Sunday, 1 May 2016
Comic Strip Drawn on Computer
I had printed it off but it's not the same quality as seeing it on computer so I've put it on my blog to show you how it's meant to look.
Thursday, 28 April 2016
Wednesday, 27 April 2016
Clay Model Videos
Because we have been making clay models over the last two weeks that had to be destroyed after the lessons, I decided to take videos of them to help get a better sense of form (as pictures flatten them).
I personally prefer the videos because it gives the feeling of walking around them and having a proper look at the form of the figure. From having this videos I've been able to watch them and critically assess my work and what has been done well or badly. For instance in the first week the model had a rough texture, so I knew in the second week I should use water to smooth it down.
Week 1
Week 2
Friday, 1 April 2016
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Research on Comic Books
Because for my project I want to look at how comic books work and how the art styles can clearly present emotion and actions into telling a story, I decided it would be best to look in books explaining what comics are, how they create a story and characters, how they pick an art style for certain genres, and what makes some comics more successful than others.
In 'Understanding Comics the Invisible Art' by Scott McCloud, McCloud explains that comics are 'juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.' He also claims that the comic form has been around for centuries, for instance the Bayeux Tapestry and Egyptian paintings are both forms of showing stories through juxtaposition pictures in a deliberate sequence. You are able to look at these pieces and follow the story, informing yourself what the meaning is behind it, for instance in the Bayeux Tapestry you can see it's a war scene with knights and kings. However the difference between these two historic and famous items, comics that people know to be comics are no where near considered to be 'High Art' like the Bayeux Tapestry and Egyptian paintings. Its lack of value will come from being mass produced and being defined by people as "too narrowly". The typical conventions of comics would be simplistic (depending on the style) images portraying a story, writing in speech bubbles, drawn in boxes (left to right for western comics, right to left in manga's) that allows you to clearly read the story, drawn in ink, exaggerates emotions and body language, put in books or magazines, and realised every week or month like a TV series.
Before a comic book artist can start drawing they need a story to illustrate. Usually there is a script writer who creates the story and then the artist would illustrate it. However you can get writer-artists, in which there has been several good ones according to Alan McKenzie. There are a few methods to the story production such as the method favoured by some major comic book companies e.g DC Comics where the artist works from a script that is a pure product from the scriptwriter. There is also the method known as the 'Marvel Method', made by Stan Lee the editor of Marvel, where when comics got too demanding for just one person to draw Lee created a system where he would discuss a plot with the artist, let the artist draw out the story, and then the pencil sketches would be handed back to Lee to write in the dialogue in pencil, then it is given to a calligrapher to be lettered to the artwork, and then finally the sheets are drawn in ink by another artist. Another comic method, which was used by EC Comics in the 1950's but no longer used, was to plan the story and then break down the pages into frames which they would then insert the captions and dialogues before the artist can draw. This is quite a bad method as it gave little room for the artist to work in.
Every story should typically have a beginning, middle and end. Theorist Todorov came up with the story/narrative structure: starts of as an equilibrium where everything is normal, an event then happens the disturb the equilibrium otherwise known as the disequilibrium, there is then a recognition that the disorder has occurred, then an attempt to repair damage,and then finally ending with a new equilibrium that is different to the first one. However in some rare cases stories don't all follow this structure, typically in more post-modern narratives. Mckenzie also mentions how stories need themes which would then lead you to a plot. Themes would sometimes be based on human nature, for instance greed or jealousy. The plot is separated from the theme as it usually is motivated from emotions to do with the theme.
When deciding on characters you need to make sure you know:
I came across this comic from 'Graphic Novels Stories to Change your Life' and found the art style complex and full of textures. Not only is the lines creating textures and showing the dimensions, the colour plays a roll in it too.
The scenes in this comic is always quite grotty, setting the mood of the story. There's also a main character that stands out amongst the other characters - you get this a lot in many other comics, as this allows the audience to clearly know and recognise who the story is about without confusing them with less important characters.
