Introducing Visual Communication: Project 2 - Master Forger

I will admit, I was incredibly intimidated when I read the brief for this project. I don't know how long I must have stared at these three images in horror, wondering how on earth I was going to recreate them. At first glance, I had absolutely no idea where to start - but that's what this course is about, isn't it? Learning and improving?

     Anyways, I started by doing a little research on each of the artists - hoping to learn more about their style, technique and mediums - before I went on to practice what I'd learned, and finally attempt a firm copy.

---

HENRY LAMB (1883 - 1960)

Henry Lamb was an Australian-born British painter. He initially studied medicine, but abandoned that track to follow his passion for art. WWI saw him return to his medical studies to qualify, and he served as a battalion medical officer. After being demobilised by a gas attack on the Western Front in 1919, Lamb worked on a commission for the Hall of Remembrance.

     Before he was appointed as a full-time war artist during WWII, Lamb was well-known for his rather unusual portraits. He produced many oil paintings, his most famous being 'Death of a Peasant' (1911), which employed the use of bold colours and dramatic lighting. He was also known for his pencil sketches, such as the one we were tasked to copy - 'Portrait of Lady Ottoline Morrell, 1910-11'. ​

Henry Lamb's Original

My Attempt

 
​As captioned, the original is on the left with my attempted copy on the right. After researching the artist and looking at some of his other works, my second port of call was to study the portrait carefully and figure out how it had been done. After some experimentation with different graphite pencils and a little practice, I came to the conclusion that Lamb had used a mixture of both soft, dark pencils and harder, lighter ones, using them to structure his portrait with bold lines, crosshatching and loose "scribble colouring". For my final copy above I did trace the main outline, but you can see my rough notes below:
​

Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed trying to recreate this portrait. The soft, sketchy linework is very different from what I would usually draw, and contrary to my expectations, I found myself enjoying the looseness. I learned to work quickly without agonising over perfection, whilst simultaneously developing my understanding of facial anatomy.

---

MERVYN PEAKE (1911 - 1968)

Mervyn Peake was an English artist and illustrator, as well as a writer and a poet. He studied art at the same time as writing his own surreal fiction, influenced by his love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson. Like Lamb, he was commissioned for a short while to depict war scenes, but eventually went on to write and illustrate his own work as well as illustrating for other writers.

     He had little reputational success in his lifetime, but is now regarded as one of England's most loved writers and the famed illustrator of books such as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. He has a very surreal, often cartoon-like style, working mainly in black-and-white pencil or pen and ink, employing fine strokes, scribbles and crosshatching to create stark shading. The image we were asked to recreate was a pen and ink illustration from 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.

Mervyn Peake's Original

My Attempt

I had used ink before in calligraphy, but I had never drawn with it; the closest experience I had was with brush pens, which I use quite often in my own art. In all honesty, I didn't do much practice before attempting a firm copy - I inked a few lines, working out how to change the thickness by angling the nib, and I covered small areas in scribbles and strokes in an attempt to mimic Peake's techniques. I then traced the basic outline and began to ink the final. You can see some progress photos below:
​

I think I may have enjoyed this one even more than the Henry Lamb sketch. Fine detail is closer to my normal style, but I have never used this sort of "scribbling" technique to block whole areas. Most of all, I loved the smooth flowing feel of the ink. I learned to be bold with my shadow/light contrast (something I struggle with), and again it was good anatomical practice. I have since bought myself a bunch of ink and nib pens and will most definitely be returning to this medium.

---

​CLARE LEIGHTON (1898 - 1989)

Clare Leighton was an English-born American artist, writer and illustrator. Her parents were both authors; despite her efforts to follow in their artistic footsteps, Clare's mother was rather dismissive of her daughter's talent (and person in general) and favoured her older brother. Clare's passion for art was instead encouraged by her father and uncle - her uncle, in particular, was an illustrator, and took her on sketching trips until she eventually went on to study art.

     After graduating, Clare travelled Europe and developed a love for rural life. This was the main focus of her literature and artwork; even as the world grew more industrial around her, she continued to document rural life, nature and farming. She emigrated to America in 1939, and became famous for her wood engravings, such as the one we were presented with in this project:

Clare Leighton's Original

My Attempt

Well... As you can see, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. There is no point in lying when the truth is so visibly, painfully obvious. It was without a doubt the most difficult and least enjoyable for me.
 
     Instead of wood engraving, the project required us to recreate this on scraperboard. Unfortunately, I couldn't acquire proper scraperboard and had to use those metallic-backed ones you buy in the kid's arts and crafts section - that was my first mistake. I then could not figure out how to trace onto scraperboard, and had to freehand my attempt. The metallic backboard was so scratchy and uneven that I decided it was better to leave the background black instead of having it a messy, scratched silver. I found it really difficult to control how much weight I was putting on the scraper tool, and thus a lot of my lines are thick where they should be very fine.

     All in all, though I missed the opportunity to experiment with the proper medium, I learned that I need to practice controlling the heaviness of my lines, and  that I need to work on steadying my hands.