Negotiated Study

The penultimate project of my degree has begun:  I have from now until early January to make something of my own choosing, falling roughly (in my case very roughly) into one of five categories - all areas covered in the past two years:  Editorial.  Text as image.  Children's picture book narrative.  Reportage.  Adult narrative.

My starting point is the approach that I used in the concertina books in July.  I enjoyed the immediacy and the combination of methods; and the idea was all my own.  Of course, I would like to develop further and try things out, but it's important to retain the simplicity - to do just one thing and to do it well.

Out of the masses of religious art that I saw in Italy, I was inspired by scenes of martyrdom:  their drama; the figure poses; the details in the scene; a saint's serenity paired with the the energy of a Roman guard swinging a sword.

I'm not producing oil paintings, or even full scenes:  rather, I want to make vivid scenes of martyrdoms famous and obscure; with minimal text.

Now that my topic is approved (and counts as "adult narrative"), I can start work and narrow the ideas down early, before the possibilities overwhelm me.  I'll need a schedule for research, drawing, production, arrangement... and for a Christmas break.

Today I'm working through books about saints so that I can choose the juiciest stories... but not always the most gruesome, which make me wonder about dedicating the whole thing to Amnesty International.  After that I can work on loose figure-drawing and facial expressions.

The series of images will probably form a set of prints.  Derek made the best suggestion for the layout:  building an altarpiece!  I'm very excited about that as a form of display and as a practical project.  It's a great link to my dissertation.  Okay, the work won't be exhibited, but...  I'm itching to do it.

It's only a college project but I'm excited about it like none before.