Bristol continous landscape cards



These are the continuous landscape cards I used in my recent workshop for children at Bristol Central Library. They're small here, but I'll blog the whole set at higher resolutions over the coming days. They depict some recognisable Bristol landmarks and events as well as made up stuff.

The idea is that basically the kids make up a blank accordion fold book and use these like a 'sticker album' – ie as tip-ins to fill up the pages. Of course, being an accordion, they can match up different edges of the book and create different juxtapositions of images.

The scans here are slightly rougher than I want them to be for my handout resources on the website – so that version will take a little longer, and will be accompanied by the full instructions for making up the blank book, too.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy these.

tree rubber stamp


tree rubber stamp 2, originally uploaded by aesop.

Working on the ‘various disquisitions’ book with Linda.This rubber stamp has been a process of simplification and one of those times where the medium teaches you a little bit about its own language.

I’d had different plans for this involving trying to do some ring-shading on the bark of the tree but it seems to be best the way it is. I’ve yet to see this print in context in the book, and it remains to be seen whether we’ll use the print or a photo of the block.

Invention


Invention, originally uploaded by aesop.

I just want to make it totally clear that I didn’t mean to draw a picture of Peter Gabriel demonstrating his fabulous new combined coathanger and cigarette lighter. It just came out that way.

Turn


Untitled-01, originally uploaded by aesop.

The first of a set of drawings for Turndust.

I want the words to stay on the same level as the images, to be read at more-or less the same rate as the images, to have the same ‘range of clarity’ that the images have. Sometimes more obvious than others.

All these images will be reworked for silkscreen. I’ll be reducing the range of tonal values to try to exercise some control over how they posterise in the print process. (I’ll be printing another colour underneath as a sort of duotone as well). I want to use some digital mark-making alongside the hand-made marks. Also, perhaps, put in some photographic material.

Several will need lots of reworking, and in fact I want completely different versions of some things, but this is laying down the material to work from.

I’ve had a lot of fun doing these. It’s a little challenging thinking how they’ll be altered by silkscreen, but it is by far the easiest bulk print setup I have access to. (Litho is just too tricky for me, and there’s little sense of ownership with the setup.)

updates

I’m off to Edinburgh on Monday for a few days. This means I’ll miss out on a meeting to do with Electric December, a project I’m undertaking for the library this year that has tenuous connections with my book art work (through narrative and animation). It’s a chance to improve some existing skills and work on something new. A preliminary animation I’ve done with a ‘librarian’ character is working out okay. More work on this soon.

Anyway, I’ll be passing on my draft storyboard to Andrew Cox, who’ll be representing the library at this meeting while I’m in Edinburgh.

While I’m there, I’ll be doing further research on Helen Douglas using the resources of the Scottish National Gallery Library at the Dean Gallery, having recently gotten in touch with Ann Simpson. I’m going to revisit the collection at the Edinburgh Central  Library, too.