Judith Kerr

I watched a documentary on Judith Kerr called 'Imagine: Hitler, the tiger and me' which explored the life of Judith Kerr and how her past, during world war 2 has affected her adolescence and childhood. Which she has been representing throughout her illustrative images in children's books each entailing memories of her life.
Judith Kerr is a German writer and illustrator whom is currently ninety years of age and still manages to uphold that enthusiasm just like when she was a child, running up the stairs excited to carry on with her work illustrating and creating children's books in her own study at home in London. A few of the stories that she has written have been done in such a way to help children understand what she  has experienced during her time in Germany.

Judith Kerr was born on 14th June 1923 in Berlin and when she was nine she had to flee from the Nazis, living the remainder of her life in Britain. She has lived a remarkable life that hasn't been easy, yet she has been able to produce a vast range of books. She has a schedule that she keeps to everyday, having breaks between her work and keeping fit by taking long strolls, enjoying the life around her. Friends and other writers have said she is a real fun person to be around especially as she's not living in the past and she is very much in the present with today's society.

Alan Yentob talks to Judith about the way she works and the space she works in, Judith expresses that she wouldn't be able to work anywhere else as this is the room she loves and is comfortable in the study in her own home. She feels she wouldn't know what would happen if she had to work anywhere else.

Here is an image of her working area;

At the moment she is working on a book that takes place in the Jungle , she is having a few challenges in drawing flowers and trees so looks at an artist called Russo for inspiration, she feels that if she thinks of Russo she will be able to do it. Another influence Judith relates to is Fantasy represented throughout a Russian/French artist called Marc Chagall, she describes his images of couples and animals flying. This theme has inspired one of Judith's books called 'My Henry' as she felt this is what the story needed.

Here are some of Chagall's work compared to the work of Judith Kerr; 

Marc Chagall Blue Circus 1950-2 Courtesy Centre Pompidou Paris 

Over the Town 1918

Here are some images of Kerr's Book 'My Henry'; 

I feel Judith Kerr has written this book in memory of her husband Tom whom died seven years ago.It refers to the adventures they could have together in the afterlife, relating to the women in the story envisioning her life as being lived and all this that is happening is inside her. 

Furthermore Alan Yentob suggests that Judith Kerr may be a 90 year old woman on the outside, however on the inside she is still the child that she was when she was younger, as she feels that she hasn't really grown up. 

Before the war in Berlin her father was a leading Jewish intellectual and her mother a composer. Judith has written a string of books based on her own experiences throughout her life. 

Judith Kerr wrote and illustrated a book called 'The tiger who came to tea', she wrote this book in her own kitchen at home. She has two children called Tacy and Matthew, she would stay at home to look after them and at times things would get very boring, so she took her children for long walks and would return home for warm tea (cups of tea). She was always worried about who might be knocking at her door, so she came up with the idea, "why not have a tiger come for tea" and this is where she came up with the story.

She told this story to her children many times so she knew it off by heart and tried to make a picture book from it in which she has succeeded.

A short synopsis of the story is: 

The doorbell rings just as Sophie and her Mummy are sitting down to tea. Who could it possibly be? What they certainly don't expect to see at the door is a big furry, stripy tiger. The tiger consumes all of their food and drinks, leaving the child and her mother with nothing apart from a mess they have to clean up.

The tiger represents a stranger knocking at the door and entering a child's life in the presence of there on home. 

Kerr explains how she wasn't sure whether the tiger should be wearing clothes or not, but decided it looked best without. 

From Michael Rosen's (a children's writer ) point of view, he expresses that "for children aged 2-3 years why not have a tiger come for tea, as you don't know who's going to knock at the door. However if you were to look at this metaphorically, Who is this tiger? Someone that comes in and starts grabbing stuff taking all the water out of the tap, well he's a tiger what do they do? There dangerous, they eat people and Judith Kerr knew all about dangerous people grabbing things and taking people away from when she was younger from her own experiences. As she knew this could happen, as she was told when she was a young child that her father could be grabbed at any moment either by the Gestapo (official secret police of Nazi Germany) or the SS (the secret service), he was in great danger.

