HBillustrationsBCU

Hollie Broadway-Stringer- Illustrator-BCU

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Evaluation

Mythic visions-

In this project, I produced a collection of concept art and development art for a movie I had dubbed ‘Blood Bonds’. This is a take on the Grim Brother’s tale of ‘The Seven Ravens’. The plot is mostly the same but changed in many ways, I feel I have added depth and a better plot to the tale as I made it a personal duty to cover and fill in all the plot holes and making new plot points that could be played with more.

In this project, I ventured into the middle east- looking as Islamic and Hindu culture: their numerology, their architecture and their myths. The more I researched, the more things started to fit together; the Hindu faith (especially in marriages) Look to the stars for guidance, often booking their weddings on days where they think the gods will favour their ceremony- this is something that fits in with my story as the princess travels to the land of the Gods, meeting the stars that guide and influence their lives.

I have also used my personal accounts in this story, using first hand research into temples of the middle east and African origin. This, I believe, added a special touch to the story and made me understand that if you want the viewer to see it then you must see it first.

This project is one I have greatly enjoyed; mostly due to the way it has allowed me to unleash my inner storyteller. 
I have always enjoyed telling stories wether it be writing them, drawing them or speaking them, so it is no surprise that I enjoyed this brief. However, I still felt as if I wasn’t putting in enough effort. While in previous projects I would live and breathe them- with this one I felt as if I was holding back just a bit and it felt as though I was back in Level 4 on my first project. To be honest, I felt a bit lost. This could be due to the freedom of the brief or perhaps due to the break we had in between levels. Another problem I encountered was the fact that I was caught between two targets: I was caught between aiming for a western cartoon or a movie concept throughout most of my project. I felt as if this clouded my judgement a bit due to the fact that I had no clear aim- the two have very different visual voices and not knowing which one to go for didn’t help.

Either way, I felt as if I could have done better on this project but nonetheless I am proud of the work I have produced. In this project I discovered a way of working digitally that both I and members of the course and of the public are happy with. I feel I have learnt a lot more in this project skill wise than I have in any of the others.

Editorial

In this project, we were instructed to choose an article and present an illustration based upon its contents. I chose an article based around the subject of OCD. 
 This project, I felt, was a refreshing break away from the narrative mind set that I always seem to carry (although I feel as if I couldn’t get away from it as some people said that my final outcome clearly showed this mind set). I greatly enjoyed picking away at the article to uncover the key words that link together and show James Lloyd’s true feelings about the mental disorder.

I dived deeper as well, looking into personal accounts of the disorder and linking it to Lloyd’s account. This, I felt, gave me a better perspective on the thing as a whole- looking into true stories on how people live with the disorder and getting away from the dangerous misrepresentations that the media have thrusted upon us- something that Lloyd spoke about in his article- how people view this condition as an organised cd rack and not a monster whispering in your ear about terrible things that you know wont happen but can’t help but think about anyway. Overall, this project was a good one even if I feel as if it wasn’t ‘Editorial’ enough.

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Final Piece After the critique session and being told to be messier, draw attention to the boat, add some lights ect. I decided to completely redesign it and recolour it. By doing this I became a bit looser- I didn’t use the blur tool and let rip with mess. I highlighted the man and the boat a bit more by making it bigger and also highlighting the man by making him dress in yellow galoshes. The neurones look less like neurones and more like weird lightning- which I think would be okay; the audience is interested in science- all of them probably avid readers of multiple journals and so would make the link. 
In this version the Brain is not as prominent but is still there.

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Environmental design- The Edge of the world

This is the environmental design for the edge of the world.  ‘You must travel to the edge- the boundary between our world and theirs. To where the sand hisses and where the stars walk on the clouds.’

In early mock ups, I intended for the edge to be composed of water- it being. waterfall where the ocean drops off the earth, but I realised that it seemed a bit too obvious- hence the sand.

This is the original concept for the ‘Edge of the World’ made from a mix of watercolours, graphite and fine liners. With this you can see that I intended for the rocks to have a tinge of blue- making them a little bit more special-as if they were rare and shows that the character is going somewhere not of this world.

