Journal study: The elephant in the room

The elephant in the room: Picture books, philosophy for children and racism. This paper was written by Darren Chetty from the Institute of Education, University of London. The paper touches on topics of racism, whiteness, multiculturalism and diversity through the medium of picture books. An interesting read as the paper divulges into a very taboo subject when discussing picture books. There are many aspects within this paper that are of interest, however the most striking elements are regarding the topic of whiteness. An issue where most white people do not actually have to give a great deal of thought to race. The fact that a white person trying to talk or share about racism can often be perceived as difficult as they often do not truly understand many of they challenges other races have endured during times of slavery, colonisation, segregation and inequality.
This is perhaps why I might find the story of the Scots taken to Barbados so interesting. My own preconceptions about slavery have been turned on there head. If asked about slavery several months ago I imagine my first vision would have been boats full of native Africans leaving for many places over the world. However the historic story of Scottish slaves is easier for me to relate to therefore making it something I feel I can use a portrait through a picture book. Even though my actual motive is to question modern day slavery as many people believe such atrocities to be a thing of the past only written about in history books. Whether colonial slavery such as the British Empire, the Romans or Egyptians, slavery has always been. Today this issue may be more hidden but the issue still exists and is a daily struggle many people around the world must deal with. This paper has highlighted the issue of race but also how and why I might be able to relate to and want to use the story in my picture book. Some extracts from this paper are shown below.

My Presentation

Although my presentation on where I am currently situated with my project is not until Wednesday I felt it important to create the presentation over the last few days. Probably since after watching my peers present I realised how some people seemed to really understand their project, others seemed less clear and in some cases the audience might have understood the project more than the speaker.
As I stated in a previous blog that as I watched others present I felt quite comfortable with my own project, I feel it is now taking some form of direction. Creating the presentation now was helpful in seeing if these thoughts were correct as I prepared slides on which I will discuss.

With my first slide I intend to discuss where I am with the lead question that will drive the project. Although I have stated my current question I have also tried to show how I feel about my question through the image portrait. Funnily enough I realise I have tried to show my thoughts on a question about visual metaphors through a visual metaphor. I do feel often that I am at a crossroads with my question, however I do think that this will resolve itself once I begin to collate the information I have been looking through. This will allow me to evaluate what I have picked out and maybe give me a better understanding of the questions I am asking asking by the information that seems important to me, this will happen most likely after my presentation next week.

The next slide is to give indication as to why I wish to portrait my work through the picture book format. I will explain my interest in the medium and also the topics I find most interesting. Usually these are rather taboo topics such as war, migration, death, environmental issues etc. Themes which seem rather more adult orientated even though many are marketed as children's books.

I wish to then discuss my proposed concept. This is to use a story from hundreds of years ago when a battle to place in Dunbar. The Scots who were captured were sent to Barbados to work in the sugar cane fields as slaves. There are still direct decedents of these people living there today, they have been given the nickname red legs passed down from their forefathers. This was due to their light skin burning in the Caribbean heat of Barbados. The story is not intended to be historical or educational but will serve as the common thread through my story. This will hopefully allow me to raise the issue of modern slavery to give the story more of a sense of meaning and purpose.

My approaches to the project will then be discussed. My work so far has been mostly theoretical, however rather than working through my concept I have instead exposed myself to the work of others through exhibitions etc. I realise that what I have been trying to do is feed myself, with both information and inspiration that will hopefully show through my work once I begin a more practised based type of research.

I will then cover the aims and objectives of my project as shown above.

Discussing a lecture we had on creativity, a paper I read on embodied metaphors and creative acts and how they have affected my project. Explaining the concept of the experiments carried out as part of the issues studied in the paper and how they lead me to look at other sources of inspiration out with the field of picture books or illustration.

Detail how and why I thought it would be useful to watch the wordless play Dragon. Discuss my thoughts on breaking down the play into small thumbnails to see if I could transform the play into a picture book.

Opening myself up to highly conceptual works which are effectively visual metaphors. Discuss the works of Ai WeiWei in particular the two pieces bed and fragments. Which although entirely different pieces of work are actually the same thing, maps of china.

Discuss why I felt it important to attend workshops such as the one with Dominic MacKenzie. Run through the types of exercises we done trying to create visual metaphors for words as images, portrait metaphors, using articles and trying to compress them into one single image.