In Conclusion, Judith Kerr has impacted on my work in the way I have reflected in the methods she uses to create her simple , vibrant images. By using my own materials more freely, adding fragments of line and sketches throughout my images. Realizing that I don't have to outline the whole of my image, but just part of it to give my work more of an edge. I have also learnt quite a lot from Judith Kerr, exploring about her life and how she has progressed throughout her work, representing memories and events that she has experienced which she has produced throughout her images. This relates to my self - directed project on 'The Bink family' as some of the events that happen in the story link to some of my own experiences and memories from my own past.  

Portfolio review by Rosie Wilman

My Mentor Rosie Wilman gave me a lot of great advice in presenting my portfolio to be more professional, by considering the space I use for my image making sure it is central and there are no shadowing lines at the sides that will intervene with the presentation of my image. Rosie feels the way I have recorded my Pdf portfolio is working well, showing the progression between projects. She has suggested that it would be nice to have a page that shows my working method, representing how I go from a sketch to the finished thing or how I've developed that idea.

Here a few examples of what she means;

Looking At these two examples she has produced I now understand a lot better the point she is trying to get across and I am willing to try this throughout my own portfolio showing my own progression throughout my work. I didn't realize that this would be an interesting factor to represent during my portfolio. 

Rosie has also suggested to include some of my tree family people in my portfolio as she thinks there ace. Expressing the point to always keep adding to it, improving my work making sure I am able to talk confidently about each piece so that I am ready for portfolio visits.

She was also very helpful in guiding me throughout my critical Journal that I am writing alongside my practical work, reflecting on my processes that I come across. As I am struggling to put it all together in a way it makes sense academically linking quotes and chapters together as well as my reflection of my own work.
I am trying to receive as much help as I can,  Rosie was a big help she has given  me a few key artists/thinkers to look at. Such as, Mark Rothko and his idea of 'colour theory' linking this to my own practise in the way I use muted backgrounds throughout my images so the characters in front of the background stand out. Using bright colours for example I have used red and yellow throughout one of my images that I have created of 'Grandad Binks Boat'.

Here are some examples of Mark Rothko's work;

Muted Blue's

This is Mark Rothko in front of one of his muted images in black and white.

Muted Red's

And here are a couple of my own images representing mute backgrounds contrasting with the image in front; 

Baby Bink Hiding behind a chair as she's scared and frightened.

Worried Nana Bink on the phone.

Lecture with Rick Frankland - Dwelle - Thinking a little differently!

Throughout this lecture I learnt about the construction industry and what Rick Frankland has achieved throughout his career.

Rick Frankland is an architect as well as an Eco - building manufacturer urban designer for Dwelle, building house extensions and other things. Frankland has done lighting exhibits and lots of talks for a while to make money and a living.

Rick's Job in Dwelle is dabbling with images that create a house that's got big space, is modern and is eco-friendly. Whilst thinking about different materials that would be suitable to use to create these houses such as timber or oak for the frame of the building. Making the house highly insulated, giving it air - tight ventilation, plenty of light with solar shading and can re-cooperate renewal energy.

Rick and his team were on 'Grand designs Live' in 2009 and they had to represent this idea throughout a prototype of a house made out of wood like a shed. He won awards for this particular shed design and had received lots of interest for their new micro-building designs. However during the course of their development in the construction industry they came across a lot of problems' such as having no money and having to try to come up with solutions to make some. As they were going through some difficult times and still are now. They also came across many issues in making the building for instance, when cutting pieces of wood, they were cutting them too short as they got the measurements wrong and the gutters wouldn't fit because they were too short as well . The Dwelle team also found that when building the shed design inside the exhibition area things weren't working out. The construction of the prototype wasn't completely finished in time because there was a big digger in the way where they had to construct the design.

