Olio Final

Well, with the Olio finished and handed in, now's a good a time as any to show the final result:

Temporal War

I must say although I'm satisfied overall, I'm a little at odds with how this turned out. I asked around for feedback and it was really facinating to hear other people's interpretations.

Pretty much everyone focused on a iconographic aspect and the connection with medieval depictions of hell but surprisingly few noticed the mechanical man or made anything of it, which was interesting because frankly, I thought it would be an obvious indicator.

Olio II

Now, getting to actually explaining the concept I have in mind.  For my Olio piece I plan on exploring the theme of conflict and war. Specifically influenced by a narrative I've been working with for some time.

The idea is to portray two parties, locked in a perpetual battle. It's pretty self explanatory but I'm facinated the way history repeats itself and the cycle of war.  And in particular the obsessive nature of ideologies and beliefs, despite, I argue, how dear and essential they may be to our being.

For me the two parties represent an obsession with the future and the other the worshipping of the past. And I intend to portray this from the latter's perception.

So I'm focusing on the style of religious icons for the overall piece. I sort of imagine this party sees themselves as something almost but not quite like the avenging angel. They're deeply devoted to their ideals and it's against their beliefs to kill but do so in order to defend their 'holy land', so to speak, from invaders.

The depictions of the Archangel Micheal give a good impression of what I'm going for:

St Michael
by
Guido Reni

Michael slaying Satan
by
Raphael

Olio

In my Illustration course, the Olio is a collection of my years work (as in all the people in their third and final year of illustration). It is a piece made with the intention for the Olio and usually with a running theme (such as the theme of mythology, which was last years). This year there isn't really a theme, but, we were given a quotation to interpret. This was mine:

'Remember those quiet evenings'

Now, I could just as easy illustrate something with the theme of tranquility, however, I find the key element of this phrase is was distinguishing the difference between witnessing a time of peace and recalling a time of peace from long ago. Remember those quiet evenings.

Making the key element is nostalgia...

Or even regret.

Which got me thinking about doing something I've been wanting to do a long, long time. Something involving the storyline of my biggest project.

Honestly, it fits my usual work so well I couldn't have picked a better quote.

The Wandering Child

(Yes I can see Pinocchio's trousers look terrible. I'll fix them later along with painting-in Tinker bell.)

When considering the Child archetype I find two figures stand out: Peter Pan and Pinocchio. And indeed the two have had an influence on the story of Bulby.

Peter Pan and Pinocchio are both concerned with the story of a child's development and coming of age. Both must go through a long adventure involving dangerous trials linked to adulthood and temptation. The figures of the Cat and Fox of Pinocchio for example and not to mention Toyland. And in Peter Pan there was temptation of staying in Neverland. And it's interesting to note the difference in their tales conclusion. Pinocchio essentially strives to become a 'real boy' which is symbolic of him becoming an adult of values. Peter Pan however strives to remain in the realm of childhood imagination; eternally young.

Concerning the characters of the two they are both similar in how they challenge the ideal of the perfect innocence of the child. Peter Pan is selfish and arrogant while Pinocchio was selfish and dishonest. They show how childhood innocence can actually be a relitively destructive force.

Of course, this is going into the mainstream interpretation of the two. I will have to look closer at the original stories of the two and see how they differ.

Character Design

I've been ill for a while but I've been working on character design for the past week. I'll eventually collect them all into one character lineup to use as my reference so you can see the difference in height and such. But for now, say hello to:

Bulby

Carrie Hanaurie

Flipside

Sonny

Monkey

Batten

Stokes 'Junior'

Playing with Curves...

It's all in the title. I started out fiddling with the levels and ended up screwing around with curves and came up with some bizarre images that I really like and think I could use but would never put out as a final image. Something to refrence for later ideas.

I also played around with trying to find something simple to give a little depth to my previous drawing...it ended up drawing attention away from the image (esp the wings) so I made it higher....

Didn't work out but I still learned a few things.

Grafted wings

This isn't strictly related to my FMP but I had the idea a while ago, it came back to me so I just had to do it. Although this is a character design I plan to use, it's to appear much later in another narrative project. Which, now that I mention it, is sure to crop up again.

To explain, I'm quite fascinated with the concept of altering the human condition (wiki covers it fairly well) and the various reasons for this desire from aesthetics, expressing identity to health and (debatable) improvement. I admit, however, though I've been interested in ideas surrounding it, I'm only just becoming familiar now with the term transhumanism.

