Choosing Content - Daffodil Affair

What's it all about?
Reflecting on the excerpt from The Daffodil Affair. A detective, in New Scotland Yard during the second world war; sits at his desk and contemplates the case that he has worked on for the past 15 years.
The described cycles of sun and shadow, illustrate a passing of time and yet also a sense of standing still. By implication a sense of frustration leads to an explicit restrained anger on the part of the character. To me there is a claustrophobic feel in the description of the room, a featureless dehumanised zone, cell like; combined with the continual transition of light and shade in some sense this reflects the claustrophobic nature of a case with no opening.
The character moves from his desk to the window which paradoxically both reinforces that, like the view, little on the case has changed and that the source of light is also the source of new possibilities. I see the character as being middle aged. His face has the lines associated with carrying  emotional burden but are more pronounced than is usual for someone of his age.
Considering that the character in the piece is a detective in the 1940s I almost immediately thought of the TV detective Christopher Foyle played by Michael Kitchen in the television series Foyle's War, set during the second world war. This may be a good source for examples of 1940s material and scene settings.
The character would be dressed in a dark grey wool suit probably 3 piece however in the office he would have removed his jacket to reveal a white cotton shirt; collar and conservatively patterned tie. As described in the text, the room is sparsely furnished with just the articles necessary for the job. I see a large desk with drawers on either side, a large blotter; telephone and card index box; plus wooden static chair. On the floor is a round metal waste paper bin. There may be a metal four drawer filing cabinet.

I remember visiting the MOD offices in Newcastle in the late seventies and it was furnished In just such a way and probably hadn't changed significantly since the forties. There were few creature comforts minimal personalisation a single photograph of a loved one on a large leather topped desk. Again I could use this experience as a reference point.
 

This is my collection of images based on the vision I have for the setting; including pictures of the outside of the then New Scotland Yard building; to gauge the style and size of the windows and for a bit of extra context to get an idea of what the character sees when he looks out of the window. A list of words suggested by the thought processes so far: monochrome, depressed, bland, repressed, conservative, sombre, austere, oxidised, shadowy, conservative, repressed, restrained, suppressed, dark, subdued, stark. From which I decided to focus on the word restrained The dictionary definition is

1. To hold back or keep in check; control: couldn't restrain the tears.
2. To hold (a person) back; prevent: restrained them from going.
3. To deprive of freedom or liberty.
4. To limit or restrict.
5. Characterized by reserve or moderation; unemotional or dispassionate.
6. (of color, clothes, decoration, etc.) Understated and subtle; not excessively showy or ornate.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/restrained

I feel this word not only captures, in general, my perception of the setting of the piece but the demeanour of the character as well as connecting to the ultimate aim of the character the apprehension and restraint of a suspect.

Moodboard

I used images that both illustrated 'Restrained' as meaning reserved in colour, content and texture as well as the alternative definition of contained emotion.
I ended up with quite a bleak austere mood. Perhaps overly so. Although it did lead me to examine more closely the part the light and shadow plays in the text which I believe is quite important.

Considering the actual portrait my next task was to find examples of the expression on the face of the of the character. Using google image search, I found 4 images that had potential.

A fifth image, a woodcut print of a scene from the 
film The Big Sleep gave me an idea not in terms of facial expression but for a possible setting of the portrait.
I also liked the effect of the method used to create the various tones, particularly the light and shadow from the window where it meets the character.

With some adaptation I felt I could incorporate effects from some other images I had already collected. I already had an image of a window with sun shining through it where the shadow of the criss cross of the frame created the effect of bars. A visual metaphor for restrained? I did a couple of sketches of how I saw the picture.

Firstly, to rough an impression of how I thought the images I had in mind might relate to each other, then a more accurate rendition of how the finished portrait might look. Changing the look of the window and incorporating the character and swapping his hand gun for a folder representing an open case file.

My initial feeling about what media to use for the final piece was to recreate the effect of the wood cut picture probably in pen and ink; as I felt that it had impact but also fed into the 'restrained' idea. But on reflecting further as I hadn't considered an image montage in the past I decided to see if I could achieve a convincing version of my sketches using parts of the pictures I had to hand.

The key elements to go into the final portrait I had already decided upon. It had to include the window with the shadows that looked like bars, an altered version of the character from the wood cut image. I cut and shaped a folder containing sheets of paper.
To add to the cell like claustrophobic feeling I used an image of painted brickwork as a back drop which I split into sections to add movement. The expression of the character I used was not quite right so I attempted to alter this by adding a few creases in his forehead. I think the finished piece it is quite effective and I am relatively pleased with the results. I am happy that I resisted the tempation to just draw a picutre of Christopher Foyle.