More light hearted comics such as 'Garfield' is much more simplistic with minimum detail, especially in the background. This makes it easy to read for all audiences. These types of comics also are kept very short and don't have complex stories such as comics from Mavel and DC Comics - Due to the lack of space.
Super hero comics are kept very darkened and over exaggerated, especially for the muscles and jaw lines. This gives the appearance of being dramatic and powerful, and also comes across very serious.
Both the Garfield and Batman comics include rain but are done very differently. In it Garfield comic it is made up of lines and generic water drops, whereas in the Batman comic there are angled and suggests a gloomy atmosphere.
This manga is a serious, dramatic kind with an action/adventure genre. It uses view angles to show how powerful characters are. So in this scene it uses a low angle to emphasis on how big the monster is to the regular people.
Manga is typically in black and white, and isn't as heavy on shadows like the Mavel or DC Comics. It still however shows a lot of detail in the scene.
This manga is much more different to the other one as it's a comedy, so it is allowed to exaggerate on emotions through facial features.
For instance blanked out eyes, larger mouths that cover half of the face, lines going across the cheeks and nose, and other little features that show specific emotions. Sometimes the mouth even comes off the face.
In general in manga the faces are rather limited on features - very different to American action comics. The facial features are made up of only lines and limited shadows (unless they want to be dramatic).
I've attempted drawing in the manga style before and found it extremely difficult as if you get one feature slightly off it throws the whole thing.
In conclusion I found that even for me to make a small comic scene I need to have some sort of background story to make it work and flow better, so pretty soon I need to come up with a small story. I'll probably come up with something very simple and generic as I don't want my main focus in this project to be making a story. I've also learnt that the more successful characters are interesting, so a twisted yet likeable villain and a strong, powerful hero. For art styles I am taking a liking to the Mavel and DC Comic style as I really like the exaggeration of features and shadows.
Sources:
Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
How to Draw and Sell... Comic Strips by Alan McKenzie
Graphic Novels, Stories to Change Your Life by Paul Gravett
What are comics?
In 'Understanding Comics the Invisible Art' by Scott McCloud, McCloud explains that comics are 'juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.' He also claims that the comic form has been around for centuries, for instance the Bayeux Tapestry and Egyptian paintings are both forms of showing stories through juxtaposition pictures in a deliberate sequence. You are able to look at these pieces and follow the story, informing yourself what the meaning is behind it, for instance in the Bayeux Tapestry you can see it's a war scene with knights and kings. However the difference between these two historic and famous items, comics that people know to be comics are no where near considered to be 'High Art' like the Bayeux Tapestry and Egyptian paintings. Its lack of value will come from being mass produced and being defined by people as "too narrowly". The typical conventions of comics would be simplistic (depending on the style) images portraying a story, writing in speech bubbles, drawn in boxes (left to right for western comics, right to left in manga's) that allows you to clearly read the story, drawn in ink, exaggerates emotions and body language, put in books or magazines, and realised every week or month like a TV series."The world of comics is a huge and varied one. Our definition must encompass all these types." - Scott McCloud
Creating a Story
Before a comic book artist can start drawing they need a story to illustrate. Usually there is a script writer who creates the story and then the artist would illustrate it. However you can get writer-artists, in which there has been several good ones according to Alan McKenzie. There are a few methods to the story production such as the method favoured by some major comic book companies e.g DC Comics where the artist works from a script that is a pure product from the scriptwriter. There is also the method known as the 'Marvel Method', made by Stan Lee the editor of Marvel, where when comics got too demanding for just one person to draw Lee created a system where he would discuss a plot with the artist, let the artist draw out the story, and then the pencil sketches would be handed back to Lee to write in the dialogue in pencil, then it is given to a calligrapher to be lettered to the artwork, and then finally the sheets are drawn in ink by another artist. Another comic method, which was used by EC Comics in the 1950's but no longer used, was to plan the story and then break down the pages into frames which they would then insert the captions and dialogues before the artist can draw. This is quite a bad method as it gave little room for the artist to work in.