Of course, this isn't anything new. Doesn't make it any less interesting or relevant for that matter.

Concerning the character in question, I have a very clear idea of how these aesthetic wings are supposed to function. 

Smoking is Hazardous to your Health

On another note, I believe this is the first smoker I've ever drawn.
This is just a rough image. While I'm proud of my line-work, my attempt to combine it with acrylic (my strong suit) failed and came out more like watercolour (NOT my strong suit).

Kudos to Jack and Tor for naming him.

Book trailers- Jon Klassen

Since I mentioned what I wanted to do for the FMP proposal I might as well point out an example of a  book trailer that influenced my decision.

Won the Caldecott Medal for 'This is Not My Hat' this year (2013).

One thing i can say is, he seems to really, really like hats...

FMP Proposal

The final FMP Proposal is going to be coming up in about 5 weeks. I'm hoping this will be ample time to get together:

• a trailer (I was going to do one anyway...what you've never seen a book trailer???) 
• and a Bulby doll. 

I was considering doing both anyway since I'm a fan of animation and would love to see Bulby in that format. And the doll because 1 it will serve as an excellent reference for Bulby's size, 2 fun promotional... thing and 3...yes, it would be nice to be able to give my character a hug.

Dark Woods

The Dark Woods is where pretty much the entirety of Bulby Book 1 takes place. It's a very grim environment where the trees completely blot out light and literally leeches out all colour (hence the name). It's littered with junk and the trees practically merge with industrial waste. So it's not just forestry. It's extremely important that I get the mood right in the medium and technique I portray it. Unfortunately while I'm confident with creating darker imagery esp with ink, I haven't yet been able to come up with imagery that I feel accurately expresses the despairing atmosphere of Dark Woods while also fitting around my characters. So i'll be doing a lot of experimenting with the medium I use and looking at other artists I find give a tone that reminds me of what I'm looking for.

Page example: Very rough pencil lines
- Inspired by Petra Erika Nordlund's Prague Race

Prague Race

One thing you should probably know about me is that I adore webcomics and have done pretty much since discovering the Internet as a child. Recently Prague Race quickly became one of my top favourites with it's eerie art style and story which is a lovely balance between dark and light hearted fantasy brimming with possibilities. Written by Petra Erika Nordlund aka Leppu, who demonstrates an excellent talent for storytelling in her characters and pacing. Not to mention her excellent use of plot twists which leave her audience completely on the edge of their seats (-cough-Colin-cough-).

I'd say it's definitely targeted at a young adult audience and lovers of the fantasy genre.

So if you haven't already read it you should probably go. read it. now.
And while your at it go check out her DA and tumblr.

Mr. Nemo

Who's this? Who is he? How will he feature in the story? I'm afraid I can't say without giving story away but I will say he's based on a good friend of mine. A very good friend.

Summer White

 "Hail, men of grey Arawn! My master comes, the Golden One, he who is ancient yet ever young. He whom no bird's wings can outstrip, whose flame shrivels all feathers, consumes all flesh. Do you hear me, men of the Western World? Then tremble. Nergal comes, the Lord of the Abyss, the Lord of the burning summer sun! He that rises out of Meslam, the Underworld, to blast every green and growing thing. He that of old dragged Ereshkigal, Queen of the Eastern Dead, from her ancient throne by the hair of her terrible head. He that turned her pride to cringing fear and made her the weak receiver of his seed. Even so will he deal with your Brenhines-y-nef, with your Modron, the Mother. Too long has She queened it here, over you gelded weaklings of the West. She shall learn Her place, the woman's place! East and west the dead shall know but one Lord: Havgan the Destroyer!"

"What right had you to seek my death, Lord? I never harmed you; I do not know why you sought my life. But since you have begun to kill me, end it---put me out of this pain."

I must say I've fallen absolutely in love with Evangeline Walton's re-telling of the Mabinogion, the collection of interwoven Welsh medieval legends. While the tales themselves are wonderful, it is really Walton's beautifully entrancing writing style, her use of symbolism and allusion to other cultural myths. I'm afraid much of the meaning and feeling of the quotations above is lost without the rest of the text. But Havgan was so well built up as a particularly vicious figure I just had to. An opponent whom even the Lord of the dead, Arawn, cannot defeat. Who if killed is, more or less, able to recover invulnerable to the one who slew him.

Original: (calligraphy) pen and ink with watercolour and rough pencil background.

