'How the UK teaches languages' - When I saw this title, I had a bunch of ideas coming to me, but I couldn't see how they would come together. It was a mish-mash of flags, schools, greetings and common phrases. Then, I started thinking about typography and how I could experiment with combining different lettering to illustrate the word 'hello' in different languages.
The editor, for this article, asked me 'would it be possible to add a person or even the outline of a person into the illustration?' , and I was so glad that she had asked me this question. It made me realise that for languages to taught and used, it requires people - this all seems very obvious, right? I was also confused as to why I didn't consider incorporating this in the first place, since I enjoy portraiture. So, I immediately responded 'Yes,'.
The next day, I made sure to block some time to produce a mind map - as I find this as a great technique to group ideas, produce more ideas and even visualise a developed outcome.
World. Communication. Community. These were some of my first branch of thoughts. I started building a cluster of words and phrases around them and I could see that it came down to one word. People. This reminded me of the question I was asked as well as the importance of social interaction.
To grow my mind map further, I searched for the definition of language.
'A system of communication used by a particular country or community,'
This encouraged me to think about how crucial this system is in building a community and making people feel at home. This concept of togetherness brought me closer to the idea of drawing a group of people, as opposed to one. Later, I came across this:
'languages is not the creation of one person or of one period but … hundreds of generations and countless individuals,'
I am not sure if it was that I had already mentally decided that I wanted to draw a group of people, but reading this made me grow closer to this idea. At this point, I was also drawn to the idea of illustrating children as I thought about how we learn language/languages through social interaction in early childhood. For me, I have always been encouraged by my parents to speak in my mother tongue, Tamil, with them. However, as a child I didn't understand why it was important. I would only speak in English with my siblings and my grandma would scold at us for this. It was only when I visited Sri Lanka that I understood the true power of this. I was more approachable, which meant that I could have conversations with the people around me and learn more about them. I felt this sudden guilt that perhaps my grandma felt left out when we spoke in English in front of her. I still do speak in English with my siblings at home - it's a habit - but being able to communicate in Tamil with my parents is something that I am grateful for. From these thoughts, I confirmed the concept of illustrating a group of children.
When I started this drawing, I was a little anxious because I could see different postures and facial expressions to what I have practiced before. Having said this, I was also feeling quite excited because I hadn't produced an outcome involving various gestures.
One of the key skills I took away from a life drawing course at my secondary school was to simplify the body into basic shapes. You can see how I used rectangles to represent the fingers and circles to represent knees, elbows and the palm of a hand. This technique encouraged me focus on the postures of each child as well as how their positions are related to one another.
Having changed the reference image into a group of shapes, I was able to look at each feature individually and modify the shape, and add detail. Soon, the hands and legs that I was afraid to draw didn't seem as challenging. However, I did find myself struggling with drawing the facial features. My recent portraits were focused on young adults - so the facial features for this drawing included proportions that were different to what I am used to. For example, the eyes appeared much larger in comparison to the the tip of the nose. By making such comparisons, I was able to understand the proportions better and I started feeling more comfortable with drawing children.
Despite the challenges associated with illustrating postures, the excitement of drawing the huge smiles and laughter that I could see in the reference image kept me going. It was certain details such as the checked dress, fringe and peace fingers that made me feel nostalgic about my childhood and ,in a way, it motivated me to create a piece where everyone can find something that they can relate to - whether it was the children or the hellos that I was going to surround the pencil drawing with.
To decide which lettering would be best for the surrounding hellos, I first developed a mood board on Pinterest. When I was looking through the images, I tried to keep an open mind and started saving anything that I found interesting - it didn't have to match the pencil drawing. This way I could spot what elements and colours I preferred.
Using this mood board, I sketched out 'hello' several times. This process helped me to identify that I wanted simplicity within the lettering. One that would have some sort of bold element to remind you all of the various languages, whilst not drawing too much attention away from the pencil drawing.
Through sketching, I was also able to practice writing out 'hello' in different languages. I hope I have got these correct - please do let me know if I've made a mistake! I'm happy to make any changes.
For the background, I was planning on blending soft tones of yellow, blue and orange - but once I started applying the bright yellow, I was amazed at how well it brought the graphite drawing and the surrounding words together. So, I stuck to adding tones of yellow only. Swipe to see the illustration with and without a yellow background - do you agree?
Although this illustration may not directly address how UK teaches languages, it aims to emphasise the importance of languages to build a community, spread ideas and engage with other cultures.
Having completed this illustration, I have really become drawn to the idea of drawing communities. I have been able to see how this can help to build a scene. Importantly, it can demonstrate how energy from one person is reflected in another and how we can react differently.
Previously, I had mentioned about exploring facial expressions of individuals and now, I would like to expand this to groups of people. Let me know in the comments if you agree this concept could be better?
Click here to read the article on the history of the education system and how this has influenced the way languages were and are are taught in the UK :)
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