Expanding the idea

I like the thaumatrope idea but I’m also considering other types of childhood ephemera such as playing cards, toy theatres and jumping jacks.

At the moment I’m taking the imagery from charcoal studies based on Victorian illustrations. So far I’ve concentrated on those that emphasised the effects of alcohol on the drinker and their families but the temperance literature I’ve been reading also talks about the 'beneficiaries', the publicans and brewers etc. 

So I thought I’d have a go at an image suitable for ‘Miss ......., the publican’s daughter’.

If she benefits from the proceeds of alcohol sales I figured she should be well dressed so I made a drawing based on a Victorian fashion illustration. But I thought she should be a bit over the top so I went back to a process colour pallette for the monoprint.

Far too garish. She reminds me of Grayson Perry's Claire on a bad day. And she lacks definition, she needs some linear drawing.

I bit of experimenting with photoshop and I've managed to change the charcoal drawing into a  halftone screen and lay it ontop of the scan of the monoprint. The line improves the image and the half tone dots are reminiscent of the appearance of the chromolithographic process.

And I've done the same to my drunk man on a chair.