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Sketchbook Dump- The road so far

Few interpretations from the dramatic reading of ‘The Seven ravens’, these were done rather quickly and I have far more from the reading of ‘Iron John’.

The inked scenes was my first idea when it came to the jug to collect the water falling in the river. Three sons standing on the river bank watching it.  Next to that is my first interpretation of what the Stars could look like.

However, after collection some primary research and deciding on the middle eastern theme, I decided to look back on my initial thoughts.

These are sketches from a statue currently in the Birmingham Museum and Art gallery. To keep up with the theme, I decided to design them in the style of the Hindu Gods, making them also have celestial names (as they are celestial beings after all) these names are after the ten top brightest stars in the sky, the leader being the North Star- Polaris, as it is the guiding star.

This is my first interpretation of the Sun- A Naga that I intend to redesign to make her scarier. Her colours would be sun related- mostly warm yellows and reds.

First mock up of the princess- until I realised that she is far too pale for my liking 

Here are some skin tone exercises and colouring tests, I like the first test as I believe it holds more depth to her skin tone.

I intend to further look into her facial features but I like her outfit design. 

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Direction for Mythic Visions

While I'm still hammering out the final details for the new story line, I feel I should make it more obvious about my visual narrative direction. While I would love for this to be a movie type thing, I believe it would be better suited as a tv show or a cartoon. I don't mean anime (though perhaps I will try out some mock ups) I would think this storyline and plot would be better suited for western animation, pointed more towards the young adults and up. This is purely due to the imagery I wish to include, It would need a mature audience. 

My Aim for this is to not make a final animation (though I would love to and if there is time I could do a mock up). My aim is to produce concept work for this story, things like:

Environmental design

character design

monster design

storyboards for scenes that I already have a vision for

For storyboards, I have already began looking at the magic behind my favourite animations.  For Example:

This is a story board from the western animation ‘Avatar the Legend of Aang’ produced by Nickelodeon. This cartoon has always been a personal favourite and seeing it like this shows me how much work (and the simplicity) behind the scenes.  I would like to produce something like this, including dialogue and action- notes for the animators.

Another storyboard system I looked at is ‘Attack on Titan’ made by Wit studio. 

This story board system is read right to left, from the top of the page to the bottom. The notes are on the frames and there is more frames than the western studio (this could be the later development stage rather than mock ups).  There is also a splash of colour added to show the shadows and highlights in the scene- again this is probably in further along in development stages than my other example. 

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Creatures Research

I’m still hammering out the details of the actual story line (due to me changing it) but I am striving to include Arabian Mythology as I believe that by using some of the creatures in the story it could tie up loose ends that the original plot left unravelled.  I also believed this theme would be refreshing, getting away from the traditional backdrop of fairy tales that take place deep in the woods.

Why did the sons turn into ravens?

If it wasn’t obvious, I chose the story of ‘The Seven Ravens’- a story in which a father curses his seven sons to turn into ravens only for his daughter to later go on a quest to find them and bring them home. 

A big thing that stuck out to me was the reason why the sons actually transformed- it was vague in the original (some variations blamed a witch) but I came up with the solution of a wish that was never meant to be granted, for this I had to research into the Jinn (Or Djinn- angelic).

The Jinn are in a world of their own, not quite angels and also not quite humans. They look humanoid and have the ability to choose between good and evil, many mythological studies dictate that there are both good and bad Jinn, but they all came from the same place.  The Angels were born from light and man from clay, but the Jinn were derived from ‘a smokeless flame’.

The Jinn were created before mankind as the smokeless flame continued to burn and create the scorching flame from which mankind was made with. 

However, there are many different Origen stories for the Jinn, some that actually tie in well with the plot of my story.  Some say that the good and bad Jinn were created from mankind’s good and bad intentions or that the word ‘Jinn’ was also another name for the souls of the planets. With this it I created a rule: That the feelings behind a wish can change it’s nature- bad feelings no matter what the wish can taint it- a clear emotion must be present as a Jinn and their master have an emotional tether to one another.

