Drawing From Music

Another task that I have been set over Christmas is to find a piece of music that relates to my book in some way (film soundtrack, related to the period the book is based in, period, etc.). Then draw this piece of music in Illustrator, I am to repeat the exercise 5 times for each song (15 drawings in total). However, as I didn't have access to Illustrator over Christmas, I chose to physically draw the music using marker pens and then scanned them in and edited.

In order to get an idea of how to create illustrations based on music, I researched into the artist Cornelius Cardew; Treatise. Treatise is a 193 page long graphical notation composed between 1963-67. The instructions for the ensemble note that Treatise is "for any number of musicians with any instruments, [and] may be performed in whole or in part." Inspired by political and philosophical beliefs, Cardew demonstrates that even though the work allows you to interpret it in your own way, prior to performance a joint planning meeting should be held.

I really like the abstract aesthetic of these illustrations. The contrast in the line weights shows how the music pitch/instruments may change from deep to high. The shapes could also represent this; the contrast between the big black circles and the thin straight lines. I have worked in a similar way in terms of abstractness and shape.

These are my drawings. I chose to create my drawings using marker pens as I wanted my lines and colours to look more intense than if I were to use pens or pencils. For each book I chose to listen to my favourite song from the each movies soundtrack; for The Lion King I listened to 'Hakuna Matata', for Cinderella I listened to 'A dream is a wish your heart makes' and for Aladdin I listened to 'A whole new world' I found the process extremely enjoyable as I was able to listen to Disney music while at the same time draw, I was surprised how different each drawing turned out.

These are my favourite drawings for each book. Order; The Lion King, Cinderella, Aladdin. I used colours that I felt related to each movie as well as the song. I used greens, oranges and yellows for The Lion King to represent the jungle and the upbeat tune of Hakuna Matata. For Cinderella I used pinks, peach, reds and yellows as Cinderellas voice in the song is very soft while also hitting high notes on the chorus. Lastly, I used blues, purples and reds for Aladdin to reflect Jasmine and Aladdins main outfit colours, also because of the deeper pitch of Aladdins voice in the song, compared to Jasmines.