Blog

As stated in the title, I have spent the day thumbnailing the areas I’ve highlighted in my copy of ‘Flowers for Algernon’. By doing this and going through the book a final time I was able to really think about how best to illustrate this book and plan my time carefully. All in all I did 90 sketches today but I think I can definitely narrow these down into key areas of the story.

Some of the things I want to try:

• STOP MOTION ANIMATION- I think this would allow me to play with pace as well as lighting and colour. There are many references to light and colour which I’ve found in the book. Also, perhaps summing up the story in an animation would be a good way to represent Charlie’s state of mind as it flickers from abstract to realistic.
• LAYERING- There are so many references to double images and reflections that I thought that layering would be a good way of experimenting and playing around with this

To Do Now

– Find some mice to film in a pet shop
– Go to a bakery and ask to see a mixer, take some photos
– Find a typewriter to get images of possibly
– Experiment with collage
– Experiment with layering
– Character sketches
– Sketching out and creating key objects

I think for now, that’s enough to go on in terms of my studio practice for this week. Next week or maybe even the week after could be the point where I tell myself to start bringing everything together. I worry about making something that is too experimental, something that will express Charlie’s mind but not actually illustrate the story. However, my brief is very open and I will worry about this more when I begin to narrow everything together. For now I think it’s important that I focus on these things I want to develop / do on the to do list.