Untranslatable Words

Initial Ideas Moodboards:

I started off drawing imagery surrounding the ideas outlined within my project proposal such as the zodiac, constellations and makeup before moving more towards the idea of illustrative photography and adventure having found the following quote: 

"The world is not made up of atoms. It is made up of TINY STORIES. "

I liked the idea of creating a little book full of inspirational quotes and imagery similar to the above moodboard on the right. 

Whilst researching I stumbled upon this post on Pinterest which illustrated 11 foreign words not translatable into English:

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I liked this idea of being lost in translation and started researching into it further, drawing up some initial sketches for words which interested me. Along the way I found another words list linking to a blog called Wordstuck which illustrates interesting words using gifs or appropriate photos. I've included some of the ones that caught my attention in particular. 

Subject Research:

Lost in Translation Moodboard

Faye Johnson and Mike Redmond: I like the book format this work is presented in, the concept of illustrating old english words is similar to the idea of foreign words in translation so this is useful. I also like how simple the drawings are, especially the reduction into black and white, which is something maybe I can take away from this.

Jess Gough: I love the concept behind this piece of work, based on the contradicting ideas of fernweh (ache to travel to places you've never been) and heimweh ( homesickness). I really like the format of the work also and would be interested in presenting mine as a newspaper too.

Brief Sketches: 

"Waldeinsamkeit: The feeling of being alone in the woods"

Trying to focus on the grain and neatening it up a little.

Tutorial Feedback: 

Looking at the brief sketches it was decided that landscape drawings would be the best direction, however the words are primarily more object based overall so I like the idea of focusing on just the one word Waldeinsamkeit.