It is important for the artist and writer to understand each other as it is a collaboration piece. So to help with understanding each other terminology is used. For example, close ups, head and shoulders, long shot, establishing shot. I'm fortunate enough to know these terminologies already from studying media studies for four years at school, so hopefully it will be useful for me when trying to present a story/emotion/body language clearly. However, even though these are similar to cinema/television terminology there is differences in how it's used due to the lack of sound in comics. However a good quality of comics compared to film is that there is no limitations to what can go on in the story as you can draw extreme mise-en-scene features without relying hugely on a large budget e.g fantasy worlds, magically props, alien-like characters.
However there are a few problems with picking genre in comics as some don't tend to translate well, such as True Drama. There is also a few problems with keeping the story interesting due to the audience's attention span, so usually when there are moments of huge text, otherwise known as 'exposition', the characters would be doing something to make the reading less dull. The characters would sometimes show a little bit of their personality in these moments. McKenzie also mentioned how a common mistake among beginners is to have too much story in a limited space they have, as the story just becomes crammed. In US comics it is typical to have 20 pages available to work in.
"A scriptwriter can ask for a hundred thousand alien soldiers charging over a hill and get just that... with only a muttered complaint from the artist" - Alan McKenzie
Every story should typically have a beginning, middle and end. Theorist Todorov came up with the story/narrative structure: starts of as an equilibrium where everything is normal, an event then happens the disturb the equilibrium otherwise known as the disequilibrium, there is then a recognition that the disorder has occurred, then an attempt to repair damage,and then finally ending with a new equilibrium that is different to the first one. However in some rare cases stories don't all follow this structure, typically in more post-modern narratives. Mckenzie also mentions how stories need themes which would then lead you to a plot. Themes would sometimes be based on human nature, for instance greed or jealousy. The plot is separated from the theme as it usually is motivated from emotions to do with the theme.
"...your story could be about the solving of a murder mystery. That the murder was motivated by jealousy makes an observation about how far a human being can be pushed by such emotions." - MckenzieA goal in creating a successful story is to have the audience believe that the world you have created makes sense and could be real. So for instance you need a strong background story to creating the setting and make the audience feel as though they are in it. So you need to know:
- year of setting
- location
- type of place it is
- characters and extras fit in
- If it is based on reality you need to know your historic, social and cultural context.
The narrative can also have sub-plots inside the main plot, which helps give a small background story on characters.
Deciding on Characters
When deciding on characters you need to make sure you know:- the setting you want the narrative in and how it may effect the character,
- what is the character's motivations and goals,
- their background story that gave them their motives,
- their personality,
- how will all of the above effect their relationships with others - mixing personality types
- gender, race and age
Before deciding on their appearance and designing a full body shot of them. Typically in stories (mainly action/adventure genres) you get certain characters. For instance according to the theorist Vladimir Propp there is a hero (good guy/protagonist), villain (bad guy/antagonist), a donor (provides something useful to the hero), the dispatcher (sends hero on quest), the false hero (makes false claims), the helper (who aids the hero), the princess (act as a reward to the hero), and the father (who rewards the hero for their efforts). Not all these characters play such huge roles, for instance 'the princess' doesn't have to be a princess they can just be a love interest - so get the girl. But also not all stories have to have all these characters as some stories don't need a love interest or dispatcher. The main characters are the protagonist and the antagonist, where good defeats evil, and this is strongly used in comics particularly. Most success comes from the likeability of the characters as well - a role model of a hero, and a twisted but interesting villain. Humour also does very well.
The story/narrative is usually told by a characters point of view as the audience is made to observe their live.
