Point of Sale revisited

Although I've already submitted and had comments back, I decided to have another go at the Point of Sale assignment. I played with the scale of the cut out fruit and also tried blowing up some of my Autumn and Summer Drawings. I also looked at Tesco Finest ranges and the Waitrose point of sale displays and noted there use of dark 'stylish' colours. Using this idea I experimented with backgrounds that brought out the colours of the fruit. I think that the more succesful experiments were the autumn ones. Summer 1 doesn't fill the frame enough and Summer 2- I'm not sure about the blue colour. Probably the idea I like best is the Fresh and Fine idea - but getting a bit addled by it all now!

Autumn 1

Autumn Produce

Autumn 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Fresh and fine - summer

Abstract Illustration

This exercise was to create an abstract illustration.
I chose to work with a friend on a Miles Davis track, Freddie Freeloader.

We listened to the track a couple of times while we set up. Then I spread out a large roll of paper with the intention of keeping going with mark making for as long as the track, and then start working back into the piece. The track is repetitive with a strong jazz beat, and the theme is constantly returned to and elaborated on with improvisation.

After a while, I chose the adjective 'swirling' to describe the piece. I started to work back into the piece with shading different parts of the swirls. And taking my lead from the different improvisations. 

I then took the idea of swirling and tried to combine it with the colour 'blue' with a series of monoprint swirls which I then photographed and cropped down to a square format in the computer. 

Monoprint 1 - reductive and drawing through the back

I like the bluesy rough nature of the white lines on this contrasting with the finer dark blue swirls - I think that this would work well, it has an earthy texture which I think works well with the track.

Monoprint 2 - reductive 

This one has a more 'spacy' smoth feeling - a bit like a constellation.

Monoprint 3, drawing through the back

Monoprint 3 is again more earthy, has perhaps more of an 'improvisational' quality.

I then started to work back into the original, photographed it and cropped it. I like the delicate nature of these images, and the red and black seem to fit the texture of the music, but there is a 'blueness' which is missing!

So I decided to have a play with changing the colour, and I quite like the effect. It is a much cooler (colder) image, but smoother, it irons out some of the pen marks as well. I can see it on an album cover - especially as the album is actually called 'Something Blue'

frame 1

frame 2 

I am not sure which of these is the most succesful. It would be good to return to this exercise later on, I think I'll mull it for a while. 

image development 2

I came back to the 'Dangerous' Image, and wanted to have a go with Conte Crayons at bringing out some of the earthy reds and subtle shading. I like the flatness of the stacked houses which form the backdrop to this purposeful cameraman setting off to find his shot.

I was inspired by the photo by Victor Munez featured in the Observer and his recreation of Marat by Jacques Louis David. I like the way he has eliminated the skyline from the image and although he has used recyclables, I wanted to look at a similar effect in Conte. I cropped the skyline out and added the word 'Danger' for the poster, but on reflection, maybe the white of the figure in the Munez

I then decided that a background colour might frame the image better and then played with a 'torn effect' to enhance the feeling of danger.

 I then had a play with the colours on the computer and tried the same thing a bit bolder, a bit more fiery red colours. Not sure at this point which I prefer. I slightly wish that I had used a bit of newspaper for a texture, but I tried to get a sample of newsprint from a Beirut newspaper from the internet and almost crashed the computer. Might revisit!

Image development poster

I took the composition that suggested the word 'Danger' to me. Partly because of the subject matter of Beirut and the almost textural quality of the grain and the background of tennements and buildings, I decided to stick with the photograph and try to heighten the sense of danger by introducing some red tint. 

I then increased the contrast and added the word 'Dangerous'. I wanted an almost blood red, and a reportage sort of style. Trying to get the words behind the leaves was interesting - I cut then out on a different layer, but somehow they were still showing through.

I was then worried that the text was more dominant than the image, so I drenched the image in a bit more red. 

This felt a bit too heavy so I toned it down a little

This was my final piece. I wonder what would happen if I made a pencil or drypoint version of this image. Might come back to this. 

Image Development

Exercise Aims
To explore the different impressions, moods, dynamic and meanings achieved by cropping an image in different ways.

It took me ages and several attempts to find an image which changed dramatically when cropped whilst still retaining the same content, as per the brief. Eventually I found a photo that I took in 2000 when I was filming in Beirut and Tripoli. One of the cameraman and another producer went in search of a good shot of the city out onto the old walls.

Exploration

This was the basic image, the cameraman is somewhat bravely heading off despite a precipitous drop to his left. 

Dangerous

Cropping some of the producer out of frame as well as losing the ground level on the right of the frame makes us focus on the drop to the left,  enhancing the feeling of danger.

Sightseeing 

The danger is removed from the image by losing the drop

Following

Bringing more of the producer into frame makes her seem to be following in his footsteps

watching

by losing the producer's legs, she now seems to be observing the cameraman - cropping out the skyline makes the buildings seem neverending, the mood is quite claustrophobic. The cropping of some of the drop pushes the focus more onto the buildings.

Leaving

Adding the skyline back in creates a lighter mood, the cameraman seems to be heading purposefully into space leaving the producer behind.

Alone

Losing the cameraman from the image makes the producer look alone and a bit lost, purposeless. The image loses it's impact entirely.