My aim in seeing the waterloo cartoon was to gain an insight into techniques. The fundamentals of tone, line to admire the draughtsmanship within the piece. The surprise that the most impressive aspect being the composition, the thought, the preparation and preliminary works that must have even preceded the cartoon itself.

Considering my own practices, talking about the works of E.H Shepard from the first world war. My realisation about my lack of good habits once I had read through my little urban sketching book. This has lead to me trying to draw much more from real life and establish a habit within myself that will serve me well as an artist.

My conclusion and discuss any issues with peers and tutors, take notes on any feedback.

New Directions in picture book research

This paper reflects upon the book as titled above, although I have found only a few extracts within the paper that are of interest to me. However the paper does highlight some names of people within the field in picture book research. Maria Nikolajeva seems to be mentioned through various practitioners and is someone whom I have asked to view papers from through academia. More local researchers such as Evelyn Arizpe whom I had not been aware of, Sandra Beckett is mentioned for her contribution through her book crossover picture books. This is a book that I have just had delivered last week so will hopefully have useful information to pull from such a resource. Although this particular paper has little for me personally it does show my progress within the subject area and my awareness of either people or literature within the research field. Some extracts which are highlighted are shown below.

Presentations

Today I have sat and watched many presentations on what my peers are looking at researching through their honours years projects. There was a great variety in the issues and topics discussed with  a real depth of approaches as uses of different mediums offered to deal with their research. The thing that probably struck me most was how many people seem to carry out practise based research. My own research seems to have been lead primarily through a more theoretical approach. This is perhaps due to my lack of a full understanding of my subjects of metaphors, semiotics, fables etc. This may seem rather strange saying that I don't fully understand my subject but in there lies the challenge for me. I know that before I pursue a more practical approach I first wish to understand my subject matter as fully as I can. My approach seems to be gathering as much information as possible from books and journals whilst at the same time gathering as many influences as possible through visiting exhibitions, plays, workshops etc.
I also realised that although still trying to grasp many of the concepts I am looking at I still feel very comfortable with my project. I understand what I want out of it in terms of my aims, and I have no concerns in how I am approaching the project. Most likely my research will remain theoretical with practical exercises thrown in (usually something new I have never tried before). Once I have handed in my research proposal my project will very quickly become practise based. This will occur as I will try to get to grips with my story and how it may work as a picture book through trials, storyboards, thumbnails and dummy books. I will also further my knowledge by carrying out case studies on a few books that interest me, this will be done by interview/questionnaires. The methods used for my case studies will hopefully inform how I may research people's reaction to my own work and gain an understanding of their interpretations.
Today was useful in many ways, firstly I got to see where many of my peers are heading with their work, secondly how they were approaching their subject and the kind of things they were doing, and finally it gave me chance to reflect upon my own project and where I find myself right now. I understand my methods of collecting information and inspirations, I am essentially feeding myself until I am full of info and ideas to utilise through my project. I have a good idea of where my project seems to be leading, my main question is currently based around how can visual metaphors be used to open up interpretations of picture books? The theme I am going to use is slavery, based around a story of slaves from Scotland which will be used as the thread that enables me to create a work of fiction from. The aim is to create a dummy picture book that could be shown to publishers, one that may also show much of the workings within drawings. My inspirations are not only taken from picture books but also from theatre, exhibitions of artists such as Ai WeiWei, Daniel Maclise and E.H Shepard, and my participation in various workshops.

Journal study: Creating Effective Visual Metaphors

The paper examines the use of visual metaphors with specific reference to human interaction with computers. this is understandable is the increased usage of mobile devices in particular rely on images to signify words. Gaining a better understanding of how visual metaphors may be considered, designed and used within other mediums may advance my own practise in treating such topics.
Visual metaphors can become easily recognised and even become part of an unspoken language when used correctly. However the metaphor firstly must be understood which requires learning.
The paper looks at how we use and create visual metaphors, what the requirements are and also how we can combine the visual with verbal. The areas of interest within this paper are highlighted and shown below, again this may become a point of reference in future.