With this, the father’s psyche comes through, his bad feelings and everything he didn’t want (disobedient sons) are highlighted as they turned into ravens- what most cultures revere as pests, nothing more than something that eats their crops and scavenges from the dead.

Muhammad al-Bahi also said that one could not differentiate between the Jinn and the angels and that they were one entity- he said that this was because they were both invisible to mankind (for the purpose of my storyline, the Jinn only appear visible when they wish)- This could influence the Half-Jinn sons later on...

The Qur’an actually mentions the marriage between a human and JInn (The father and the Mother in my story) and only revere it as ‘strange’ but none the less frowned upon- Allah created the human race to copulate with its own species, because of this, the wife’s identity is to be kept a secret from the kingdom.

Djinn abilities: 

Most references tell that the Djinn possess powers that a human could never wish to have:

Great speed 

Can go to the lowest levels of heaven to eavesdrop on the angels

Can take on the shapes of humans and animals- they can control how they appear- the black dog is their favourite attire

they cannot go beyond the limits set for them (like humans)

they are responsible for their own actions- they were created for the same purpose- to worship Allah. This means that they are to perform some acts and refrain from others.

(Information from: http://www.thejinn.net/into_the_world_of_jinn.htm )

With the other creatures however, I may have just taken snippets of their origins and rewritten them for the purpose of the story:

Sol the Sun Goddess: 

In the original version, the princess travelled into the kingdom of the sun but turned away when it was too hot and when she discovered it ate little children. In my version, the sun still eats people- not just children- but humans as a whole.  In fact, I have made it quite clear in my story notes that the Gods love the taste of their own creations-adding danger to the environment.  In my story, she doesn't accidentally find the sun, she seeks her. The Goddess Sol.

 This goddess is a Naga, half snake and half woman. She is also giant and resides in her desert temple surrounded by high cliffs.  I wanted to have a beast that resides in a hot environment and one that sticks with my theme of eastern mythology. 

Sun Goddess Update

Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto:

This god is the moon fish God from Japanese mythology.  This God is an actual thing but I won't be using its origins at all. This version of my moon exists in a cold, icy tundra (like in the original, it was too cold for her). It erupts out of the ice in my story, trying to eat the princess. 

Design ideas on the way.

Moon development

I wanted the Moon to be aquatic (To link to the ocean) and so I looked at Ghost koi (due to their size and their ties to Asia)  This later developed digitally:

I very messily hashed out the colours for the Moon God- deciding on a mixture of blues and white as I want it to appear as if it glowing- a natural luminescence that would only appear around a being of high power.

The different forms of the God are based on the phases of the moon- with a fuller moon the God becomes more aggressive (especially due to the Seven Riders bringing fear to the night and shadows)  

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Matte Painting

Matte painting is an art that film makers developed in the early 1900′s. It was used for budget reasons, having an artist paint in the rest of the canvas on a glass screen infant of a single eyed camera-using composition to their advantage.

This shot of ‘The Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was painted on a glass screen and used to give the illusion to the audience that there is a lot more to the scene. A matte painting was also used in Star Wars- A New Hope. The tractor beam scene was painted on glass. Matte painting was an obvious pioneering tool in the field of film with many artists ad matte painters being used to develop concept art and scenes- conforming to their employers (or their own) imagination.

The advancements in technology have only been kind to this method. With the use of graphics software and others like photoshop it only becomes easier for the artist to create scenes- clipping bits from real locations and merging them together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwx5gM67loM

This Video Almost makes it seem effortless and easy to do- I would like to attempt this process in the future using some of my primary research from the deserts in Egypt.

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Artist Inspiration

The aim for this project is for me to create work that could be used as reference for a movie or TV show- Concept art, which is why I began looking at the concept art for movies and shows that is similar to the movie/show I would want to produce. 

Valentin Petrov- Freelance concept artist-matte painter

 Petrov has worked on a variety of movies and projects (Alien Covenant, The Mummy, Guardians of the galaxy, passengers)  I especially like his environmental concept art as they hold such detail and imagination. The one above I especially like because in the world I am going to build (Land of the Gods) I want everything to be distorted- clearly a world made for giants or a whole array of creatures.

