Medium that is working best- Charcoal with inks

Medium explorations

water colors with soft pastels on top

Poster paints with outlining and soft pastels with charcoal strokes

soft pastels completely, with charcoal strokes

colored inks

charcoal with ink wash

Narrative Page 1- 16

Page 1-2        Agumbe is a small village located in the Shimoga district, Karnataka. The village is surrounded by the majestic rainforest of the Western Ghats, they are known for the conservational attempts and the study of medical plants Agumbe is located in a hilly wet region, It has tropical climate April being the hottest month, December being the coolest and monsoons during July receives the highest rainfall of… you wouldn’t understand if I said the average being 2,697mm but imagine the water level of a nine foot cauldron the size of Agumbe village slowly rising  till the brim in a month’s time. It’s recorded as one of the bio diversity hotspots of India.

In Agumbe, Romulus Whitaker a herpetologist had created a wildlife research centre known as the Agumbe Rainforest Research Society (ARRS), it is now a field based conservational and research organization in attempt to create a biodiversity database and conserve the rainforest of Western Ghats. What’s more fascinating about these guys is their methodology of conducting these researches, they believe that as researchers; its vital to observe a specie without disturbing them, as they carry out their mundane activities in their own natural habitat, it is only then you can make an accurate assumption of their behavioural aspect compared to putting them in a glass jar, where they must and only be on ‘survival mode’ as you have extracted them from their homes

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Page 3-4       Apart from the overflowing forests on the Western Ghats there are these unique patches of land that compared to the forest are rather more open with lesser trees and more grass, also known as grasslands, go figure. The reason for this unknown but the land unlike the forest is embedded with laterite stone. These patches are commonly termed as ‘wastelands’ and are assumed so by the locals too. This particular grassland patch in Agumbe is termed as revenue land, its open to people for buying and selling of the land. What people sometimes fail to understand is that just because it may feel like barren land, there are no creatures, there is no life but these grasslands are always erupting with different kinds of species, ecological cycles and ecosystems. Just because we cannot see it with our naked eye, does not mean it does not exist. It does, and you will not believe it once you get exposed to it.

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Page 5-6      The grasslands are some of the most versatile landscapes you will ever encounter. The face of the land during summers is so strikingly different compared to during the monsoons. They go through a complete makeover according to seasons. In summers, the palette is more yellow, grey with the scorching heat ways and tick bites. Whereas the monsoons are completely green, enveloped with fog and rain and leeches that can grab on to you at any given moment. And after all this, almost like a gift from the beyond; is the post monsoons, when these large beds of grass have tiny white flowers peeking out from the tips, turning the entire place into a wave of white.

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Page 7-8    The grassland acts as a perfect habitat setting for ground nesting birds, Ground nesting birds, are birds that build their nest on ground rather than on trees as their feet are not equipped to sit on trees, they can still fly mind you, they just prefer lower grounds, and because they prefer lower ground and nest on lower surfaces, unlike the nest in trees, these birds need open space, distance from trees and neighbouring predators that reside and hide themselves in shrubs and bushes. The grasslands become an exceptional place to practise camouflage; the grass matches the colour of their bodies and conceals them from the naked eye.

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 Page 9-10    All creatures have their unique ways of using their environment to camouflage, and because so the Lapwing’s tend to be more protective of their nest, as they are on the ground, and become more  accessible to ground and flight animals. The open ness of the grasslands gives the Lapwings an advantage of looking around and spotting threat, if there are any. Compared to that of the rainforest as everything gets conceal and the chances of getting predated are much higher compared to the grasslands.

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Page 11- 12   The lapwings arrive to the grasslands for one fundamental reason which is breeding.

They use the space to find mates, to nest and take care of hatchlings until they grow and are ready to depart right before the monsoon starts and turns the yellow-grey grasslands into green.

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Page 13- 14   The first step to this practice is Courtship, which means finding a mate. Now before we proceed let’s get familiarized to the terminology.

Feeding: well we already know meaning of feeding, Lapwings generally feed on termites and other kinds of invertebrates found in the laterite stones.

Trivia: . By this time the lapwings are actively moving around the grasslands feeding,  sometimes in pairs, sometimes by themselves and even in small groups, the lapwings can get quite communal about these activities, they mostly come in groups of four, while one lapwing is looking out for threats. This activity is conducted by taking turns.

