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:

FABIO MOON

Fabio Moon is a Brazilian comic book artist who is known for many collaborative works with his brother and other artists with similar tastes in drawing style. Jess suggested this artist after our group critique session and I was very interested in learning more about his work.

Style-wise, this artist reminds me somewhat of Dave McKean in his use of commercial comic-book materials with a dark twist. Moon is very skilful in terms of layout and creates narrative pages with minimalistic amounts of dialogue, so his art work fills the page and isn't smothered in white text boxes like so many other published comics.

He uses traditional materials and works mostly in black and white, which serves well to showcase his great inking abilities; however I also admire his beautiful watercolour pieces. These are not as popular for commercial use due to the cost of printing, but are fascinating as stand-alone works.

To get a better understanding of his work as a narrative, I am planning on reading one of Moon and his brother's Horror comic books "Pixu" as I feel the themes of the story are relevant to my project. Hopefully I will be able to gain some inspiration from their use of panel layout to create my own illustration sequence with limited dialogue and allowing the images to tell the story.

DAVID FIRTH

After the group critique, Jess suggested that I research the cartoonist David Firth as she felt his bizarre and often disturbing animations would fit in well with my project. This was a very helpful suggestion as I found a lot of interesting features of his work that tie in well with my theme of dark narratives. Whilst discussing the artist with Mike and Emily, Mike suggested I watch his "Black and White Cartoon" series.

Although the piece is not obviously humorous, I found myself laughing uncomfortably during moments of these pieces. Firth always achieves a reaction from his audience, and I believe that may be the aim of his mostly disturbing pieces. This reminds me of my Heart Eater comic and some of the repulsed reactions I received from readers in my class as the ending and themes of the story weren't as "positive" as they had expected.

I remember watching this internet series of animations titled "Salad Fingers" by Firth whilst I was much younger. My friends and I would squeal and cringe at the actions and behaviour of this creepy character and the memory of it has stuck with me. Firth does well to induce a reaction in his audience and create an almost haunting memory with his characters and dark themes. I think this is much more effective than creating something "safe" or "family friendly" as it shows little exploration of the dark corners of the imagination that exist, and mostly results in something bland and very easily forgotten.

By exploring controversial themes of mental illness and generally not-very-"Disney" characters, this cartoonist creates animations that people will discuss, share and react to.

To help my work progress I think it may be necessary to not focus on things that are visually appealing or safe and to move onto more graphic and experimental imagery, such as is seen in David Firth's own work.

SKAIJO

Skaijo is one of my favourite animators for her hilarious short animations. She posts her work on sites such as YouTube, deviantART and Newgrounds. She works with the program Flash to create pieces with a very distinctive use of character design and animation style.

This is one of her less "comedic" works, however it still depicts elements of humour. Looking at Skaijo's work is very useful for my project as she has skills in producing narrative works even without dialogue. Viewers have commented that the characters are difficult to tell apart due to their similar colour schemes, to which she replied that she grew up in a place where most people have similar skin/hair and eye colour. In my opinion, she has used her fictional race of people well as she has managed to create character designs that show they belong to the same race and culture and has used her knowledge of design to bring each personality out in her drawings and use of clothing/hair style.

This next animation is part of Skaijo's ongoing series "Professor Layton and the Malignant Growth" which is very darkly funny and entertains it's internet audience using pop culture references and surreal characters. I enjoy watching these stories due to the hilarious mix of dark or taboo situations and comedy. In these short animations the characters appear very scruffily drawn which seems typical of an internet cartoon, but rather than being a disadvantage, Skaijo is still able to create expressive characters and convey comedy and narrative.

After looking at Skaijo's work I have begun to draw character designs for my Masque of the Red Death illustrations and will be posting my ideas soon.

MIKIKO PONCZECK

Mikiko Ponczeck is a published comic book artist. Like Alfredsen, she often draws in her own cute style.

Her "minicomics" are very funny and use situations from her everyday life. I like these drawings, but for my project I am more interested in her darker, more serious pieces.

Ponczeck has a very bold illustrative style but knows how to use it to depict more depressing themes.

This is my favourite comic page by this artist as she took an ordinary pencil sketch and coloured it digitally. It creates a more delicate effect than harsh black lines that are produced by computer programs and the sketch lines add a sense of structure and fluidity to the piece as a whole.

Her drawing processes are interesting and I find it enjoyable to see how a professional turns a pencil sketch into a finished product that is suitable for a paying client or for publication in an artbook or comic series.

TINA ALFREDSEN

Tina Alfredsen is an artist who works for an animation/game studio and also draws on comission via the internet. She creates a huge variety including paintings, animations, comics and pixel art. Alfredsen has a very distinctive "cute" style of drawing".

