Tutorial with Janet Woolley
I managed to arrange a tutorial with Janet Woolley, who is course leader for the Illustration MA. Janet is not only extremely enthusiastic, but also very well connected and up to date with the illustration industry.
Although I would only tentatively describe my images as illustrations, it is an area that I would like to develop in. I often view the image making aspect of my work as simply a stage before developing ideas into something time based. I wanted to discuss my images as artworks in their own right. Janet gave me some really useful feedback on how I might improve the images.
Compositionally, she suggested that I could add more depth to the images by working around a central focus. The landscapes I create are perhaps slightly flat. I often feel the need to scale elements so that they appear to be in the same scene. By placing a particular element at the forefront of a composition I would be able to control the view of an audience. This would help to develop a sense of narrative within the image. A viewer would be drawn around the image more naturally, rather than having to choose which sections to focus on. Much like a moving image work, the first element that people encounter can be the most important one.
Janet also suggested that placing a human element into the images might also make them more accessible to a viewer. This could be as simple as a hand or eye to provide an element that people can relate to. She pointed me to the illustrator Matthew Richardson, whose images are simply punctuated with human elements rather than being completely figurative.
I am interested to apply my techniques to the human face, perhaps mixing up images of different people. Mixing these images with those of urban spaces could provide the human element that Janet mentioned and would also place the architectural connotations in a context more focussed on the pedestrian.
Another illustrator Janet mentioned was Stuart Davies, who uses more traditional printing methods to create abstract landscapes…
Janet thought I might experiment with the use of scanning and printing. I was pleased that she didn’t view the works as overly digital, but agree that bringing my processes out of the computer could add another dimension to my outputs. Simply printing an image and then scanning it back in can add new textures. It opens the opportunity for happy accidents and unexpected results. I have wanted to explore printmaking techniques this year but simply haven’t had the confidence to move in this direction. Bringing my processes out of the computer is a bit of a risk to me and its a challenge that I’d like to overcome in the future. I agree with Janet that taking more risks is never a bad thing.
Thanks Janet.
