Concept sheets

This is my origional sketch for Gloria, the sketch is pretty clean in terms of mistakes but the few mistakes i will see in editing will of corse be corrected, the mistakes i can see right now include, the breast and t-shirt fold preportions as well as the key doesnt seem to link in any way so i will edit that out!

I liften the visible breast up a few millimetres because it looked odd as well as adjusted the placement of the shading, I decided to give her shirt a flower pattern as well as change the key to a flower to show her passion to become a florist, I limited myself to 3 colours for shading, a darker, a lighter and a base

I thought the concept sheet looked a little dull so i added 50% opacity circles behind the text, using the same colour as the flowers on her shirt to keep it looking cheerful and busy!

Undertakers reference needed a lot of changing, the sketching was rushed at the time, not because i was running out of time but because i wanted to test myself on the computer.

It took a while to make the adjustments, moving the hands so that they join to the sleeves or making the sleeves. Duplicating the eye like in glories and showing a blind eye and a non blind eye.

I felt the full skull did not need to be shown in this so i cropped it to a smaller size and stashed it in a corner so it was not the centre of attention.

I formed the skull on the spiders back, moving the eyes to position and creating the outline for it.

but most of my time was simply just cleaning the sketches.

I decided to keep the spiral blush on the cheeks to show expression, I added it to undertakers reference to show consistancy.

Here are the videos i used in one of my instillation tests, the first one was about dizziness, my theme was going to be madness as I believed they link well.

The second one was to show the madness in doing nothing or feeling like the screen is lagging.

however with time I found the images too dull, they were very similar as they were in one place and with the same character

This was the result of rushing to have a finished piece however once I had finished it I felt it was severely lacking, so instead I used it as a learning curve, I learnt how to merge videos, speed up and slow down from this which are all useful things to lead me to my real final piece

Though I do like the big reveal on the eyes as the video behind had eyes near the same level, it gave an wary effect that fits in with madness.

I had people sit on chairs looking at the ceiling, I then spun the chairs and made them try to walk down the hallway, I could fit this into madness because or the dizziness and confusion as well as the inability to walk in a straight line, i.e life is hard

I decided too try and dull the colours by tinting the video clips a brown colour so it looked old fashioned, to try and fit the music some were darker to show the harshness, the darker clip was actually an accident when recording, someone who had just been spun ran into the radiator before dramatically sliding to the floor so I decided to keep it in for this one, to show that the dizziness is not good.

the dramatic music in the background is from a game called amnesia the dark descent but played slower and backwards

This is my final video, it has a lot of changes from its first one. with a happier feel to it than before, no colour tints this time to show off the vibrant colours.

This one still fits in with madness because they know how they will feel after being spun, the dizzy nauseousness, but yet they still go through with it like a drug almost. 

The sounds playing are the laughter recorded while they were being spun or when they were walking, this is to test the theory that laughing is infectious, when you hear someone laugh you are more likely to laugh with them, however the sounds are not from the clip they are playing along, they have all been mixed up so some guys have girls laughing and some girls have guys laughing because I find that funnier.  

I do like this video and am proud of it however I think I could improve next time by recording in a more open space like outside or in a field and record more sounds to be played in the background of the video, but i think i did well in trimming, placement and variation.

Plans and practices

Here are my practices on the Canvas' I made using MDF cut 44 width and 61 length, then covered by a strong durable fabric over one to make a canvas, the other remained without the fabric to test texture and to just make sure it was the right effect.

 This one was first to do, I used just the primed MDF board for this, I also tried to do a Jim Dine technique for the background to keep it visually stimulating, i liked the idea of now worrying about the colours within the colours, for example if you look at some of the yellow boxes you will see some blues, pinks and browns mixed in almost carelessly, but it did give off a nearly 3D effect, however if i were to do a similar background in the future, i would not use the dabble technique, it doesnt look right so i will keep it smooth.