Thanks to Evangelin Walton I had such a clear image of what Havgan looked like. A gorgeous youth hiding an arrogant, cruel and deceptively ancient personality. If the battle was really something like the seasonal battle between the Holly King and Oak King then it all the more implies his disruption of an ancient balance. Though he's clearly a very minor character in the Mabinogion he's fascinating in Walton's version and I could go on.

I did a little bit of research to find suitable garb that would fit Walton's suggested connection to the Phoenician god Nergal. The Khopesh swords seemed like a sword I could get away with and it fitted with what I wanted: something that was of an attractive, boastful shape. And from what I understand the Khopesh was often used as a ceremonious sword, buried with the dead which couldn't be more perfect. However, I cheated a bit with the belt since I'm assuming it's kind of impossible to sheath such a sword.

The Village of Flowers

It's very important to me that Carrie Hanaurie's original home feel like a real place with its own history and culture. So I began playing around with the idea of the dress being a kind of special festival clothing based on the theme of flowers (hence the title). Perhaps a celebration of spring or coming of age and such.

Each girl will be adorned with a flower that acts as a family/personal emblem. At the moment we just have the basic design without the flower embellishments (I'll add them in a later post). 

Hanaurie            Blankwytt         Luvokeur          Yaustier                 Anafier
Chrysanthemum         Daisy            Rose Red          Rose White         Lavender  

Essentially this is just a good practice with colour combination (an area I believe is not my strong suit, especially with these kinds of bright primary colours). Personally I'm pleased and it was quite fun playing around with each individual's design. I hope that a little bit of each individual character comes through with a sense that these were likely her fellow playmates. Who knows? I may feature them a little more in depth later...

I have no idea what the boys would wear and this sort of bugs me. If it were some kind of festival a more gender-neutral clothing would be more fitting. Maybe the boys can wear dresses too :D!

Cheltenham Illustration Awards

The Cheltenham illustration awards...

Break the Cutie

Hardly, but the occasional guilt of this makes me feel otherwise...

Astonishingly Carrie did not always live in the Dark Woods. Since this does indeed come up and play a part in the story I'm taking the time to go into it now.

If it wasn't already obvious, the way I design my characters is purposeful. Carrie wears an adult man/woman's work coat that is entirely too big for her over a little girls dress that has become too small (obvious symbolism is obvious) but where did the dress come from?

My previous attempts at something sickeningly girly yet also plain and typical were, frankly, so terrible I refuse to allow them to see the light of day. I realize looking back that there was probably some pieces of my childhood that influences this backstory and the need for something that fit that criteria.

But now I feel the need for something else. So here's to the new design:

Carrie Hanauri: Past

Carrie Hanaury: Present and as cheery as ever!

While I'm personally quite pleased with the dress I'm a little worried that it may be... a little bit too...which I suppose is essentially what I was going for... but...

Heidi?

Gotta get back, back to the past...

Why did I ever wait so long to get into Samurai Jack? I had always heard good things about it but I'm afraid I steered clear... because I was vaguely aware that the series had been cut without a resolution. I immensely regret it but I suppose now is better than never.

No matter what form you take, Aku, you will never defeat the side of righteousness!

 If you don't already know the story... well, it's been pretty well summed up in the shows opening:

"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape shifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a foolish samurai warrior wielding a magic sword stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future where my evil is law. Now the fool seeks to return to the past and undo the future that is Aku."

AKUUUUU!

It's quite unusual having the opening narraration come from the antagonist which, frankly, should be enough of an indicator of the amount of creativity that went into the show. Aside from the story's abundant wit and originality serving as a tender homage to the action genre of older generations (1950-60's?) it's a treat for animators. It indulges itself with constantly changing settings and colours all skilfully chosen and has a wonderful sense of timing and sequence.

Kind of like... a graphic novel...

(All pics courtesy of: Scipsy)

Phoenix Feathers

Rough sketch for figuring out a colours combination for the feathers the Fitcher's Bird character...

Great. Now I can't get my mind off that song by Alicia Keys... 

Illustration for Publication- character concept and design

I'm afraid if I was to get into the background of the story I'm using for this module it would more likely end up being even more confusing and ironically harder to understand. Therefore all you really need to know is that I'm attempting to design a creature the main character sees in a dream. See! Simple, even though there's more to it.

