Part 3: working it out: visual properties - image development

L S Lowry 'Market scene, Northern town'

The brief for this exercise was to select an image with a range of content, to create ten edited versions by cropping it in different formats, and to choose a word for each that relates to its content.  And then to use one of the images as a basis for an illustration, drawn up as a poster, with colours and textures to emphasise the message.

I chose this artwork by L S Lowry because it has plenty of content with lots of opportunities for cropping in different ways.

The original, complete image is of a busy market with people going about their business of the day.

The picture is more or less divided into two halves.  The lower half shows crowds of people - buying, selling, queuing, chatting, waiting.

There is a foreground of people divided into groups slightly set apart from the main bustle of the market.

The top half of the picture is a roofscape.  The roofs of the market stalls make a bold horizontal line across the centre of the image from which a large redbrick building appears to rise.  To the sides and into the distance there are other smaller buildings and rooftops and chimneys billowing smoke, so that gradually there is no distinction between building and sky.

cross-section

'cross-section'   This crop demonstrates cross-section in a several ways.

• It's a physical vertical cross-section through the picture - from the solidity of earth to the sky above.

• A cross-section of people shown by the two quiet, self-contained figures at the front and the noisy bustle of activity taking place at the market stall.

• A cross-section of society represented by the higgledy piggledy informality of the market stalls with the solid permanence of the redbrick building beyond.

bustling

'Bustling' is just a busy image.  The figures are all involved in their own activities either alone or with others.  Interactions are everywhere.  Mostly the figures are in dark colours but brighter colours are scattered throughout directing the viewer's eye around the image.


It could be a crowd anywhere.  No longer restrained by the market stalls, it could be Christmas shopping in Oxford Street, a theatre, a station - wherever the viewer chooses.

together/apart

I used the same crop for both 'together' and 'apart'.

The two figures in the foreground are such strong characters.  They look very much together - independent, upright, confident.

They are physically separated from the group in the middle ground - these are busy traders and shoppers engrossed in their world, apparently oblivious of the figures looking on.

Set apart from the others they also look isolated, have a sadness about them, but at the same time have a great strength and solidarity.

orderly

The crops 'orderly' and 'waiting' are both images of figures waiting.

In 'orderly', the group are in a line across the image, looking purposeful and good-natured.

waiting

In 'waiting', there are two figures waiting and watching.  The child leans towards the adult.  They look close and supportive towards each other, but also vulnerable and isolated.  They have been given a physical separation from the other figures in the image who seem to form a frame around the waiting figures reinforcing the distance.

family

'Family' is similar - a small family unit with physical separation, reinforced by the surrounding figures forming a frame - except that here the family appears strong, independent and confident - they don't have the vulnerability of 'watching'.

small

In 'small' contrasts are achieved by dark and light colours.

There is a small dog that's dark against a light background.

Emphasising the smallness of the dog shoppers and passersby create a dark frame around it.

However, the dog doesn't seem vulnerable, it looks confident, walking purposefully with head and tail held high.

energy

The word 'energy' suggests vitality - possibly not a word readily associated with the subtle colouring and sleepy appearance of the image.  But I like this contrast.

The energy is there - the smoking chimneys, the street lamp, the embodied energy within the building materials and the energy of construction, plus the wind and solar energy potential from the natural environment.

elevated

'Elevated' - above street level - market stalls and houses, street lamps and flagpoles, chimneys, spires and domes - all reach upwards.

And from the informality of the market stalls a large redbrick building appears to elevate itself further as if presiding over everything below - the architecture as a reflection of society.

For the poster I decided to take the image 'small' as a starting point.

Like the Lowry painting, I wanted to include a figure, small and dark against a light background, but without it appearing vulnerable.  The dog walked confidently even though it was alone in a busy marketplace.

I had the idea to show a skier on a snowy mountainside and I felt that it compared well with the detail from the Lowry painting.

For references I searched online for vintage posters of winter sports resorts as I felt that they had the right look for what I needed to communicate. 

sketchbook work for 'small'

sketchbook work

I didn't want the skier to look vulnerable within the vast bleak environment, and so I decided to create a winter Olympics poster - which coincided rather well with giving it relevance to now with the winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia.

Using 'Google Translate' to find the word for 'small' in Russian characters, I added this to the bottom of the poster.  I also included it in English, plus the year 2014, using a simple non-serif font to keep the vintage appearance.