Then I had Julian Opie faces, or tried to, with the very limited details on the face, it was almost the exact effect i wanted, though i wish the lines were darker. One thing i am disappointed with is how small i made the faces, yes i wanted the background to be visible but now there is too much background, so for my next idea i will make sure to make the characters alot bigger!

I have decided to keep the lips big and exaggerated as my sort of signature mark that people may recognise.

This was from an argument between Danny Dyer and katie hopkins in which he called her a tampon with a face after she lashed out at his fiancee

“Last one.....as I'm in a jolly good mood.....imagine if a tampon was to have a face......@KTHopkins happy Tuesday. ;)”

I erased the last head and body because of my previous review of it being too small, though the lips weren't as realistic, but in my eyes it looks like he is pouting which is funny to me.

From some research i did later on I went back and edited the background so that it would have these thick black lines, however i found it blended in too much with the lines in the faces, clothes and tampon. I would need to take this into consideration for next time.

In a tweet from Katie Hopkins she said that if Ed Miliband was voted the new pm she was going to leave the country, i found this funny because some people on the internet would then intentionally vote for him to spite her making it a possibility.

I first decided to blend some colours,  thought that this effect looked interesting and simple, i dragged the brush off of the page in a curtain angle and added a bit of colour each time without cleaning the brush, though this also lead me to another idea;

I decided to try and make a universe, seeing though Ed was stood on the world with Katie running away, it would only make sense for their background to be the universe around them, though this makes it too literal, so instead i tried to find a different background type in which it emphasises the people and does not make them blend in.

 To simplify the background i used a technique of another artist; Kim Moore, one of her techniques is to scrape paint onto canvas with a spatula, giving a textured effect which i wanted to try and replicate, I think the paint was too watery and you could still see the failed attempt at a universe in the background lightly, though i do not mind it, it gives an added colour, i had fun using the spatula though i do not think i will use this technique again.

However, when I left it to dry it dribbled from the angle it was at, though it looks interesting, it was not what i wanted to happen.

This one is not finished however I tried to do a different background to the first image, trying to use black and white to emphasise the colour in the foreground however i am not sure it is right, perhaps i will keep the idea for a future design except keep it more the patch work style of Jim Dine instead of the floating TV screens we see here.

I did learn from my mistakes last time and made the characters alot bigger to take up more space, even giving them a more unusual position to make them more visually pleasing.

This Idea is from a celebrity argument between Katie Price and Katie Hopkins, in which Katie talked to the press saying 'I bet she doesn't even wear face cream' which i found hilarious because it just wasn't the sort of back talk you would expect. At the moment it seems to be a series of Katie Hopkins seeing though so many people make ridiculous comments.

I do think i will stick to celebrity arguments or social networking posts for my final piece.

I decided this would be my final piece once finished.

Here is the finished piece, i decided to change the background to grey so that it did not draw attention from the main image however i also changed the lines to white to make them stand out against the black

Stories

A spider was granted a wish by a witch, the wish was to be human and to smile, the wish came true however he was not entirely human, and those whose eyes set upon his mutations and deformities would scream or become repulsed by them. He quickly hid away from prying eyes, working as an undertaker. though with time, work was unknown and his money decreased.
One day a vampire baron came in, a glass cross held to his chest rendering him unconscious. undertaker had never seen such a strange human, the people who brought in the baron demanded he be buried very deep and with the cross untouched, however once they had left he saw the burns on the barons hands from the cross and took the cross away almost immediately after the vampire woke, he did not hide from undertakers appearance, instead he embraced him, calling him a hero, even crying into his suit. The next week on the same day the village people came to his small house with money they had collected together as a thank you to him, this made the spider smile, and they say he kept smiling.


This story would be hard to put into a comic in this format as well as the end of the story, sounds like it is being narrated. to change this I will need to work out the starting point for example  how the spider got to the witch .  there also needs the middle point where it seems more dramatic as that is how stories are usually written, usually start with a pleasant beginning something goes wrong something yet worse an and then something gets better at the ending.