Now the creature:

Archetypes

 Back when we were given the archetypes project I started developing ideas for a series that would focus on female vs male archetypes comparing their opposites, equivalents and etc. I was very much influenced by Joseph Campbell's 'Hero With a Thousand Faces' which I was in the middle of reading. I had to put it aside for other projects but I came back to it just recently. Please keep in mind I've been trying to get accustomed to digital media for years so frankly I've been quite pleased with what I've been learning from this particular project.

'The Ingenue'

The Ingenue is a type of character, typically female that portrays great childlike naivete and is often meant to be greatly admired/sought after for her other traits sought in a woman: youth, beauty, unconditional love, dependence and perfection overall. One of the key issues with the ingenue is that no such person of such 'purity' and innocence can live in the real world and therefore this  character constantly relies on the protection of (predominantly) male guardians who risk their lives to save her from evil. It's a very old archetype and it essentially stems from the prejudice that women are are really no better than children. Characters which arguably fit this archetype are Ophelia, Daisy Buchanan of 'Great Gatesby', Cosette of 'Les Miserables', Blanche of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and most fairy tale heroines. I find Snow White particularly suffers from this role so I wanted to hint at that character in appearance (ie, focus on using the colours of white, red and black). The daisy she holds is a very well known symbol of youth and innocence.Her eyes are closed as her mind to her surroundings. Above her are three circles that with contain depictions of the three possible destinies of the ingenue. To the left she is surrounded by a wall signifying resignment to the role which may or may not be to her satisfaction (Daisy could be an example). To the right is the result of when the ingenue cannot except the reality for what it is resulting in insanity (Ophelia and Blanche are excellent examples of this). And finally above represents self realisation, acceptance of reality and thus breaking free of the restrictions of this archetype.

It's not finished, I still need to work on the lighting, add the male + female figureheads on the chair and do something with the background. Originally I was simply thinking of doing...a pile of bodies bathed in a red light...with blood seeping up her dress...too much? So since I possibly have to tone it down a bit I will nevertheless explain why this background. The issue with the Ingenue complex is the fact that she would have to be completely blind to anything not considered 'wholesome' but everyone suffers from this in the end. Men are expected to die for her and women are made targets by her example.

'The Princess'

Beauty in BD

I've come across a lot of Bande Dessinée artists who really know how give a sense of dramatic scale. Alex Alice for instance comes to mind because I have the Seigfreud books.  I've noticed it in the fantasy, horror but particularly in the action/adventure genre because knowing just how to use perspective to create a strong sense of impossibly tall buildings, mountain or even monsters makes all the difference. And there are a number of artist's whose work I've been meaning to pick up. Here's one of them:

François Schuiten
Belgian artist. He comes from a family of architects and judging by his art it really REALLY does not come as a surprise.

Incredible use of perspective. And from what I've been able to find online I've noticed he seems to often but not always utilise a very limited pallet that primarily uses oranges and violet-blues especially in series 'Les Cités Obscures' (which I definetly plan on getting my hands on).

There's an post on visual news which has a lot of good examples of his work. And bedetheque.com has a very up to date list of his work.

BG Re-design

In my minds eye I see her as a creature that attempts to follow typical attributes considered beautiful yet ended up sticking a toe into the uncanny valley.

In earlier concepts I think I relied more on having something as ordinary as a girl dressed up as a cheerfully naive butterfly feel completely out of place in the Dark Woods. You can take a look at the old pages from around 2006:

Looking back I realised my ideas for the Butterfly girl didn't come though in the design. And then I though, why settle on a mask...

...when a face full of butterflies would do...?

Side note: I was fiddling with the colour and was surprised by how this colour change impacted me. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the orange but for some reason I find the blue version to be extremely...unsettling. So much so I'm actually tempted to completely change BG's colour scheme (I am reluctant to do so for several reasons but I'm still considering playing with the colour after a final design)

The Butterfly Girl

I'm going to start with the characters in order of their appearance in the original pages. That means Butterfly Girl comes first.

Butterfly Girl is a background character at best. She doesn't play a key role in the story's events and nor does she really actively engage with the other characters. Nevertheless I find her essential and I couldn't imagine not having her in the tale. The reason she is important is firstly how her presence sets the right tone for the Dark Woods and secondly how she is a key indicator to the true nature of the Dark Woods and what the story is really about. Her conception was very much based on two people I used to know one more in the way of appearance and the other in terms of history.

Here's the old designs that I'm going to be working with. The first is from around 2006 and the other 2010-11.

