Exercise 1 - Proverbs
When the Cats Away the Mice Come out to Play.
For this exercise I decided to go for the proverb "while the cats away, the mice will play". This saying felt very visual, out of a handful that I looked at I could see a scene happening immediately and it seemed fun to work with. Straight off the bat I thought that one drawing could be literal; a group of mice enjoying the freedom when the cat is away. Running around, playing, dancing and celebrating. The second drawing could show the mice misbehaving when the cat is away, which I suppose is quite similar in concept but I thought this could be more criminal rather than celebrating.
Before focusing on this exercise, I went through all the tasks in this part and made notes/plans for what I wanted to do in each. In the exercise "Once Upon A Time" I had planned to work on the story of the Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs. When having a look around the internet I came across the classic illustrations by L. Leslie Brooke. Much of my research is left for the next exercise, however one illustration that I had found of his could not have been more perfect for this exercise. So much so that I needed to include it here as it truly matched the visual I had when I thought of the proverb "when cats away, the mice will play."
A stunning discovery! It's a gorgeous illustration and the timing of finding it was perfect. Although the subject is mice getting ready for tea as they are called by the bell, the idea of many mice running and doing things in a scene is exactly what I envisioned. What could they do in my illustration?
My initial idea was to follow on from Hogarth's "Beer Street and Gin Lane" piece; could I create work in the same classical style? It is why I was so amazed when I found Brooke's work on the Royal Academy website. It's classical in its style which I love. The mice are of a realistic nature, by this I mean they have not been caricatured, only that they are running on their back legs. There is in fact another illustration by Brooke which I felt also suited the proverb, without it being literally mice in the scene.
I really like the composition for both illustrations, and the obscurities in the second is both weird and amusing. Would not focusing on mice in the second drawing make for a good change compared to the first idea? I feel it might be difficult to create something original now that I have laid eyes on these two pieces by Leslie Brooke, it makes me wonder if I shouldn't go classic in my style and perhaps bring some modern styling into it. Perhaps I do need to caricature the character features.
My mind also wandered off to two classic icons, Tom and Jerry. The perfect cat and mouse rivalry that I thought might be useful in my planning. I thought about the house in which their chaotic chases took place in, I thought about Jerry's home in the wall and how Tom would often wait outside to catch Jerry. It felt obvious to stage my illustration in a house as you can imagine that there is blissful freedom when the cat is away for the mice to run everywhere. Like Leslie Brooke, it would be fun to have the mice interact with household items to further emphasise the freedom to roam the house, using things they would never be able to get away with when the cat was on guard. Would it also be interesting to show the cat in the distance walking away? Perhaps the owner is carrying them out of the house which could be seen through the window. Now I am thinking that perhaps this could be the second image, but the cat can see the mice misbehaving through the window!
To get started, I worked on thumbnails to think about composition. I liked where my thoughts were going but at this stage, I had no idea how I was going to construct them into an image.
Some of the thumbnails were feeling quite flat compared to others, and I wasn't sure if I was getting closer to the look I wanted. I did like the hopscotch idea as it felt more dynamic with it's POV and gestures. I thought I could have some fun with creating a fisheye style lens view, an idea I had gotten from a Tom and Jerry Sketch I found on Pinterest:
In this example, I love the way they have framed the illustration using a circle shape that starts with the grass and is continued in the placement of both Tom and Jerry. The gestures follow this circular line and the silhouette is very clear with no obstructing elements to confuse the image. I liked the idea of creating a similar view, with the ground being lower towards the bottom of the frame, leaving a lot of playing field beyond this. Playing with perspective could also allow space to possibly include the cat "going away", perhaps even on a plane!
I took my hopscotch idea over to Procreate and continued a few different thumbnails to establish the winning composition.
I liked the bottom left the most, but didn't think the background was right for it. I did think a kitchen would be fun as going for food feels like a natural instinct of a mouse, but I was also liking the idea of a record player being some where in the image so I wanted to try a living space.
Not completely sold any of these layout I was creating, I went on to try a bigger sketch. I actually used a GoPro to help with the wide angle view, taking a photo of a corner of my room to help understand how the curve would be.
This layout felt more balanced and complete. It had the mice playing the foreground and in the background. I was even able to sneak the cat in at the window to suggest that it was leaving. So I took it to the next stage with outlines. Honestly, I roughed this whole process and wouldn't consider this absolute final in terms of style, but I went with the flow!
I would consider this illustration the "good" side of the proverb. Its playful and happy, even with an angry cat glaring through the window as their owner carries them out.. probably to the vet.
For mice being rather small animals, going for that low viewpoint meant that I could keep them large in perspective. The wide angle lens allows to play with scale in a way that can help show their size in comparison to the rest of the room, whilst also making them a key. part to the illustration. I tried to avoid clashes with overlapping any elements of the mice to give a clear view of them. I'm pleased with the composition overall however can see some areas that get a little bit lost. I think if I was to draw this again I would keep the brush fine, with a steady thickness across the piece. The varying thickness in the brush used here makes some parts disappear, the music notes for example are not clear.
I wanted to push this concept further by improving the lines and composition. I think I tried to squeeze too much scenery into this piece. The view was interesting, but the details lacked. I also think there no consistency in the pen weight, so with some lines being thicker than others where they shouldn't be. The colour application feels messy too and I wonder if this is something I could improve on. I wanted to achieve the vintage drawing style, where pen lines were fine and the characters were more animal like than cartoon version of the animal.
In this second attempt I decided to change the scene. In my sketches above I had imagined a record player as a more central element to the composition. I attempted to add the depth in the sketch by bring the hopscotch into the forefront. By doing this I think I had ruined the idea, so I thought I could go back and experiment on different layouts for where the mice could be running around. To do this, I thought it would be interesting to use an image reference of a record player in a room, and had come across this image on Unsplash that I thought could work.
I also came across 2 other images with a different perspective.
I started with the first image. I thought it worked nice with the perspective of looking down. It could be playful and dynamic with scattering the mice around. I could recognise the challenges before getting started and I wasn't sure whether this would work. throwing caution to the wind I started with drawing the background, I would work the rest out after.
When sketching in the mice, I realised early on that this might work better if cropped. I think there was too much scenery that just wasn't necessary. Plus to make the background more my own, I thought cutting the bottom half would help change it slightly. I also wanted to keep the window in the scene as I liked how the cat could be glaring at the mice thinking "you wait till I'm back! Then you're in trouble", it felt important to include this gesture as part of the saying.
I lost confidence in drawing the cat in the window. I had made it this far with get a look in the mice, but when it came to the cat - I had no idea how to draw it. I had drawn one cat in the photo frame to the right of the illustration, then struggled to recreate it in the window.
With the illustration now cropped, the composition, balance and message felt good. The perspective was easier to work with at this level, and the overall line work of this version felt more in keeping to the vintage style that I was looking to achieve. I even liked the minimal colour and the splash of pink where the mouse had graffitied over the cats photo. It could work well to use the colour in other places such as the record the mice dance on or the buttons on the record player.
It had helped to have worked from a photo reference on this occasion. It sped up the process slightly with having to work out perspective and general room layout. The focus was to be on the action, with a sense of place that would suggest the mice are roaming free when the cat was away.
I could challenge this further using a different image, and perhaps experimenting with the crop further so that the mice are closer like Brooke's illustration, however I am ok with this version. Perhaps if in a book, this would be part of a double spread illustration, with long shot view, then turning the page would be a close up of the mice dancing, one by one mocking the cat that has left the house.
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