Visual Metaphor

Some examples of Visual Metaphor:

And my favourite

Having chosen Economic Catastrophe as my phrase here are some ideas...

The economy catastrophically explodes...

then there are natural disasters used as a metaphor for instance tsunami or earthquake...

And a selection of variations on a theme..

Falling charts, dealing desk anxiety, melting currency symbols, crumbling ancient buildings / factories.

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.

Black & White

Whilst considering which subject to choose for this Black and White exercise. I took a fine black ink pen, pencil and sketch pad to the beach and sketched some views up and down the beach and out towards a neighbouring island. This view was quite striking because the sea seemed to be divided, waves appeared to be forming near the shore whereas further out and towards the island the sea seemed much calmer. This still area reflected the bright grey of the sky, whilst the waves were dark the foaming wave caps were very bright white.

This last sketch caused problems when trying to convey the tone variations; and the whiteness of the waves against the varying grey shades of the sea reflected in the overcast sky. I sketched the same view in pencil as well to see if it was easier to capture the subtle contrasts.

But in thinking about the scene afterwards I thought it would lend itself to this excercise very well. Because of its simplicity and having already considered controlling tone in both pen and pencil I chose to draw the outline shapes as a separate piece.

Which I then enlarged to suit A3 and inverted. Sticking with the principle that the whiteness of the waves was key to the piece I cut the black areas accordingly.

My only area of uncertainty was how to represent the island and the immediate area around it. Do I go for a black sky and white island with a corresponding black area behind the waves? This would have the advantage of defining the tops of the furthest waves. I settled for the island as a black silouette.
Having fixed down all the black areas and completed the piece my observations on the effect are that in a way this method captures the bright whiteness of the waves in contrast to the surrounding grey that I saw on the day I made the sketches.

However It also illustrates its limitations, some areas of tone cannot convincingly be converted to black or white and still maintain a sense of depth or a sense of a change in the environment.Although perspective can be captured. The effect however can be very stark and dramatic. And puts me in mind, as I have become familiar with his work, of Edward Bawdens prints.

Objective - Subjective

My Objective drawings
Examples of Objective observations of a pair of glasses.

Drawn without any implied characteristics.

My Subjective drawing.
My object of choice is a baseball type cap. This particular cap is mostly cloth the only rigid part is the peak. The list of words that I made whilst contemplating the cap included the following.

• Crumpled
• Creased
• Squashed
• Formless
• Shapeless
• Cotton
• Faded
• Casual
• Wrinkled
• Misshapen
• Headgear
• Malleable
• Convenient
• Comfortable
• Soft
• Round
• Shabby

The word I chose to associate with the object was Casual
To help in creating a moodboard; I first checked the dictionary definition of the word to confirm my understanding of what it meant. The definitions according to Collins English are: Happening by accident or chance; being or seeming unconcerned or apathetic; not premeditated; shallow or superficial; informal article of clothing or footware; occasional;.
Added to which I considered; unintended, not contrived and not by design.
My focus for items to include in the moodboard became casual clothes; creased and crumpled fabrics;.

I included some obviously contrived examples of casual dress as a reference point and contrast. Having cut out the images using a knife; I then decided to just tear roughly round the images indicative of a casual manner.
I believe that creating the moodboard helped me to understand what was totally contrived as opposed to that which didn't appear to be so. It made me think in terms of how I could make my piece casual. I played around with the idea of recreating the texture of the hat, its shadows and high lights, by cutting out dark and light sections from images of crumpled fabric. However I decided to create the image on a piece of paper which I screwed up first as tightly as I could which I then flattened out again.

This gives the image a texture that is intended to mimic the appearance of the fabric. I then intentionally with little care brushed the greenwash over the hat. I found that it then needed some depth and at that point added some grey.
By the way; part the way through the process I dumped the baseball cap in favour of this hat. Although it had more substance than the cap, I considered that it still displayed the same basic attributes as the cap.
I also decided to tear round the hat to leave a random shape surrounding the hat. And then fix it to another sheet of paper to finish. I toyed with the idea of tearing in the shape of the hat but favoured the more casual version.

Words to Pictures - Moodboard

To stimulate the thought process when considering a topic for illustration it is key to explore as many possiblities as is practicle. An aid to starting this process is the Spider diagram. Taking the subject name i.e. 'fashion' as the centre point write down words that come to mind then do the same again from those words untill you end up with something like...

To move on from this you then think about the words that you have compiled, whilst considering new and alternative words, and 'convert' them into images.




My initial attempt was very much just, think of a word or pick a word on the spider chart and sketch an image quickly without considering detail or technique

I then decided to tear some thick water colour paper in to squares and create one or two images on each. This time in more detail. I used pencil, ink, ink pen and water colour. Here are some examples..

