Assignment 2:Exercise 1. Getting the idea

 This was an interesting exercise, and good to get back to some drawing. We were asked to find a newspaper or magazine article and read it as normal, then read it a second time, highlighting the significant words. We were then to read it a third time, paying particular attention to the words we had highlighted, to get at a few words which expressed or summed up the article as a whole. Having done this, we were to use these words to inform an illustration of our own for the article, working on ideas in our sketchbooks. 

I chose this article, mostly because I only have one magazine. I looked through to find an article with a particular message and point of view and decided upon this article from the founder of Slimming World, Margaret Miles-Bramwell. 

Slimming Workd Magazine, January 2022

I then went on to work in my sketchbook, brainstorming ideas for the two main words I identified : “outdated” and “enlightened”. 

As I noted in my sketchbook, I decided to focus solely on the word “enlightened”. I combined elements of a few of my sketches to produce this illustration. 

Enlightened by Becky Farrell, December 2021

I enjoyed working on this exercise. The three readings of the article were really helpful for identifying what I felt to be the main message. Interestingly, the article had already been illustrated by an image of fireworks. My reading of the article led me to different conclusions. Because of this, I didn’t find the firework image distracting, or feel the need to consider it in my own process, either to follow that theme or to make a conscious departure from it. 

I would definitely consider using this process for future illustrations.