Exercise: Courtroom dramas

Exercise: Courtroom dramas

Franklin McMahon - documenting a courtroom drama - journalism and truth.  American reportage illustrator.

 

I was very amazed and impressed how this American illustrator has managed extremely well to capture the truth of very difficult moments like courtrooms or private conversations.  His way of capturing the moment was characteristic of his way of looking at the situation he was a witness of. The more I was looking at his work the more I was falling in love with his illustrations. They are so captivated and also well crafted done by highly skilled illustrator. I wish to have so much patience and logical thinking while doing my illustrations or paintings. 

 

This is what I understand by a sketch of the moment where people are interacting with each other, where the may be an uncomfortable tension between them.  Where the truth is hidden so the viewer may ask himself who is the cause of that difficult situation.  When you are a witness of some uncomfortable moments you as an illustrator have to make a quick and good decision what you want to capture from that moment.  That demands years of practice and a very mature way of thinking.  This is not a simple task.

 

To capture the truth you have to know which side you want to take and then you can lead the viewers either towards one side or another.  What I mean by that is you become a judge straight away but the pencil lines or colours can make someone look innocent or guilty.  This artist managed to capture so many important moments in American life therefore it is no wonder why they trusted him so much as an illustrator

These are my sketches illustrating the hospital room in which my little one stayed to recover after his surgery.  I have noticed the difference of pencil lines when I was emotionally involved in the situation I wanted to capture.  Everything seems to be more difficult to draw and the line look less relaxed.     

Assignment two: A sense of place

Assignment two: A sense of place

Day One

RESEARCH

I decided to make a mind-map after reading the brief for the Assignment 2.  It is not easy task however I think I am going to enjoy it.  I spent a while thinking about the place and town i live in and this is what I managed to com with.  

When I red again my tutor's report from Assignment 1 I realised that in the last one I did not pay enough attention to the research which very important at the beginning of work. I will make sure that this time I explore this subject more. I know it will help a lot to create good piece of work at the end.   

I have started my research from knocking on tourist's information door in Bishop's Stortford and asking what is the style of tourist leaflets and souvenirs that they are most likely to take. The lady at the desk answered me that the style that looks like a watercolour paintings of local surroundings is highly recommended.   

 

picture of Bishop's Stortford tourist information office

 

That opinion helped me a lot with choosing the medium for my second Assignment. I am going to paint with watercolours. Funny enough as I always find them tricky to paint with but very rewarding as a result. So let it be: my medium are WATERCOLOURS  

 My next step was to find as many pictures of local places done with watercolour and compare their technique, style and colours.   

 

 

This picture caught my eye while I was browsing the internet. I like the colours and the composition which is a good example of rule of thirds.  

Windhill -Bishops Stortford






Black Lion Inn Bishops Stortford by Paul Symth

I wish Bishop's Stortford could look like this painting as it represents old street with the Black Lion Pub.  

 

Watercolour by Martin Goode

I am not sure about this one. I do not think I like it as much as the first one, although it was good to find something different. It is too calm and to settle as in style. I am definitely not going to produce work in similar style to this one.

This picture does not show anything that is local to me; however I could not resists of placing it on my blog as I totally love the mysterious look of the scenery. The dark colours and two people walking somewhere I wish to as them: Where are you taking me on this journey?

This next picture shows the old look of Piccadilly Circus in London.  It is amazing how most old postcards of London or different places of U.K look similar. That proofs me I have to keep the illustration quite simple with bight colours.

I could not resist not posting this illustration as is very British and no matter where you go it is always a local thing if I may say :)  

This beautiful painted glass caught my attention during my research. I would like to use similar tone of colours for this assignment and create a work or art that is different then market demands. However I know I have to follow what public would buy and wants. 

English Owl by Mark Howard

These are the local souvenirs I can buy in the Bishop's Stortford Tourist Information Office. If I can be really honest I do not see anything special about them. They do not make me feel I would like to comeback to this Market Town.  The blue collection looks really dull and easy to forget.  The other one with bright and quite flashy colours looks bit tacky as for me. My very honest opinion about them helped me to made decision how not to paint for this project. I defiantly know this is not the style how I will lead my assignment 2.

Dave McKean Postcard from Paris

I went yesterday to the beautiful Hatfield Forest near Bishop's Stortford and took a few pictures while having a pick nick with my family over there. I think this place is great to put on the post card of tourist information as a place to come and be attracted to visit. I definitely make it as one of my illustration. I do want to look for different artist how they paint a picnic. Therefore I immediately browsed the most popular painting about it and was painted by E. Manet.

 

Edouard Manet





Day Two
 

I had such a productive morning. I managed to draw a few sketches which I am going to use for this project. As I learned from previous assignment through the process of experimenting with media I did not have any doubts the time I am not going to mess with the computer program as much as I did in previous one. I do want to make as much by my hands and not to relay on the computer effect as I did before. I was very disappointed last time therefore I focused on simple media likebrown pencil on A4 white paper this time. Moreover I will follow my tutor advice and try not to over do it or over work it.   

      

 

             Sketch no. I of Bishop's Stortford High Street during the market on Saturday morning

              Sketch no. II of Bishop's Stortford High Street during the market on Saturday morning

Sketch no. III of Bishop's Stortford High Street on Saturday morning


Day Three

I am going to start this day from making and setting the aims so my work should be easier this time. Whenever I am I doubts I can always comeback to this page and read again. I know there is always a possibility of changing them (this is what is called creative process) however I would rather stick to them at the moment.

 

My aims for this assignment:

• traditional look with a modern twist
• simplicity
• clean and tidy look
• positive and bright colours
• make it attractive to the customer

• remember to not over do it. !!!!!

