3D modelling - the auld way

One of the projects we were given at the Putney School of Art and Design Children's Book Illustration class was to create a storyboard for an exerpt from a book. We could choose from one of a dozen or so. I chose Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, partly because the darkness in it appealed to me but also, writing from the perspective of a character in a well known story is always interesting.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a prequal, with some overlap, to Jane Ayre from the point of view of the, alledgedly, mad Mrs. Rochester. Imprisonned these long years in a room at the top of the house. Watched over by Grace Poole, the nurse.

The exerpt described the room and Mrs. Rochester's thoughts about how she found herself in this predicament.

I'd done a few drawings with pencil and powdered graphite washed with French sepia that seemed to meet with some approval during show and tell, so I did a rough sketch using the same technique. It seemed to capture the atmosphere, especially as Mrs. Rochester describes the house as "being made form cardboard" presumably a reference to the brownness of everything.

The sketch drew a few ooh and aahs, so I started on a 'proper' drawing on some decent hot pressed watercolour paper. Midway through I decided I didn't like the point of view or the arrangement of the subjects. That's when I was stricken with that old paralysis "do I have to start again?" Yup, 'm 'fraid so. Y'should just ger on with it Awa Rich. I know, I know.

Aynho, after a spot of cogitation more like procrastination Awa Rich. Fruitful procogitation if you don't mind. I was twirling a 3D model of the scene around in my mind when I thought "a model, that's what I need!"

I considered using Google Sketchup but abandoned that idea for two reasons. The temptation to fiddle endlessly with stuff on a computer is too enticing and another form of paralysis afflicts me, what my old flatmate Eddy called the twin demons of artists and programmers CIpS and PRetS - the Continual Improvement Syndrome and the Perpetual Retouching Syndrome. Sounds like another variation on Zeno's pair of ducks Awa Rich! 

The other reason was that my previous attempts at using Sketchup models as a reference for drawing resulted in images that appeared more two dimensional that if I'd have drawn them from my imagined images. I'm sure there's a good scientific reason for that but I don't know what it is, other than it's one of those things that seems like it's the perfect solution - it just doesn't work.

It was Mrs. Rochester who provided the obvious solution. The house is made from cardboard. So cardboard and sticky tape it is then. Now, there's nothing like a dead lion barreling towards me to inspire some creative thinking. The room, cardboard - sorted, the furniture, no problem -cardboard, the people... Hmmmm? - snaps fingers Grommit fashion (see Wallace and Grommit - A Grand Day Out. The scene where Grommit realises why the rocket isn’t lifting off - the handbrake is still on) tissue paper (the sort you blow your nose on) held together with cotton thread. It worked better than I'd expected.

I didn't need a detailed model, I just wanted to see how the forms of the objects and people related to each other from different points of view - or camera angles - and be able to move things around.

The big surprise - though it shouldn't have been - was how dramatically a change of lighting affected the whole mood of the image. It's one thing knowing these things but another thing entirely when you experience it directly.

Now I have something to play with.