Preening: is when they turn their heads around and use their beaks to clean the feathers, it’s their form of hygiene and keep themselves clean.

Calling: not the kinds we do on phones, but very similar. Lapwings are very communicative to each other, they use their calls to grab each other attention.

Trivia: The lapwings have different calls for different reasons, they use their calls to attract each other during courtshiping, where as they use their calls to alert and sometimes scare predators away

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Page 15-16      Infact they are so alert during this period that even if you entered the grasslands and the closest lapwing is a kilometre away, the lapwing will spot you. And announce your arrival to the rest. They are territorial creatures and usually always aware of their surroundings. And they are in constant communication with each other.

FeedBack Sonalee & Arpita

In terms of form.

- some kind of take away

- disseminating information, a part taken from the book.

- create impact through form

- something interactive (weather cards, temperature cards)

  

In terms of size

- small, efficient, engaging

- examine how people use things 

In terms of Narrative and Story board

- the perspective of the writing.

ex: Lapwings are incredibly adjusting to constant changes in the grassland due to the constant human interaction

Lapwings are being forced to adjust to constant changes in the grasslands due to constant human interaction

- tone of voice is shifting, its going from formal to informal.

in which case informal should have a extra bubble to explain the shift in voice.

-consistent approach

Questions such as; were asked:

If the lapwings get extinct then does it matter to us?

so what?

what is the point of knowing or learning all this information.

in return, i have to bring out the value of biodiversity and how it effects our life as humans.

Arpita.

- the soft pastel is working, charcoal working for lapwings and landscape.

- pick one persons visual style and follow it rather than exploring and trying.

- bring history of work in presentation. strting point to where i am right now

- sound solid (for seminar 2)

the beginning of the dummy book (pencil outlines)

Size: single page A3

Double spread A2

text: Agumbe is a small village located in the Shimoga district, Karnataka. And in Agumbe, Romululous Whithaker and herpetologist had created a wildlife research centre in 2005:  The Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, which is now field based conservation and research organization which is situated in the central Western Ghats. The Western Ghats being one of the biodiversity hotspots of our country. What is most fascinating of Agumbe Rainforest Reserch Station is their methodology of conducting these researches. They believe very strongly that the best form of research, is to observe the specie in its natural habitat without disturbing them. ARRS is home to many passionate scientists who are taking efforts in conserving and educating, it is also a brilliant place for apprentice to start up and get hands on experience.

Google map of grasslands.
text: And in the middle of the dense forest, there are patches of land that empty with lesser flora, and more open grounds. These unique patches of lands are known as grasslands, Grasslands, why is it described as  ‘grass’ ’lands’ is for the simple reason that the land is filled with grass. Aren’t there other places in the world that are also filled with grass? Like your next door neighbours backyard, or the local parks or even the bloody forest for that matter. So why is this particular land termed as the grasslands?

First and foremost, it was not humanly planted into the soil or intentionally cultivated, like our parks. This is wild grass that had spread across on its own leaving ways for trenches and ponds, giving birth to shrubs and small trees that are scattered around the open space unlike forests, which has trees and large ones growing in abundance. With everything together and compact unlike the grasslands, which is like a vast surface area of empty land, you may find some spots that are bursting with flora, like mini ecosystems of different kinds of trees sprouting from the ground, strategically laid across this vast land, just enough to say, that yes it’s a legit fact that the grasslands are erupting with biodiversity and the same time large open grounds filled with nothingness.




-Detailed Lapwing, with charcoal drawing with lapwing silhouettes sitting on the ground. with text explaining ground nesting bird and why they use the grasslands
-endemic specie.
-relationship with grasslands: camouflage

Predators found 

  - grassland vs rainforest
predators highlighted.

Feedback Narendra

Narendra had seen the outlines of first two spreads.


- Visuals are working, will need detailing while rendering as they are rather large in size.


- Hand written font looks too constructed, needs to be more organic. ( i think that since there is construction in the book, i could use the type to play with in that context)


- soft pastels


-texture of bird and lapwing is working in charcoal

Sketches

Story Board. 1-9

This spread shows Agumbe located in western ghats.

-biodiveristy hotspots, the methodology and approach of ARRS

with visual of researcher

Apart from the dense forest, there is unique piece of land also called as grasslands.

contrasting difference between grasslands and forest. 

