Wyna

Exercise 4 Abstract illustration

In this exercise, I am creating an abstract illustration of the Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight” in C-Sharp Minor, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.  I will attempt to convey the mood and feel of the music, and my objective will be that this artwork will work as an illustration for an album cover.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)

Beethoven was a German pianist and composer, and until today he is one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music.  His music spans the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music. (Biography.com Editors, 2021)

Listening and mark-making

As I listened to the music, I worked quickly and intuitively by creating marks through movements to convey my interpretation of the music.  The depth of emotion and layers of melodies flowing into each other made me realise that my marks need to have many layers without looking too textured but rather flowing.  The illustration also needs to have different tone values that somehow flow into each other.  I also need to build up layers to try and create the depth of emotion in this magnificent piece of music.  I worked wet onto wet to avoid hard edges.  My mark-making started with black ink mixed with water to create a good base.  I also experimented by adding sea salt.

Figure 1 Mark-making using ink, water, and salt

In figure 1, I used two big sheets of cold-pressed watercolour paper and worked wet-on-wet with Indian ink, water, and salt.

Figure 2 The outcome once the paper has dried.
Figure 3 I chose two illustrations for reproducing and used a spider diagram for brainstorming an adjective.

Once everything was dry, I stood back to decide on an adjective to describe the tone of the mark-making and came up with the word: FLOATING.  I tried to recognise areas that resonated with my interpretation of the music and the word I had chosen and came up with the two areas in figure 3.

Figure 4 Reproducing the selected area into an illustration (Option 1)
  1. Scanning the water and ink illustration into Adobe Illustrator.
  2. Using the image trace option, I converted the design into vectors.
  3. Testing different colours to create an illustration that reflects the mood of the music.
  4.  The music made me think of floating and the peacefulness you experience while walking through a forest of snow.  I used blue to reflect the slight sadness in the melody.  The music has a deepness about it, almost as if it has many layers.
  5. After completing no.4 digitally, I printed it and worked with alcohol ink on top of the illustration to create more depth and rotated the piece.
Figure 5 Finished piece (Option 1)
Figure 6 Reproducing the selected area into an illustration (Option 2)
  1. I scanned the second illustration into Photoshop.
  2. Creating ellipses to bring in colour.
  3. Adding colours.  This layer will be used as a background.
  4. Layering the ink and water illustration over the background.
  5. Layering another copy over the top but moving it slightly to give it a softer feel and a floating feathery feel.
Figure 7 Finished piece (Option 2)

Working through the second option, I am getting closer to the feeling and mood I want to achieve, but I am not there yet.  In option 1, I have tried to create depth with colour, but I feel that I have lost the tenderness in the illustration.  In option 2, I love the tenderness and floating feeling but want to somehow bring in some more depth.  After all, we are listening to Beethoven, and it is a complex piece of music when played correctly.  I want to reflect that in my illustration.  I went back to my spider diagram and looked at the word “deep”, and out of deep came the words “arteries”, “veins”, “hear”t, and “layers”.  I went back to my original two sheets of mark-making and added some orange hues, and selected an area that reflected arteries and veins.  I photographed it with an “incorrect” white balance to get a blue photo. (Figure 8)

Figure 8 Photo taken with higher Kelvin to get a blue photo
Figure 9 Creative process of the final illustration

In figure 9, I have used three different areas from my original images and combined them in Photoshop, all at different opacities, to create the final result that I feel is an interpretation of the essence of this music piece.

Figure 10 Finished iIllustration for Sonata No.14 “Moonlight” by Beethoven

Typography

I have selected two sans-serifs fonts for the CD-cover to complement the delicate illustration.

Figure 11 Finished piece

In conclusion, the Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight” in C-Sharp Minor, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven was a challenging piece to illustrate by capturing the mood and feel of the music, but I feel that this artwork will work as an illustration for an album cover.

Reference

Biography.com Editors, 2021. The Biography.com website. [Online] 
Available at: https://www.biography.com/musician/ludwig-van-beethoven
[Accessed 7 November 2021].

Leave a Reply