Illustration - Working Methods, Week 1: "Light Lunch"

For those of you who may not already know, I've enrolled in a class at the University of Brighton called Illustration Working Methods, which is a freshman course for the illustration undergraduate program. They teach the first three courses of the illustration degree on Saturdays beginning in October. The following is my first studio project.


In the morning we were given the topic "Light Lunch." The only required elements to our project were that we had to do it on A2 sized paper (420 x 594 mm, or roughly 8 sheets of regular printer paper), and that we had to work in a method we weren't familiar with. For example, I'm used to getting ideas and images from the internet first, then I work out the sketches and thumbnails, then I do a colour study, then work on the finished piece. Finally, I'd ask for a critique, usually from Rob. I decided to work backwards and ask Rob what he thought of my topic first. Although I thought I had a pretty good idea as to what I was going to create, he totally blew my ideas out of the water with the things he was coming up with [Rob, you have officially been hired as muse!].


When we returned from our lunch break we had two ours to complete the project, from inception to completion, which is about a tenth of the time I'd normally work on a project. It was SO stressful, but in a really good way. Being around 11 other artists, all working frantically in the studio, scissors and paper and paint and glue flying, it really felt like I was in my very own version of Project Runway. Except nobody gets eliminated from my class.


Below is a photo of the work and a description I had to write to accompany it. (I think you may be able to click on the picture for a more detailed version). 

Theme: Light Lunch

Working Method: To work in the opposite manner we are used to

Requesite Materials: A2 paper

Materials Used: A2 paper, monoprints in watercolour, water-soluble pencils

The concept behind my piece is built on the idea of plant food and the science of photosynthesis, in that plants convert light into usable food energy. The plant is sat at a table indoors with a box of ‘cereal’ on the table and a bowl of that cereal in its ‘hands.’ The symbolism is representative of our modern world and how our culture is increasingly moving indoors – not only our people, but our domesticated animals and plants as well. As we move further from an agrarian-based society toward a more urban environment, the disconnect between our food and its origins increases, and the more we disconnect from our food, the more man-made it becomes.

The overall theme was to illustrate our disconnect from nature, and our complacency with our sedentary and synthetic lifestyle.

The plant itself does not appear happy; in fact it has wilting leaves at its periphery. The light bulb is bare and seems not to give off too much light, and what light it does radiate is cold. For me this represents poverty. The plant is getting it’s food from a box of ‘Shmellogg’s Light-Os.’