Exercise: Black and White

I chose ‘building’ and decided to draw from one of my photographs of the village, selecting what I thought would make an interesting composition to represent tonally, since it contained some strong angles and shadows.

The photo I worked from:

I made a line visual from the photo but wasn’t sure how much detail to add. I wasn’t entirely happy with the line visual as it appeared a bit stiff, but I decided to go ahead.

I also decided to work at A4 rather than A3 so that I could more easily use my home scanner and printer since I was working at night.

The line visual:

The focus of the original line visual was the middle building at the top of the first flight of stairs; obviously the stairs draw the eye here as does the slope of the roof of the foreground building.

I liked the inverted version since it was more forceful than the original.

Inverted line visual:

Once I started to collage the smaller ‘highlighting’ shapes to the image I could see why it had been suggested to work at a larger size, as it was very fiddly.

I applied more areas of foreground shadow than I had included in my line drawing to improve the sense of depth.

First blocked out version:

There were still lines visible at this stage: mostly on the stairs and also between the walls of the buildings. I liked this effect, but blocked them out as instructed, using paper for the lines between the walls.

Second blocked out version:

and using photoshop instead of paper for the stairs as I’d had enough of the collage by this stage. This is probably cheating but justifiable I reckon.

Photoshopped version:

In the blocked out image the focus is the shadow in the foreground and on the stairs, which seems to dominate the whole- so I cropped it to reduce that area and think it’s more successful as a composition.

Cropped version:

Overall, the use of blocks of black and white makes the image more powerful.

I actually prefer the first version of the blocked out image which still has lines on the stairs, as these break that big black area and lift the eye towards the centre of the picture, the stairs lack definition without them.

Lastly I inverted the blocked out image. I prefer it this way; I find it more imposing, the lack of definition on the stairs is less important and it reminds me of an alpine village in the snow.

Inverted blocked out version:

On reflection:

Immediately after I'd finished the collage, I wasn't happy at all with the image, but looking at it the day after I actually quite like it, although I still prefer the version with the lines on the stairs.

Next time I would take more time to make the first line visual more interesting by drawing it in a looser way, less stiffly, with more character, perhaps exaggerating the 'upward' perspective.

Some examples of other illustrators' work which I would describe as graphic:

Lynd Ward http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2010/10/13/the-woodcuts-of-lynd-ward/

Beautifully dark, solid and brooding, with lots of line shading.

Caroline Andrieu http://www.hautstyle.co.uk/caroline-andrieu-illustrations/ Forcefully delicate, with precise line work and lots of white space.

Art Spiegelman http://ghostlypineapples.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/new-yorker-cover-spiegelman.jpg?w=232&h=320 This cover for The New Yorker magazine is very powerful and 'graphic' in nature although the artist has chosen barely differing tones.

Aubrey Beardsley https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZ95sZ89061FYEOfWBJsWyaDT6eK_l_afC3QD8wLo9N2t4VSpIDg A superbly rendered figure, elegantly swirling with black blocks and lines against white.

Rani Niemi http://www.changethethought.com/wp-content/raminiemi.jpg The artist uses spots, thickish lines, blocks and perspective to great effect in this image of a collapsed Pluto.

Jesus Barraza http://dignidadrebelde.com/gallery/view/12#932 achieves beautiful textural effects in these images

Owl print, unknown artist http://data.whicdn.com/images/9014506/black,and,white,illustration,owl,j,telefons,b,w-ce0d9f08b3bbcd96029a27ea9bf8eb78_h_large.jpg I love this; the artist has used a grey background and lots of line to make a delicate image. This reinforces my view that my blocked image with the lines on the stairs and between the buildings was the most effective.

Gina Maria Fontana Siepierski http://www.fontanafreelance.com/illustrations.html

I love the strikingly simple graphic nature of 'Lightening' and 'Tea' which the artist drew with pen and India ink.

Camera http://s1.favim.com/orig/20/awesome-black-and-white-illustration-polaroid-pretty-Favim.com-204599.jpg This is a beautifully loose and humorous little graphic drawing. I wasn't able to see who the artist was.

Moonassi http://vi.sualize.us/view/70e723ded441147374427e16aee0dd00/ I find this image quite strange and spooky, probably because of the ties and mask, but I love the way the artist has conveyed the sense of lifting.

Jasper Goodall http://www.jaspergoodall.com/projects.php#3 In the New Goulston Street project the artist used black gloss paint to decorate the shop shutters with powerfully elegant graphic images of animals that inhabited ancient England.