Gerhard Mozsi- Concept artist and matte painter that has been in the visual fx industry for 6 years working with films and games, currently working in Sydney, Australia.

What drew me towards Mozsi was his work in ‘The Gods of Egypt’.

His work shows a lot of glamour and light (its in sunny Egypt so obviously), another thing I liked was the size again, the statues and pillars tower over everything and everyone, with giant colossal structures it almost seems as if history had crossed over with fantasy. 

Justin Cherry- Concept artist I First saw Cherry’s work in the video game ‘Evolve’, like the way he draws the scenery as well as the monsters. His use of light and bioluminescence is also a beautiful skill that I hope to copy with some of my drawings.

His character designs also stand out to me as they are simple an feature no colour (unlike other character designs) but this doesn't mean that they lack detail- the details he includes are phenomenal, causing the viewer to keep unearthing hidden elements. 

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Editoral- Final work check

After choosing the ‘Brainstorm’ idea last week, we had a final critique session before putting an end to the project and carrying on with our chosen areas.

I learnt that:

I can't colour  The piece needs to be messier- nearly out of my comfort zone, incorporating textures to make it seem like a wild ocean.

Bring the boat into perspective- make it more obvious- look at boats and lighting--> make it a rescue boat???

Add more lighting in the water

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Neurone study.

These neurones are quick experiments that I conducted to try and see which one would fit the editorial piece more- I chose a design similar to the two top neurones as they resemble lightning more. 

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Research- Editorial

Now, While I am a firm believer of a client wanting an illustrator for their style and their unique skills, there is a different type of style when it comes to editorial pieces. 

I began looking into past illustrators for BBC Focus magazine- obviously a science magazine would look for a particular brand of illustrators, right?  Wrong.  Diversity with illustrations were very strong within this magazine, but a couple caught my eye. 

Sam Chivers ( http://samchivers.com )  Chivers’ work is vibrant and very different when it comes to style as some pieces are abstract, some hold deep metaphorical meaning and others are very literal.  A piece that caught my eye was ‘Human Universe’

This, I believed, fit well with the message I was trying to get across (I was more looking at if my idea would be accepted, not necessarily my style)  Although, I did notice that Chivers’ work is smooth, not blocky and only holds a little bit of ‘edge’ to it- not a lot of editorial illustrators do this and it gave me the incentive to go ahead and use my usual style- smooth with only a little bit of edge to it.

I then began looking at Filip Hodas. ( https://www.behance.net/Filiphds ) His collection titled ‘Pop Culture Dystopia’ also gave me confidence in my idea, as this collection featured a lot of well known things in places they shouldn't be (A brain in the sky), and even if his digital skills far out weight my own, we all have to start somewhere. 

I have looked at a number of other illustrators and even if they have not influenced my final piece, I still believe they need a mention:

Shaun Tan- The Lost Thing  I liked his compositions and visual language. 

Robbie Porter- Clever ideas  This illustration featured a man lying underneath a Brian surrounded by tools as if he was a mechanic fixing it. Porter uses a very limited palette and effectively uses textures to give the illustration a solid feel to it.

Dawid Planeta- Mysterious Dark Paintings This collection is filled with dark (both metaphorically and physically) paintings that seem almost soft to the touch with mist or smoke, this gave me the impression that a soft approach (no harsh lines or block colours) is okay.

Victo Ngai Ngai makes good use of lines, block colours and textures- everything an editorial illustrator seems to be good at- and while I didn't take these on board, I did gain a few ideas on composition from them. mostly from this piece:

While I understand that some of the illustrators I have researched are mostly from a more narrative base- I am still developing my skills and way of visually communicating with the audience.  I believe I have strong ideas but just need different ways of displaying them simply. 

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Mythic Visions

In this project I will be juggling this blog and another Instagram account (not my hobby one). 