Precipitous

Cropping out the producer altogether and one of the cameraman's arms unbalances him and heightens to feeling of danger, it looks like he's about to topple

Careful

Narrowing the image focuses us on the cameraman's feet, and he now looks as if he is treading very carefully. One is still aware of the drop, but it could be on both sides in this image

Purposeful

Here one is unaware of his context but because he is in midstride and pushing against the frame, the cameraman looks purposeful,

On Top of the World

Losing the drop confuses the eye, we now don't know what he is standing on, but he still seems to be high up, because of the buildings below us.

Floating

Now he appears to be floating - no idea where he is standing

Reading an Image

The Content of the image:

Inside a Cave, there is a dragon curled up around a throne - and sitting on a pile of treasure. He is surrounded by knight's paraphernalia; helmets, swords, shields etc. There are two children in the cave, a girl holding a torch which is illuminating the cave and gesticulating towards the dragon, and a boy who is wearing a strange eye piece on his head and is pointing towards the exit of the cave.

The Narrative of the image:

I would guess that the children have been sent to search out the dragon and retrieve the treasure. Now they have found him they are alarmed - and have different plans as to how to go about getting the treasure off the dragon. The Boy either wants to leave because he's frightened or because he has a plan involving something outside, he has the look of an inventor, and the girl looks as if she wants to act now. Because she is holding the torch and is clearly leading, she seems the more 'in control'. 

The dragon does not look too alarming and there are no bones around of dead knights, so it is not to threatening a situation!!

Note: An internet search tells me that this is from 'The Clockwork Dragon' 

The Palette and Tonal Range of the image and the impact on the Hierarchy

The Eye is immediately drawn to the dramatic reds of the Dragon and the walls of the cave. The Artist has used hot colours (gold red and yellow) for both the dragon and the treasure. The warm reflection of the torch on the cave dominates the image, and contrasts with the cold blues and the cool purples beyond its light. The effect is to create an impression that this is a cold dark cave. There is a wet textural element to the walls of the cave which look like they are covered in stalactites. 

The next element you take in are the green areas: the Children, the throne and the armour all share the same bright green palette which is in stark contrast to the red of the dragon. This helps them to stand out in what is quite a 'busy' image. Also it creates the impression that they are dwarfed by both the dragon and cave. The eye connects all the green elements and is drawn around the image taking in the details. The children's clothes are in rather cool colours, but there is a warm light reflected on their faces.

I find the reds on the cave walls distract me from the children. It took me a while to notice that they were there at all. All in all the image is quite busy and maybe it's the resolution, but I find it a bit 'red heavy'!

Illustrating Visual Space

This exercise was intended to focus attention on the relationship of images to each other within a frame. Through experimenting with 3 images within a square frame it was possible to explore the different meanings communicated by different relationships.

First I sketched the 3 images: a boy running, a tree and a building and scanned them into the computer. Then I decided that they needed a bit more structure to make them stand out within the square format, so I filled in some of the line drawings with black tone. Then I moved them around within the frame.

This was the basic image, all horizontals and verticals - a strong narrative is comminicated.  The boys is running past the church towards the tree. The question is why?

Church important in frame, but the eye is drawn to the boy running away from the church, towards the tree.

Although the tree implied a horizon, the addition of a line further grounded the boy and the tree within the frame.

Although the tree is centre of frame and prominent, the boy is running and therefore draws your eye across the frame. 

The addition of a wobbly horizon implies a rural context.

This time I clustered the elements together, smaller in the frame, the boy still seems to be running from the Church,

The addition of a horizon on the same line as the boys foot implies that he is heading off beyond the horizon towards something we can't see.

the movement of the horizon higher in the frame gives the boy somewhere to run.

The small tree gives the church a feeling remoteness.

My two sons found this image scary, the boy is huge in the frame but perhaps because he appears slightly out of focus, we are drawn beyond him and this implies that his own attention is in the church.

The elements pushing against the edge of the frame adds a slightly disturbing dynamic.

The tree is the foreground gives the boy something to run towards, he now appears as if he's running to the tree and the viewer.

The horizon re-inforces the movement from the top right to the bottom left of the frame.

Once the verticals and horizontals are removed, a whole new dynamic emmerges, the church the tree take on a more threatening, looming quality, and the boy looks more vulnerable

I played with adding some lines to ground the elements, the boy now looks as if he's about to trip over  a stream. not very succesful image! 

Turning the Boy on his head as well enhances the feeling of chaos. The tree and Church are leaning away from the boy, they almost seem to be spinning giving this image a ' dream-like' quality

The scale of the boy and the fact that the tree and the church are looming over him and leaning into him, make him look very vulnerable - the dynamic is of tension.

This is my favourite image, it's pushing against the side of the frame, and the boy is almost lost in the foliage, but he's still important in the frame. The church and the tree are making a cross shape and seem connected to each other, they are imposing on his space as if he needs to move quickly, or 'something' is going to happen to him.

This was a very useful exercise, it shows how decisions about the positioning of elements, their relative scale, their space that they inhabit all have a strong part to play in the overall dynamic of the image. It's not surprising but this was useful in terms of analysing the effects. It will be a useful reference for compositional decisions later.