Tell an Untold Story: Banishing Figures from Artwork

Following my discussion about having figures being too obvious and slightly distracting I tried to rework the third and twelfth pages.

What challenges did I face?

• I could see how having figure on page three was too literal and slightly distracting from the subtlety of my other images. However, I was really happy with how my third page was working visually, having put a lot of effort into getting it right. I therefore tried a couple times to repaint it figureless but nothing worked as well as the original (the figure being the key focal point). 

I couldn't work out how exactly how I had layered the ink before and the paper kept going fluffy. I tried to overcome this by repeatedly trying to create my image, each time leaving my layers to dry for different amounts of time but I still just couldn't get it right. 

• I struggled to make the hands on page 12 look distinct enough against the setting. I kept drying to add bold lights and darks to them to make them come forward but I kept adding it in the wrong place. Why are hands so hard to draw?? ..need to practice

What went well?

• I think that just photoshopping out the figures face and some pats of his body worked really well (page 3). This is because it just adds a subtlety to my image but it meant that I could keep my original artwork, which I was so pleased with. But is the figure sill too fully formed compared to my other pages??

• I think that the hands work really well on page 12 to obviously suggest a fishermen without me depicting too much of him. I also like the fact that they don't quite link up, suggesting movement (the fisherman moving through the space or more than one person). 

• I also think the use of media on page 12 is really nice. The use of quite a solid layer of blue/ black ink links it in well with the rocking chair bridge page, while the extra level of added detail works well with the more busy thinners pages.

What could I have done differently and how am I going to move forward?

• I think that with page three I may have been better off taking a totally different approach to creating my image all together, rather than trying to recreate something exactly. Maybe using thinners or a dipping pen?

• Now that I have completed these images I am going to put them into my book, to see how they sit with my other pages. This will tell me if I need to tweak anything else.