Initial Thoughts During Briefing
I enjoy characters and find them very powerful - the distinctive ones throughout my life have stayed with me through their strong visuals. Matilda, Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit, Mr. Blobby... All wholly tangible, real and my friends. When a character is designed effectively it really portrays their intentions with immediacy - to be comical, educational, unassuming, thought-provoking...
Designing my own characters is going to be a challenge and it is something I struggled with in my previous project when creating the Pearly Kings and Queens picture book. I got rather stuck at one point, looking to Ben Javens as inspiration while being careful not to imitate him to the point where my own intentions didn't show through. After refinement I was much happier with simplified shapes to represent characters. I am not the kind of person who sits down with their sketchbook and doodles different people and animals with exaggerated features in my spare time - which I think I need to start doing.
I am nervous about creating gifs and animating because of my severe visual impairment - understanding a static image can be hard enough, never mind a moving image! When I go to the cinema I have to use the audio description headsets because movement means flashes of colour, subtitles I can't read and objects moving at a speed that my singular, and very weak, eye cannot keep up with... I am up for challenging myself, I always am, but want to record my anxiousness and hope that is changes as I get stuck into the brief! Have fun! Be experimental! Simplification is amplification!
Designing my own characters is going to be a challenge and it is something I struggled with in my previous project when creating the Pearly Kings and Queens picture book. I got rather stuck at one point, looking to Ben Javens as inspiration while being careful not to imitate him to the point where my own intentions didn't show through. After refinement I was much happier with simplified shapes to represent characters. I am not the kind of person who sits down with their sketchbook and doodles different people and animals with exaggerated features in my spare time - which I think I need to start doing.
I am nervous about creating gifs and animating because of my severe visual impairment - understanding a static image can be hard enough, never mind a moving image! When I go to the cinema I have to use the audio description headsets because movement means flashes of colour, subtitles I can't read and objects moving at a speed that my singular, and very weak, eye cannot keep up with... I am up for challenging myself, I always am, but want to record my anxiousness and hope that is changes as I get stuck into the brief! Have fun! Be experimental! Simplification is amplification!
Three Songs
Weather Report - Waterfall
THOUGHTS: I'm transported into a jungle surrounded by a series of jazzy creatures! There's a slight feel of longing or loneliness but I see splashes of colour and texture on jungle plants and tree bark, vines spiralling and curling outwards, as shadows hide in the lower vegetation.
THOUGHTS: I'm transported into a jungle surrounded by a series of jazzy creatures! There's a slight feel of longing or loneliness but I see splashes of colour and texture on jungle plants and tree bark, vines spiralling and curling outwards, as shadows hide in the lower vegetation.
CONNOTATIONS: It has an organic feeling to the song, there isn't really a sense of 'happy' or 'sad' - upbeat or melancholic - just an organic-ness and naturalness to it. It is very textured, multilayered, changes from higher notes on the saxophone to much lower ones. A deep bass giving a slight kick and twang. It is strange, mysterious, slightly tribal, fluid, hasn't a set composition, but is fascinating.
Ruff Skwad - Together
Thoughts: This wasn't what I expected it would be! I quite enjoy this song after repeated listening and it transports me back to the early 2000's when this flavour of early Grime was prevalent in the UK Top 40, on the television and at people's house parties... The Artful Dodger, Architechs, Sweet Female Attitude and So Solid Crew come to mind! I see the mental image of a lonely character slowly shuffling down the dim street, deep in thought. Contemplating their life in a changing millennium. Possibly texting on their old Nokia 3210 or playing snake, going to a mates' house and refusing to do their maths homework. Am I getting too into this throwback? Probably!
Thoughts: This wasn't what I expected it would be! I quite enjoy this song after repeated listening and it transports me back to the early 2000's when this flavour of early Grime was prevalent in the UK Top 40, on the television and at people's house parties... The Artful Dodger, Architechs, Sweet Female Attitude and So Solid Crew come to mind! I see the mental image of a lonely character slowly shuffling down the dim street, deep in thought. Contemplating their life in a changing millennium. Possibly texting on their old Nokia 3210 or playing snake, going to a mates' house and refusing to do their maths homework. Am I getting too into this throwback? Probably!
Connotations: Laid-back, downtempo, electronic, mechanical, chilled, repetition / repeated motifs, continuation, funky, urban, youth.
Thoughts: Despite the main image on the YouTube video being of a countryside scene, this is what came to my mind's eye too. I think of nature waking up for Spring after a wistful sleep during the Winter months. Graceful and majestic animals spreading their wings, peeking their long snouts from under their burrow, climbing to the tree tops, splashing from the rivers... Happy to receive the miracle of being alive.
Connotations: Peaceful, majesty, grace, vast landscapes, bird's eye view, sweeping motions, optimism, positivity, grandeur, ornamentation, decoration, warmth. This is a beautiful, charming piece of music, almost like a soundtrack with different suites or narratives in the song, it is very well composed and conventional in a way.
Reflection
What is my own intent for this module? For my time at university? As an illustrator in general? I want to push myself, surprise myself, learn new things, experiment, go out of my comfort zone and be comfortable with making mistakes and growing. The Lark Ascending is probably what I would have chosen right back at the beginning of the course, when I was still very set in my ways of creating images and approaching briefs - but now I want to do something different!
I have chosen Weather Report - Waterfall as it is totally unexpected from me. I want to create some wacky characters like nothing I have done before... I am not really a character artist, I have to admit, and it is something I can get caught up in and struggle with. I am excited at the prospect of filling up a sketchbook in the first week as I mentioned in my end of unit evaluation that I need to get working in my sketchbook more rather than just researching or blogging to solve problems methodically and solve problems visually too.
I have chosen Weather Report - Waterfall as it is totally unexpected from me. I want to create some wacky characters like nothing I have done before... I am not really a character artist, I have to admit, and it is something I can get caught up in and struggle with. I am excited at the prospect of filling up a sketchbook in the first week as I mentioned in my end of unit evaluation that I need to get working in my sketchbook more rather than just researching or blogging to solve problems methodically and solve problems visually too.
No comments:
Post a Comment