dinsdag 24 april 2012

Shakespeare in London Planning and Sketching

Tuesday and Wednesday, 17th and 18th of April

I started off by looking at the Shakespeare locations that I went to/tried to get to.  I then selected which I thought were best to represent visually.  I decided on:


The Globe Theatre
The George Inn
Memorial First Folio
St Bartholomew’s Gate
Westminster Abbey
Southwark Cathedral
V&A Props

I thought this was a good mix of places directly related to him, places from his time, tributes and Shakespeare in modern times.  Other places not on the image will be included in the write-up on the other side.  I decided I also wanted to include the Thames river.  To me this is a real part of London and its history and I love the way in divides the city it two. 

I then made a visual mind-map.  It is very basic as the majority is based on having been there so I just gave a few things to show this.  Thinking about the different places blue really springs out for me as a colour.  I think it's also a good colour to use in combination with ochre.  The ochre shows the old historical side ill the blues shown below have a more modern and fresh feeling to them.  I skipped doing a written one as I had already made somany notes on my trip to London I felt this unnecessary.  


 Something very noticable about London is the vast size of it and the huge amount of places and things to see there.  In my nine days I saw so much much looking at the city overal there's just so much more to see.  I really that feeling to be included that there's a lot in a small space with nothing in between, because to me that really is what London is like.  

I first had the idea to include many pictures of Shakespeare on the map with the different locations.  But when I started sketching I didn't really feel this was right, a bit like saying the same thing twice.  I was better of using the space for the locations.  I also tried with less images of Shakespeare surrounded by the locations but I thought they were dull.  

I then tried using the Thames as the dividing line, at first I thought this might be a bit obvious but I decided it was actually a good idea to help keep it an interpretation but still some sense of where the places are located.  I put the locations North of the Thames above and South beneath, very logical. I also though this was a good break in the very full picture and good way of incorporating the text.  Above in the mindmap, you can see a lot of inky text, which of course can also be interpretated as water.  


This is just a basic sketch of approximately how it will look.  I wanted to play with the scales of things to make it more of a mitch-match of places.  The Southwark stained-glass window I have portrayed as larger than the cathredal itself and although not visible here the window is a mix of two of the windows commemorating Shakespeare.  The George in needs mor people in it so it becomes a lively tavern. I don't think the pillar from inside the Globe should be stretching over the Thames either.  I decided to change the sculpture inside Westminster Cathedral a bit.  Instead of leaning against the pile of books he's leaning on a giant version of the signed skull prop in the V&A and instead of him pointing to a scroll is now pointed into the socket of the skull.  I have now done a basic trace of all of the loose elements and will be working on them indivisually.  This is so that I can scan them as I don't have a good enough camera to photgraph a whole large picture but I also want to be able to easily manipulate the sections seperately in photoshop.  This also maked it easier to change the bits if unhappy at a later stage.  I'm going to be using the same method of acrylic and fineliner so I can really work on this style development and potentially add a bit of the background from the Herne picture earlier.  When this is completed this will work as one side of the "map", more of an tourist information pamphlet really, and it could also function as a poster.  I will ask what Elizabeth and Meghan think in both senses.  Just one of those things I'll try out further down the lign.  Obviously the Thames only looks like a ribbon at the moment, but as the good old expression goes: "children and idiots..."

 

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