Journal Study: Ling & Literature

This paper is a review and analysis of a book titled Reading Visual Narratives: Image Analysis of Children's Picture Books. Although this paper rather dry it has exposed me too many terms I have been unaware of previous to this point. The world of semiotics is unknown to me, this give me something new and interesting to try and understand to see if it has relevance to me. Each chapter deals with various issues of Reading the Visual, Enacting Social Relations or Construing Representations and so on. This book seems to look beyond the mere visuals or words of picture books. Frameworks or systems used to understand such works as picture books may be shown within this book. One thing I had noticed with all students work from previous years honours projects was that they all seemed to be able to construct some for of framework which allowed them to reflect their own project off. This is something I am no where near yet, this type of book may contain some forms of frameworks for constructing or deconstructing picture books. If so then I could use one as a base and build upon, take out what I don't feel is required. Although this paper has little apart from new terms to find out the meanings of, it has led me to this book which I have now ordered to get a better understanding of the topics myself. Extracts from the paper are shown below.

Journal Study: A Wolf in Tiger's Clothing

A Wolf in Tiger's Clothing: Danger, Desire, and Pleasure in Judith Kerr's The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Written by Tim Beasley-Murray, published by Children's Literature Association and found through Academia. This paper discusses whether the Tiger within the Story is not really a tiger at all. One of the reasons I had decided to read this paper was that I had been to look at the original art created for this particular book when I was down in Gateshead at the Seven Stories archive. There are several areas of interest within this paper with reference to Kerr's own life in relation to being  the daughter of a Jewish opponent to the Nazi regime. The knock at the door possibly being a threat most Jews were afraid of, hence the reason her family moved to the UK. However there are elements touched upon which I don't agree with such as the careworn and all too human Father not being cast as a virile huntsman, one who is only disappointed when there is no supper. This is a theme that showed also in some of Kerr's unpublished works I also looked at, mainly The crocodile under the bed. Again I was able to look through the original art for this book which contained several scenes where the father missed out on supper for various reasons. Perhaps it was as simple as that the rest of the family were to eat during these times of war often leading to the father missing out? Maybe they were all starving on the rations they were given but with her father it was more noticeable? One area of this paper I am unsure about is the references to the sexual nature of the book. I understand the tiger is unlikely to just be a tiger, it most likely represents some dominant person or intruder into their lives such as the Gestapo.
I have come to realise that at present I feel my research seems a bit sporadic, which is maybe just how I work. My thoughts are to continue in this way without worrying too much, my aim is to try to find any papers that interest me or are related to my area of study. Once I have marked up which parts of these papers deal with issues of interest and I have went through enough I will begin to collate. The information from each will be extracted, placed together and then assembled with all others in the same fashion. Hopefully this will allow me to recognise patterns, highlight issues that resonate with me and should then help me push all of this seemingly random information together in order to direct one coherent area of research. Again this will require many more readings and may also only highlight areas lacking in information but this is how I will approach this matter for now. Some extracts of the aforementioned paper are shown below.

wc 25/10/15 progress, reflection and ideas

Progress

Programme of works continues to show reading journals, books for reference etc. Due to my limited knowledge of what my project actually was at the time of producing this programme this continues to be the topic of work. However I had not taken into consideration for any time working on project, building ideas, preparatory sketches etc. This is something to learn for future projects when creating such a programme of works. Over the last few weeks I have been researching in a more physical manner. My trips to the archive in Gateshead and many exhibitions in London have been a slightly different form of research rather than just purely books and journals. This week is a continuation of finding useful resources that can become valuable references. Also I was supposed to attend a workshop at DCA yesterday on Argyrotype printing. However this was cancelled due to lack of numbers attending, I still have another workshop to attend next weekend at DCA on pad printing. This will hopefully show me another method that could be useful for creating interesting textures.

Reflection

I feel that the time spent since my last progress check two weeks ago has probably been my most creative so far in this project. This is most likely due to the drawings I have done, the places I have been and the fact that I had purposely chosen not to take any journals etc to London just to give myself a bit breathing space. This also means that I now feel fresh after having had a short break. I know I must now get back into reading but I look forward to detailing the information I had already found but never blogged about, and now also have a fresh enthusiasm about reading the journals and books I found or purchased before my trips away.

Ideas

I need to have found several new relevant references about my subject by this time next week. This is crucial in letting me begin to build some idea of a proposal. Lately I have seen several exhibitions and a theatre production which will have most likely been reported on by numerous newspapers, magazines or hopefully more academic/professional sources. After finding more useful resources for this project I should consider trying to find some of these articles on the things I have seen lately. These may let me see how others have perceived the works and would let me compare my own thoughts and reactions, possibly leading to a better overall understanding of some of the works.