Here are some images;

A cut - away of the ModCell structure, showing timber frame and packed straw.

This is what the inside looks like of the prototype.

This is what the shed design would look like built outside 

At this moment in time of his career he is in the middle of producing a mobile home, using the three R's in producing an eco- sustainable home.

The three R's are; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and as a fourth maybe even Refuse. 

Here are some images of prefabricated mobile homes designed by dwelle.ing creating a much larger space for holiday homes. Which will provide a living room, a dining room and three bedrooms.

Furthermore, this year Dwelle have developed a high-tech modular housing solution for Grand designs live 2013 which has been talked about on BDE Podcast - buildings design expert.

 Here is a link to there page ; podcast-grand-designs-live-2013 which explains in more detail about this event.

Throughout the lecture the most important piece of advice Rick Frankland gave, when working with people as a team and in general is to always listen!

To finish with this quote that inspires Frankland throughout his progression of his career which helps him give a bit of a boost; 

By Confucious - I hear and I forget,
                          I see and I remember,
                          I do and I understand.

Self - Directed Project

This is progression of a project I started in the summer on scary stories, here are images of my work from my sketch book of processes I have been using which I will compose together to create an image that will reflect more sophistication and a more of an complete illustration for my book on 'The Bink Family'. A story which I have created with monsters that live in teepees in a village called 'Porkstock'. 

I am aiming to produce a children's book for ages 5-7 years old, representing events that might happen in real life that children and there families may come across, I am hoping children will relate to some of the feelings represented throughout the story and will hopefully help them cope with any anxieties they may start to have. For example; feeling scared and lonely as if they are always doing something wrong and don't want to upset there parents or make them angry.   

A lot of these theories are reflected and touched upon throughout my Journal which is a reflection of my own practise as well as investigating, psychologists, artists and theorists. 

Ink marks

Collages

Baby Bink's teddy bear

Teepee

More ink marks

Baby Bink

A collage for a landscape

Bink Character

Painted flowers 

Collage of a tree

A mixture of collage, ink and paint creating a landscape

Ink sketch of a tree

Exploring an ink sketch of nasty Tree monster bashing Grandad Bink on the head thinking about the expressions to use to get the feelings across that he is getting hurt. 

Collage of Grandad Bink

Collage of another Teepee

collage of a Bink chair

and a Bink Table

Nana and Grandad Binks Boat 

Police Boat in process

Here is a composition I am in the process of setting the scene on what the village of Porkstock will look like!

My aim is to create four double page spreads for my story, with a story board and mock up book.

Steve Byram

Steve Byram is a fine artist and a professional commercial artist which I have been exploring to widen my knowledge and understanding of the incredible use of Line that he uses throughout his compositions giving them more sophistication, this is what I am hoping to achieve throughout my own practise thinking about the weight and pressure I use when using a pencil or pen when creating a line.

Here a few examples of his work;

This Image is spine-tingling with the use of marks represented gives his character more of an edge, I have been creating rubbings of inanimate objects to create this same essence throughout my work. 

Here are a few images of My Own Work of rubbings I have made then producing them into something new;

These are Ink scratchings that i created using a wooden stick. 

(can also use like a tooth pick for finer lines)

This is a rubbing using charcoal smudging and using the side of it to create variant lines in this case I used my material to produce a texture for a fence.

Here are a few of my own images consisting of line and mark making.

This rubbing was created with the use charcoal making a rubbing of textures I found on a wall that I thought looked quite effective.  

And this image is a Background I created which I can use in various images which create a more subtle essence bringing other characters together that are in front of the background.

Materials I used to produce this are vintage papers and Gouache paints throughout the process of collage which was then painted over the top with white emulsion. 

Here Is an image from a website representing Steve Byram

Here is the web link:  Screw Gun Records