Changed to;

The story starts off with a spider with two legs clinging to a rose, a witch saw him and smirked wickedly before asking what he thought he was doing, he replied quickly with 'I wish to be human and to know what it is like to smile' the witch scoffed at the request trying to shake him off the rose.

The Witch chuckles at his determination and granted his wish however he was not entirely human; his lower half was still that of a spider and restricted his movements. The witch then told him that he must work for her as an undertaker until he smiles or shows how brave he can be.

One day a woman woke at the undertaker’s house, blind and completely confused where she was, Undertaker had been tasked with looking after her until she is fit to leave or just whenever she will leave his home. The woman was a chatter box and talked on and on about little things undertaker couldn't understand, she gave him a nickname because 'undertaker was too serious’, she gave emotions to the plant by his side as if it were human even though she could not see it. He asked how she was happy, she tells him that she knows the witch is kind and will one day she will be able to see, Undertaker asks what it means to be kind and she replied with ‘Its to make those around you happy, and to smile’ Undertaker looked wishful her words be true.

But after a while his serious side melted away when Gloria began emotionally revealing her dreams to him, she wishes to be a florist, undertaker likes plants, he glanced to the flower at his side remembering the day his wish was granted, he wasn't crying, but then again he had never felt so strongly about anything, but yet this woman, who does not even know what the flower looks like, has already given it more than he had, it moved him in a way that he called upon the witch while Gloria was sleeping, he asked for yet another wish, to give Gloria his sight. The Witch cackled at his request but did not refuse, before his vision faded he saw a glimpse of himself, he had human legs, the brave request of helping someone he only just met broke her spell and he was free. He woke Gloria who began to cry when she saw his face and hugged him tightly 'stupid!' she shouted 'why would you do this?’ Undertaker was confused 'are you angry?' he asked 'yes of course I’m mad! What are you going to do now?' Undertaker just shrugged... 'Can you describe the flower to me now?' Gloria looked at the flower on the desk and nods; the last page is undertakers face smiling softly.

The story starts off with a witch trimming a rose bush when she sees a spider with only two legs holding onto the rose for dear life, she smirked and asked what he thought he was doing, he replied quickly with 'I wish, I wish, I wish to be human, and I know you can help me' the witch scoffed at the request trying to shake him off the rose.
The Witch chuckles at his determination and granted his wish however he was not entirely human, he was not entirely human, his lower half was still that of a spider and restricted his movements. The witch then told him that he must work for her as an undertaker as to not scare people as well as telling him that he must complete every job before it leaves the door or the spell would break.
One day a woman was brought in while undertaker was trimming his own roses that were growing on the side of his counter. At first the undertaker was sceptical of her still warm brown skin, and soon realised the woman was alive, he argued with himself, it was not right to prepare this woman for burial just so he could remain human though he did not want to upset the witch. he waited till the next day convincing himself that one day would be enough, it was. The woman awoke to see him and she was very shocked, but not at him, at how she had ended up here. They began to talk to work things out, he learns she is a florist who was having a big problem with ants and aphids, and she finds out about his spell and how lost he would be with out the job. The woman asks why he would want to stay this way if he could not do what he wanted, the undertaker looked at the rose then back at the woman and he just said 'I don't want to be scared any more' the woman smiled warmly and said 'humans get scared too' she leans over and kisses his cheek, he touches his cheek lightly smiling, he says goodbye to her and as she leaves she sees the light of him turning back to a spider and walks back inside, picking up the rose in its pot and walking home with it, little undertaker holding onto its petals. 'your hired' will be the last page.

its a story of a reaper who fell in love with a human, and when she died she begged to continue living, he bargained with her that he would give her his heart so the next time she dies he could have her soul so they could be together forever. however, the girl soon fell in love with an angel who gave her immortality so the reaper could never have her soul

Changed to;
A reaper is in love with a human, and one day she gets into an accident and pleads with him to let her live, the reaper then offers her his heart in return she would stay with him after death, she accepts. However, he soon learns about an angel visiting her from the girls family who he frequently hides with when he needs peace, he began to get nervous and jealous, fearing one day the angel would make her immortal, keeping her forever out of his reach. 
He visits the girl in the night and tells the girl all he had been feeling, she put a finger to his pale lips to make him be quiet and simply said 'You are the Angel'.
The reaper had been so wrapped up in his own jealousy he failed to realise how much time they had spent together and cried.