She has a great understanding of colour theory, so her pieces are always attractive and pleasant to look at.

My favourite thing about Alfredsen's work is her use of facial expression which makes her characters look fun and cartoon-y.

Of the many small animations she makes, I chose to feature this longer animation as it is a great example of her knowledge of movement and use of character design with expressive faces and motion.
In response to Alfredsen's work I have decided to make a comic that emulates her cute style and use of facial expression, but I am going to keep within my theme of dark story telling. I think the juxtaposition of cute drawings with a creepy story line will be interesting to experiment with. 

AITOR THROUP

Whilst researching illustrations, I discovered Aitor Throup who is a fashion designer. He creates bizarre and almost sculptural fashion pieces for men and his style of sketching designs caught my eye.

  

 

Most fashion designers use plainer, "mannequin" like sketches of models to design their pieces onto, whereas Throup puts strong poses into his sketches that bring out the personality of the clothing.

 

 

The figures have muted colour schemes and come across quite twisted and "creepy", somewhat like illustrations for a dark fairy tale.

 

I find this dark style of bringing across character through fashion very interesting and would like to try sketching the characters from The Masque of the Red Death in this way as they wear very gothic and ornate clothing. I feel this will bring across the heavy atmosphere of the story and bring out the creepier side to what, at first, appears to be a celebratory, jovial masquerade ball.

NAJA CONRAD-HANSEN

Naja Conrad-Hansen is an illustrator known for her use of traditional media and bold style.

Her illustrations are quite loose and graphic, she tends to remove parts of the anatomy of her figures and work in bright paint drips or intricate patterns.

This particular image is a favourite of mine as it shows the wild patterns becoming the girls clothes and the mask in her hand made me think about what designs I should make for the costumes in my Masque of the Red Death piece.

I find this images striking due to the almost sexual or sultry nature of some of them and also the whimsical poses of the figures combined with the wild bursts of pattern.

I plan to combine this style of drawing with that of Aitor Throup as I hope to bring across a dark aura in my illustrations for the comic piece.

VITALY ALEXIUS

Alexius is the creator of the webcomic "Romantically Apocalyptic". His comics are made up of semi-realistic digital paintings.

He places his characters in humorous and and far-fetched situations based in a post-apocalyptic city. Alexius digitally paints fantastic and wild scenery by building up layers so that they almost look true to real life (if such places existed!).

Alexius creates these paintings by photographing models in a studio, then painting from the photos. This helps him to achieve a realistic effect.

Here he shows how he creates a script and a rough sketch of how he wants his panels to look. Then he takes photos of buildings and models in his studio to paint from. He then uses the photos to paint his comic in Photoshop.

For my Masque of the Red Death comic I plan to use this technique and photograph people in the poses I need for each panel and then draw from them. This will improve my comic by making it more realistic and structurally sound.

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

I have chosen to research the animations of William Kentridge as I feel they are relevant to my work. I am very interested in animation, but I tend to make cleaner animations using computer software. His animations are very interesting as he uses traditional media such as charcoal and coloured pastels to draw one frame, then wipes the surface and draws onto it again creating many layers of history as his animation progresses.

This is the first animation of his I watched called "Automatic Writing". I was instantly impressed and wanted to simulate his working processes in my own drawings. I would like to create an animation in his style but for the moment I am planning on using charcoal in a way similar to him in my A1 sized "Masque of the Red Death" comic board.

Key features of his work include the use of erasers and coloured pastels which stand out against the majority of black and grey from the charcoal. I think the theme of aged and layered images with a lot of history is also apparent in the work of Dave McKean, and this is the appearance I want to have in my large comic using traditional media as opposed to computer software like I normally would when making a comic.

DAVE MCKEAN

For my narrative project I want to look at illustration and animation, so my tutor Ann suggested that I research the works of the illustrator Dave McKean.

 

 He is well known for his comic strip works such as Arkham Asylum as well as working on books for children like "Wolves in the Walls" and "Coraline".

There is a distinctive dark theme to his drawings and even his illustrations for children are quite "creepy".

 

One of my favourite books is Varjak Paw, which has very expressive and simple black and white (and sometimes orange) illustrations that serve the story well.

Unlike most comic artists, McKean relies heavily on traditional media, often using ink and collages with old photos to create quite warped and disturbing images.

 

The materials he uses result in a worn or aged effect which aids the telling of dark stories by setting a dark atmosphere and draws the eye in.

After a discussion with my tutor about McKean's works, Ann suggested I use traditional media like him to create an illustration, as I am mostly computer based when I draw, especially when producing comic strips. I have decided to make a comic strip on an A1 sized piece of card. I wasn't sure what story to base it on, so Ann suggested I look at one of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories "The Masque of the Red Death" which fits in with the theme of dark storytelling.