Evaluation

The first idea in my project was to create a comic of the Masque of the Red Death. This idea received some planning but was pushed aside by other ideas and pieces within my work and research. Ultimately, I think this was very beneficial as it allowed my ideas to grow as more knowledge and skills were gained over the project, allowing me to develop the piece from a small idea into a strong final piece.

Most of the people who have seen my work have never read Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death", so it was interesting to see their reaction to the piece. By reading the text included on the piece and by viewing the characters and their surroundings, most seemed to gain an understanding of the story and it's themes. This is why I believe I have succeeded in creating a narrative piece as the viewer can understand the story without having read it previously.

Due to it's lack of dialogue and strict panel progression, I feel I have created a sequence of related illustrations rather than a "comic strip". Also, it's size is not typical of comic-book style due to it being so large. In addition to this, I think it is quite a subjective piece as by listening to classmates who looked at the work, I heard them discussing different theories of what was happening, who the characters are and what symbolic meaning could be in the story. The way the piece is produced is also very unlike comic-book style as it uses a lot of Dave McKean-inspired collage and traditional media such as varnish and acetate. The characters are drawn quite loosely such as in William Kentridge's style of using charcoal in his animations, giving them an ambiguous form that could be received as symbolic of the way Poe describes the masqueraders as "dreams". I am happy that my work has developed this way, as at the beginning of this project I wanted to break away from my usual and very familiar neat, digital comic-book style and develop into more experimental practices.

Due to the discussions I had with tutors who wanted me to change my project within the last two weeks, I lost a little bit of time as I gathered materials and research, meaning that I didn't get to apply as much detail and layers as I had wanted to. If I were given the chance to change my project, I would have certainly sought to acquire more acetate as it was easy and interesting to work with and I would have used it to add more layers, characters and objects to my piece. However, I felt very prepared whilst I was making the piece as I had the skills and confidence to use more experimental practices as well as enough resources and artist knowledge to create the look and effect on the reader I was planning.

During the middle of this project, I attended five interviews for universities and took some of my finished pieces along for my portfolio. One piece that was particularly popular with the tutors was my large "Heart Eater" comic. Leeds commented that it showed an understanding of narrative and spoke a lot about my work and interests, and caused him to offer me a place on their Animation course instead of Illustration. I feel that creating these experimental pieces and working outside of my comfort zone has helped to make me a stronger candidate for university.

One thing I improved a lot on through this project was discussing and sharing my ideas with others. When I worked on a comic with Emily I learnt to compromise and solve problems in order to create a piece of work collaboratively. Through several group discussions I began to be able to articulate my ideas and the purpose of my work articulately as well as accept critique and discuss new ideas and alterations that could improve my work. I also helped my classmates by helping them come up with ideas to progress their work as well as providing relevant artists to give their ideas context.

A display of my best work from this project in my studio space.

Masque of the Red Death (Final Piece)

 Using all the references and resources I've gathered over this project, I began to make my final piece. It was interesting to see how a small idea I had at the start of the project grew into this major piece. I chose to work on large paper again as I felt that an illustration sequence would work well on a large scale.

  

This is the original sketch I made of the seven rooms featured in the story in graphite which I then inked using a fine brush and Indian Ink. As I found with my other pieces, Indian Ink is very good quality and dark black which is perfect for inking lineart. It is also non-water soluble, so when I paint over it or use glue it won't run or leak if it's dry.

I used bright watercolours to wash over the rooms to set the theme of each colour.

I printed out the short story, highlighting and enlarging certain words and sentences to draw the eye in and add emphasis. I created seven piles for each of the rooms and sorted the story into where I felt they were relevant in the illustrations. I also printed all my photos ready to be collaged and added them to the piles.

I began the collage with the photos to add definition and detail in places such as window frames, carpets and doorways. I then added the story cut outs over the top. In places it is difficult to read; this was not my aim but I like the effect as it causes the reader to look at the piece more closely in order to decipher the text. I applied a colour wash over the text to help it blend into the rooms. I realised that the windows weren't very noticeable so I mixed paint with clear varnish and applied it to the windows so the colours stood out and had a shiny, glassy finish to them. In some places the collage looks a little bit awkward and messy which helps add to the confusing scenery described in the book, so I had to let go of my desire to make it look neat or "pretty".

 

I painted the main characters on acetate using acrylic paint. I enjoyed creating the Red Death character as it was fun to be loose and less literal with my mark making in order to create an eerie, ethereal presence. To help with anatomy I used the photos I had taken of my friends to paint Prince Prospero. I kept his colour scheme bright like in my plan so he would stand out against the background and other masqueraders, which I think is also symbolic of his bold personality.

I sketched the masqueraders directly onto the piece with willow charcoal, brushed the sketches back and then defined them using compressed charcoal. I used this as it would easily cover the glue and collage as well as creating the conceptual "shadowy" look I discussed with my tutors with reference to Kentridge's silhouette images. The way in which their features are quite pointed and surreal reminds me of Aitor Throup's drawings as they were a large influence in my work. I feel this style of drawing people suits the illustration I'm making. I also decided to create masks for the characters that are the same colour as the room they're in, as Poe describes the windows as altering the appearance of the characters. I used several different designs of mask to show individual personalities and bring variation into the characters.