"A useful hint here is to limit the use of thought balloons to the character you have chosen to represent the point of view" - McKenzie
Picking an Art Style
There are many kinds of comic styles and it can depend on the genre of story you want to get across. You can get newspaper article comics which range between just one picture to two pages. These comics tend to be simplistic and cartoony usually telling a small joke (occasionally on society or what is in the news of the time). You can get adventure comics like the ones by Marvel and DC Comics where they exaggerate on muscles and jaw lines. And you can get manga which is Japanese comics. Manga follows a similar drawing style but changes on the story and artist as well, they also cover many genres, much more compared to western comics - maybe because it's more popular so they have more audiences to pick from? |
| The Nikopol Trilogy |
I came across this comic from 'Graphic Novels Stories to Change your Life' and found the art style complex and full of textures. Not only is the lines creating textures and showing the dimensions, the colour plays a roll in it too.
The scenes in this comic is always quite grotty, setting the mood of the story. There's also a main character that stands out amongst the other characters - you get this a lot in many other comics, as this allows the audience to clearly know and recognise who the story is about without confusing them with less important characters.
 |
| Button Man - Harry Exton prepares for a kill |
For 'Button Man' the comic art style uses much more looser lines, making me think back to the mark making project: they used marks to show the light direction like what van Gogh did in the painting 'The Starry Night'. It's cross hatching that creates the textures, representing the eerie atmosphere the story wants to get across. This wouldn't work well for a light hearted comedy comic because of the sharp textures and chiaroscuro lighting.
 |
| The Starry Night 1889 Vincent van Gogh |
 |
| Garfield |
More light hearted comics such as 'Garfield' is much more simplistic with minimum detail, especially in the background. This makes it easy to read for all audiences. These types of comics also are kept very short and don't have complex stories such as comics from Mavel and DC Comics - Due to the lack of space.
 |
| Batman |
Super hero comics are kept very darkened and over exaggerated, especially for the muscles and jaw lines. This gives the appearance of being dramatic and powerful, and also comes across very serious.
Both the Garfield and Batman comics include rain but are done very differently. In it Garfield comic it is made up of lines and generic water drops, whereas in the Batman comic there are angled and suggests a gloomy atmosphere.
 |
| Attack on Titan |
This manga is a serious, dramatic kind with an action/adventure genre. It uses view angles to show how powerful characters are. So in this scene it uses a low angle to emphasis on how big the monster is to the regular people.
Manga is typically in black and white, and isn't as heavy on shadows like the Mavel or DC Comics. It still however shows a lot of detail in the scene.
 |
| Ouran High School Host Club |
This manga is much more different to the other one as it's a comedy, so it is allowed to exaggerate on emotions through facial features.
For instance blanked out eyes, larger mouths that cover half of the face, lines going across the cheeks and nose, and other little features that show specific emotions. Sometimes the mouth even comes off the face.
 |
| Makai Ouji: Devils and Realists |
In general in manga the faces are rather limited on features - very different to American action comics. The facial features are made up of only lines and limited shadows (unless they want to be dramatic).
I've attempted drawing in the manga style before and found it extremely difficult as if you get one feature slightly off it throws the whole thing.
In conclusion I found that even for me to make a small comic scene I need to have some sort of background story to make it work and flow better, so pretty soon I need to come up with a small story. I'll probably come up with something very simple and generic as I don't want my main focus in this project to be making a story. I've also learnt that the more successful characters are interesting, so a twisted yet likeable villain and a strong, powerful hero. For art styles I am taking a liking to the Mavel and DC Comic style as I really like the exaggeration of features and shadows.
Sources:
Understanding Comics, The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
How to Draw and Sell... Comic Strips by Alan McKenzie
Graphic Novels, Stories to Change Your Life by Paul Gravett
Sunday, 6 March 2016
Monday, 29 February 2016
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
Monday, 8 February 2016
Monday, 18 January 2016
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Henry Moore
In my last life drawing class we had to focus on form. Our first exercise in this area was to wrap lines around the figure to help give a sense of dimension. This made me think of Henry Moore's sketches of figures in the London Underground. Amazingly enough, I managed to find the most perfect book based on Henry Moore's Shelter Sketches in the library. It mentions in the book that he never made sketches in the underground as it just wasn't possible: "It would have been like making sketches in the hold of a slave ship". He would write notes of what he saw and then make a sketch the next day.
