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A MINI BOOK PROJECT. By Noe Paparella
Let’s start from the beginning.
Emotional State: Motivated / Anxious Mental Health: Stable
Week 1
Words of advice
Greetings, I hope you all had a relaxing, creatively refreshing summer! As your thesis faculty, we’re looking forward to working with you this semester. Illustration Thesis is a coherent body of work that acknowledges the broad diversity of illustration practice today. You will develop your thesis project over the course of your senior year, working closely with your thesis faculty. Thesis is an opportunity to make the work you want to make, to create a full, personally satisfying body of work. The creative possibilities are wide open. The field of illustration is remarkably broad, especially now. Illustration allows you to develop a personal visual language that is applicable and communicable across a wide range of uses, purposes, applications and forms. It is a requirement that the finished work exist in a form we encounter in the world and that could exist in either a digital or analog medium. This is a moment to get excited about the full range of thesis possibilities. Immerse yourself in sketching, reading and research, and let your thoughts run as freely as possible. We will then work closely with you to help you choose and refine your idea during the semester. Your ideas may change over the course of working on them. That’s to be expected but you each will have a sense of the direction of your work in the course of the next couple of weeks. We look forward to working together with you during thesis year and to seeing you next Tuesday! Yours, Steven
THINGS Digital Art
Whimsicality Humor
Black & White
THAT
Illustrations Pen drawings
Graphic Elements Alex Pardee Hayao Miyazaki Roger Hargreaves
INTEREST Branding Products Marketing
New York Multi Culture Traveling
Design Typography
Character Design Caricature
Animation Motion graphics
People Rumors Gossip
Book Design Comic Book
Narrative Story
Monsters Secrets Taboo
ME
Photography Larry Clark
Anomaly Odity Line art
Text Poetry
I HAVE QUESTIONS What am I going to do for thesis? Shut up.
INSPIRATION
NO
What past work inspires me most? Character design.
INTERESTS What am I passionate about? People.
IDEA
OBSERVATION What do I have?
WHAT Monsters. Too many of them.
IDEAS What are some ideas I have?
I AM Creating a series of characters.
RESOURCES What am I looking for? Interesting people with stories worth FASCINATION telling. What people interest you?
DOING The tenants in my building.
What is this? What do I do now? Sigh Nervous breakdown. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have a project. I feel fustrated. Fuck
Emotional State: Fustrated / Overwhelmed Mental Health: Somewhat Stable
Week 2
Black Figures
Human Features
Half Human / Half Object
Masks
Half Human / Half Animal
Monsters
Animals & Objects
Others
Emotional State: Discouraged / Sluggish Mental Health: Teetering on insanity
Week 3
NEED
RIGHT NOW I JUST CAN’T FIGURE IT OUT. It seems like no matter how hard I try, how intensely I think about it, I just can’t seem to draw anything. And I begin to question myself – What if it’s me? What if I can’t do this? What if I just stay stuck? Understanding what I want to draw seems an uphill struggle.
IT’S HARD.
Why?
Because my mind is dead and my hand frozen. If I keep on talking to myself, overthinking, planning My main problem everything out, is my own mind. engaging my inner critic I will Thinking and keep firing up my drawing don’t left brain. mix. When I think I engage my logical. I am dominated by the left side of my brain, leaving me with an empty sketchbook and a brand new pen.
MAYBE I JUST THINK TOO MUCH.
MAYBE I NEED A DRINK.
TO DRAW
I need to temporarily hold off my judgment and try not to second guess what I think the drawing should look like, rather than what the drawing actually looks like.
MORE
It is sad that my internal voice hinders my progress. I am my own opponent.
New Doodles
Emotional State: Stressed / Despaired Mental Health: Delirious
Week 4
WE ALL HAVE ONE OF THESE STORIES — POSSIBLY MORE THAN ONE. I’VE HAD MY FAIR SHARE OF ODD ROOMMATES AND SKETCHY LIVING SITUATIONS, BUT THE PEOPLE IN THIS BUILDING ARE LIKE NO OTHER. AND I AM GOING TO TELL THEIR STORY.
UNNAMED 1
UNNAMED 2 _Dramatic bitch _Dumped a few days before her wedding _Had already bought the dress
_Unemployed coke-head living off his parents’ money _Engaged to another tenant in the building _Broke off the engagement a few days before the wedding
UNNAMED 3 _Old lady _One of the richest tenants in the building _Gives least amount of money for holiday bonuses
UNNAMED 5
UNNAMED 4 _First time doing her own laundry was in 2014 _Freaked out thinking that the laundry machine ate her closed due to the spinning motion
UNNAMED 8 _Blonde roomate duo _Rude bitches _Only say hello to me when I am with guys
_Handsome dad _Used to be reffered as ‘the Italian Stalion’ _Settled with an uglo and now has a kid
UNNAMED 7 _Gay _Total peacock _Dresses like a 20 year old hypebeast _Has been trying to convert the doorman with two kids and wife into being gay for years
UNNAMED 6 _Oldest and wisest doorman _Building’s drug dealer _Brings his own weed to Jamaica
UNNAMED 9 _Works for Nasa _Invented his own mathematical formula _Has been found sleeping at Union Square
ME _Youngest tennant _Hair way too long _Known as ‘skinny slice’
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES _Long hair _Short in height _Skinny body _Big eyes
Me
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES _Bald head _Thug clothes _Very in your face homosexuality _Smily
Unnamed 7
To be continued.
W St