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'