...Yes it's terrible but in my defence I was just starting to figure out digital art

Character Design- Gravity Falls

I'm quite a fan of Gravity Falls, Disney's newest animated series (finally children have a new series that's actually good-- Yes, I care a lot about what it is children are presented with for entertainment, I wouldn't be doing what I do otherwise). I could go on about the show's abundance of creativity and good humour but I'd rather focus on character design for the time being. The following belong to Brigette Barrager and were the very first character designs.

If you're interested in animation you'll notice character design more or less follows this trend : rough basic shapes, pencil sketches, character expression and productions sheets. The Living Lines Library ( a site which I recently came across) is loaded with concept art and I think their collection on 'Paranorman' (very fond of this one) is the perfect example.

Please go ahead and click Brigette Barrager to check out her blog or here to go straight to the Gravity falls character designs.

Louis Wain

Inspired victorian artist and cat lover, Louis Wain is well known for his anthropomorphised cats. His inspiration was apparently his wife Emily Richardson who was dying of breast cancer. Louis comforted  her with drawings of their black and white cat Peter performing human actions and she encouraged him to publish his work. For a time around the 1890's he was successful.

Louis Wain's 'Kitten Book'

Sadly Louis Wain's mental health declined and he was committed in 1924 to Springfield Mental Hospital in Tooting. After an intervention by admirers of his work he was relocated a year later to Bethlem Royal Hospital (now a museum that holds information and art concerning Wain). He died 1939. It is often said he died content surrounded by his beloved cats, whether or not this is true I don't believe we could ever know but it's nice to speculate and says a lot about what people thought of him.

Louis Wain's art during the time he was committed is very well known as an example demonstrating mental health deterioration from schizophrenia. However it is also the subject of debate since the chronological order of his work from that period cannot be proven among other things. I do believe his illness had something to with the change of his art but I agree that saying it affected his ability to communicate visually, that it hindered it, sounds wrong. 

For me Louis Wain is fascinating as a person for his apparent unconventional behaviour, passion for art that bordered on obsession and of course his expressed adoration of cats. His work from both periods fascinate me because of the felines expressions and the intensity of their gaze. He loved cats yet often there is a very unsettling, almost violent expression in their smile and gaze. The kaleidoscopic cats are incredibly expressive of his intense fascination with pattern and primary colours.

Certainly I'll be referring back to him sometime in the future.

Research Project

Now for my research project I plan to do a collaboration with fellow student Victoria Upson. We want to do an adaptation of the fairy tale of Snow White and we're both set on making an animated short using stop motion. We're are both drawn to fairy tale lore and the darker aspects (often ignored in public media) which should give you something of an idea for what direction we're currently thinking of going in.

Even though I'm studying illustration I adore animation and stop-motion in particular. And I've been fascinated in particular with the stop-motion puppetry so this is certainly an excellent opportunity to finally learn how they're made.

There will be a blog exclusively for the Snow White Project sometime soon so please look out for it in the near future.

Final Major Project

Bulby was a project I started back back in secondary school and it quickly became something very personal. It was partly because of this I had to stop working on it for a year to come to terms with the idea of bringing it out into the open.

The essence of the story is about exploration, fears and interaction between people and the outside world. I incorporated many of my childhood experiences and relationships with people around me which explains why it's such a personal project.

The titular character of Bulby is a cartoonish looking creature who makes a journey through a fantastical and often perilous world. The character invokes very traditional traits of childlike innocence and curiosity. I still find these character traits very interesting in exploring those vitues downsides, the interactions with such a character and possible developement. And course there are many other characters, each with their own purpose, ambitions and interpretations of the story's events.

Bulby says: "...!"

For my FMP my goal is to incorporate the whole of what I deem as 'book 1' into a graphic novel. The majority of the tale has been written and i even have a full chapter of really old pages that should serve as an excellent start. I have yet to decide on whether this is a story i want published as a book or online but obviously it can wait. Until then there will be plenty of character designs, media experimentation and art to come that i hope you'll enjoy.

Introductions

A big hello and welcome to the reader whose identity I am currently pondering over. My name is Sophia Torriente and may be catagorized as being among that curious breed of the visual-narrative inclined homo-sapien known as an illustration student. And this is my blog.

This is where I will be posting information regarding the third year of my illustration course specifically it's core components: the Final Major Project (FMP) and my Research Project (which does not need an abbreviation). 

Thank you for looking!