Narrative
Pablo Picasso Pablo Picasso a dominant and influential artist for most of the 20th century, associated most of all with pioneering Cubism, alongside collage artwork and major contributions to symbolism and surrealism. Picasso emerged as a symbolist which was shaped by the likes of artists like Edvard munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This was known as his Blue period in which he depicted beggars, prostitutes and various misfits. His path towards to cubism was impacted through artists like Paul Cezanne and Henri Rousseau, leaning to archaic tribal artwork, which encouraged Picasso to lend his figures more structure and weight. During this time in which he deconstructed the conventions of perspectival space that had dominated painting since the renaissance. A distinctive piece of artwork that is iconic to this day, created by Picasso is Guernica. Starting on may 1st 1937, Picasso took 5 weeks to complete Guernica. By painting Guernica as an allegorical history, Picasso was drawing onto established, traditional genre to which he added structure and seven figures drawn from a combination of art tradition and his own imagination. On the afternoon of April 26 1937 the Basque town of Guernica was devastated by German bombers and fighters from the condor legion acting on Franco’s orders. The bombardment lasted three hours, destroyed half the town and, leftover 1,600 defenseless civilians dead. When Picasso started painting Guernica, many of its motifs- such as the horse and the bull were personal symbols relates to the bullfights, which had been running through his previous work for years. His painting, is divided into 3 parts united by a triangular structure. The two diagonals meet at the lamp. This composition also draws the viewer’s attention to the screaming horse.
After looking into the Guernica , a part of the painting that highly interested me was the weeping women to the left of the painting. In this particular painting it signifies the tragedy and loss of children within the attack, and also the stress and sorrow the public had to endure. This particular portrayal has a very morbid and melancholy tone the use of melodramatic shaping and distorted proportion only adds to the distinct narrative and feeling of the overall painting. For my next step within my project I want to research into more artist that depicted sorrow on a personal level like Picasso. I also want to find some way of carrying on his use of raw emotion, the sorrow more bitter tone within my work.
narrative AND THEME-Frida Kahlo I’m inspired by Kahlo because her narrative is personal and usually depicts sadness and tragedy, her designs are strong in terms of her messages and values and I would like to try and replicate this in my designs, however perhaps not make it as personal and for my final piece make it fiction with a similar style narrative. Kahlo uses her personal tragedies - both physical and psychological - combined with a realistic painting style, Kahlo produced images that were emotionally raw and visually disturbing. Her artistic output was dominated by self-portraits that often show the artist suffering. A piece of work that was evident in showing her struggle was Henry Ford Hospital; 1932, Kahlo’s injuries resulted in her inability to have children and this painting depicts her pregnancy which ended through a miscarriage. The work also contrasted the mechanization of the Ford Factory with the organic human tragedy taking place in it’s hospital. She shows herself hemorrhaging one in a hospital bed where her nakedness reinforces her vulnerability and also the idea of clinical medical procedures. Within the art we can see the fetus - ’Little Diego’ who will never be able to exist, we can also see a medical model of the female reproductive organs all of which represents the pregnancy, furthermore, the snail (Top, Right) represents the slow horror of losing a child. The artwork shows a woman’s body but was created to express and communicate the pain of the artist, I would like to try and use this piece of art within my work or final design.
Kahlo’s Inspiration at this point… • When I look into Frida Kahlo’s work although it has a more realistic style than Pablo Picasso I believe that with research and experimentation with her work it has helped me realise that I want the style of my project to be completely realistic, using an equal balance and proportion between body proportions and any images around. As I have previously identified that I would like to take a more sorrow approach and tone to my project Kahlo and Picasso's painting connect through the aspects I have chosen which has lead to me part of narrative development. Children and parent sorrow, the raw and real emotion that can be depicted through a parent, child relationship has appealed to me as evident through the weeping women in Picasso's painting and Kahlo's painting that relates to her son. I would like to look at including Kahlo’s hospital scene into my project somehow, even if its brief however with more realistic background and surroundings. I have also selected to fully incorporate the loss of child within my narrative and I am looking into making that my main focus. When thinking about incorporating these elements of her painting I want to present them within a modern and relevant way. Perhaps through thought bubbles as a pose to lined forms connecting them to herself, that way the aspects around Kahlo in the painting that I want to include in mine are presented in an easy ad understandable way that suits and reflect my Graphics novel theme.