He used many subtle marks that went around and followed the shape of the figure.
Even though some of these drawing are unclear showing an obvious figure, you can still tell that it is meant to be a person because of the shape
Source: Henry Moore, A Shelter Sketchbook - with a commentary by Frances Carey
Monday, 4 January 2016
David Hockey
David Hockney was born in 1937 and is an English painter, photographer, print maker and stage designer. He is known as one of the most popular and versatile British artist of the 20th century, showing strong influences from Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.
Hockney found ways of fitting in a personal subject matter into his art. He began with copying fragments of poems onto his paintings, "encouraging a close scrutiny of the surface and creating a specific identity for the painted marks through the alliance of word and image". These messages then lead on to open declarations in a series of paintings made in 1960-61 on the theme of homosexual love. There was then a huge change in his approach in 1963 when he moved to California, where he focused on swimming pools and palm trees.
Wide Angle Art: Photograghs and Paintings
With this collage you can see how he has managed to show a wide angle using photographs: he took pictures of his feet and then gradually went up until he had picture of the top of the mountains. In the collage I've noticed that the lighting is different - did the sun disappear whilst taking the pictures? did he come more than one time? Also I like how the further up the view the more photographs there are showing what was around him. This is probably because there's not much going on on the ground, however, he did manage to include some marks in the sand showing different textures.
With this piece you can see that Hockney was trying to fit in the entire garden and it warps a bit to fit in. Like the Zion Canyon piece, it has blank gaps in the composition. This might be because Hockney accidentally missed pieces whilst photographing or the pavement isn't a main focus.
This is a very large composition that have many photographs on top of each over not fitting neatly, making some areas much more abstract - especially compared to the first two compositions above.
This piece, unlike the others is fully complete - there is no gaps. Like the 'Place Furstenberg' composition, it is very abstract and warped. However even though these pieces are warped there are still clear and recognisable. I feel like this one does not show a clear wide angle, unlike the others. This is because you don't have the fish eye appearance happening in this composition.
Unlike the other wide angle pieces done by Hockney, this one is inverted, making the closest thing to you smaller and the furthest larger. So the pictures were taken around the chair.
Like the 'Pearblossom Highway', this composition is very broken up, and I find to be even more complicated (showing more signs of cubism). However you can still see that this is a wide angle, due to seeing how much space it covers.
Hockney found ways of fitting in a personal subject matter into his art. He began with copying fragments of poems onto his paintings, "encouraging a close scrutiny of the surface and creating a specific identity for the painted marks through the alliance of word and image". These messages then lead on to open declarations in a series of paintings made in 1960-61 on the theme of homosexual love. There was then a huge change in his approach in 1963 when he moved to California, where he focused on swimming pools and palm trees.
" Hockney changed from oil to acrylic paints, applying them as a smooth surface of flat and brilliant colour that helped to emphasise the pre-eminence of the image."
Wide Angle Art: Photograghs and Paintings
 |
| Zion Canyon, Utah, Oct, 1982, Photographic collage |
 |
| Sitting in the Zen Garden at the Ryoanji Temple Kyoto, Feb 1983, Photographic Collage |
 |
| Place Furstenberg, Paris, August 7th, 8th, 9th, 1985 Photographic Collage |
 |
| Pearblossom Highway, 11th-18th April 1986 no.2, Photographic Collage |
 |
| Chair, Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris, 10th August 1985, Photo graphic Collage |
 |
| Interior, Pembroke Studios, London, 1986, Photographic Collage |
 |
| A Walk Around the Hotel Acatlan Mexico, 1985, oil on 2 Canvases |
This wide angle painting covers a large view which makes it curve. Unlike the photographic collages, the paintings curves are much smoother. Hockney also incorporates the inverted technique like what he did with 'Chair', on the bottom part of the pillars and the table. The painting also is much more successful in showing the fish eye effect.
 |
| Tyler Dinning Room, 1985, 14 colour lithograph |
This drawing appears to show a slight wide angle, as it tries to fit everything around the table by inverting the size, so again small in the front and big in the distance.