The art of visual storytelling

I bought this book several months ago whilst carrying out my creative research project. The book written by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles will most likely become a reference book that I will look to many times in the future. The reason being that all manner of topics are covered and each time I am researching a variety of areas within picture books I will find some kind of useful information or be lead to another useful resource from this book.
There are several areas or topics that I have highlighted within the book that may become useful to my research towards this particular project. The chapter suitable for children talks on issues such as man's inhumanity to man, violence and death. All topics which are regarded as slightly taboo, however these are real life topics. These generate more interest in me and are things that I feel should be discussed with children and also highlighted to adults as issues to be raised. These types of issues also give me something far more gritty to work with and therefore create more of a challenge to me as an artist. The stories and images would require far more thought into how such subjects may be approached. What questions do I want to be asked, what discussions do I want to open up, and probably more importantly what is it about these types of subjects that interest me? Through this project and my research I hope to find answers to some of these questions.
Other areas show more of the workings or sketchbooks of picture book artists. Topics of traditions, perceptions of what picture books are, responses to picture books are all discussed within this book. This book also signifies to me the progress I am making as I actually met Martin when I was down in Cambridge a few weeks ago. Some of the highlighted areas of interest are shown below although I will go into more detail when required such as in my research proposal.

Urban sketching

During my visit to London I bought a book from the shop in the RA. This little book caught my attention as the topic of drawing from real life has been on my mind lately. I have realised that I have fallen into the pitfall of only drawing for the projects I am working on rather than just drawing because something might interest me or to keep up my practise. This seems to have occurred with the types of projects that I have been doing over the last year or so. Learning how to write for children, projection mapping, the technical aspects of animation have lead me to slightly forget about these fundamental elements of art. Mainly the world we live in and the people, animals and plants the inhabit this world. They are the roots of all stories, all images, all art for that matter.

This has become more apparent to me as I have been looking into the works of many fantastic artists. One thing has struck a chord with me, how prolific many of the greatest artists actually are. How many proprietary drawings they create, how many seemingly unrelated sketches are drawn. These are the backbone of these artists successes, they lay the foundations for all of their art.

The book covers the topics of proportion, contour, gesture, expression, context, likeness and different mediums that can be used. The book is not groundbreaking new knowledge, instead it reinstates many things I have already been made aware of through my studies. However it does highlight that there are many things that I am not doing and if I want to be the best artist I can be then this has to change. This had already occurred to me prior to going to London but this little book just reaffirmed what I had been thinking and seems to have given me a jolt that was required. Sketching those in front of me became a huge part of my trip with a few of these shown below. The book did contain something very interesting at the very back, a set of challenges as shown above. I know that if I take on these challenges through the course of this project and then continue to keep up these challenges they will become a habit. One very good habit for any artist to have, the plan is to do these challenges but to continue building upon them. For instance drawing people on public transport does not mean that after drawing people on a bus I should simply tick it off as done. Instead I should think what other forms of public transport are there, sports events are the same as there is a variety of sports events I could attend. With each little sketch of each challenge my skills and knowledge as an artist will improve and eventually I will have built a catalogue of people and places they can then feed into the work that I produce.

The sketches of the people below were done after I had attended the E.H Shepard exhibition. Whilst drawing these people I noticed two main things, firstly I was paying far more attention to the person, the light and shadows, their features. Secondly I was also far more aware of the marks I was making, I was giving more consideration to which directions line should go, what could I leave out. The term economical use of line was going through my mind when sketching these people. I also realise that it would be very good practise for me to try other methods and use a variety of materials. One thought is to include backgrounds already covered in inks, colours, splashes, use coloured papers to create a mid tone that would allow me to only put marks down for the lightest and darkest areas. This idea probably comes from my knowledge that I need to work on tonal qualities. These sketches will also help build up my knowledge of composition as putting myself in many situations will lead to a better understanding of creating interesting compositions that can lead the eye through a drawing as I intend the viewer to see. Although the one major difference was that these people were rather still compared to others I had been doing previous to that point who were mostly walking past me at the time of drawing them.