COLOUR - The death of Marat The death of Marat; painted by Jacques Louis David is an inspiring piece because the narrative again is tragic and quite grim. It was also an important time in history and incorporates some personal feuds between a lady called charlotte Corday who carried out the killing. The painting, shows a single figure who is exposed slouched in a bath tub, by reasons of a skin condition not yet accurately established. The room he remains in is empty, and almost divided into two halves’, with Marat and his belongings on the bottom and on top this neutral background that’s acts as the counterbalance, with a dusty grain effect of light peering through from the top right corner as if its flaking through the air, its chiaroscuro. The man who may appear young in this illustration but of whom was in fact 65 in reality, rests his body in a motionless way that appears to us as an audience like he has just fallen in that position. Marat figure is idealized, for example the painting shows no sign of his skin problem. This painting follows the same tone as Picasso, and Kahlo and also still has a personal touch. This particular painting of Marat connotes death so the tone is taken slightly further. I’ve looked at this painting because the unlike Kahlo's painting the tragedy is more depicted through the chiaroscuro effect and saturated colours as well as similar to Kahlo's aspects within the painting like the letter and notes on the wooden block. However this has inspired me to keep my designs more dark, more simplistic. Perhaps even just keeping the colour palette black and white.
Layout- Lady JANE GREY Paul Delaroche was one of the most celebrated French artists of his time. His art combined the Neo-classical painting technique of another French painter called Ingres, and occasionally the Romantic themes of another of his contemporaries, Delacroix. Visually this painting is divided into three vertical elements, on the left we can see two grief stricken ladies in waiting, with one sat slumped on the floor and one standing with her back to us, on the right an observant man, and centre the preparation for the killing of lady Jane. This painting mainly interest me simply for the layout of the narrative, although in previous artist work I have looked more into their narrative and Style I like having the idea of a male stood behind a female having to sacrifice her life for her. I found this interesting and I like how the killing is Centred.
David Alfaro Siqueiros David Alfaro Siqueiros was a realist painter and on of his paintings that attract great appeal from me is ‘The Sob’ It depicts his wife during the Civil War. Although this is a different style to Frida Kahlo's work, the artist technique had a rougher surface with lots of dark patches and shading around the image as a pose to Frida whom uses vibrant solid colours which don’t provide as much texture. His work still depicts a vast amount of powerful yet personal emotion similar to Picasso and Kahlo. An aspect of this painting that stands out is the centre of the painting, eyelevel with those whom view it, is just the clenching of the hands. The use of shading and precise line drawing, we can see the strength portrayed through her knuckles and wrists, which gives the audience insight into how much pain and sorrow she might be feeling. If I were to take one aspect from David's technique It would be to look at the positioning of his art, particularly in this piece, it’s a close up position, and the perspective is small but effective as the proportion of the body doesn't’t fit within the painting frame which emphasizes further the zoom on the torso part of her body.
Around (left and below) are some crying portraits I digitally drew, so the surface and texture is more sooth and undefined compared to the raw consistency of paint on the surface of Elmarie's work. I beginning to accept and discover along this process of experimentation and development that I a more comfortable and able to work in more fine detail by keeping my work in Black an white, I can slowly begin to incorporate colour however from this process I have selected the simplistic style of black and white as my technique of rotoscoping appears on the surface and foreground more effectively.
Elmaire Lateman is a South African painter. Elmarie’s piece, “emotional consciousness” represents a shift from previously explored figurative physical surroundings to the depiction of emotional consciousness. This oil painting reflects an emotional state of being and portray aspects of escapism, especially amongst youth within a contemporary context. The work has taken on the an emotional experience rather than a physical reality. This piece is created using such contexts as distortion, exaggeration, and fantasy, as well as through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. Elmaire being an artist I briefly came across I decided to incorporate her work into my research as it was inspirational and has given me insight into how to portray emotion.Yet another close up similar to David Siqueiros, this painting
Nikos Gyftakis Nikos Gyftakis is an emotive artist also and his work has a very distinctive style about It enduring this swirl, disorganized cluttered effect that make up his portrait shapes. His work had this subtle edge of colour intertwined within the overall tightly packed texture that appears quite smooth on the surface of his work. I’m looking at Nik because his work Is elevating, I find it interesting and although I may not take any specific aspects of his work on into my own his style and fluidity of detail within his painting has been enlighten and inspirational towards my own. His work always has This glow of light effect which is produced through using dark patches within his work to give the Manipulation of light, this gives his work a realistic element to them.
