Summer Investigation

Over this summer I will investigate:

• The artists and writes that will inspire me for my final project
• How they came up with their ideas and who influenced them for these ideas so then I will have more artists and writers for me to research
• Read more comics that use historical context well so I will have more ideas and even more artists to look at
• Make the use out of my holidays to lanzarote by doing some observational drawings to give ideas for scenery and hopefully visiting some museums or exhibitions while I am there.

I will record all of my findings at the end of the summer on a blog and i will create my own experiments from these findings and hopefully combine my information from the artists i look at with the drawings i do on holiday.

Artists and writers to investigate

• Juanjo Guarnido - the illustrator of Blacksad - colour scheme for exposition and story and focus on minor characters
• Hiromu Arakawa - the writer and illustrator of Full Metal Alchemist manga - historical context of main characters
• George Lucas- director of Star Wars movies - using typography as exposition
• Phil Heater - writer of The Darkness series - exposition for side characters
• Tolkien and Peter Jackson - writer of the Lord of the Rings book and director of the movies - history of the world.

investigation process

To investigate for the final major project i want to look through all the examples i explained earlier and all the artists i looked at and see how they were able to show the historical exposition in their stories in different ways. I want to explore the different forms of historical context by seeing if I would prefer making the context about one or two characters or focus on a more wider range. I would also want to explore how to transition the main story into the exposition and back to the main story in a way that I would find most suitable. To understand this I decided that over the summer that I will create multiple short stories that will show a page or two of exposition in this form.

I will create:

• A few panels explaining the exposition of a main character
• A few panels explaining the exposition of a large range of characters, e.g. A country
• A few panels showing the transition between a main story and exposition.

Example 6: Left 4 Dead: The Sacrifice

This exposition focuses on one of the main characters, zoey and her backstory. Unlike the other examples I have looked at, this one doesn't have any narration at all but is instead a full flashback into her past and she got brought into this apocalypse that began by the mention of her father. This way of creating the exposition is quite different considering most historical context in literature would have some narration in it or at least someone mentioning the exposition before it appears before the readers yet this story starts the flashback just from a mention of their memory. I believe it worked slightly well however how they portrayed it here made the exposition feel rushed and abrupt by interrupting the story to show her past where it could have been mentioned quite quickly in the story after the character heard about it which still would have worked as exposition but not for as long though it does make the story more entertaining by showing the characters past. The exposition here uses a dark, gritty colour scheme to represent that the heroes are never safe and it keeps this colour scheme in the exposition to show that the heroine is still unsafe in that scenario either so it doesn't let the audience think that it wouldn't be a nice memory. I think how they used exposition here could help me with my intent because I might want to keep the same colour scheme for it if i was thought of focusing on a darker theme.

For my visual experiment here I decided to see that if I could change the context it might make the transition to the exposition better which I believed it works just as well unfortunately.

Example 5 - Star Wars episode IV: A New Hope

In this example the piece of historical context i focused on was the opening scene which they used a text crawl effect to give information about what had happened prior to the events of the movie. Unlike the other examples i had looked at this piece of exposition solely focused on the narration and used a literary sense of narration by using text instead of a voice which makes the audience read the information. I believe this works really well because it leaves the image to the viewers imagination before the film actually starts. They also made the scenery really simplistic but having a simple black background with a couple of stars while have the text a large bold yellow colour so it stands out from the rest which works really well because it put the text at the center of the audience's attention. This piece of exposition could help with my intent massively by making me thinking of using typography and how I could use a simplistic scenery with bold letter over it to create the historical context.

For my visual experiment here I also decided to see if I could use this in a storyboard format which it could slightly work well with but it would also seem quite dull with just the words on the panels without any drawings to go with it.

Example 4 - Shadows of Mordor

Inside this computer game you can find collectibles that can find a point where it would play a piece of memory that gives the player a piece of exposition about the history of one of the side characters that are helping the main in his mission which works really well because it allows the player to learn more about the character and care about them more. This form of exposition works really well because it is unique way of getting the exposition and it also makes itself work as a gameplay mechanic by letting the players who would like the exposition search for the collectables while it allows the players who wants to skip the exposition that option. This has helped me with my intent a little bit by, like the previous two examples making me think about if I want to focus on the characters and how I would like to use the exposition to explain their backstory.

For my visual experiment here I decided to try and find a way to show this form of exposition in a storyboard format to see if it could work at all, however I don't think this works that well but I still like the idea of having a singular object be the cause of the exposition.

