Brainstorm and Initial Research

As I started looking into the various subjects touched upon by this book, I also started to think how I could possibly convey these themes through my way of working whether it be using water colour representing the almost lyrical start to the novel or pen in quite a rough manner signifying the more violent side of the novel.

With this idea in mind, I recalled an war artist, ED Shepard, who was recently mentioned in a lecture I attended and how he used materials, medium and colour to convey the brutality of war.

As you can see, Shepard chose to use ink in his drawing as ink has the capability to create quite rigid, hard lines that even though are quite thin, when overlapped several times, can create a very strong sense of depth and shadow to the drawing. I also really liked how he has chosen to place clutter in the foreground almost overshadowing to figures within the image maybe suggesting how little significance they had of the happenings of war. Furthermore, by placing a second figure nearer towards the background, Shepard is suggesting that a conversation is taking place however as the figure in the foreground is more shadowed in, hence suggesting the contrasting options or emotions of the two figures.

Shepard's use of negative was also something that I found to be very efficient within his work as it provided a clear contrast to the business in other parts of the image making them appear more prominent, almost smothering. Another great example of his use of negative space is his work below where army soldiers can be seen trekking on a hillside however when looking beyond them, the another mountain and a lake can be seen suggesting that even though up front these soldiers appear to be quite dominant, in the grand scheme of things, it may or may not always be the case.

I then started to think about colours and how I can use colour to fabricate atmosphere and tone within the book without having to directly address it. As Lord of the Flies is a book written to portray William Golding's view on human nature and how inside of everyone contains a very savage, unforgiving beast waiting to be released, the book starts off almost lyrical however then making a very dark turn along the way. I wanted to try and show this almost abrupt change is atmosphere by using just the colours in my work. Golding is very descriptive in his novel and paints very strong vivid images therefore by picking out these imageries used, I am able to produce work that represents such change.

Quentin Blake illustrated Michael Rosen’s Sad Book which was about how Rosen dealt with the death of his son and how even though he appeared happy on the outside, he was very sad within. I was really inspired by how Quentin Blake decided to interpret the change in Michael Rosen as it allowed me to see just how much the colour and overall tone of the image can change one's interpretation of the image.