Mother instantly has child at beginning of novel the child grows up and we show stages of his childhood and how he evolves, then child passes through a tragedy and mother also dies ending scene, the mother and son together in peace.
Mother in hospital with her husband and first child, about to have the second, the second child does not make it and mother cant live herself therefore make her husband and eldest kill her to end the unbearable pain.
Baby being born, Mother believes that the baby did not make it and takes her own life, however the baby does make it and grows up without a family or mother.
Narrative Ideas
Couple having a child, child passes and the mother can’t live with herself so she sacrifices her life by getting her husband to execute her in order to deal with the loss. Woman alone and pregnant, doesn’t know what to do, is scared and alone. Has baby naturally and baby doesn't’t survive mother takes her own life.
Established Narrative. • My intention for this project, is to create a graphics novel in the style of a Frida Kahlo narrative, that connotes tragedy and sorrow. Although the narrative will not be non-fiction (personal) and will be indeed fiction, I feel like the tone of the narrative Kahlo presents is a tone I would like to resemble within my Novel. For my narrative, I have decided upon, keeping it simplistic and subtle. A young couple finally pregnant and destine for happiness, when she goes into labour; which will be where I shall include elements of Frida Kahlo’s painting; Henry Ford Hospital, and has complications therefore she unfortunately loses the child (just like Kahlo’s painting), and the mother cannot live without her child therefore the only way to live with herself is by not living and sacrificing her own life as well. When I am depicting her death I want it to be in a similar inspired layout and finish as Lady Jane Grey, the man preparing her will me her husband and the women on the floor ready. Meanwhile my art will have a more realistic modern, 20th century style as a pose to the traditional styles I have looked at.
Design ARTIST AND STYLE RESEARCH
Julian Opie Julian Opie is a visual artist who appeared more within the pop art period. Julian Opie's style is very simplistic and basic, it still highlights, elements of texture, however, his portraits still show expressions even with the use of his simple lines. Opie's work seems to be ideal for a comic like novel and is an inspirational artist. I would like to experiment with his style on a couple of Photos I have taken as reference to use in my work and Rotoscope over. Looking at opies work, it is very satire, which is idyllic for my graphics novel and although I always thought more about making the novel realistic I believe that by experimenting with Julian's work this will give me a clear Vision of the style route I will take.
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By looking at the below image the work looks a little elementary, a basic, I am happy that I have experimented with opies style because it has enabled me to identify and realise what direction I want to go in next. My next step is to look at another digital artist and his work to gather more insight as to whether to incorporate colour or keep my designs in black and white.
Here are some of my own shots represented in the same style as Julian Opie, whilst this style is simplistic and visually appealing with uses of block colours and shades the style is too simplistic for my ideas. I feel like the style is too clean, I want to incorporate a more clustered detailed effect, using heavier contrasting weighty line that will provide texture on clothing and hair, although Opie uses colour to provide this effect I plan on taking a different approach. The above image I like, the style is idyllic for a more cartoon, animated outlook, however I am looking towards a more detailed approach.
JONATHAN ALLARDYCE – DIGITAL DRAWER Jonathan Allardyce is a digital artist who works using the same software I will be using to design my graphics Novel; Photoshop. His work is very much the style I am interested in. Very realistic and precise. His use of Colours work well together and blend naturally. He creates realistic features within his art like shadows Texture uses the manipulation of light through out colours. These are inspirational aspects that I want to take and use within my work. Although I have mentioned previously I would like my novel to resemble realistic features, Jonathan’s work is very neat and clean, I want my work to have a certain edge whether that be deviating from the outer black frame that usually runs around the outskirts of the body to emphasize the shape and proportional effect That Jonathan has used. I am a fan of Allardyce work and looking at his style has helped me move closer to where I want to be with my style and increased my vision.
Rotoscoping A clear example of Rotoscoping is Richard Linklater “ A Scanner Darkly” A basic synopsis would be that the film was shot digitally and then animated using interpolated Rotoscope, an animation technique in which animator’s trace over the original footage frame-by-frame, for use in live-action and animated films, giving the finished result a distinctive animated look. I have decided to use the technique rotoscoping for my novel, this is going to give it an original, idyllic effect that will suit the theme of a graphics novel. I’m looking at A scanner Darkly because this film also has a fantastic representation of realism, however without a completely clean look like Jonathans work. Although the work is of high quality, it introduces more shades that blend together, again like Jonathan to give the manipulation of light around and reflections. Looking closely at the bottom right picture of Keanu Reeves, his top is full of loose heavy thick lines, this represents a nice relaxed style that still introduces plenty of texture and character. These are encouraging aspects that I wish to take into account when designing my novel.
