Getting Better

As I have been creating more and more pictures in Photoshop, playing around and experimenting, I am becoming more confident. I had the idea of placing a giant sea monster in the water surrounding the Harbourside area. I was worried at first however that I wouldn't be able to make it look like it fit in with the environment in the picture and I had never really painted reflections before. But with a few filters and brush strokes in Photoshop it started to look a lot better and I was happy with the result.

FUN Inspiration TIME!

This is the work of an animator and character designer who I only know by his blog name: stepsoversnails.tumblr.com

His work is extremely playful, cute and eye-catching, I think that it always looks so appealing since he structures his characters with such simple shapes. He uses thin little legs and huge round circular bodies or heads and usually large cute eyes. I want this to inform my designs so they have more impact.

 

No other shows create monster designs as creative as Adventure Time do. They seem to get the perfect balance of cute and horror. The designs are really nice to look at and they are very experimental with their shapes and features on the characters. They will alter eyes and mouths and exaggerate everything to create bold imagery. Adventure Time will be one of the biggest influences on this project, especially since the two main characters always go on quests and find monsters.

The process.

I'm currently trying to find a workflow that is best for me. I usually tend to draw better on paper or in my sketchbook first which is what I have been doing with these monster creatures, then scan them in. I then take the drawing and paint it digitally in Photoshop, maybe changing a few features of the design, then try and place my design into one of my photos.


Here is a rough example of the first two steps of this process:

 


However this process seems to prove a bit difficult as when I come to trying to place the monster into a photo I have to then edit it to make it fit in. I think I may have to end up extending the process so that I first get a photo up in photoshop, roughly draw a sketchy monster into it in a position I want it to be in. Then print that out and draw over it in pencil on paper so that the drawing is a lot nicer, then scan that back in to be painted and placed in a photo. It is a hell of a lot lengthier but I think that will ensure the work looks its best.

The Cabin in the Woods!

I went to see 'The Cabin in the Woods' yesterday and even though it didn't live up to the hype surrounding it, it was one of the best horror films that has come out in a while considering that, in my opinion the horror genre has become so unoriginal and stale as the years have gone on.

It related really well to the project I am working on at the moment, not just because it was a horror movie but because it referenced horror and played with it. Now this has been done before, with such films as 'Scream' and 'Scary Movie' but where I think this film showed more originality was in the moments where it played with the idea of all the different monsters/mythical creatures that are in horror. The victims were being played like puppets from a control room and you found out that in this control room they have a large amount of different monsters such as zombies, werewolves, merman and many others, they even went as far as a killer unicorn! In one really memorable scene all of these monsters were accidentally let out of their cells into the control centre and started killing everyone in their own unique ways. There were zombies eating people, a clown stabbing, killer robots sawing and a small girl in a ballet costume with a face full of teeth!

The costume and design of these creatures was great and you could tell they had fun with it. This was some great inspiration!

Rainy Adventure: Gathering materials.

I have decided that regardless of whether it is pouring down, I will get my photos. I ventured out into the downpour to get some great shots in the city, whipping the camera out every time the rain decided to hold off for a few minutes. The result was some lovely moody photos in a few nice little spots that would be great to put monsters into.


I have made a little test/mock-up of what one image may look like. A troll under one of Bristol's bridges!

It will be a lot more detailed however when I map it out properly and design the characters in more detail.

On my travels I also found a great new art shop in the town centre. It was called Crafts and More and it had three floors of great supplies! I founds lots on materials that I could use to make my 3D objects with! For example I found polystyrene shapes that I could paint and turn into a monster skull, or eyeball or maybe a glowing monster tooth! I will also be painting monsters onto this small map of Bristol that I bought as if its my adventurer's map with the locations of all the monsters/objects on it!

Narrowing it down.

I have begun to narrow down the theme ideas for the exhibiton:

'They Only Come Out At Night' This was the idea that I went out in the city and surrounding residential/park areas and took photos at night. I would then place disgusting and creepy creatures within the photos with real people/models running away from them. However this could be a difficult one to work with as photography at night can be hard to do without blurriness or a drop in quality.

'Into the Woods' Was one of my first ideas for this project. It would involve going into the woodland area surrounding Bower Ashton and take photos and then place monsters/creatures amongst the trees. Maybe incorporate cardboard masks and have the creatures' heads made out of cardboard and displayed next to the photos as if they have been killed and then taken inside as a trophy. However I do feel that this does limit me a bit as the whole set of work will look too similar and just seeing lots of trees might become a bit stale after a while.

'QUEST' I have always been a huge fan of role-playing and the mythology behind monsters has a lot to do with adventure and quests. I had this idea of expanding the idea of monster hunting in the woods and making it a city wide hunt, maybe based on a map of Bristol with different locations that I had to adventure to and slay a monster. This opens up a lot more possibilities as I could make the exhibition look like a cabinet of findings from my quest and, as well as monsters heads, actually make small objects/prizes that I retrieved from each small expedition. For example, travel to one of the city's bridges, defeat the troll and bring back its skull! Then document it in photos and make a cardboard skull to display next to it in the cabinet.

These are my ideas and I'm most excited about the 'Quest' idea. I will be going out and starting to make some imagery. Time is becoming a bit tight however since the weather hasn't really been on my side with the constant rain making it impossible to go out and take pictures for long periods, let alone taking cardboard pieces out into the location which would get ruined very quickly!

Deciding on a theme.

I have been trying to come up with ideas for a theme for my project.
I made a small brainstorm and found that a lot of things I wanted to have in the project actually all link up quite well.

I wanted to use the idea of putting stylistic monsters into real photography but make it part of a bigger picture. I started brainstorming and found that there is a large sense of adventure related to monster fiction and I started to link my ideas to possible overall themes/titles.