time do something faster or more often in order to compensate for not having done it quickly or often enough before.






disaster |dɪˈzɑːstə|
noun
a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life: 159 people died in the disaster | [ mass noun ] : disaster struck within minutes of take-off.
• [ as modifier ] denoting a genre of films that use natural or accidental catastrophe as the mainspring of plot and setting: a disaster movie.
• an event or fact that has unfortunate consequences: a string of personal disasters | [ mass noun ] : reduced legal aid could spell financial disaster.
informal a person or thing that is a complete failure: lunch had turned out to be a total disaster.
ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Italian disastro ‘ill-starred event’, from dis- (expressing negation) + astro ‘star’ (from Latin astrum).


Discovery
noun
a dessert apple of a variety with crisp flesh and bright red skin.
discovery |dɪˈskʌv(ə)ri|
noun ( pl. discoveries ) [ mass noun ]
1 the action or process of discovering or being discovered: the discovery of the body | [ count noun ] : he made some startling discoveries.
• [ count noun ] a person or thing discovered: the drug is not a new discovery.
2 Law the compulsory disclosure, by one party to an action to another, of relevant testimony or documents.
ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from discover, on the pattern of the pair recover, recovery .


guilty |ˈgɪlti|
adjective ( guiltier, guiltiest )
culpable of or responsible for a specified wrongdoing: he was found guilty of manslaughter | Williams pleaded guilty to three separate offences.
• justly chargeable with a particular fault or error: she was guilty of a serious error of judgement.
• conscious of, affected by, or revealing a feeling of guilt: he felt guilty about the way he had treated her | a guilty conscience.
• causing a feeling of guilt: a guilty secret.
PHRASES
not guilty innocent, especially of a formal charge.
DERIVATIVES
guiltily adverb,
guiltiness noun
ORIGIN Old English gyltig (see guilt,-y1) .


secret |ˈsiːkrɪt|
adjective
not known or seen or not meant to be known or seen by others: how did you guess I'd got a secret plan? | the resupply effort was probably kept secret from Congress.
• [ attrib. ] not meant to be known as such by others: a secret drinker.
• fond of or good at keeping things about oneself unknown: he can be the most secret man.
noun
something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others: a state secret | at first I tried to keep it a secret from my wife.
• something that is not properly understood; a mystery: I'm not trying to explain the secrets of the universe in this book.
• a valid but not commonly known or recognized method of achieving or maintaining something: the secret of a happy marriage is compromise.
• a prayer said by the priest in a low voice after the offertory in a Roman Catholic Mass.
PHRASES
be in ( on ) the secret be among the small number of people who know something.
in secret without others knowing.
make no secret of something make something perfectly clear.
ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin secretus (adjective) ‘separate, set apart’, from the verb secernere, from se- ‘apart’ + cernere ‘sift’.


 I decided to choose the word ‘Lost’ to work with, as the brainstorming had given me an idea.

I gathered items from around my house, that could be used to describe the word ‘Lost’.

These are the things I chose:

Teddy Bear
Mobile phone
Keys
Glasses
Remote control
Purse
Money
Scarf
Diary
Bracelet
Ring
Binoculars
Camera
Shoe
Watch











I photographed them so that I could refer to the image later on, this, I felt would help me to do a tonal image.

I sketched out some thumbnails, trying out different viewpoints, and decided on thumbnail 4 as the one I wanted to develop further, into an observational drawing.
During the drawing of this set up I tried to describe the different surfaces and textures that each item had.































After the observational drawing I used the black and white photograph as a guide for the tonal image,  and diluted black ink, in various strengths to give depth and describe the objects.

I continued to work on my ideas for the final illustration, and came up with the idea to set my illustration in a lost property office. 
I wanted to create a narrative, so I searched the internet for images that were related to this setting/location.

I introduced two characters, one being a young boy that has lost something, in this case a teddy bear, the other, a man that works for British Rail, plus a train and british rail symbol, these last two items would help establish where the lost property office was.












Having decided on all of these extra elements, I tried out some thumbnail sketches for my final composition, and photocopied the drawings I had made of my two characters, and also the still life set up.















I wasn’t happy with using the items I had drawn in a still life set up, so I decided to draw them in my illustration separately, so that I would end up with catergorized items, which would further help my narrative.

Once I had my final illustration drawn out as a client visual, I then traced it using a lightbox,  (so as to get the same composition) onto extra smooth, hot pressed, watercolour paper and coloured it using acrylic inks, as I had used them before and liked the bright colours and fluidity.













I wasn’t happy with using the items I had drawn in a still life set up, so I decided to draw them in my illustration separately, so that I would end up with catergorized items, which would further help my narrative.

Once I had my final illustration drawn out as a client visual, I then traced it using a lightbox,  (so as to get the same composition) onto extra smooth, hot pressed, watercolour paper and coloured it using acrylic inks, as I had used them before and liked the bright colours and fluidity.














In conclusion I am happy with the image, I think that my narrative works, the items are still recognizable even if they aren’t together, and this illustration could be used in articles that perhaps were about how absent minded we are, how we don’t take care of our material possessions, or what a throw away society we have become, there are endless opportunites for it.


Norman Rockwell

During this assignment I looked at Norman Rockwell’s work as a magazine illustrator.

I am fascinated with his fun,  colourful, quirky images that he illustrated for the Saturday Evening Post.

Norman was born in New York in 1894 and always wanted to be an artist.

He enrolled at age 14 in art classes at The New York School of Art.

In 1910 he left school and went to study art at the National Academy of Design but transferred to The Art Students League, and was instructed by Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman.  Through Fogarty’s teachings in illustration he gained his first commissions.

During his teenage years he found early success and was hired to be art director for the official scout magazine, ‘Boys Life’.

In 1916, Rockwell began a 47 year career with The Saturday Evening Post, producing his most popular cover  about his relationship with his Vermont neighbours, ‘The Gossips’.



















Examples of Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post Covers.

In 1961 Rockwell began to work for ‘Look’ Magazine, illustrating more of world events such as civil rights and space exploration, before ill health forced him to retire, his studio and its contents were placed in a trust, that Rockwell set up himself, which later became known as the Norman Rockwell Museum.












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