The SubjectAmelia Johnstone MA RCA 2012

‘Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a land mine. The landmine is me. After the

explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces

together.’

Ray Bradbury

• "It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine"It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing

incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise

that you have rendered something in its true

character.”

Camille Pissarro

Drawing is a vital part of illustration and anillustrators’ existence, the world we perceivearound us comes through the way we draw itwhat we draw from it, and what we are drawnto.

The variety of ways of drawing is endless, it is an

experimental process using different tools and ways

of looking to find new images, to personify theinanimate and to trigger a reaction, mostimportantly to communicate or portray

something,to imply or divulge meaning.

In this project you are asked to explore your

ways of working, to create new ways, you are

asked to observe and obsess about drawingprocesses enlivening every ordinary mark with

personality, so it speaks.•  

•  

• Words to draw with:

• Scratchy• Fluid• Tentative• Bold• Crisp• Elegant• Organic• Active• Fragile• Brash• Technical• Sticky• Solid• Floating• Spongy• Mechanical• Quick• Sporadic• Casual• Decorative 

• Tentative• Slight• Creeping• Slick• Perfect• Continuous• Blotchy• Anal• Fragile• Ghostly• Irksome• Riddled• Detailed• Abstract• Obtuse• Stuttering• Staccato• Pianissimo• Delicate• Musical

• Talkative• Secretive• Descriptive• Tiresome• Natural• Diseased• Destructive• Animal• Feral• Flippant• Theatrical• Meek• Unassuming• Bashful• Insolent• Exquisite• Monotonous• Playful• Precise• Accurate

‘When I draw I'm conscious of looking for a lively line – though

what defines a lively line is difficult to say – but a bald outline would not be very

interesting, obviously. A dipping pen is good – the weight of the line alters with the amount of

pressure you put on it, so you get a bit of variety.’

John Burningham

The words to draw by will form the basis for yourdrawing practice.The aim ofthis project is to develop and open your minds to thepossibilities within drawing, how to use drawing as a researchmethod and how to find your own ways of working.

* Drawing, and its possibilities will define, and underpin your practice asan illustrator. * ‘Good’ drawing as an idea will be looked at.

NB: What makes a good illustration is very different from what is generallyconsidered to be good drawing. Illustration is the practice of creatingcommunicative talking drawings, but also the discipline of exploring thepossibilities of drawing. What can it be? What is it?

 

Drawing and theory are the foundations for your

studio practice. Both drawing and theory directly, but

sometimes quietly, feed practice modules. The learning

process is therefore cumulative, rigourous and exciting.

 

1. Making your mark2. Tools3. Personification4. Consequences ‘Six words to story’

5. Drawing from everyday life6. Drawing with scissors7. Shadow pictures8. 3D drawing9. Story Drawing10.Thumbnails Critique

‘Drawing is putting a line around an idea’ Henri Matisse

“An artist's early work is inevitably made up of a mixture of tendencies and interests, some of which are compatible and some of which are in conflict. As

the artist picks his way along, rejecting and accepting as he goes,

certain patterns of enquiry emerge. His failures are as valuable as his

successes: by misjudging one thing he conforms something else, even if at the

time he does not know what that something else is.”

Bridget Riley.

•  

‘I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, Sir, because I'm not

myself you see.’

From ‘Alice in Wonderland’Lewis Carroll

{The hope is that you will never feel like this. Or

that more importantly eventually you will never

have to feel like this again.}

In this first part of this project you are asked to unlock the

expressive side of your minds, do not revert to type or to

what you already know, begin to explore the ways in which

you make your mark.

Using the list of ‘Words to draw with’ begin to explore the adjectives, what do these words imply? How can you describe

these words through marks alone? 

From ‘Life in the woods’ by Henry David Thoreau

‘Illustration is a couplet of image and text, one next to, beside or inspired by

the other, it is chiefly words which inspire the imagination to create the image. There is a process beyond the

literal which makes the words and image do very separate things whilst lying next to each other. They are not in love with

each other but are siblings with complementary or contradictory

personalities. Sometimes they disagree, grow up or grow out of each other, other times they run away and become something else, or happily come home and converse

again’

Amelia Johnstone MA RCA 2008

Using this notion, the word without the other is a

floating thing, we need the word to ground the image,

to create the catalyst, to compound.

‘What is really important about illustration however is that it can work both ways. You can start with words and end up with a picture, or begin with a picture and end up with words.

Either way one cannot live happily without the other, once the process of picture-making has happened words spoken or written, ‘spring up

already doubled in themselves’.

Amelia Johnstone MA RCA 2008

During drawing sessions you will often hearTexts read aloud, these texts will help to take

yourmind away from the immediate surroundings.They are not for you to illustrate, just to helptake you ‘a long way away…’ however, as thedrawing sessions develop this relationship willshift, and your perceptions will enlarge yourview of the drawing world.

Texts will build a bibliography, to sit with your

drawing understanding, a subliminal compost foryour drawing.

...enliven your mind, imagination, eyes, soul and ears and enter your illustration world…

…drawing is the key

…no need to knock

…just unlock

‘…a reality was not given to us and there is none, but we

ourselves have to create one, if we want to exist: and it will not be the same one

forever, but will continuously undergo infinite changes.’

Luigi Pirandello