Self Defined- Development and presentation of final design

Story board for possible animation over the walls of the National Theatre

Initially I thought about just having a trail of pebbles going across the walls of the National Theatre, however I did this story board to illustrate the possibility of transforming the design into an animation. The idea was to have the design projected onto the walls with each pebble coming up one after the other like the trail Hansel and Gretel leave in the woods in order to find their way home. This trail could lead the viewer around the building perhaps to find hidden elements to do with the story to better illustrate its narrative. The projection displaying each pebble consecutively would lead the person in the intended direction showing them where to go to find the next section in the story. As I said earlier this might be a nice way of advertising the play to the public, involving them in playful way with the story, so that they might be encouraged to buy tickets to watch the theatre's performance.

This kind of interactive narrative experience/installation could be applied to other plays shown at the theatre and as the designs will be projected the possibility of the imagery being difficult to remove had been eliminated. Also as the building is grade 1 listed, presenting the surface design as something material that could be fixed on the wall might be futile anyway as sticking something on the building's exterior may not be allowed. At least by projecting the design, it is not permanent and can be altered when the plays inside the theatre change.

Painted pebbles using watercolour to use for the final design.

I liked the way the pebbles turned out because I felt like the deep blues and greens went with the atmosphere 'Hansel and Gretel' and the colours that other artists also envisioned when creating work inspired by story. However I do think that the colours are maybe a bit too intense and there could be more of a contrast in tone or perhaps this could have been applied in more of a subtle way by watering down the colours and using less pigment.

I always seem to do things in extremes and get carried away with the process by trying too hard to illustrate all the shadows I see. How I depict tone and colour in my watercolour paintings is therefore something to work on.

Initial application of pebbles on building

Edited application of pebbles on building, merging the imagery with woodland.

I am not sure if I like this version better that the initial applications of the trail of pebbles on the building however I feel like how this imagery blended with the forest better illustrates the story. The pebbles almost seem to be reflecting what is in the surrounding environment in the story and I like how it adds additional depth to the piece as a whole as the pebbles almost act as a portal into the invented world/narrative of Hansel and Gretel. 

If I were to expand this project further I could make a mock up of an animation that would show the sequence of pebbles as they would appear on the National Theatre walls. I'd also like to be a bit more playful with where they appear, not just showing up on the walls but also the floor outside of the building and under the roofs of the platforms like in the design shown above.

Self Defined- Mock ups and sketches for final outcome

For the development of my final design I did some digital sketches over the photographs I took of the National Theatre, inspired by the detailed preliminary sketches done by Christo and Jeanne-Claude before the production of their large scale fabric installations. 

The design above was based around the point in the story where Hansel and Gretel leave a trail of bread crumbs in order to find their way back home through the forest. However as there are birds in the forest, they come along and eat the bread crumbs and therefore the path they created disappears, leaving them lost in the forest. To illustrate this idea I thought about having a trail of bird foot prints in white following a disappearing trail of bread crumbs. As the foot prints are in white they give the impression that they are invisible or fading into the surface representing the vanishing path.

The second mock up features a forest photographic and watercolour mixed media piece placed on another one of the National Theatre's walls. If I were to take this project further it might be nice to think about having a narrative going across all the walls of the building. Therefore there must be a uniformity of colour and imagery throughout all of the surface designs which is something I would have to consider when expanding the project.

Self Defined- Primary research photographing the National Theatre

I found this particular angle of viewing the building interesting as this is the sort of idea I was thinking about for the final design, layering natural imagery such as a forest or trees over the plain concrete walls of this Brutalist architecture.

The are a few instances of nature in the area however as plants are seasonal it might be nice to have a surface pattern design featuring nature present all the time. Despite London's unpredictable weather, passers by will be reminded of the beauty of nature + colours that come with it even if the surrounding environment has no leaves and flowers are not in blood. People will also be able to benefit from the calming qualities of nature imagery as they walk by a busy part of an already busy city.

This building itself was quite hard to photograph because it was so big with little room either side to stand back and take pictures. I therefore decided to photograph it from angles where the view of the walls was clear enough for me to later sketch designs on top of.

I did find some examples of where artists have already been commissioned to produce work that brighten up the area adding a bit of life and colour to this otherwise quite dull and grey environment. Like Christo and Jeanne-Claude they have worked with the already existing environment and based their ideas around it. In the first example part of the building and stair case has been coloured yellow and in the second the abstract bench almost doesn't function as a bench and rather acts as a frame highlighting different aspects of the landscape.

After visiting the building I realised that with so many walls, the building provided multiple surfaces in which to showcase my eventual design. I therefore thought it might be a good idea to have a narrative along the different walls of the building that people could follow as they walked past or around it. This could also be extended to the other buildings in the area and maybe if I were to take the project further it might be a nice idea to have a narrative displayed along all the buildings along this part of the river.

Because one of the main themes in 'Hansel and Gretel' is being lost in the woods it might be a nice idea to have certain images hidden under the roofs of the parts of the building that stick out. That way the people who walk past will actively have to look of the designs and it might be a fun way to get people involved with the stories being performed at the theatre. This therefore might be a good way of advertising the performances to the public.