From looking at Hockney's work it has helped me understand wide angle compositions much better and how they manage to fit together. This will now help me on making my wide angle drawing.
Bibliography
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/david-hockney-1293
David Hockey, Editor Dr Andreas C Papadakis vol 4 No 1/2-1988
David Hockney: You Make the Picture, paintings and prints 1982-1995, Paula Melia
Bibliography
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/david-hockney-1293
David Hockey, Editor Dr Andreas C Papadakis vol 4 No 1/2-1988
David Hockney: You Make the Picture, paintings and prints 1982-1995, Paula Melia
Friday, 27 November 2015
Fictional Maps
From looking at maps I felt it might be suitable to look at fictional maps as well, as they have similar characteristics to original old maps. However with a fictional map they need a different form of planning as they need to fit with the narrative.
For the Game of Thrones programme they animated the map for the title sequence. Like the old drawn maps, they include icons to help label a place so it is understood where they are. They would also include names on the sea, rivers and places.
Another fictional map is from The Lord of the Rings. Like Game of Thrones, this map follows the old style of maps. However I have noticed that the two fictional maps aren't cluttered like the old maps which are full of illustrations and writing. Is it because they have a different purpose?
Such as they want the readers to clearly understand and follow the map so they know where characters and places are.
For the Game of Thrones programme they animated the map for the title sequence. Like the old drawn maps, they include icons to help label a place so it is understood where they are. They would also include names on the sea, rivers and places.
Another fictional map is from The Lord of the Rings. Like Game of Thrones, this map follows the old style of maps. However I have noticed that the two fictional maps aren't cluttered like the old maps which are full of illustrations and writing. Is it because they have a different purpose?
Such as they want the readers to clearly understand and follow the map so they know where characters and places are.
Wednesday, 25 November 2015
Symbols and Signs
An image can be used worldwide and understood by anyone in any language. There is now over 20,000 symbols across the world in all areas such as, geography, biology, traffic etc. It is needed for these symbols to create a better, faster understanding for anyone to help break down the language barrier and not have something written in all the different languages. For instance it can also stop danger: a skull and bones mean poison. Also symbols can be put on small things that can't fit words, such as buttons, and need to be quick to read, such as road signs.
Semantography was created by C.K Bliss and is a complete system which crosses all language barriers. It can be typed up on an IBM typewriter and operates about 100 basic symbols which can be combined for any meaning needed - a bit like Chinese writing/characters. Otto Newath (1882-1945) believed that pictures work better than words when it comes to communicating. I agree with this statement as images are understood universal, whereas words are only understood when you know the language. He created symbols called ISOTYPE (International System Of TYpographic Picture Education) that are used to 'translate complex figures into a form that would be both accurate and meaningful to a broad audience, he devised not only a series of refined pictograms, but also the techniques for their design and application'. He created the pictograms using texture, colours and blocked outlines to help people relate and understand.
 |
| Otto Newath |
 |
| Otto Newath |
Other Symbols
These symbols of the vehicles are really easy to recognise and you won't need the labels underneath them to understand.
These symbols however are extremely simplified and would probably need a key to help people understand them.
I could use symbols like this in my work to represent rivers as they are informative and clear.
For grass its a bit hard to know by its self, but if it was put with other things such as trees and more grass then it would much more clearer to what it is.
These are more textures which would need a key to help the audience to understand it.