Example 3 - Blacksad

The third example I decided to look at was a graphic novel named Blacksad where, similarly to the previous example the exposition was done through a flashback into the main characters past, however in this case it more focused on a minor character and it just uses narration while showing a few illustrations to give the readers a small idea of how the character felt. They also change the colour scheme when they use their exposition compared to the rest of the book. With this example the main story has a gritty colour scheme to it to give it a film noir feeling but when the main character created the exposition the colour scheme changed to a lighter, more colourful scenery which is meant to show a point where the main character was happy and cheerful. I believe this worked very well because it leaves more to the viewers imaginations of what is happening in the scene but also gives a few hints to help them along to understand what is happening but not too many that it would take the imagination away. This form of exposition has given me multiple ideas for my intent because it's letting me think of what colour scheme i would like to use and its making me think of if i want to use the exposition as a full narration with a couple of images and if i wanted to focus on minor character instead of major ones.

For my visual experiment here I focused on using the exposition to reveal a feeling of happiness in a time where the character was sad. I enjoyed creating these drawings and I believe I would definitely incorporate this form in stories I would create in the future.

Example 2- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

For this I decided to use episode 2 of this anime as my example because the whole episode was based around the backstory of the main two characters and how they became the people they were in the present time of the show. Unlike the previous example where there was a narrator giving exposition throughout the scene this show decided to not have any narration during this episode and instead give the audience a flashback of the characters and shows all the major events in their past and how they and the people around them reacted to this event at those specific times. This works really well because it shows the audience the emotions the characters are feeling and it gets the audience to connect with them in multiple ways which is what the audience is meant to feel for these main characters and it also let's the audience respect the main character Edward more as he matures and deals with the mistakes he made. This has also given me multiple idea of what I would want to use for my intent because it makes me think if I would want to focus on only a couple of characters and how they have effected people and it could add a more emotional story behind it. The video here is the famous scene from the episode where it show how they attempt to bring their mother back to life.

For my visual experiment here I decided to focus on the main character's change of maturity by having a depressing thing happen to them. I believe this works well because it shows the story simple in three panels but, in the future, I would change it to add more to the story.

Example 1- Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the ring

The opening is a large piece of exposition that shows the history of the rings that were distributed across the races and the one ring that the main antagonist provided to be able to control all the other rings. They mostly focused on the one ring and the chaos it has created by starting a full scale war against the villain, the psychological effects it has on people besides the villain, and it's journey from owner to owner. They were able to use exposition here to explain the history really well by having a narrator explain the rings, the dark lord and the chaos he created with the power but only vaguely while letting us see short clips of what she is describing on the screen which shows the audience how powerful these rings are. This opening scene gives me great inspiration for my intent because it has given me ideas of how I could let the audience learn the historical context through both the narration and the images i would create when I make the final piece next year.

For my visual experiment here I decided turn the very opening scene as a comic book sequence to see how the movie format could work in that way and I believe it can as long as I could describe as much in the illustrations as in the exposition.

Intent

My intent will be to show a historical context in a story by the use of exposition. I chose this because I really enjoy creating my own stories and my favourite elements in stories are the backstories of the world and the characters within that story. For this i decided to search for examples of this form of exposition which I found a few different scenes from movies, comics and video games which worked well together with it.

Week 5

In this week's session we were shown a clip and given the storyboard of the famous scene from the movie North by Northwest and looked at how they used visual language in it. When I saw the clip my thoughts were that there was sense of loneliness, unpredictability and vulnerability considering the main character was waiting in a large open space that was barren. The main character was looked very smartly as well as a way to convey his importance and maybe shows he had some important business to do in the barren field. I really enjoyed watching this because I liked the uncertainty of his safety and how more intense it was getting before the plane attacked which has given me multiple ideas for multiple stories.

For our main task we had to create thumbnail ideas of how we analysed this scene that we could possibly use for later on in our fmp. For this I took inspiration from the story I was in the middle of creating for the self publishing module and made a short storyboard of one of the scenes in that story. the storyboard shows the character in the middle of the open field quickly going to the toilet in the middle on the night and is looking around him to try to see if he can find his friends but because of how dark it was he could barely even see the field itself. this was meant to show the vulnerability that I thought of from the North by Northwest scene. I really enjoyed this project because it helped me think of more story elements that i could include in future stories i would like to create and it helped me think of how i could use elements from the scene in another module's work.

Week 4

In this session we were given three starting points, a poem, a film, and a piece of music and three themes which were childhood memories, inside our heads and identity. We were also given three different images that work well along side the starting points which are shown below. We had to analyse and explore these images and the large of amount of mediums they use such as surrealism, context, anthropomorphism, etc. We were then given a task to draw for the three theme based on these starting points to show to multiple schools later on in the week.

