York Day Trip

TRAIN MUSEUM

When I walked into the museum I saw this luggage rack and I thought it was really cool! I thought it would be a good thing to start my book drawing. I did my usual, getting out my fine liners and colouring it in with coloured pencils... It was quite nice being able to subtly mix the different colours. I tried to create depth through the value of the colour on the fill of the suitcases. I think the tone of the coloured pencils work well at creating the rustic and texture that the very old leather staircases had. I think it also has some character due to the fact that the lines aren't quite straight and the wheel isn't quite round. However this is still an uptight drawing with not very much gesture.

 From this I saw a different luggage rack and I wanted to create this with more looseness and gesture. I thought I would try different mediums. This is felt tip, coloured pencil and biro. I am sceptical in drawing in Biro as it doesn't seem to be a valued drawing tool however I feel that this mixture of these really captures the aesthetic of the wood. I like the contrast between the really bold powerful felt tip lines and the almost faded and scratchy biro marks, that there is a diversity of line quality in the image. I built this the shapes up in a different way this time, using line rather than block fill. I think this is my favourite drawing of the day. Although it is still quite busy I think it is interesting to look at.

 I then wanted to try something more basic because sometimes simplicity is better than complexity when creating an image. Here I really wanted to capture the gold coating around the train furnishings and the curved handle. I decided to focus on one small area of the train, these doors. To create something simpler I started off by using a thicker line than a fine liner, thinking it would be more representational. I then went back through and added some detail. There is also quite a lot of texture on the paint of the train through the coloured pencil picking up the tooth of the paper but also the scratch red biro marks I added. Again this has character due to the fact that it isn't architecturally accurate.

 Then I thought it would be good to try and looses draw part of a train through thick lines and started off in gold but realised that it looked weird and empty, needing some definition so I went back in and added a complimentary colour which had a less opaque line. I then tried creating texture through line in the colouring.

 I found the shape of the trains' wheel really interesting  and thought I would play around with the different qualities of line I could create through one medium. This has turned the wheel into something of a pattern. This wheel would definitely not function on a train but it was really interesting seeing how I could translate what was in front of me into different textures.

 Then I thought I would focus in on on something that was different to trains now-a-days, the type. This is something micro rather than macro but something which ties every train in the museum together. It was interesting how they had really considered their type and the colouring to add to the aura and beauty of the trains.

I realised that I didn't really draw any "trains" even though I was in a train museum. It is difficult because of the scale of the beasts. 

YORK PARK

It was quite a daunting task creating a full bleed image. There is so much to consider and you have to chose which section of your sight you want to translate onto paper as if taking a photo in your head, cropping out sections so it will fit on the paper.

Here I really liked the grandness of the lamp posts and the contrast these strong structures had to the nature surrounding it. I went back to my fine liners and coloured pencils. I tried to create depth through using less fine liner the further back I got in the image because things get less defined in the background in comparison to the foreground. I therefore tried to use stronger colours in the foreground. It was hard getting perspective though because the grass wasn't flat, it was bumpy and the path was windy and up and down (i messed up the size of the 3rd lamp-post). However I guess illustrations don't have to be fully representational as they aren't replicating what is in front of you, they are an interpretation/translation.

 I then thought I would take colour out of the equation and see what i could do with pencil. This is much more gestural in comparison to the first one. This worked well with the textures of the trees and suggesting where plants were. Also it was interesting building up brushes through pattern and texture.  Again the background was a lot lighter than the foreground and even though the building has very defined thin lines it was crystal clear and in the sun, I didn't give it any fill. I also feel i managed to capture that I was looking up a slope due to the direction of lines on the grass.

 I quite liked using just one media to build up my landscape. I thought i would try and do this with pen. I realised that this would have a different effect due to the nature of fine liners not having a range of soft and hardnesses. This therefore created a different aesthetic. It was interesting looking at what was in front of me and translating it into patterns through different mark making to represent grass and leaves and how I could show different types of bushes and trees through my line quality. The grass in the foreground is very representational but I feel its direction and tonal value adds depth successfully to the image.

 I thought that all of the full bleed images I had created so far were still very representational but that it is okay to chose elements to leave out of an image. Here I really wanted to focus on how I could portray different plants through different line quality and mark making. I kept everything black but wanted to experiment with how I could translate what I saw even more gesturally, chasing elements to leave out or translate very loosely.

I had a really lovely day out in York, it was lovely to go to somewhere new....especially somewhere outside, on a lovely sunny day. I feel that I have really subconsciously learnt about visual language through all of the different exercises we have done throughout the year and that when I was creating these images I could refer to the pattern and line exercises we have done and was constantly looking at what was in front of me and thinking about how I could portray what I was seeing. I also noticed that I was reflecting on what I had done and was challenging myself to try things that I hadn't included and experiment.