Interpretation and communication: suppose we make it different?
This exercise involved looking back at images I had created throughout this Sketchbooks course – mostly half-realised drawings that had not been fully developed – and using processes to change them and take them further. I used approaches that are part of the acronym SCAMPER (Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse) and the glossary of ideas in the course materials. Before I began looking back at my sketchbooks to choose images, I wrote and cut up the glossary terms as a resource to help me later on, in case I was struggling for inspiration.
The first images I chose to rework were the limited line drawings of trees from Exercise 2.2. I felt like there were lots of potential uses for these images and the simple silhouettes were out of my comfort zone.
I deliberated using the images to highlight the importance of recycling by building up the shapes with paper, but after flicking through the pages of my first assignment sketchbook, I decided to combine the simple silhouettes of the trees with the outlines and acrylic paintings of my fairy lights. I tried a few layouts. This meant I was using…
Substitute: changing one aspect of the image for another – in this instance, the material I was using. I ended up trialling tissue paper, white gel pen and acrylic paint, and using a combination.
Combine: combining the silhouettes with the fairy lights image, and combining materials to create a mixed media piece
Adapt: changing to suit or to fit – in this case, the colours and style of the piece to suit a Christmas card design
Modify: making small changes to the piece; here, I added little ‘sparkles’ with the white gel pen, to make the image seem more magical and festive, and I played around with the shapes I used to build up the trees
Put to another use: Christmas card
Eliminate: perhaps it could be argued that I eliminated the ‘line’ aspect of my limited line drawings, but this was not a conscious decision. It came from experimenting with materials and playing with the image.
Reverse: technically, the colours were inverted; the card mock ups I created have a dark, night-sky background, with white lines and shapes over the top
Below are the mock ups of two designs I created. I like the series of trees with the fairy lights almost tying them together, however the variation in size of the fairy lights on the single tree image looks more effective. Perhaps altering the size of the series of trees and changing the size of the fairy lights would make for a more exciting image.
Next, I looked at the sketches of crowds I had completed while building and testing my toolkit in Research 3.0. I was particularly intrigued by the balloon seller, and was keen to develop her character further.
I played around with lots of the sketches I captured in Cyprus to create a scene, placing the focus on the balloon seller. I trialled silhouettes and different positions. I was not completely happy with my biro thumbnails but I decided to get some different materials out and see if this would help spark any more ideas.
The blocky tissue paper silhouette and balloons looked most effective; the colours were punchy and I enjoyed the way the shapes interacted and overlapped. It created a real sense of depth to the image. Using these components, I returned to the crowds and redrew them, placing my character in each scene.
It felt like a natural step to add a sentence of text, to cement my genre as ‘story book’ or ‘picture book’ and see how the text would work in the image. I chose my two favourites to trial.
During this exploration, I used…
Substitute: changing materials, especially to highlight the character I wanted as my focus. I made choices about the crowd and how I used the materials to give them life, movement and a busy feel, versus the relatively stationary balloon seller waiting for someone to buy. My choices reflected how I wanted each part of the image to communicate in the story.
Combine: combining different sketches from Cyprus of the crowds and combining techniques and materials – sketching, collaging and digitally adding text.
Adapt: changing the image to suit a story book format and style. The images are colourful and playful, fitting the genre.
Modify: During this rework, I redrew lots of the images to try to achieve a character and a crowd I was happy with. It was interesting to redraw the crowd without being in the crowd; I relied on my sketches and my memory of the bustling atmosphere, with the balloon seller remaining mostly still, looking at everyone else passing by.
Put to another use: story book
Eliminate: in the end, I settled on just a silhouette of the seller, which meant I had eliminated any facial expression or line. This, I felt, conveyed how static and neutral the character seemed in the crowd – colourful because of the balloons, but relatively invisible to most people as they went about their day.
Finally, I looked back at an unfinished drawing of a tree from ‘drawing with objects’ (Exercise 2.5). I liked the textures and thought there could be a way of adding leaves to this – or something in the space where the leaves should be.
I started with muted tones of green and brown (Kate Black uses quite dull, muted tones – nothing overly striking or dominant) to created the image of the tree again. The layered effect of the shapes was pleasing. I returned to the idea of ‘dreams’ being caught, taking phrases and sentences from my own dream journal. It reminded me slightly of the story of the Lost Happy Endings, where the ends of bedtime stories are stolen, but in this instance, the dreams are being caught in the tree/by the tree (like an evil dream catcher!)
I did experiment with blue, but it seemed too garish. The greyish-brown for the trunk worked well with the greens, so I used this for the final trial.
For the evil dream catcher, I used…
Substitute: using acrylic and watercolour paints, with biro and white gel pen, rather than pencil crayons.
Combine: I combined my original image with techniques and colour palette inspiration from Kate Black, and my own ideas about the character.
Adapt: through experimenting with line and style, I completely changed the purpose of the image and therefore adapted it to suit a new purpose (quite subconsciously, as I did not have the aim of creating a character at the beginning!)
Modify: the shape of the tree has remained roughly the same, but through redrawing the tree, I noticed the claw-like branches and this helped to inform the final purpose and style of the image. The leaves were added and the words were added, all working towards that character.
Put to another use: story book character
Eliminate: I chose to eliminate one of the branches (it went from left to right, behind the dominant right branch in the foreground) because I felt it disrupted the structure of the final character.
Conclusion
This was a task that was daunting to begin with, but I thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to experiment with half-realised drawings. It was also extremely useful to have a structure to help this process. Without fully realising, I ended up using most of the SCAMPER processes, and also utilising the glossary when I found myself a little lost. The most satisfying part of this was creating something more from a sketch that, initially, did not seem great. I was especially happy with my balloon seller and dream catcher; it felt as if I had settled into the process by this point and they are interesting images. I will certainly return to SCAMPER in the future to make use of my sketchbook drawings.
Jade's OCA Learning Log 