Animation Brief 01 - Week 1 - Research
After being formally introduced to the animation course and forced coerced to listen to Radiohead, it was time to crack on with the "World Building" brief itself. The first step in plan was a group trip to the Limerick City Library...
To be honest I'm still just a wreck of a person and insomnia has been kicking my ass. There are things I can do while sleep deprived but engage in social situations is just not one of them. I felt like I was starting to panic so I just called it a day and went home.
I didn't stop working however, and like any bad maths student I may not follow the correct process to get a given answer, but right or wrong; I'm still getting to that answer. So basically I made my best attempt at following step one of our brief's outline, just alone and tired.
Above: More Moomin art to lighten the mood...
So step one of the brief, and the whole reason we were supposed to go to the library was for research. Our tutor Yvonne Sweeney outlined this for us. The idea was to look through the children's section in particular and find an aesthetic or the inspiration for an aesthetic to emulate for our upcoming work.
Personally I love the aesthetic of children's media like picture books, so this suited me fine. There's something so raw about illustrations made with the idea of engaging little kid brains. I find a lot of the most memorable children's artists had something idiosyncratic about their style, something imperfect or unusual is more captivating than the opposite. You have to keep looking to satisfy the brain's desire for understanding; "what is it about this that makes it look off-kilter"?
So with all that in mind I went looking at children's books for research. There's a lot laying around my house, not just from my own childhood but my siblings as well. It's pretty fascinating to look back and try to examine why the media we consumed back then had the hold on us it did.
Above: The sin of Gluttony...
When thinking about books I read as a kid for some reason my mind goes immediately to the insatiable insect above. That cover is burned into my subconscious... Although until researching it for this project, I wouldn't have remembered how uncanny the catterpillar's face looks. It's cute in it's own way but also not unlike something you might see in a horror. I'm kinda reminded of the "redeads" from Ocarina of Time.
Above: I don't trust this guy's smile...
If I had to describe the art of Eric Carle in one word it'd probably be texture. Through the use of collage, his work takes on a very three dimensional, tactile quality. This was used to great effect in the Hungry Caterpillar book, with the titular character memorably biting holes out of the books pages.
Above: The flag of California I think
Beyond just what it evokes, on a technical level a lot of Eric Carle's stylistic traits line up well with the medium of animation. An animated scene is assembled, layered from foreground to background. In a simple shot moving these layers at different speeds can create the illusion of depth. This technique employs the parralax effect, having close objects appear to move faster than those further away. Similarly Carle's collage inspired aesthetic is all about layering, and the optical illusion of disparate parts making up a cohesive whole.
Above: The Dumping Ground
Another artist I wanted to highlight is Nick Sharratt, children's author and illustrator best known for providing the artwork for Jacqueline Wilson's Tracy Beaker books. I actually hadn't heard of Sharratt 'til now, despite having known his art forever. Sharratt employs a simple style with uniform line thickness and flat, vibrant colours. There's a loose, playful kind of energy to his work that I feel really speaks to children.
I was impressed to learn how dedicated Sharratt is to kid's media and education. He's been an ambassador for children's charity Theirworld for years, campaigning for children's right to a fair and equal education, regardless of gender, race or circumstance.
I don't actually know much about Yotsuba&! It's a long running Japanese manga series by Kiyohiko Azuma ostensibly aimed at children. It depicts the everyday adventures of a young girl named Yotsuba as she learns about the world around her, guided by her adoptive father, their neighbors, and their friends. I know a lot of people use it as a resource when learning Japanese because of simple, easy-to-understand nature and limited use of difficult vocabulary and grammar.
The art, like a lot of manga and comics in general, is more character than background focused. That said the covers have a lovely watercolour aesthetic with surprisingly muted colours for a children's series. I appreciate Azuma's emphasis on light and time-of-day in his illustrations. He recreates the world in the warm, optimistic light you'd expect from a child's perspective.
All that said, I'm pretty sure it's a series co-opted by 4chan type incels for whatever reason, so I'm somewhat uncertain about lumping it in here with genuine kids media.
Above: A more trustworthy smile
The last artist I'd like to mention is Tove Jansson, best known for her children's novel series Moomin, of which I've already posted some artwork above. Moomin is another one of those series I had no real contact with as a child. I stumbled across Jansson's work online, often seeing animated clips and illustration's of these bizarre yet deeply charismatic characters.
In some ways her artwork isn't the most suitable for this project, as her illustrations are dominated by the character with the background being there only to frame them. It's exactly because of this though, that I find her backgrounds so appealing. They represent a kind of warped space, where reality contorts itself around her characters.
Jansson was also prolific, producing many paintings and illustrations outside her domain of children's books. What I find fascinating about her work is that you can see the same elements appear whether she was working in service of children, adults or no one in particular. That in itself may be getting at what made her such a powerful children's artist, she created art in her own single minded vision, unperturbed about what others might think. I feel that philosophy is at the heart of creating authentic children's media.
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