In our first starting point which the theme was childhood memories we were given the poem "Some of these thing are true" which was created by Fern Hill and was based on how time influenced a person's memories. I really liked the poem because I really enjoyed how he expresses all the objects that he sees everyday and describes it as how his imagination as a child gives it more emotions and feeling. For my project I decided to use different parts of the poem and create the images to represent them, however after multiple design ideas I did not like any of them enough to create a final piece to present.

In our second starting part which the theme was identity we were show short dadaist film from 1928. it shows the movement of dadaism and about the concept of time. The video made viewers question reality by showing images such as time rewinding at multiple elements and multiple objects moving on their own. I'm didn't really enjoy this video because I dislike dadaism and how random it is though it did give me some ideas of what to use in my drawings. However for my final piece I didn't use the film but instead created a drawing of identity showing a superhero standing on top of a building ready to go save the world, however behind him there was a smaller, more child-like version of him shivering with fright, this was meant to represent that everyone has fear inside of them but if they have to do what they fear they must overcome it.

For our theme which was inside our heads, I decided to take a more literal approach to my drawings by representing multiple forms of something controlling everything inside our heads and how it could control it. For this my main inspiration was from an old comic from the beano I used to read called the Numbskulls which was about tiny people inside people's heads who worked on different areas to make sure it was fine. I took a more realistic twist on my final piece by showing a large office where the little men will come to work which each department written on top of each door of where they would work. I really enjoyed this one because it brought back the memories on the comic I read when I was younger and I enjoyed trying to imagine how the body works in a more kid friendly way

Week 3

In this week's session we were given examples from the artist Edward Ardizzone and had to create illustrations that are meant to communicate a sense of quiet desperation amongst coffee drinkers in a refectory. In his work you can tell that he uses simple outlining and very dark tone which does make the work seem more depressing he also barely uses colour in his work but if he does it is a bold colour.

For my task I went to a coffee shop called Boston Tea Party. I used this scene because there was multiple people around that I could draw and at the time multiple of them were alone and working which makes the scene work more. I created a simple line drawing so I could get more detail into the drawing. I enjoyed this work because it helped me have more practise for my observational drawings and made me think of multiple stories that I could possibly do based on the people around me.

Week 2

In this week's session, the example we was given the book named The Arrival by Shaun Tan and we had to create illustrations that displayed a feeling of loss, discovery and return. In his work you can see that he uses little to no words which makes the readers focus more on each little detail in the images to know the story. He created his characters for the story by using life models as the references which works really well for what his book since it shows a realistic, detailed image so the audience can tell more from it.

For my task we had to created 3 - 4 editorial images with the intent of using visual metaphors to communicate complex emotional responses and the content we was given to base these illustrations on was an Indonesian couple who lost their son and daughter during the tsunami but reunited with them years later.  For this I made three quick sketches, the first one is showing a mirror image with the left side representing the tsunami snatching and taking the children away from the parents while the other side shows the tsunami disappearing as the family reunites to show that the tsunami is no longer affecting their lives. The second image I created was representing the tsunami as some kind of monster that has taken the kids in his hands and away from the parents but shows the little girl has escaped from its clutches and had reunited with the parents while the little boy watches it happen which is meant to show when the boy saw the news story about the family reuniting. Finally my last image was similar to the first by using a mirror image but this time I illustrated it as two family photos with the left side showing the family nearly submerged in water and looking depressed to show how the tsunami had affected them while on the right side it shows the whole family smiling with no water in sight which is again to show that the tsunami is no longer affecting them since they have reunited. I slightly enjoyed this project because it challenged me to think of how to create an entire visual story in only one image, however it proved more challenging than I thought which made me dislike it as well.

Week 1

In this week we were given examples from the artist Honore Daumier amd were asked to create our own versions of his caricatures with clay as our medium and nigel farage as our model. In his work he uses the most obvious features of the person and exaggerates it therefore making it the center of attention. He does this well because even though he has exaggerated the person the viewers can still easily tell who the person is.

For my task I used the reference above for the caricature and the reference below of Nigel Farage.

From the photo i believe the part i can exaggerate the most from his face was his mouth. Since I mostly prefer making animals as well I decided to think of what animal most suited him and his large mouth which gave me the conclusion of turning him into a crocodile. However making this happen on the clay was much harder than I thought and when I finished making the model it looked more of just a crocodile than a mix of the two as you can see below.

I did enjoy making Farage kook like a crocodile even though I had trouble and if i went back to it i would make sure to focus more on making look like the two combined.