 I do not think I will be continuing with the story, because  it would be too easy to portray as well as it being too boring to read, not in the sense that nothing is happening but more of a sense that  it would feel dragged  and other than drama in the middle nothing else really happens as well as the witch would have no part in it, breaking the consistent chain within my comic series.

its about a vampire who could turn into a snake, it is said to lure its prey in with honeyed words and promise of more before eating them whole, changing its voice or clothes to then suit the last victims. However its only weakness being True loves kiss, as they believe they are the scariest, a kiss would leave them stunned

Changed to;

Follows the story of a woman who wanted to become a model, but because of a little mix up with papers she could not get a place. To take her mind of the stress she goes to a near by bar in an attempt to drowned her sorrows but meets a man who is equally has upset

After a group of woodcutters mysteriously vanish, another group goes to investigate, but end up attacked by a monster. People who are bitten or who harm the creature are infected by a disease that turns them into trees, leaving one and an infected friend to solve the mystery. They find out that the trees that the woodcutters had been cutting down were a sort of nest for the creature and it had been on the defence since the nest was covered by fallen trees leaving a single egg left which they try to move deep into the woods, the infected friends hardening skin was breaking way as he ran but eventually made it to the middle with the healthy one, they great each other only to find out the healthy friend is fatally injured, they embrace each other till the end and the infected one caccoons his friend within his bark and they both protect the egg passed their death and no more lives were taken


The story is dramatic, and I think it has  a lot of potential,  but it seems a little too complicated for  my comic which  isn't necessarily a bad thing, however  I do want to change quite a bit of the story so they will link more to what leads the witch to make these monsters and/or why her wishes are thrown so easily.


-edit-
A hunter complains to the witch that his forest was being cut down and wishes that the woodcutters would leave or that the trees would grow faster, the witch contemplates his wish and soon comes to the thought that her presence would be known to the world if her trees were gone and so granted his wish; by turning him into a small monster which excreted a slime which would slowly turn humans to trees. The next day woodcutters came to cut down more trees they got attacked by the mouse


 I asked for a friend's opinion and what they gave me ways a new idea,  instead of the mouse been something that is already there,  it should be one of the witches wishes that she granted so nicely.

Changed to; 
A man comes to buy a witches house so that his village could grow in size, however the witch refused to sell. The man did not take this well but the witch just sighed and dismissed him. The man left but once he was back at the village he planned to hire a team of woodcutters to make swift work of the thick forest around the witches house, however his son was becoming jealous of his fathers attention being entirely on the witch and the forest.
He then sneaks out of the house to visit the witch, asking for her to help him, she mutters about being too nice and says she will grant him one wish if he would help her stop his father, the boy agreed and said that his wish was to become a 

There is a page where an axe touches the bark of the tree
The man's wife runs up to him, tears streaming down her face and tells him his daughter had vanished. He was enraged and told the villagers that the witch was going to steal everyones children and they all began to storm to the forest when they heard loud crashes from behind them, a monster was tearing apart their town, the man tried to rally the villagers to go after the witch to get his daughter back but the villagers ran back to defend their homes.
The man was about to fatally wound the monster when he saw a necklace on its neck that belonged to his daughter, he bursts into tears cursing and shouting 

Story inspired by the Joke
what is a sheep without legs called?
a cloud

Julian Opie

 "Born 1958 in London. A contemporary artist who is well known for his pop culture style and portraits, however he has made sculptures in such style"

"My own attempt at this style, it is simplistic but it is enjoyable to work on"

these were my practices of opie's style with my own twist, basically just reusing the big lips

the tooth brushes were to symbolise how i disagree with certain actions or opinions they may be in the news for, or just what i have seen in general.

More on this later.

