Influence Map - Joke Shop

Most the images I have found of joke shops are cheesy and really bad looking shops. My intention is too have a classy looking one. A nice street with nice architecture and a taste for sunlight. I am picturing quit a normal 1930's/50's shop front. Yet the sign and objects displayed on the front would be related to a joke shop. My first influence map for this plays around Parisian streets, as they are the ones I am most familiar with. I will play around shops of that style.

The Shakespear librariy on the top picture is a place I go to sometimes so it is familiar ni both style and atmosphere. 

Skyline Practice

I am now using some photo reference to paint my skies, I feel it gives that extra edge of realism that was lacking in my other pieces. It's not a carbon copy of a photo but it uses its details and general shape. This should enable me to produce purely imaginative pieces that are more believable than before.

Colour Research # II - Visual Emotions

Colour will again play an important role in the outward emotions of the characters. As my great love will always be “Bande Dessinée (BD)”, which I would assume would translate to something like a graphic novel, I am genuinely happy to find storyboarding quit similar to it. The intense use of visual language to represent movement and emotions is something present in BD which I would like to mirror in my storyboard. The strong emphasise on these visual cues will be portrayed through intense colour language.

Here I will try through some examples portray my view of some emotions and how they can be represented through visual symbolism.

First though I will have a look at some famous BD artists and try and find some recurring patterns which should invoke a certain school of thoughts. This can allow me to either try something different or accept conventions and work with them. There are many absolutely stunning authors/artists out there and the amount of work available is staggering. I will start looking through a few of them. These don’t portray emotions as vividly as I intend to do, focusing rather on facial expressions and minimal signs to represent to mind set of their characters. The first image come from a book called Souvenirs d’un Elficologue, drawn by Jean-Paul Bordier. It uses subtle lines to represent shock and quick movement. We might have though in the second image that the character was simply being angry. Yet with the addition of the lines we reach another level of intensity that is quit interesting. It would be interesting to identify which type of emotional signs can be used, while mixing them with strong symbolic colours, which should result in quit a potent extreme of exteriorly portrayed emotions.

The second set of images where drawn by one of my favourite artists. Juanjo Guarnido. The series is called Blacksad and represents a fictional 50’s America using anthropomorphism to symbolically represent the characters. Blacksad, the main character is depicted by a black cat with a white nose. All other characters are represented by animals that fit their main trait. The artists strong use of emotions through facial contortion is interesting as well as the movement implied through dynamic lines. These images explain my initial goal, which is to represent emotions through lines. I then will emphasize these lines through colour and some added depth to the shapes.

 My next step was to draw a few faces of my own and experiment with emotional sighs as I shall call them. They do not have any specific motif for now. I want to do this quit organically and let emotions come through the mark making. This is a beginning and I am running out of time. Ill spend more time on it tomorow.

I tried using soft colours but they don't work and just look like cheap 90's style signs. I will do more drawings using traditional methods as I belive it will look much better that way. And I will take my time. 

Colour Research # I - Colour Chart

Colour Harmony is something I really want to focus on. The visual language portrayed through colour is as important for me as any story. A few primaries and some essential secondaries are needed to bring out a colour chart for any piece of art work. I have already defined earlier this year the effects of colour on the emotions. I will not blabber more about it. Instead Ill try and pin point the different aspects of colour that will be relevant to my story.

All colour depends on light, therefore, I must choose the light according the location of my story. If I decide to install it in a sub-Saharan Africa, then I will have to consider colours under a strong and bright light. If I decide to set it in Paris, the light will be drastically different. The time of day also influences the spectrum.

My main emotional goal is happiness. It is a joyful and mischievous story therefore I wish there to be light. Let there be light! A sunny day implies a stronger amount of desaturated light. Washed out beiges, blues and greens could serve as a basic. The beige spectrum is one I enjoy a lot and it should consequently be present on a wider range than the other colours. Red as a spot colour is extremely useful to portray moments of panic or strong action.

I started some colour sketches to play around in finding the right “colour map”. Not meant to represent anything, they are simply there as a variety of colour values and tonalities. I stayed in a similar chromatic range, as it is better to start by the base. Later on, spot and differential colours will be added to complement and bring out the whole piece.

          Staying in a brownish hue of colours, from oranges to browns, passing through reds and beige, I added a slight impression of desaturated light blue, which I think fits rather well. This anticipates the association of earth and sky in the final storyboard. On a technical note, I have used the Dual Brush setting on the chalk brush with a slight spread, which gives that interesting texture look. This is interesting as it does not involve using complicated and rather limited texture brushes. 

The second piece is a highly burnt study of fiery colours. As I may intend to use fire in the story, I reckoned that finding some tonal values for that element should be useful later on. Hints of green found their way into the piece, and it being the complement of red, it creates a strong simultaneous contrast in some instances.

More studies will follow as I go through different colour combinations, and as I get closer to actually starting work on the actual story board. These studies will also be used for the character designs, as the different colours should also represent their inner temperament. 

Brainstorm # I - The Fire Extinguisher

So here are some of the brain storming ideas I had. Not anything concrete yet, but I hope that through continuous research and the feedback of my class mates, the project will move on. Though the plot might change, I believe that some indispensable plot element can benefit from some research even now. First off the prop, character and scene, while still vague, will require some research to accumulate enough experience to move on in a new direction with them.

I started playing around with some ideas around last week, here are the first ideas.

1.      Some ideas on the Fire Extinguisher.

I will start looking at the cause and effect aspect of each part of my story.

A fire extinguisher implies the need for fire. Unless it is used as something else than its original purpose. Fire allows for some interesting light and colour experiments. It also implies a change in the colour and its intensity due to the change in the light source. While my objective is to try and avoid the direct route, fire really is a nice element to play around with. It is a very strong cause, resulting in highly altered consequences.

A fire extinguisher is also a heavy object. Its weight could start an interesting chain of event should it be applied to a weak surface. It is a cylindrical object, which implies it could roll.

The initial location of the object should be decided. My initial idea is to have someone living inside the joke shop or even inside the joke shop. If inside the joke shop, should it be a prank item or a real fire extinguisher.

An interesting aspect of the prop is the thrust it can create. This was wonderfully demonstrated by Wall-E, who uses it to dance around space, which links up with an idea I had of having my trapeze artist dancing around with a fire extinguisher.

There are a few videos on the net of fire extinguishers being used as propellants. Though most of them seem fake, I like the idea very much. It gives a reason for how my trapeze artist could gain some momentum in a very short time.

Maybe this is pushing it, but I believe that in such a short animatic, speed is paramount.

Fire extinguishers are usually red. Yet old pictures demonstrate that they weren’t always. Red is the colour given by society to represent danger. Yet other society might interpret it differently. For example, they could see them as life savers and paint them blue. The colour will depend on the surrounding colours. I have multiple ideas on the colour range, though I will take a look at that a bit later when I deal with the setting. My main goal is still a strong colour and shape harmony, like a carefully built ballet.

Now obviously, I don't want the video to look like a fake. This will be the challenge, make it look believable. The characters will be of paramount importance to justify the chain of action.