WASTELAND WANDLE
Alongside my group project I wanted the opportunity to improve my observational drawing skills and to have a break from all that digital drawing... So I worked on this at the same time!
INITIAL RESEARCH
For this project I decided to do
mini brief 4 which focuses on observing a sequence in a location. I knew I would be going back home over the easter holidays so decided to focus on a significant part of my local area. That being the river Wandle- a chalk stream river tributary of the Thames that runs from south London and also directly opposite my house.
Firstly I went on walks along it collecting visual research in the form of photos and drawings. This way I could examine my drawings and photos to spot a pattern/sequence.
^ ILLUSTRATIONS ALONG THE RIVER WANDLE
^ GIF
I found myself interested in the flowing water and how I could capture this in different ways so made this GIF- it's a pretty shallow idea though but was a fun experiment that I thought might lead on to more.
^ PHOTOS
As you can see the river is pretty run down and neglected in my area and I found myself drawn to this as a focus. Also on my walks I saw posters pinned along the paths detailing the pollution and warning people of the dangers.
RESEARCH INTO POLLUTION
This theme of pollution in the river was becoming an obvious focus for me so I engaged in further research.
These posters I kept seeing were a response to a very recent incident of a major diesel spill. This event was super local to me as I live by Poulter park (See below), so was even more important to document in this project.
This major event was well documented in local news as it isn't something they can really ignore. But my whole childhood has been witness to fly tipping, illegal fishing, building on floodplains causing flooding, road run-off and other issues that the environmental agency hasn't responded to at all.
Looking at other online sources-
Water is arguably our most precious natural resource — yet pollution of our freshwater habitats runs rampant. In 2020, no river in England and Wales was classed as being in good overall health.- THE RIVERS TRUST
To further investigate I looked at another River in the UK that's important to me- The Avon. Recently having moved to Bristol I wanted to see whether it's treatment was comparable.
Ok, so the river Wandle isn't uncommon in it's neglect- could the project become a statement for the whole issue? It's own microcosm for the wider UK?
Inspired by this new focus I created some more artworks recording such issues.
^ I made these postcards to send to locals on the Wandle related to littering based on my photos.
I ended up not really liking the style and idea I thought it was a bit boring and obvious and I much preferred the impact of the initial black and white sketches I did.
^ I like these illustrations more but without context the idea doesn't come across.
After a tutorial with Phil I decide to carry on with this style and use illustrations similar with a possible splash of colour to highlight the issues. Unlike these however they will be portrait to fit in a zine.
My zine will be about pollution in the Wandle and overall pollution in UK rivers. It's aim will be to educate and raise awareness. I think that imagery speaks for itself, but to contrast with the pollution I liked the idea of having poetry about nature next to the images further driving the point that the reality of UK rivers is no longer clear beautiful and safe but is actually kinda gross. Each page will have a sort of theme linking to the type of pollution (litter, diesel spill, sewage)/ whats being "done" to stop it.
^ MORE PHOTOS I COLLECTED (focus on litter)
^ PHOTOS SHARED WITH ME ON FACEBOOK WANDLE GROUP
^ SKETCHBOOK PAGES I decided to make the spreads pretty simple all black with a little text so that the drawings are the focus.
^ Map of main English Rivers for the information page. I wanted to put one at the end based on my research to give more context to the zine. I ended up not using it as I didn't think it fit in with the vibe of the other illustrations as they're all landscapes and I think this is too detailed for a page where the text is the focus. I changed it to a simple wash of watercolour inspired by the diesel spills and I made the page white to stand out.
^ Front cover planning, I decided to name my zine Wasteland Wandle which I think is pretty self explanatory. For the front cover I wanted it to be a little different to the inside, I ended up liking the idea of showing how people interact with the Wandle as it IS such a beloved part of my community despite it being grimy. I personally wouldn't swim in it now (others still do) but as a child i used to play in it a lot and I found a photo showing this, so I thought it would be nice to make this the cover.
FINAL ZINE
^SPREADS
ZINE FLIP THROUGH
https://issuu.com/frankienapolitano/docs/untitled_design_4_
VISUAL ESSAY EVALUATION
During this Visual Essay module I worked on two projects simultaneously. This was a unique challenge in balancing the workload but as I am passionate about both themes, it motivated me to continue with both.
Go with the flow, our group zine archive on menstruation experiences, exceeded my expectations. This was my first time working as a collective and as I found out, it has many merits. We were able to bounce ideas off each other which further developed our proposal research and we were able to create a much more detailed outcome with 36 pages. This was my first time working with Riso print so I have learnt a useful new skill, whilst also developing my ability to use comic journalism. However I think we could have improved on the structure of the zine, it would have been better to plan a wireframe of the whole thing instead of jumping into the spreads straight away.
In my individual project, Wasteland Wandle, I got to refine my documentational illustrative skills and conduct research into pollution in rivers. I think the monochrome art with colour highlighting the pollution and the contrast with the nature poems helps to document how disgusting rivers have become and like my aim, educates people on this. Although ‘finished’ I want to possibly continue with this project, extending it beyond the small, fairly unaffected River Wandle and looking further into these water companies who profit off the destruction of our rivers, this would add much more depth and get my point across better which is why the zine unfortunately remains unprinted.
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