People and Place Part 3: Research - Visual research 3.5 Searching for the Green Man

 Searching for the Green Man: A sketchbook quest

So for this exercise I read a text written about the creation of a children’s book character of the ‘green man’ by and Illustrator called Pam Smy ‘whose work draws heavily on the observational studies that are contained within her sketchbooks usually of places and people.’ The text explores her visual research, and she speaks about the process of developing this character named Lob; who is not the typical character you’d expect to have in a children’s book. Her unique approach leaves something for the readers to look for as Lob takes shape in the environments and doesn’t have a body or features of a his own, Just a silhouette within a background.

• How does the character of the sketches relate to the final illustrations? 

 

The representation of the Green Man in this instance has evolved from conversations with the author, from the ‘unconscious’ communication of the primary research undertaken in sketchbooks in Empty Common, and through the need to complement Newbery’s text, often laden with sensory descriptions of sounds and smells, with illustrations that engage the reader on another level: in this case representing the everyday environments that the characters of Lucy and Lob encounter, whilst inviting the reader to join the club of those that can see Lob if they want to.

The illustration is more so of the environment and the features of lob cannot be seen just a silhouette amongst the everyday scenes. There is a sense of normality within the illustrations and Lob being invisible or made up of gaps in items around him brings a but of mystery for the reader. It’s an interactive story knowing lob is somewhere on the page to be found. The character of the sketches create comfort but also a bit of sadness as no one can see him, in one of the flat illustrations however even though no one looks his way the people on the pages aren’t alone. He’s always around but then the final illustration he is the one who walks alone. The character of the sketches is the natural environment including bushes, trees, foliage, and Lob morphing from one thing to the next down the road

“Through the process of not wishing to give a ‘face’ to the Green Man, the illustrations from Lob represent him nonetheless: a leaf-formed figure rather than a figure with a foliate head. He is the shape that we can half see all around us, the fleeting shape in a landscape. He is Thomas’s Lob and Newbery’s ‘the man who walked the roads’ “

 

Examples of Sketchbook sketches of the envrionment and observational. These were drawn from an empty allotment.
 

 

• Are there any texts or stories you have encountered that relate to any of the drawings you have produced during this section of the course?

I have not really found any texts or stories that I can relate my drawings too. Most of my drawings have either been observational or drawn from imagination or boredom.