Skin tone and hair, mixed with different shades of colour relate the ideology and realism of light being presented in the room giving off a real impression.
Ghost Town - Daniel cLOWES A darkly written comic, with intermittently sombre explorations of friendship and modern life, Ghost World takes place in an unnamed town filled with urban sprawl. The town plays a key part in the narrative, as it is constantly mocked and criticized by Enid and Rebecca; The main characters throughout the novel. This Novel, has a particular style that appeals to me because It is simplistic. The consistent colouring of the baby blue makes the novel more identifiable, and crates the the tone of the novel, Which is something that I would like resemble through out my novel or at least experiment with. The layout of the novel is Traditional leaving it easy to follow and clearly structured. Within my design plans for my graphics novel, I will be looking at the opposite, method, by making the frames of each story more cluttered and modern but still maintaining the traditional border that Daniel Clowes has used.
GHOST WORLD COLOUR PALLET
When I incorporate the same colour pallet onto my designs, the colours overpower the detail I designed, although the blue is very pasty and blanched it interferes with the drawing un-naturally as pose to ghost town where I believe the colour is actually introduced through the narrative. I want to look at incorporating colour however perhaps, inconsistent colouring, the normal ideal colours for specific objects rather than overpowering the novel with 3 dominant solid colours. I want to be able to introduce texture and tone through aspects like hair clothes and by using this idea of a minimal colour pallet does not allow me to do so.
Ghost town has a very specific colour pallet that represents a sombre tone, consisting of a pale blue, black and white. I have tested with these colour on some practice shots that I have Rotoscoped to see if the colours work with my modern day, realism style as with ghost town the style carries on the traditional cartoon more animated style consisting of heavier line drawings and simplistic detail.
Oliver Kugler Oliver has a very distinctive lose style when it comes to his novels He incorporates lose lines, droplets and un planned sketches within his designs, which give the overall tone of the novel a rough, Incomplete appearance. An aspect I take great fondness too is his use Of colour. His colour pallet is very specific and usually consist of pastels colours but they come sometimes unfinished and blend into Different colour creating yet again a realistic surface look. He uses colour on specific parts of his designs, which again enhances his style of work. I like the form of his work as well the layout. Kugler looks as if he blends his illustrations together which create just one image with multiple narratives happening. I am intrigued by this style of work however the technique is very advanced and although Oliver's work is still very realistic, I want the work to look completed and have a structure to it when it comes to layout.
Here are some examples of my novel with the use of colour. I feel like the colour has represented my work realistically and have Selected to use it within my work however only on the last page. I like the idea of having the whole novel black and white and towards the end introducing the colour on the two main key frames.
Rough Silhouette sketches in Photoshop To help me gather a realistic shape for my frames.
Layout
A typical comics page layout.
A – Panel B – Borderless panel C-Gutters D-Tier
I need to take into consideration the layout and how graphics novels/comics are finished in terms of layout, key parts to highlight are Panel frames The border or edges of a panel, when drawn, are called frames. These are normally rectangular in shape, but this shape can be altered to convey information to the reader. A cloud shaped panel can indicate a flashback or a dream sequence, whilst one with a jagged edge can be used to convey anger or shock. A panel without a frame is used to convey space. The frame itself can be formed by the image. For example, a scene can be framed by a door frame or by binoculars. Bleed Full bleed is usually used on a comic book cover, and is when the art is allowed to run to the edge of each page, rather than having a white border around it. Bleeds are sometimes used on internal panels to create the illusion of space or emphasize action. This is more common in manga and modern comics. Splash page (and splash panel) Splash panel using 2/3 of a page. Splash page or sometimes referred to simply as a "splash," is a full-page drawing in a comic book. A splash page is often used as the first page of a story, and includes the title and credits. A panel that is larger than others on the page is called a splash panel. A splash that appears across two pages of a comic book is called a "double splash" or a two-page spread. When used early in the issue, the splash provides a means of establishing characters or setting as well as draw the reader's attention. If used far later, it is commonly employed to dramatically portray the climax of a story. Speech balloon, word balloon, speech bubble The speech or word balloon (also known as a speech bubble), is a graphic used to assign ownership of dialogue on a particular character. Bubbles which represent an internal dialogue are referred to as "thought balloons". The shape of the balloon will indicate the type of dialogue contained, with thought balloons being more cloud-like and connected to the owner by a series of small bubbles. Speech bubbles are more elliptical, although those used to represent screaming or anger tend to be spiky, and square boxes have been used to represent dialogue spoken by robots or computers. Whispers are usually represented by balloons made up of broken lines. Surprised thoughts in Japanese Manga are usually round and tend to spike out. Balloons such as radio, or TV, may be represented by a spiked balloon. Certain creators are particularly renowned for their inventiveness with the format of the balloon; writer and artist Dave Sim (who also letters his own work), is particularly innovative with this aspect of the comic book - using particular balloons for drunkenness, echoes etc. Captions.
