A few sketches from my train journeys.....one thing in common....everyone has a tendency to sleep!

The train sleeper....adapted to a 'wooden graffitied wall'....thanks to my samsung mobile.  

The snorer....my train neighbour

The railway reader in front of me......he caught me. 

double train sleepers.

finally a reader! ; )

and a couple more!

                                       

.....and finally a little artist. 

     

Exercise 2.4: Making a Moodboard

Brief: Choose a word from the previous exercise and expand on it by using swatches of colour, magazine pictures, textures and so on which are associated with your word and themes. Assemble these images on a large sheet and comment.

I chose the word: CHILDHOOD!

I found the mood board fun to make.  Going through magazines further prompted ideas especially regarding children's body language and actions  and visual examples of the words originally written on the mind map. I can see that a mood board would be a good next-step in the preparation of a brief.

Exercise 2.3: Turning Words into pictures
Brief: Choose a word from the list below and draw a visual brainstorm of anything that comes to mind:
Childhood; Exotic; Destruction; Kitchen; Wild; Fashion; Travel. The drawings are to act as a visual shorthand therefore accuracy is secondary.
Comment on the mental processes undertaken to generate drawings.

I chose TRAVEL and tried to draw everything from memory instead of using any external references to prevent being caught up focusing on the accuracy of the drawings.

Relying on my visual memory proved to be a HUGE challenge! Trying to look into my minds eye and link that with my motor skills to come up with an image was so much harder then I hoped!.....as the suitcase  among other symbols demonstrate!

I initially kept the drawings in black and white but soon added colour using pencil crayons as the colour actually helped me to evoke memories and ideas. 

The swatches of colour had a way of speaking volumes on their own and I found that colour in itself helped to illustrate abstract concepts more easily and effectively then a specific graphic symbol. For example: the yellow on it's own denotes heat, summer, holiday, relax, sunshine, exotic, far away and so on. When drawing symbols I stuck to objects mostly as they were easier to think of. 

Because of my struggle with accessing my own visual memory I decided to use the internet for a few definitions to help me out:

1). visual memory:

the ability to create an eidetic image of past visual experiences

1a). eidetic: /ei·det·ic/ (i-det´ik) denoting exact visualization of events or objects previously seen; 

Etymology: Gk, eidos, a form or shape seen

1 adj, pertaining to or characterized by the ability to visualize and reproduce accurately the image of objects or events previously seen or imagined.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/visual+memory

2).Visual memory describes the relationship between perceptual processing and the encoding, storage and retrieval of the resulting neural representations. Visual memory occurs over a broad time range spanning from eye movements to years in order to visually navigate to a previously visited location.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_memory

I recognise that being able to access one's visual memory as an artist is an essential skill. Illustrators will often not have a visual reference to draw from or may have to manipulate a character or scene to work with the given brief. Manipulating images in ones visual memory is essential for more imaginative drawing as well. It is my understanding (and hope) however, that being able to access your visual memory is a skill that can be improved with practice and habit. I have been assured that the more I draw the more I will increase my visual repertoire and the easier it will be to rely on a visual shorthand. I am hoping that the principle of 'practice makes perfect' will prevail.

What I did like about doing the exercise this way was that it forced me to come up with symplified symbols and graphic representations, some of which work and some which don't. I found that as I kept going I relaxed a little more and became less anxious about how accurate the drawings were. 

To further improve on this exercise I would like to incorporate swatches of texture as it has a way of evoking memories and adding a new dimension to an image and to improve my visual memory I guess I'd better draw! draw! draw!

Exercise 2.2: Spider Diagrams
Brief: Create a spider diagram for each of these words: Seaside; Childhood; Angry; Festival
Comment on strategies used.
                                                 

Comments:

• For all four words I started by writing down anything that came to mind based on my experiences, memories, feelings and also objects that I associated with each of the four words. I then expanded on these ideas by including words associated with the first documented words I had written down and therefore by association the secondary and tertiary words became linked to the original word/concept. I also used a dictionary, thesaurus and the internet to supplement my own ideas and words.

•  Using this technique did not come as naturally as I had anticipated and I found it a challenge to only include words in the description and no images. 

• Angry was the hardest word to mind map as it is an abstract concept and thus more difficult to make tangible and concrete. In contrast to this I found Childhood the easiest word to do. Although this word is in essence also abstract ie: you can't touch, feel or see childhood, it has many objects associated with it and from these objects come associated words and associated memories thereby providing a plethora of concrete and abstract concepts. 

• Testing the spider diagram on my hubby was really interesting as he came up with words that I would never have thought of.... especially when it came to childhood. His words reflected the memories of a little boy which were quite different to mine as a little girl! (In the above spider diagrams his words are in turquoise and our common words are ticked.)

•  This highlighted how much our own experiences influence the ideas that we generate and how differently we as individuals perceive, understand and interpret ideas. It also demonstrated that if we only rely on our own thoughts we may be in danger of coming up with one sided ideas. 

• As an illustrator communicating an idea through images is key and if an image is too closely related to our individual experience it may or may not convey the message we wish to get across.

• Will I use this technique in the future when preparing for a brief? I recognise the value in using a spider diagram to expand on original ideas and I have never used it when preparing for a brief before. I can only imagine that it will get easier and more natural with practise and thus I will persevere with it as a tool and try use it whenever possible. I will also continue to bounce ideas off of my family and friends but will now try to include them right from the brainstorming stage wherever possible to ensure a diverse selection of thoughts before tackling an image/brief.