Evaluation
Theme
The overall
theme for this project was based around ‘Tales Through Others Eyes’, this was
also the theme of The Cheltenham Illustration Awards, a competition we could
apply to with our final pieces, once the project is over.
In the
animation I have designed, although this specific competition only accepts
illustrations, I would be sending this one to the Adobe Awards. I decided to
stick with the given theme and create an animation showing someone’s facial
reaction when they are laughing. This would be seen from the audiences view
point, keeping with the original theme. In this design, I chose to keep it very
simplistic, I knew that I only wanted the face and hands to be visible. This
would hopefully suggest to the viewers that when you’re looking at someone you
care about, all you see is them and nothing else really matters.
In my
illustration, I feel as if I’ve forgotten/lost my theme in the midst of
creating it. My original idea was to recreate a piece of artwork which depicts
a Japanese war zone, in my own style, the way in which kozyndan recreated The
Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai. The war zone would be from the point of view
of a Japanese soldier, keeping with the theme of ‘Tales Through Others Eyes’.
This idea however got twisted whilst I was in a group crit, discussing all of
my ideas. People suggested that instead of having to find a specific piece of
artwork that I did not know if existed or not, I should recreate a well-known
painting and add a surrealistic twist. I loved the sound of this idea so I just
went with it, I did not question how it still linked with my theme as I was so
excited just to get started. Although I love the outcome of this piece, I do
regret not keeping it more towards the theme of the competition.
Other than
this fact I was inspired to recreate Grant Woods American Gothic in an
underwater setting. This was a thought that crossed my mind as I noticed the
pitchfork in the man’s hand and wondered if I could turn it into a trident.
This then lead me onto thinking what if the couple lived in the see, almost as
if they lived in the lost city of Atlantis. However, when I started looking at
the couple’s surroundings, the buildings looked more as if they could be fish
tank ornaments, so I wanted to start playing around with both ideas, seeing
what I could create whilst still allowing the original painting to be
recognised.
This design
could link to the theme as it could suggest that although you may have seen
this painting a thousand times, it only takes one person’s view on it to change
your whole perspective of it. Although it’s not a strong link to the theme, it
is still a link, so I will still try to submit the design into the Cheltenham
Illustration Awards.
Experimentation's
During this
project, I don’t feel as if I have done a lot of experimentation, testing
different forms of media and textures. I have however used acrylic on acetate
to create a line work painting of the American Gothic, but I knew right away
that this was not going to be the style of illustration that I wanted to go
for.
With the
surrealism aspect of my idea, I started creating digital collages based on the
concepts from my original sketches, this allowed me to see the composition and
layout of the design. From the collages, I then loosely started drawing out
every detail digitally, this gave me the chance to see how the design would
work in my overall choice of a cel shading style.
Once I chose
which concept I thought looked best, I started creating all of the line work in
illustrator. This allowed my lines to stay clean, smooth, thin and still
readable. When I had everything complete, I then took all of the line work into Photoshop, the only thing I had to decide now would be what colours would work
best to fit the underwater theme. I chose to take inspiration from Tomer Hanuka’s
‘you’re not boring anymore’ design, this we because the piece is mostly blue
toned, but it is still clear, understandable and beautiful to look at.
When I had
complete my illustration and I was happy with the outcome, I started on my
animation. As I did not know how long it would take to create this piece, I
quickly decided to use the same style and creation process that I had used in
my illustration. I first started by taking stop motion photos of someone laughing,
I then used the photos to draw a basic outline of my models features on each
frame. When these sketches were all put together in an animation, I realised it
was quite short and that it did not really flow smoothly. To rectify this, I
started adding frames in between the original ones, I did this by freehand
drawing the models face between the two frames. Although some of the frames did
look a bit weird, and at times looked nothing like my model, it did not matter
as when the animation started running, you did not really see the bad frames.
When I had
all of my basic sketches done, I then saved each frame as a jpeg and took them
all into illustrator and started creating my line work. This seemed to clean up
some of the free-handed frames, and they did start to look more like the model.
Again, once I had all of my line work complete, I took it back into Photoshop to
start colouring. For this piece, I wanted the colours to be opposite to my
illustration piece and I wanted them to be quite pastel based. So again, I
looked to Tomer Hanuka for inspiration, I chose to use the colours from his
piece ‘a clockwork orange’. So, like before, I started colouring in using a cel
shading style.
When
watching the final at this point, it was still quite short so after discussing
it with my tutor, I decided to make the animation loop. I wanted to do this by
making the last frame melt, forming a puddle of goop, then the goop starts to
rise, rebuilding the first frame. Doing this, I started freehand drawing the
next frames, making sure that they linked up to the first and last. When I was
happy with my sketches, again I took them into illustrator, created the line
work then took each frame back into photoshop, then started the colouring
process again.
Strengths
·
I’ve
kept on schedule with all of my work, nothing has been rushed and nothing has
been left to the last minute.
·
Since
I haven’t rushed, my designs are clean and I’ve had the time to listen to
suggestions of improvement, helping me produce a stronger design.
·
I’ve
been taking inspiration from artists (Tomer Hanuka, DelaDeso) but Ive kept the
design true to myself and my own style.
·
I’ve
became more open to critiques as they have helped me in creating two pieces
that I'm so proud of.
Weaknesses
·
In
my illustration, I struggled a lot with the coral in the image, I knew it didn’t
look right when I was only using the pen tool, however I would get confused
when my tutor was suggesting me things to do and try out instead. This problem
did get resolved eventually, and I am so glad that I kept the coral in the
illustration.
·
Another
complication I found is when I started taking line work from illustrator into
photoshop for my animation. As some frames were longer or wider than others, I
found that each frame was a different size when I put them all together. I had
to resolve this by resizing each frame individually, making sure that the last
frame would link back to the first, smoothly.
·
Time
management, I still tend to misjudge how long different aspects may take. This
was mostly a problem within my animation, as I didn’t know how long it would
take me to produce all of the line work and colour each frame.
·
Repetitiveness,
this again was a problem within my animation as Id often get bored and/or lose
motivation, making me take more breaks, taking me more time to produce the
animation.
My opinion
I am so
proud of both outcomes which I have produced, I feel I have put a lot of hard
work into this project and I feel it has shown in the outcomes. As I have said,
I believe both of my designs are to a professional standard and I’d be proud to
send it out into the world.
I feel out
of the two, I love the animation more. Other than the fact that it is personal
to me, the piece shows how far I’ve came over the past 8 months. Considering that
I’ve only ever created 3 animations, including this one, I feel I have come a
long way since my first loop animation. In comparison, this piece moves
smoother, there is a clean and recognisable style, and I believe you can see
that I have become more comfortable with using the different programs.
Targets for future projects
In future
projects, I am going to keep up with the planner and the timetables. This I
feel will reduce my stress during the projects as it outlines how much time I
have left, so that I will not be rushing through the creation process, making
final pieces that I will not be proud of.
As I have
created digital pieces throughout the whole course so far, next year I will try
creating more handmade pieces. I do want to start drawing again, playing around
with the different types of printing, and I want to use different medias to see
what textures I could create.
Again, with
working more traditionally, I want to get better at drawing things that I often
struggle with. This means a lot of practise drawing anatomy, perspective and
surrounding, this is something that I will do over the break and in between my
next project.
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