Bridie Cheeseman's Composition Workshop

Today I had my second workshop with Bridie. As I was the only one who attended, I spend a lot of time discussing my ideas while we worked through what she had planned. 

I told her in depth about my story idea and how I aim to focus of the subject of homelessness and the company of a pet. She liked the idea and was very helpful in advising me in how I could go about creating this narrative. Bridie said that it would be good to have the man's homelessness revealed towards the ending, which I also agree is a great idea. And to further imply the notion that we shouldn't ignore them I aim to show them being ignored by the public, and then force the reader to notice them at the end, while looking into the relationship between the man and his companion.

We discussed possible angles as I progressed in the workshop, talking about interesting perspectives such as viewing the character through a crowd, or through a shop window. This suggests to the reader that he is ignored as we never directly see him, and then it is revealed that he is homeless, showing there is more to someone that we realise. I also wish to show the kindhearted nature of the man, as homeless people are often viewed as being unsavoury and this is an opinion that needs changing.

We also watched a reading of 'The Clown of God' which was something that my story reminded Bridie of, and looked at work by other illustrators such as Owen Davey, that could inspire the colour scheme for my work, which Bridie suggested to be a mute grey (to highlight my characters) with accompanying tones of blue and green. 

As for the actual workshop, we looked into forcing compositions using various methods and avoiding centring. 

The first stage was to draw some squares with lines in them. Bridie showed examples of how lines crossing are used in illustration, and then I had to draw scenes over my lines using tracing paper.

We then went on to look at how illustrations can be derived from a composition of shapes, and how shapes can be used to see how successful a drawing will be. I firstly drew my shapes, and then some compositions over the top.

I then had to take a successful composition, and draw the scene from above and below.

I then had to use directional lines to tailor my drawing to follow in a specific direction. Bridie was especially fond of this composition.

 We also worked on compositions using multidirectional lines and natural curved lines, my takes on these were not as successful but could come in handy in the future.

Overall, a very very useful workshop, it has given me a lot to think about and has really excited me for the development of my book.