Continued Comic book captions are a narrative device, often used to convey information that cannot be communicated by the art or speech. Captions can be used in place of thought bubbles, can be in the first- second- or third-person, and can either be assigned to an independent narrator or one of the comics' characters. Simply put, they are: "Boxes on a comic book page that contains text... While sometimes used to convey dialogue, they are more often used to impart a character's thoughts or as a narrative device.” Like word balloons, they need not be of uniform shape, size, design or colour (indeed, some modern comics use different colours to assign different textual captions to different characters). Motion lines Main article: Motion Lines Motion lines, also known as "speed lines", are lines that are used to represent motion; if a person or some other mobile object is moving such indicators of movement will follow in straight lines behind it. Line length may be said to vary proportionately to the rate of speed of the object moving. Gutter Gutter is the space between borders. Scott Mcloud identified the gutter as one of the most important narrative tools in comics, invoking as it does a procedure McCloud defined as closure. Sound effects Onomatopoeic sound effects depicted in webcomic Scary Go Round sound effects and environmental sounds are presented without balloons, in bold or "3D" text in all upper case. Percussive sounds usually have exclamation points. Usually, they are written/drawn in a way as to emphasize their nature, such as the sound effect from a fast racer car almost leaning from the car's speed, or a shrill noise depicted in a jagged, scratchy form. Some effects:
Here is the Finished Graphics Novel 1st page (Top Left) I decided to keep the simplistic black and white style, although it may not be as effective as colour I wanted to keep with What I was comfortable with and I wanted To accentuate as much detail as possible Which I believe I achieved with the finished Product, I haven't incorporated as much speech as I would have liked to however I do believe the images speak for themselves and the Narrative Is clear through out each illustration. I’ve used different Angles and ‘camera shots’ so it keeps the novel visually appealing and Stimulating so it does become boring. I’ve used a slacking border to add some structure to the comic, and help the images become identifiable in order.
Looking at the second page I have used more space, and displayed the illustrations on a bigger Perspective to emphasize the detail used in the backgrounds and within the foreground as well. Here I have used typical comic text that invades the images on a larger perspective. They work well And are exaggerated through they're meaning due to the size of the words. An aspect that I like And selected due to looking at Oliver Kugler is deviating outside my frame, the bottom illustration In my second page deviates amounts the other drawings and creates a nice collage effect.
Looking at the next couple of pages the style follows on. Page number 3 (top left) is one of my favorites due to its size and perspective, by only conveying two illustrations On this page and on a large perspective connotes the importance of the message I am Conveying through the audience, it also intensifies this particular part of the narrative. By not having any frames or borders here the narrative flows more fluently as using The fade down the middle almost makes the illustrations look as if they are Connecting.
In page 4, the narrative continues to show the raw emotion of the mother and what she is going through at this point in the narrative, therefore she has a page Dedicated to her, to help the audience understand more clearly.
In these last frames this is where the narrative comes to end, and I have portrayed that through my use little illustrations. I have incorporated a Saturated grey colour on my very last two frames, although I decided to Complete the novel in only black and white I wanted to add very little Colour towards the end of my narrative to further emphasize the narrative. The colour here really highlights the Realism, I wanted it to look realistic and portray emotion clearly and By using colour on these last frames I believe I have accomplished that Effect.
To improve this project I would allow myself more time to complete A more established narrative although I believe my narrative is Portrayed clearly through out my novel, I would like to add more Frames and illustrations so the narrative didn't’t jump so much from One equilibrium to the next. I enjoyed rotoscoping the noel however the time process is very time consuming therefore next time I will look into using different techniques to create the novel.