 

Day four

I am working on the illustration number one and number two. Perhaps I will have some time to start the illustration number three as well.

 

I do hope I am not mistaken this time.... I am very close to say I do really like this illustration as it ticks nearly all boxes I have wrote above earlier. I will move on to the illustration number two. I can always comeback and make some changes. But is wrong to say stop so early? I am really in doubts as I always spend days on working with the computer program and making the illustration from the sketch to look nearly perfectly crisp. This time I do really tell to my self to stop it now!!! I really like it! But my other voice is saying keep working more and more  ..... I really dislike this little voice which at the end many times spoils my work. 

I am going to leave it as it is now.

I have moved on to the illustration number two. By using the same paints as with the illustration number one but different colours I think I will keep them similar and simple enough to be pleased with.

This is my favourite sketch so far. I really like the composition and the buildings on the street. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to work on it today therefore I have to come back to it tomorrow. Perhaps it will be better for my eyes to have a rest. It is always better to star work with different and open mind.

Day Five

I have managed to make another two sketches today. It will give me

Sketch no. IV The road leading to the Church Street in Bishop's Stortford

Sketch no. V  the Church Street in Bishop's Stortford

Day Six

Research

Just had a thought about the local artist I used to paint with for a while when I was a member of Bishop's Stortford Art Society a few years ago. This is great idea to look for the local painters and watch their perspective of the area that they live in.

http://www.bsartsociety.co.uk/






This is a work of Artist John Weston of St. James on Thorley with pen and ink.


Coming back to my work I have managed to create a watercolour painting  today. I am very pleased with the look of it. In my opinion this is the best  from all I have created so far. It looks quit matured in the style and colours are not to bright and yet so vivid. That shoves my progress in the assignment. The perspective is interesting enough for me to say that this is the place I live in. However not sure if this work meets the assignment's requirements as they are no people engaging at all.

Day Seven



I am going to work on the illustration abut day out in Hatfield Forrest. I have planned for myself to place more people on my illustration to show in how interesting way they interact with the local nature during the free time. Hatfield Forrest is beautiful place to come with the family for a picnic or to take a dog for a walk. I love this place so much. The threes a very old I would like to capture their majesties look.

This is my very quick sketch of people walking around the forest and some of them sitting on the grass and on the clog. When I pasted it on my blog I just realised That I have seen somewhere a similas line of pencil to mine. I had to look on interent who does it remind me of ?

This is what I have remember from my art classes ages ago. A work of art created by Vincent van Gogh.



Vincent van Gogh A lane in the public garden with benches




Public Garden with the Corner of the Yellow House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day Eight

working on the colours to my painting about Hatfield Forrest. This time I need to show the green spring colours. I would like to make it interesting but as I said to myself before .... NOT over do it. :).

I am very pleased with two hours I have spend on painting this illustration. Very vivid tones but not to bright and tacky I suppose.  I do not want to change anything at all. I am sure that the visitors of this forest are visible for the audience. I wanted to show a spring forest therefore I had to live some gaps between some branches as the sky was clearly visible through them.
Did I succeed ? I hope I did.

There is another piece of fine art I did remember from my art classes. I was inspired by Cézanne a lot therefore I wanted to place one o his work on my blog as a part of the research.






Cezanne




Day Nine

I am going to select a few finished art work today. I ma thinking to choose this one as a part of my assignment. Let me compare how do they look all together. Do they look similar in style? Are they interesting enough as a composition? Working on one each separately is different and then placing them all next to each other.

 

Picture 1 

 

 

 

 

Picture 2

Picture 3 

 

 

Picture 4 

 

 

 

 

Day Ten 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another day of work on this assignment.  Looking at my illustrations so far, I realised one thing which I am not happy with.  Although I may like the way they look and their style, some of them do not meet the brief as they are lacking people interacting with activities.  The example of that is this work no.II.  This is a good thing about blog as it is very easy to look through the artwork I've managed to produce.

 

 

 

work no.II

 

I can compare one to another and draw some conclusions and observations.  Like I said, my work is lacking people therefore I have to come back to the places in town and try to draw more sketches that include people.  Unfortunately I am only able to go there on Saturday mornings after my night shift.  The reason for this is my little son is being looked after by my husband and that gives me more freedom to do a few sketches.  Nevertheless I will do at least two more, but only with pencil and see how they look.....

 

 

As I said before, I had to do some more drawings.  These are the fruits of by early creative work in Bishop's Stortford town on Saturday when the market is there.  I managed to capture the fish stand with one customer buying a fish.  I am standing in front of a dilemma as I think from the Tourist Information perspective, what sort of illustration would they like to see?  Possibly with more people in it so they town would look busier and therefore more attractive to tourists.

 

For example if I see a picture of a market town with the market as the main theme, but with only one person buying something from a stall, I would definitely think that this is not the best place to visit as the market does not attract enough people.  My question now is, should i use my imagination and draw more people in the market?  Is it ok to draw fake people to achieve a more attractive picture for the people who may be taking my work as a main source of knowledge about this town?  And again I am talking to myself right now, and writing down all my thoughts about this illustration, I know the market gets very busy a bit later.  Maybe I should draw at least four or five people and not feel guilty??  I may do some more research of people on the markets to find their gestures and facial expressions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That is it for today. I will draw some conclusions tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day Eleven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am glad to make the final decision about the work for this assignment. I have been asked to produce between three and five pieces of work reflecting a real local live. At least one of them should be in colour. The biggest skill I have gained during last projects is the ability to select my best work. I know now that the quality is more important than a quantity. Therefore I am going to select only four pieces of work.  These illustrations are similar in style and show people during normal day in town of Bishop's Stortford and Hatfield Forest.