Sketches

"A torso fleeing from grabbing hands, to symbolise how vulnerable Diana felt when Actaeon walked in on her"

"A monster like torso which would be a metaphor for the sheer terror Actaeon would feel when he realises what he just walked in on"

"A face squished between two horns as if forced to see through, I could also use hands instead of antlers- as if peeking"

"Pokemon- A franchise that pretty much revoves around change, something small can evolve through fighting to become something stronger, this also could be a reason to look into Charles Darwin's theory of evolution"

"Kelpie, Scottish Lore- A shape shifting water spirit that inhabits lakes, pools and locks on scotland, usually depicted as a beautiful horse that fools people into riding it before it will drowned them in the near by water source. This is another example of change"

I recently watched spirited away, a Japanese movie by Ghibli Stubios, I felt it could relate because the change that happens within the characters, for example the main characters personality changes from self-centered to the understanding young lady lady at the end. The character here also changes from murderous to quite loveable"

Plan sketches for a possible out come, a moveable puppet like head dress, inspired by no-face from spirited away however i was having quite a bit of problem with motivation and i just didn't think it looked the part.

This is what i started to go more in depth to, i was quite enjoying working on it too, my idea was to have a doll like mask covered by a black veil with only two mod rock eyes visible through it, it would be a performance piece, when i got to the end of the catwalk i would then lift the veil to expose the eery face.

____________Final Ideas and Reviews______________

Presentation reviews

I will write what i gathered from their presentation, after that i will write what they can do to improve

Matts

The 1950's were marked by economic growth, american wages went up by nearly 50%

As well as the cold war job opening jobs for Illustrators to make anti communist propaganda, they were a necessity during the 1950's for their link to advertisement, creating positive and bright posters.

Dr. Suess was one of the most well known illustrators of his time.

in matts presentation it was quite knowledgeable however, he spoke to fast and nervously as well as only reading off the board, it was hard to jott down.
He could improve by looking into different branches of animation, what other types were around in 1950's?

Kim

1953; fashion was sleak,

Ideal body shape was large hips, thin waist. waist bands were very tight to emphasise even with though it would be most uncomfortable for some

Rationing was no longer a problem so finer materials could be used.

Bras were sharp and pointed, not sure why they seem so dangerous.

Look into possible colour changes through the years, perhaps pastels were used for some part of the year then bright obnoxious colours then dark or so on, i have no research into this side.

Elicia

Her research was more into unusual flats, for example 'the slums' in sheffield which had started being taken down but with money being a problem the plans were scrapped and the building is still up now.

I would say she may need to look into different types of buildings, not just their appearance but perhaps placement, what keeps them up or how they make her feel personally.

Jordan 

Animation had really flourished within the 1950's disney released such films as;
Cinderella 1950
Peter Pan 1953
Sleeping Beauty 1955

Many characters that are popular today had made their first appearances;
Bugs bunny
Betty boop

Loony toons became a regular show on daytime TV

Racism was a big thing, even in animation, for example in loony toons, racial drops were made.

I like how he listed everything out in his presentation, however it may be a good thing to look into some non-drawn animation such as stock motion, like that in seven voyages of simbad.

Emma

Jackson Pollock, his technique is dribble or splatter using paint brushes mainly.
1930's he started drawing in a regionalistic style.

Influenced by thomas Benton, Diego Rivera, Lee Krainer, William De kooning

1946-1951 is when he started to express himself through his work which is when his technique comes in.

Mark Tobey 1890-1976, learnt calligraphy which is what inspired or tied into his work very often.

I think she did a very good job looking into Jackson pollocks life however it seems that was all she looked into, it may be best to broaden your search into some of the people he was influenced by or who he influenced.
also give a personal outlook to his work, how it makes you feel.

Stacy

She looked into makeup effects in the 1950's which led her to 'The Creature From The Black Lagoon".

The suit was made of foam rubber, it was not heavy because of this.

the swimming and walking scenes of the creature were done by two people, the swimming guy had no way to breath underwater from the suit, however he could hold his breath for nearly 4 1/2 minutes

The suit turns to dust with time.