To do:

Choose one of the Grim Fairytales (The Seven Ravens) 

Develop a narrative response- to be pointed towards a career pathway (Concept art and movie development) 

Share value driven content (best bits) online, demonstrating process in order to encapsulate your vision for the story. 

Curate compelling imagery and text aimed towards a potential client/ audience.

Exercise and develop a Visual Narrative Voice- create Iconic visuals that separates from the mainstream.

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LEECH BRAIN ™ 

Black lines- I tried to add texture to it to make it seem like an editorial illustration. 

After looking at more illustrators, I realised that they aren't a fan of black lines as much as I am- so I changed the colours of the edges of the folds- and I'm not sure what to think about it. 

Awaiting critiques...

EDIT:::::::

After a group critique and displaying both this idea and the ‘BrainStorm’ idea, it was decided for me to pursue the ‘BrainStorm’ piece as they felt it was a more developed idea and one that links to the article more. 

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BRAIN STORM 

I Like this idea. I like this idea a lot.  However, My tutor said that it didn't look like a traditional editorial illustration and so I looked up artists and realised that they use block colours, a limited palette and not a million layers. 

I am awaiting critiques...

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More refined ideas involving the LEECH BRAIN™ 

I started looking into different types of leeches and settled on a Chtonobdella Limbata- a type of leech found in New South Wales, Australia.  I chose this leech because it isn't poisonous or deadly (To highlight James Lloyd’s statement that the condition doesn't make anyone dangerous due to their morals) But the bite can cause irritation- just like OCD can cause anxiety. 

I also had another idea of a bird sleeping within the brain- in an egg to highlight the ‘million of birds’.

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Thumbnail sketches

These are some very rough ideas (and very early ideas) on the article.

We were told to not be so literal and to try and use symbolism in our work, which to be honest, was very hard to do; how can one not focus on the brain when talking about a mental disorder- people need to realise that this is an actual condition that effects the brain and a sufferer’s life vastly and without mercy.

Here we have a developing idea following Lloyd’s words of ‘LEECHES’ and so I thought of a brain with its folds slowly morphing into leeches to show the monsters and the brain’s wellbeing. 

Below you can see a brain being portrayed as an anchor- Lloyd stated that his mental health had sunk to depths that he wasn’t aware of- so its a brain pulling him down.

On the Right, you can see a boat in a storm with a rudder topped with a brain- the brain steering the sufferer through a toxic molotov of emotions.

Below that you can see a man slowly eroding away- based on the words ‘Erodes Your identity’ and so with my little knowledge of GCSE geography, I was going to have the bad thoughts and anxiety slowly wearing away the sufferer’s face as he just accepts it, because apparently thats all sufferers have been doing. 

After speaking with my Tutor, he advised me to try out the use of mirrors- perhaps showing that the sufferer was eroding into something only he saw (showing it was a mental disorder).

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Research...

As always, I love my research 

These are some of the refined notes after reading the article, picking up on some of the language and hidden meanings behind the article itself. 

Research on BBC Focus magazine- to get a sense of direction for my editorial illustration- by understanding the audience and also past illustrations I felt as if I had a better grasp on what to draw. I found out that the average age of the reader for the magazine is 37, meaning that the illustration must be mature with no unnecessary bright colours to catch eyes as one would incorporate in a a child’s magazine. 

I also did some research in to the mental disorder itself, realising that James Lloyd knew his stuff as what I found crossed over with the article. This shows that not only is Lloyd desperate to show that there is science behind this condition- he wants to show the difference between sufferers and trivialisations. 

I soon realised that OCD had many different branches and stories attached to each sufferer so I looked up other accounts of OCD on a charity website ( http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/community/stories ) so I could crossover their experiences with Lloyd’s so the article was more relatable and not just pinpointed on his experiences alone. 

Another story (one detailing that they had also lived with the condition, not knowing what it was for decades) - Maria says that her life was a mess- something far from the stereotypical views on OCD. 

On the right, you can see some rough sketches of a brain neurone- the beginning of an idea involving the language used by Lloyd; he referenced storms and water a lot in his article and so I began to think about a literal brain storm- But more about that later...