Snow using asterisks. More asterisks = more snowfall/ heavy snowfall
A common symbol for representing water: two wavy lines.
Common symbol for sun and clouds. Use similar ones in weather reports on television.
Skeleton like tree but clearly states that it's a tree and also the kind of tree.
From looking at all these different symbols I now have a better knowledge on how to create my own. I would like to keep them simple, full of information and easy to read but I also want to show a bit more personality to them as they'll be hand drawn, like an old map.
Symbol Sourcebook by Henry Dreyfuss
Weather App
Click on the link to be taken to the weather app ---> http://deepdrizzle.net/weather-falmouth-shannon/
Map Research
Mapping has been used for hundreds of years and has gradually become more and more accurate the more human beings travelled and discovered. The map we have today is the most accurate thanks to satellites, but I find it more interesting how people in the past thought the world looked like.
Some maps were drawn on animal skin, such as the map made by the Chukchi people which was made on sealskin. The symbols on the map were used to represent activities, for instance there are boats and people farming.
In medieval maps there is a depiction of spatial relationships between landmarks such as rivers, islands and mountains. This is an medieval map of the holy land by the Genoese Pietro Vesconte who also provided plans of Arce and Jerusalem. The map the map is circular suggesting that they just focused on a section. It is also decorated with writing and colour, making it aesthetically pleasing as well as informative to the reader of the time. The fictional map of The Lord of the Rings called Middle Earth holds a similar style to the medieval maps with how they include mountains and symbols that represent certain places.
Dating from the Tang dynasty era (618-906 BCE), this is a Chinese star chart of the night sky on the northern hemisphere. It is divided into 12 sections according to the stations of Jupiter. Like the medieval map, as a drawing it is pleasing to look at.
This world map was made in 1459 by Fra Mauro who was commissioned by Alfonso V.King of Portugal. It's incredibly confusing and I can't really see what's meant to be what. However, it's extremely decorative and stunning to look at. It is probably because it's for the king why it is embellished with gold. Again there is a use of a circle - is it a good way of framing?
The Babylonian world map from around 600 BCE is very different to the last world map. Its only similarities is that it's drawn in a circle and is decorated. This map is carved in stone and has kept with very basic shapes to represent things. It shows the relationship between the Babylonion world and the legendary regions that are beyond the oceans - is it spiritual?
The Hereford Mappa Mundi was made in the 1290s. It includes the Holy Land in the centre and is highly decorative with small icons representing places, sentences and a circular border. Having the Holy Land in the centre shows that the map and the people who wanted the map are religiously focused.
In 1360, a map of Britain was made by Gough and was name the Gough map. The east of Britain was the most accurate, whereas the west was rather mis-shaped. Scotland on the other hand was completely inaccurate. The map might of been used for official use as it gave an effective route map. I think that the west and Scotland might of been hard to map as there are more fields and hills so it might of been hard to measure the distances between things - not enough spatial relations.
The Catalan Atlas from 1375 was the most accurate of it's time. It used information from Marco Polo who visited Africa and Asia. Like other maps of its time it still included lots of biblical references from the bible in its illustrations. The illustrations would follow the edges of the land, changing its direction. Even in the oceans it had illustrations.
From doing my research on maps that already exist, I have many ideas for what I can now do for primary research. Such as using the modern day map but having the old map features like compasses, illustrations and colour. I'll also be trying to find ways to link symbols of extreme weather to the map aswell,so looking at the illustrations they use on maps have helped me get some idea.
Visions of the World: A History of Maps by Jeremy Black
The Charting of the Oceans: Ten Centuries of Maritime Maps by Peter Whitfield
Some maps were drawn on animal skin, such as the map made by the Chukchi people which was made on sealskin. The symbols on the map were used to represent activities, for instance there are boats and people farming.