Introducing the yellow wattled lapwings,ground nesting bird. and legs are not equipped for sitting on trees, relationship between lapwing and grass

and:

  

here will be a detailed sketch of the forest with birds and mammals that exists. compared to grasslands.

arrival to grasslands for a fundamental reason.

courtship meaning, feeding (what they feed on), preening calling
trivia

calling, trivia : calls of attraction

GL's as revenue land, open for buying and selling

ironically lapwings use man made enclosures, adjusting to changing situations
triva: sitting on ash

Refined version of previous illustration

Finalizing Illustration Style

After exploring various visual styles, non of which that resonated with me, I decided to go back to my basics : Charcoal. When it comes to Charcoal as a medium, it comes naturally to me and i have a steady hand. where as after exploring with this medium my critic to myself would be, that i need to explore various stroke styles for leaves and bushes etc.

After exploring the different imagery from the habitat, I sliced these images up and tried putting them together into a layout, where i could explore the relationship between text and image.

In the first one, the charcoal lapwings are getting rather lost in the black and white.

the second one compared to the third one, the largest lapwing being an image is giving a good balance in terms of contrast.

so the third one is working the most, and the overall critic is that, the outlining needs more refined and cleaner strokes. the image of the grasslands needs more detailing,  needs to be more crisp and the strokes of the bushes and trees can get better, also the outlining of the smaller lapwings can be more prominent too. The type can also get  more playful in terms of layout

Feedback from Anu. 12th Sep

During my feedback sessions with Anu, she really opened my eyes: on how I was looking at the content all this time. I have deconstructed the data sheet to and extent where everything is personally interpreted according to my needs and the way I believe the lapwings look at things, by the end of the day it is not the way the lapwings look at it. it is the way that I feel like the lapwings look at it.

there is a need for the analysis now, the neutral unbiased kind. this will in return give more value to the fact that this final product has indeed arrived from intensive research and hard working researchers.

Exploring Visual Styles II

The above illustrations are suppose to explain, how lapwings use their grasslands for camouflage. the first style is very generic. drawn the way the grasslands already look. where as, the second style is more like digital collage, I wondered if there was a way to do justice to amount of images provided to me by ARRS.

This is a more pop art approach, I was looking at drama here, as this style will speak for the lapwings point of view. Also here i was looking at a black, white, grey and yellow color scheme.
and the one below was explorations of white outlines.

Quantifying and Organizing Information.

The information was always there, and it was presented to me from feb to june. to break out of this generic form of looking at information, I divided it according to the voice. The orange being the narrators voice. The pink being the lapwings voice himself and green being Uncle lapwings voice (trivia)

Feedback from Rom, Gauri and Dhiraj (MCBS) and class critic with Deepta, Arprita, Malvika and Abhishek

During our visit to Madras Crocodile back, we presented our work in progress. My main feedback was to explore being the Lapwing and also different perspectives. I was trying to understand what kind of information the scientist usually look for, as I am also trying to cater to this group. Apart from this, we spoke about the tangible form of this project. Something that gives you the point in 2 minutes, but by looking for longer you start dig deeper into the content. I have decided my final outcome, which will be an illustrative book/ picture book for young adults and above (and below). and also to fish out more case studies on Lapwings, mainly to understand the bird and secondary to see what kind of scientific information is out there, and to a layman, how does it get comprehended.

Class feedback: During my first draft of narrative writing, there was distinct distinguish between the voices, there is the narration, personal voice and factual information. The personal voice can play the voice of the lapwings and the narration can go on through out. During feedback session, it came up that this variation can get confusing and there should be a clear indicator to what is saying what, by forming a hierarchy in the voices. I have all the information, and I needed to quantify all the information collected and organize it. the size of the book was discussed and there is a very mutual energy of wanting the book to be bigger than regular sizes, opening up opportunities to explore forms within the book constrain. Also one of the voices should portray the desperation of the lapwings, who are loosing their habitat. My visual form so far, has a quirkiness to it that is making it humorousness.

Further Deconstruction/ collages

From the data sheet, few events and key words were picked up and transformed into this: I was exploring a more info-graphical form of communicating and exactly how much knowledge is passed on, by taking a glance at it.