I think she did a good job, she could have looked at the audience a little more but the main thing to improve on would be to look into what the film was inspired by, or the creature, and from that she could look into other creatures and hear their stories through inspiration.

Becky

Photography was mostly used for commercial use, however there was a lot of sexism in this time, women were treated as objects in the media, or that they were all dumb as well as in films

Commercials were different in the 1950's I.E smoker and guns were advertised as if they did not care

I think she did well however she could have had more information into artists or events around that time that were good with photography. possibly look into the sexism, did women really care? or  was it just dulled out because it was a common occurrence in advertisement?

Caricatures- Satire Art

Tom Marriott

Apparently his love for drawing started off from the age of 5, which he used to try and get out of trouble, his grandfather bought him some egg and spoon wall paper that, one night, he decided to take chunks out of, the guilt of what he had done made him try to disguise it by drawing them back on the missing pieces, his parents found it hilarious so he kept it up.

He does Pastels, Digital and Pencil caricatures and can be hired for weddings and special events

http://the-caricatureartist.co.uk  

Here are  a few of my practices;

I have to say I am quite proud with how Justin Biebers caricature turned out, the one on the bottom left was the final image I made and I can definitely see the improvement, i also tried one of my other ideas which was to have celebrities with rabbit or animal faces.

For Katie Hopkins I went over board with trying to exaggerate her to the extreme as just a test run, i find the big lips and small button eyes amusing for a caricature and may be my favourite part. however i was never quite happy with he neck, I may need more practice.

And here is an inked Simon Cowell, well known for his trousers being too high and his usually blunt outlook, I tried to see what effect it would give to have rosie red cheeks like a doll as well as the big mouth and button eyes however i do not think i will continue it, or the button eyes it would be too simple and i would like to challenge myself a bit but who knows this plan may change.

unlike my other designs i was not able to finish this one so i decided to take into account that i may have a time limit for my final piece and that i would need to practice quick sketches or caricatures to prepare myself.

This one was done in microsoft paint and with a graphics tablet, i had started getting the habit of drawing the big exaggerated lips, which i find kind of funny, i may follow this on to my later designs.

Here are some of the quick sketches and caricature work i did as practices, though caricatures are funny looking i think it may be best to look into what i am satiring, making people look funny isnt exactly a strong piece so i will look to the media and celebrities for help.

I used pro markers for these and they do give off a smooth look which i really like.

Evaluation of abstract expressionism

Experimenting with lines, colours, shading and contrast;

This is one of my practices which i were happy with, using bright colours to contrast against the dark, i was going to remove the white lines from chalk and go over each colour in a black chalk to make it more dynamic, however we ran out of time for this one and so it was never fully completed.

Jackson pollock was the most highly voted in my class and so we did some practices with his technique instead, if I'm honest i can say i preferred the block colours.

These were a few experimentations with colour, the red, yellow and blue ended up tearing partly brown and the yellow, blue and purple turned more green, though it were nicer shades than the other, they were quite calming colours that i thought i could perhaps test my findings on a practice sheet however it would not have made the most noticeable as they were not dynamic enough in differences.

_______________________________________________

These were some of the practices, and the final piece from the research into Jackson Pollock, an influential american painter, whose are reined 1948 when he perfected his drip technique till 1956 when he crashed his car into a tree.

He was known for his drinking and a lot of his paintings showed more expression most likely because of it, they always appeared more angry to me.

The second one up was probably my favourite, it was bright spring time colours and stood out the most among the others, though as we did struggle to cover the corners in all of our practices.

This is the final piece -though we made a few changes after this photograph was taken- I am quite happy with this because we all chipped in and did our best to cover every inch of the canvas, though i would personally not want it in my constant view as it makes my eye go funny, i think we could have done more practices on it, particularly concentrating on the different brush strokes and dripping techniques but beside that i don't think we could have changed much, i think it may have lucked nice with large droplets of colour with thin white lines along the top.