In medieval maps there is a depiction of spatial relationships between landmarks such as rivers, islands and mountains. This is an medieval map of the holy land by the Genoese Pietro Vesconte who also provided plans of Arce and Jerusalem. The map the map is circular suggesting that they just focused on a section. It is also decorated with writing and colour, making it aesthetically pleasing as well as informative to the reader of the time. The fictional map of The Lord of the Rings called Middle Earth holds a similar style to the medieval maps with how they include mountains and symbols that represent certain places.
Dating from the Tang dynasty era (618-906 BCE), this is a Chinese star chart of the night sky on the northern hemisphere. It is divided into 12 sections according to the stations of Jupiter. Like the medieval map, as a drawing it is pleasing to look at.
This world map was made in 1459 by Fra Mauro who was commissioned by Alfonso V.King of Portugal. It's incredibly confusing and I can't really see what's meant to be what. However, it's extremely decorative and stunning to look at. It is probably because it's for the king why it is embellished with gold. Again there is a use of a circle - is it a good way of framing?
The Babylonian world map from around 600 BCE is very different to the last world map. Its only similarities is that it's drawn in a circle and is decorated. This map is carved in stone and has kept with very basic shapes to represent things. It shows the relationship between the Babylonion world and the legendary regions that are beyond the oceans - is it spiritual?
The Hereford Mappa Mundi was made in the 1290s. It includes the Holy Land in the centre and is highly decorative with small icons representing places, sentences and a circular border. Having the Holy Land in the centre shows that the map and the people who wanted the map are religiously focused.
In 1360, a map of Britain was made by Gough and was name the Gough map. The east of Britain was the most accurate, whereas the west was rather mis-shaped. Scotland on the other hand was completely inaccurate. The map might of been used for official use as it gave an effective route map. I think that the west and Scotland might of been hard to map as there are more fields and hills so it might of been hard to measure the distances between things - not enough spatial relations.
The Catalan Atlas from 1375 was the most accurate of it's time. It used information from Marco Polo who visited Africa and Asia. Like other maps of its time it still included lots of biblical references from the bible in its illustrations. The illustrations would follow the edges of the land, changing its direction. Even in the oceans it had illustrations.
Here's a map of America made in 1686. It's full of colour and different colours are used to separate countries. The illustrations are very strong as they used both reality and mythological subjects: ships, sea monsters and Poseidon. Like the other maps it is very decorated. In this map it also charts the sea and includes lines coming from compasses and also a black and white line for the equator. Also, to add to the chaos there are small paragraphs of writing put all around the map. Is writing a decoration?
The map of Europe which was made in 1554 by Mercator however, it a lot more clearer to read as it is a lot less crowded compared to the 1686 American map. It does however include small illustrations such as mountains, trees and waves. I quite like the writing which labels the sea and countries, making it informative, which is its main purpose at the end of the day.
World Chart by Martin WaldeemΓΌller made in 1516, is the only printed version of the world sea chart. The map is put on graph squares and there are formal blocks of writing. Compared to the other maps this has a limited amount of unnecessary illustrations, however it is still present but mainly on land. Could be to do with how this is a sea chart map, so it would need to be informative on the ocean. Features of this map that I like is the darker shade of blue that frames the land: seperates land and sea better.
A continuous thing I have come across in 'The Charting of the Oceans' will be the decorative compasses that are put on the oceans. Sometimes they use the same one across the map, but others would have different ones. The compasses would be used to start the lines across the oceans but not all lines have a compass. In the West Africa map by Linschoten in 1596 They use both examples of using compasses and not having compasses.
In the Atlantic Coast of Portugal map, made by Van Keulen in 1682, there are mainly no compasses. However I did find it interesting how the lines managed to create an optical illusion. I could maybe try and attempt this my self.
Another optical illusion style map is The Arctic by Blaeu in 1662. This time the lines are curved creating another kind of geometric design. This would indeed need a compass to recreate.
Visions of the World: A History of Maps by Jeremy Black
The Charting of the Oceans: Ten Centuries of Maritime Maps by Peter Whitfield
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)