Having worked through these processes I can use a combination of the thoughts stimulated by the words from the spider diagram and the pictorial versions to put together a moodboard. Essentially a further visual reference point, a representation of ideas on illustrating the topic. Although the aim of the Moodboard is not to produce a finished piece of art; I found it difficult to resist the temptation to create a design whilst deciding how to use the images I had found. Perhaps I didn't resist at all, scalpel art!

Exercise 2 - Editorial interpretation

Taken from the January issue of Hi Fi news, the editor asks the question; how relevant will the content of the current issue of the magazine be in 50 years time. In answer to his own question he points out that the Vinyl LP is now over 50 years old and is enjoying something of a resurgence in popularity.
Attention is also focused on the CD. Launched 30 years ago the magazine will be helping celebrate its pearl anniversary.
His second point is regarding hearing. It’s a vital part in the music reproduction chain; but how many people take as much care with their hearing as they do with their sound reproduction equipment. Is it the elephant in the hi fi listening room?.
My interpretation is that ‘good’ technology, particularly in music reproduction, lasts longer than expectations and that new emerging technologies don't necessarily dictate the fate of the older technology.
Ideas to interpret this editorial through illustration included incorporating symbols and or images of the past, present and future sound playback technologies living side by side. I researched symbols used in laser technology and from hifi equipment manuals and circuit diagrams.

Initial rough

I felt that key to the design would be a suitably futuristic 'listener' and in browsing

the internet for a likely subject, I happened upon manniquin heads used for displaying wigs. One in particular caught my eye; it had all the attributes I was looking for, a futuristic visage, slightly android, androgynous appearance. Unusually small ears which had the potential to show the evolution of the ear that may happen when all sound is compressed e.g. mp3 etc
The next step was to sketch ideas as they came to me combined with some of the symbols I had already found.. ending up with an ideas mash up! emphasising some of the key words and thoughts from the editorial.

I then went through a kind of selective thought process, mentally rating the sketch ideas and discounting the elements that I thought weak or not easily identifiable. After this process I had in mind to keep to three main images. I liked the idea of the use of the head to create 'the listener' and an image of a CD as my 'old technology'. But I needed some way of illustrating that the listener was involved in the process of listening to digital compressed sound, the sound of the present possibly future technology, possibly using binary code...I sketched some ideas.

Sticking with the concept of binary code entering one ear and leaving the other I made the first draft of the layout.

Happy with the design so far. I was unsure of what media to use. I felt the right finish would heighten the impact of the simple design. Although unfamiliar with the use of pastels I experimented a bit. I will admit that experimentation was limited and I had at one point settled for this version.

I really had in mind that the binary code would be quite subtle but could see that it would, potentially, take a lot of experimentation to achive the desired effect. And at that point I left the exercise to carry on with the first assignment.
Endeavouring to get this record on the blog I re-appraised the design and looked at constructing the design in Photoshop. I have some experience with the software but am unfamiliar with a lot of the tools. I did a bit of experimentaion.

I am quite pleased with the attempt. It obviously requires more work. I would like to 'paint in' the body and possibly reintroduce the binary code effect but this would require further practical instruction in Photoshop.

Exercise - History of Illustration

Edward Bawden; CBE RA

After researching each of the listed illustrators I was drawn to Edward Bawden.
Prolific designer, illustrator, print maker, and war artist. Mainly because of the impact, on me, of his linocut and lithographic prints; particularly an excellent set of designs depicting 6 London Markets and Liverpool Street station. Which were amongst the first of his designs that I came across. However they were commissioned in the late 50s and are not typical of his early commercial work. He worked for agencies at the height of the depression that effected Britain between the wars. But the effects of this, in the Southeast and London, where Edward was based, were less severe.
Due to the new light industries and services there was a sizeable population with expendable income which initiated a consumer boom. The time was right for a new style and Edward would find plenty of work. Amongst the big name companies Edward created designs for were Fortnum and Masons , Shell, Penguin Books and Imperial Air. He also created many cookery and recipe book covers particularly for Ambrose Heath. As well as designs for wall paper; beer bottle labels, posters, famously for Kew Gardens. He also worked with ceramics and has designs created in ceramic tiles displayed on the walls of the platforms of Victoria, Tottenham Hale and Highbury & Islington tube stations.

His style has come to epitomise the period,and his early commercial art does seem dated now, compared to the slick graphics and imagery that we have become familiar with. They seem quite twee and have almost naive like, experimental quality to them. However they do display a deep understanding of the use of space, simplicity, communication and the importance of the connections between elements in good design. Some of his later illustrations have more of a retro feel so could be mistaken for contemporary.
I am looking forward to the reopening of the Cecil Higgins Gallery and Bedford Museum where they will have a gallery dedicated to EB.