E.H Shepard

The final exhibition I went to see whilst in London was that of illustrator E.H Shepard which was held in House of Illustration. Most prominently known for his illustrations of Winnie the Pooh and numerous cartoons for Punch magazine. However this exhibition focused on his works as a war artist during the first world war. Not solely sent out as an artist Shepard was a soldier who had wanted to serve and just happened to draw and paint whenever possible. The army was aware of his talents and would sometimes ask for him to produce landscapes to help them in making plans for attacks etc. He had already been working for Punch magazine prior to the break out of war, and continued producing work for them during the course of the war when possible. There is correspondence from his agent shown in the exhibition to his wife asking if she had heard from him as a deadline was looming.
The war seemed to have help develop Shepard as an artist, he truly had to sketch quickly and become even more observant which can be seen through his art. Sketching several rough in pencil would finally lead to a finished image done in ink. Again the term economical use of line was used in describing his work. I understood this even more now as I use ink pens to sketch but I find that I probably try to draw too much. My overuse of line can sometimes kill the drawing, this is probably the most important factor that I picked up from this exhibition. I noticed that when sketching people later that day it was very evident that something had triggered me to think differently, to consider the line I was putting down. Also I realised that the best artists are usually the most observant, looking for shadows, glimmers of light, what makes that person them, what their features are. During my time in the exhibition I tried to imitate some of the images I seen mainly as an exercise in trying to reduce my line work and produce more effective illustrations. These drawings interested me in either composition or the characters within them, these are shown below.

The National Gallery

After visiting the Tate Modern I decided to leave and go and visit the National Gallery. Inside are many famous paintings by some of the most well known artists throughout the world. I went to see the famous sunflowers of Van Gogh only to find that I became more interested in his painting of two crabs and a portrait of a peasant woman. The two crabs were more interesting to me as I had never seen them before unlike Sunflowers which have been depicted man times through my life without actually seeing the works in it's original form. The crabs were interesting to me as they were such a peculiar subject to paint on their own. No seaside, no rocks no real context apart from a study of the crabs themselves. One belly up the other in a more usual position allowed the viewer to see a crab as a whole within an image. The other piece which was a portrait struck me as it was not in the style Van Gogh is usually associated with, the style conformed more to what others may have painted in his time. This was unusual for me and found this rather unexpected, perhaps this was before he developed his heavier stroked approach that we have become accustomed to seeing.
Another painting that struck a chord with me was titled Whistlejacket. The painting is of a horse and was created by George Stubbs. The painting seemed to dominate the room even though other works were larger, the room itself was huge. This was due to the striking nature of the painting which can be seen below. I drew a quick sketch of this horse just to remind me to look it up later, all images discussed are shown below.

Tate Modern

On tuesday I visited the Tate Modern to attend the EY exhibition The World Goes Pop. I went to this particular exhibition with an open mind as this was an attempt to step out of my comfort zone and to see artists works that I had never been aware of before. The aim was to try and understand the works that were on display, some of which I couldn't even after reading the descriptor. However many left me feeling rather disappointed after reading the descriptors. Most dealt with serious issues but seemed rather obvious, lacked thought or were just too abstract to understand, for me anyway. Even the image above is something I found interesting and was what actually enticed me to go in the first place. However seeing this image in person was not as effective or dramatic, the artist used many materials including cut out plastics to create this piece. After a while I found it difficult to get enthusiastic about this exhibition. After seeing such works as Ai WeiWei and the Waterloo Cartoon the art on display felt rather cheap and tacky in comparison. There were two pieces which I did find interesting, the first played on the cold war and showed silhouettes of both leaders on separate canvasses. The other which I did really like for it's dramatic impact was a piece by Rafael Canogar. This work showed the plight of brutality by authority, the person being beaten was sculpted lying on the ground. This sculpture was missing the head and and hand which were displayed on an upright board. The board showed a silhouette of the missing head and hand, also shown was the shadowy figure of brutality administering a beating to the person lying on the ground. By removing the head from the sculpture and the authoritarian figure only being in patchy silhouette the piece then opened up to interpretation. This would allow each person to see this as any person, place, country, regime or time that came to their mind. This was very clever as the characters being faceless allows the viewer to project any face the wish onto the piece. These works were sketched and shown below along with a sketch of the Tate Modern with school children drawing outside.