GARP Draft 1000 words...

Currently writing my 1000 word draft for GARP has really helped me make a definite decision of who I am going to focus on talking about. Chris gave me a great book which has helped a lot, 'Illustrators 33 Black and White' from 1980. In this it has got a useful article about wood engraving by John Lawrence, an article written by Shirley Hughes called 'The Telling Line' and a piece on Robin Jacques. Through reading this and beginning to write my GARP draft I have come to the decision that I am going to continue to focus on Masters of black and white illustration - Bewick, Beardsley and Bawden but also look at other male British illustrators that have all played a part in influencing the development of black and white artwork, finishing with my interview with Peter Bailey: 'Masters of black and white illustration - from Thomas Bewick to Peter Bailey.'

I have decided to create a timeline, it would be in this order:

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828)

John Tenniel (1820-1914)

Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898)

Ernest Howard Shepard (1879-1976)

Edward Ardizzone (1900-1979)

Eric Fraser (1902-1983)

Edward Bawden (1903-1989)

Robin Jacques (1920-1995)

John Vernon Lord (1939-present)

Peter Bailey (?-present)

Update...

Today, I had a meeting with Chris again about how my GARP is going. Next time I see him I have to have a rough draft of a 1000 words done, focusing on the introduction. We discussed about creating a timeline as a representation of the research and I could include drawings, which may look interesting. The timeline would have all the illustrators I'm looking at in order. We decided I would do a brief section of information about Beardsley, Bewick and Bawden in my introduction and explain what I intend to get out of looking at this topic, for example it is already improving my knowledge on the subject and helping me develop my black and white style. Also suggested saying how the 'three B's' have influenced and affected black and white illustration today. Final discussion was about who I am definitely going to focus on in this project - I have such a long list of illustrators, it has to stop somewhere! 'From Bewick to Bailey' perhaps? Could possibly link the artists I look at so they are all of some relevance to one another? Or just focus on British illustrators, or my interview with Peter Bailey? Next time I update my blog I will have made a definite decision...

The Whitworth Art Gallery

Yesterday, I went to Manchester to the Whitworth Art Gallery, I also managed to visit the MAGMA store while I was there. While I was researching online I found an exhibition called 'Intuition,' which has a variety of artists whose works are included in The Musgrave Outsider Art Collection. I discovered that this would be very relevant to the style that I'm looking at developing and would also help me increase my research for my GARP. In this exhibition, I came across Chris Hipkiss, born in 1964, whose work immediately attracted me with its immense detail and black and white scheme.

I also found Scottie Wilson, (1888- 1972) whose work used dark colours instead of black and white. However, it was not this that I noticed, my first impression was of the individual lines used to create each pattern.

The third artist I was intrigued with was Carlo Zinelli.

Very different to the first two I looked at but at the same time the black and white contrast and use of pattern made it look really effective.

Magazine Articles

I have been looking at two articles that Peter Bailey gave me, one called HATCHING PLOTS, a guardian review done in September 2005 by Joanna Carey. It is a great article talking about Peter Bailey's technique and is very relevant to my GARP as it discusses how things have developed since the 1950's to today. I managed to find the link online:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/sep/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview30

Another is called LIGHTS FANTASTIC, which is by Ruth Prickett. In this she asks Peter Bailey about his illustrations done for Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy.

Interview continued...

I had my meeting with Peter Bailey this evening and I felt it was really useful. He answered all the questions I asked him and he even gave me some articles that I could keep that had been written about him. He also gave me a couple of books that were relevant to my research project and spend lots of time showing me his work, which was really beautiful. I especially loved seeing A Boy Called MOUSE before it is even in the shops! He even spent time looking at some of my work and said he really liked it...it was a real confidence boost for me and it was a delight meeting him and his lovely wife Sian.

INTERVIEW

I emailed my tutor Chris to see if he could recommend anyone that I could interview and he gave me Peter Bailey. I've talked with him and we're going to meet on the 14th September! I've been finding out lots of information and looking at his work, which is amazing. Here's the blog I've been looking at...

http://peterbaileyillustrations.blogspot.com/