For my contemporary illustrator I have chosen Richard Wilkinson again the descision was down to the instant visual appeal of some of his illustrations, during a general web search. There is not much biographical information about Richard apart from that he is based in London and started his career in the music industry. His style produces images that are soft often sombre yet capable of being potent when the subject requires it. His designs are commonly used to illustrate social or scientific commentary, often of a contencious nature. as far as technique goes,
 Richard cleverly uses photoshop in an unusual way to ‘paint’ his images. Richard creates complex layers that mimic painting and although created electronically there is no short cut or compromise on the quality of the desired image.

Like Edward  Bawden Richard illustrates, through an agency, for some companies with household names. The Daily Telegraph, Penguin Books, Honda Cars , New Scientist and Vodaphone.

In conclusion I feel that in certain respects Edward Bawden and his contemporaries were style and technique trail blazers, experimenting and honing their skills with little reference point in the design and style that went before. Whereas contemporary illustrators have the benefit of Edward's and his contemporaries legacy.

Idea for an illustration in the style of Edward Bawden I chose the subject of the Corporate drinks trolley this was a thought in part prompted by the cover of Good Drinks . But it was something I thought would potentially lend itself to the style and contain some humour.

I roughed a quick design idea and then  compared the two.

I put the two side by side.
If this simplistic method highlighted one thing it was that the EB designs are not just about angles and shade but imply, simply, depth and perspective. So I adapted my design to include these elements.

This would have been the basis for further refinement but is at present consigned to the work in progress file.

Weeks later and having now revisited the design. I set out to follow the last draft and produce a finished copy of it; but on reflection having looked again at several EB designs, I considered that there wasn't enough depth to the design. I did a bit of investigation into the design of a typical hostess trolley of the 30s and 40s. And an example being sold on a well known auction site caught my eye. The way that it had been photographed gave it a slightly distorted perspective which I felt would fit in with elements seen in the Edward Bawden examples I was following. Here is the result..

Originally the trolley and contents image was on its own however it looked 'lost' with to much space around it. Edward tended to fill the page pulling the elements together. There was nothing that appeared to 'tie' my trolley to the rest of the page. I added a 'mat' in such away as to fill out the space and to create a relationship with the title and the footnote.



The thought of copying the style of Richard Wilkinson was daunting. Although in essence the designs are simple the amount of work to achieve the look seemed almost prohibitive. So what has happened is that I got bogged down in the design process. I am after all a bit rusty having not picked up a brush or pen for some years.



Idea for Illustration in Richard Wilkinson Style.
Arsene Wenger, Arsenal Football Club’s most successful manager has not led his team to success in any competition in over 6 years.

He has a principled vision of how football should be played and a team built and managed. He favours buying players with potential and creating top footballers against paying premium prices for the finished article. Does his recent lack of success point to a flaw in his vision or has he become a victim of his principles in respect of his unwillingness to bend under the criticism of fans and football commentators.

My initial idea was to use the ‘lady of justice’
the statue above the Old Bailey essentially to have Arsene adopt the nothing to hide ‘open’ position and to carry the props.
The Sword indicating his principles and on the scales on one side a young player with potential counter balanced by money.
To progress I needed to sketch Arsenes face to a reasonable likeness to an almost caricature quality as RW style has an economy of feature almost cartoon like. Do some study of how suits sit in different poses. Study photos of Arsene in a pose near to the proposed if possible. Spend some time studying hands holding items.
The key hand positions following those on the statue, holding a sword up. I sketched my own holding a poker, not having a sword handy.

The next image is my rough of how the scales might look.

By this time trying to second guess how RW would handle the pose I was changing my mind about basing it on the statues pose and had decided to go for a less strident posture but keep the props. There is an illustration by RW of a monkey in a suit surrounded by bananas I may investigate that 'look'. excluding the bananas!
The scales could rest on the floor.

My next study was to be; how a suit 'sits' in different poses. Finding AW in the correct pose was proving difficult; but having sketched the suit from one photograph, I completely changed tack I had the idea of Arsene weighed down by balls and chains. A kind of “these are the chains I forged in.. my career…” - Jacob Marley-esk. Unfortunately I had a sense that I had spent so much time deliberating about the design that I have not as yet put together a finished illustration. Work in Progress again… After a brief pause I have put paint to paper and completed the illustration.

On the whole I am happy with the consept and arrangement. Some of the techniques I have used need some more practice. I feel I have the essence of the style of a Richard Wilkinson design if not the content I am consious that its abit cliched.