 

I wanted to glue the acetate on using varnish, however the acetate was too heavy so I had to use PVA glue. So far, they have dried okay as I was worried that it may have gone cloudy in places but this was not the case.

These are the completed individual panels of my illustration sequence. I wrote in sound effects in some places to help show what is happening in the story such as the orchestra's music and the "clanging" of the clock at midnight.

This is the piece as a whole.

Colour Photographs (2)

Steve and Gary liked my colour photos due to their conceptual nature and commented on how I had not taken the colour of the rooms in the short story literally and had produced my own response to the idea. I feel that I need more photos to use in my collage due to the scale of the illustrations so I have decided to find more objects of the correct colour to photograph.

Some of these are not as vibrant as my other photos so I may edit them to improve their quality or not use them. However, most of these will be perfect for my collage. I will print all of my photos at one quarter of A4 size to use in my work.

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE (2)

During the tutor critique with Gary and Steve, we talked about more conceptual ways of drawing people. Gary mentioned the photographs of shadows I had taken in the photography project and showed me some of these works by Kentridge.

I find these pieces interesting as, in silhouette, it is difficult to determine where the human ends and clothing or objects begin, creating a bizarre and almost monster-like image. The use of torn paper and collage creates ambiguous shapes rather than solid, more definite lines which leaves the forms open to interpretation.

Although I have character designs planned for my final piece, I am open to the idea of producing something more conceptual as a final outcome. I also think that the way Poe describes the masqueraders as "dreams" conjures bizarre images of ethereal forms as opposed to ordinary people. Kentridge's silhouettes may be too dark and abstract for the look I want to create, however I am considering something similar in which the masqueraders are drawn vaguely in charcoal. This will allow me to build up layers, portray movement and provide the conceptual angle of the characters being "dreams" rather than solid forms.

This is a brief idea I worked on after looking at Kentridge's work. She's a silhouette painted with black ink and I added details to her clothing using my first set of colour photographs that I intended to use in the collage. I wanted to create more of these until I came up with the charcoal idea which is less time consuming, more conceptual and will allow the background to be seen through them, making the characters appear more dreamlike.

After speaking to Steve and Gary, I had a tutorial with Ann about how to incorporate some new ideas into my final piece. First, she evaluated my use of a blog rather than a physical journal and we both agreed that it would be more convenient if I used a journal for my FMP due to some of the difficulties I had with formatting and presenting my work in a blog, as well as the tutors being more used to handling journals.

Ann suggested that I print out another copy of the story to refer to, and I thought it would be interesting to print out the story in a large font and use sections of it in my collage. She agreed and said it would be a good idea to paint objects and the characters onto sheets of acetate so that I could easily build up layers and create more depth in my collage, which would help to make it look like a busy scene as it is described in the story. I then visited graphics and they let me have four sheets of A4 acetate. Due to the limited amount, I may not be able to paint objects and such on it, however it should be enough for the main characters to be painted in this way.

To make my illustrations accurate to the story, Ann suggested that I should look at references for gothic architecture and clothing. Here are the reference pictures I will be using for this:

Group Critique with Tutors

Today, Steve and Gary discussed my work with me. I showed them my blog and told them what I was planning to do with my final piece, as I had already begun sketching the panels. 

They didn't like the character designs I had drawn as they preferred that I create something more conceptual. They didn't have many suggestions of how I could bring a new concept into my work, but Steve showed me a William Kentridge book and Gary suggested that I draw the masqueraders in silhouette instead of "like cartoon characters". I think I could work with this idea and have decided to do more research on William Kentridge to help me bring together my ideas.

I was a little bit confused as to how I could make my work more conceptual, seeing as I have only briefly mentioned some ideas in this way through my project and my final piece was already planned and on it's way to completion; In response to this, Gary asked why I wanted to make comics (in reference to the fact I have been learning about and producing comics and animations since I was twelve years old). I'm a fat chick with glasses; of course I make comics. I can only really say it's because I enjoy making them and having people read or watch them. Steve asked what I was planning on doing for my Final Major Project, which unfortunately I do not have any ideas for yet.

I am somewhat concerned that certain tutors find difficulty in accepting cartoon and comic arts as a "legitimate" art form which may explain the nature of this conversation. I found this session only limitedly useful as I feel that attempting to re-write my plans and research to fit in with more conceptual art styles when there are less than two weeks remaining for me to complete this project is impractical and somewhat unreasonable. I think that this time with my tutors would have been much better spent discussing the progression onto my FMP as that is what I really need more help with. Ann asked me about this and suggested that I record all conversations with my tutors in my blog or journal and perhaps provide feedback at the end of the course concerning when certain conversations should take place.

Character Sketches

 Similar to the plan I made for the Scab Man comic, I have decided to design some characters for the Masque of the Red Death. I looked at fancy dress outfits on the internet to help me come up with ideas for the clothing, which I feel should be very ornate and over-the-top to match Poe's description of the masqueraders.

These are my ideas for ordinary background characters; I tried to vary the type of masks I will use to make the piece more interesting.

This is my first idea for the Red Death; I considered having it look like a corpse but I feel it doesn't fit with the story very well. Instead, I will use a corpse-like face/mask with a black ethereal shroud representing the body rather than a solid physical form.

This is my sketch for Prince Prospero. To make him stand out from the other characters I am planning to use bright red and other bright colours in his clothes to make him appear flamboyant and the centre of attention.