Exercise 4.4: Using Basic Narrative Structure

My final exercise for Part 4 asked me to once again look back through my previous sketchbook work, this time choosing three pieces I felt could be developed into brief stories. I had to take each piece and duplicate them three times, then change a part of two of the images to create a ‘beginning, a middle, and an end’ structure. The first piece required only this basic structure, whereas the second and third pieces had to be altered in specific ways – one showing the passage of time, and the other showing how form or shape can change.

I looked back through my current sketchbook which I have used since the beginning of Part 3, for a combination of uni work and personal work, and reflected on which pieces could be used for this. I settled on the scene from Exercise 4.1 for my first, basic narrative structure, a painting of a house in a field for the piece focused on the passage of time, and a drawing of some magpies on a branch for my form/shape change piece. The house and magpie pieces are personal pieces I did for fun.

I started by drawing out some boxes for each piece to be sketched in, then began duplicating my work. For the first piece, I drew a consistent background but left out any defining features. I then went back in and added these features, showing a beginning (a table with a full mug of coffee and a muffin), a middle (a pigeon lands on the chair, the mug is now half full, and the muffin is half-eaten), and an end (the coffee is finished, the table has been abandoned, and the pigeon steals the remainders of the muffin). Considering how I could alter the situation to add a story to it was an enjoyable process, and it helped change my perspective when viewing my work.

My second piece had a slightly different approach. As my original painting is bold and colourful, I wanted to re-paint it and explore how colour can be altered to emphasise the passage of time. I began by loosely sketching out where the horizon and house sit in the space marked out, then I painted the central panel as it was just a matter of copying the original. I wanted a ‘before’ showing the sunrise and an ‘after’ showing the night. I went into Procreate and manipulated the photo I had taken of the piece to reference it, experimenting with how lighting and colours could change. I know that at night, grass looks so much more blue, and early in the morning often can look more red or even white depending on the sunrise. This process helped me figure out what colours to use in my before/after panes.

Despite using Procreate to help figure out my colour choices, I still very much felt like I was experimenting with this piece. At the time of painting, I really disliked the work and had to keep reminding myself that it’s just my sketchbook and I’m supposed to be exploring. Now, upon reflection, I think they look fantastic and my usage of colour really does communicate the passage of time. There’s more I feel I could do to demonstrate this, maybe adding a washing line full of clothes, various animals in the backdrop (such as an owl at night, or blue tits early in the morning), or a character doing time-appropriate things. However, as my focus was exploring colour, I think I achieved my goal.

My final piece is comparatively rushed and half-hearted. I didn’t really feel as excited about the concept, and I’m disappointed looking at it alongside the other two. It’s an idea, despite being half thought out, and again I feel the need to remind myself that not everything in my sketchbook needs to be fully explored or concluded. I can go back and work into this further, or take it in a totally different direction if I see fit later in the future. My aim was to show the life cycle of a magpie, from egg to fully grown adult. I think this is obvious from my rough sketches, which is good!

As I have already mentioned, this method of idea-generating has really stuck with me and I would like to explore it further. Incorporating this process into my regular illustrative process could benefit me hugely. My perspective has shifted slightly when viewing my own work, I definitely find myself seeing potential in everything I have drawn, rather than seeing all of it as complete and unfinished. I still don’t particularly enjoy going back and working into pre-existing sketches, but taking them to a new page and developing them further is benefitting me greatly.