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Final Major Project

Week 1 summary

For my Final major project I’ve decide to create a pilot/prototype for a story that I have been planning for a number of years now. Unfortunately I am currently nowhere near skilled enough to do the story justice so again, this will just be a prototype for the real thing that I hope to fully realise sometime in the future when when writing and illustrative skills are at least competent.

Basic Synopsis - “A college dropout in need of purpose unwittingly becomes a foster carer for a supernatural child” - Very generic, I know. However, given the time constraints and my lack of experience Its what I’m working with. Here’s hoping It comes out okay?

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Guidelines

All posts named additional evidence counts as research,evaluation, evidence and references/sources.

ALL other posts are updates, thoughyts, my progression and initial evidence (primary sources)

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Images for edward smith

Included (IN THIS SPECIFIC POST)are all samples that were made digitally or analogue by me, the rest are photos also taken by me. All other images in this blog are not mine and are reference

All posts upwards from FMP Week 1 are to be taken as artist research, thoughts and references FMP Week 1 and onwards)

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Final

This will be short and sweet to finally wrap everything together

This is the front cover for my hypothetical short story.

In terms of time This took about 10 hours of on and off work over around a week

Notes.

The background is a kind of doctors note. the messy handwriting under the Doctor’s signature reads work in progress.

Under patients signature is the title (Work in Progress)

There are scribbles all over it obviously done by a child

The child appears to be going under some sort of operation, the top portion of the head has been attached, revealing the brain which is supposed to be composed of string.

In the foreground are a pair of hands wearing surgical gloves, which are holding knitting needles

Explanations

I chose a doctors note for the background for a couple of reasons.

It indicates a serious atmosphere to the audience and implies that there is a doctor patient relationship between the child and doctor/caretaker (owner of the gloved hands).

The creation of the paper background allowed me to make the lighting scheme more obvious as without the background, it was not originally obvious that the light was coming from above (pictured below)- this was done by overlaying a paper filter on the background

Having the background be paper created an area of visual rest for the audience as the texture and lighting reduce the background's detail and by extension draw attention to the foreground

The story’s title/placeholder title could also be displayed somewhat subtly by placing it on the paper background this acts a segway into the characterisation I included in the backgrounds writing (signatures and drawings)

The messy signature under Doctor’s signature is supposed to be reminiscent of doctor’s handwriting which is infamous for being equally unintelligible and refined at the same time.

Besides making it obvious that the pair of hands belong to a doctor that is caring for the child. Having writing that is both professional and messy successfully implements the caretaker’s characterization that I established in my character sketches and notes, that being someone who is meek and somewhat goofy despite having a career that is as professional as medicine/professional child care. This contrast well with the title written by the child that is not only done in alternating crayon colours but is very messy (irregular sizes ,backwards letter,and emerging from dotted writing space). This makes the child’s immaturity plain and obvious and contrasts sharply with the caretakers more refined writing. Surrounding the signatures are the child’s scribbles.

Also done in crayon, they are unrefined and obviously childish, this was done to further the immature characteristics. The scribbles include; a dinosaur breathing fire, a smiling sun with sunglasses, a moon & stars, a random blue object (meant to be the child’s sewing needle) and a cats with blood in its teeth. Besides the cat and moon/stars, the scribbles are meaningless and are just things i remember drawing as a child. Firstly the moon and stars simply relate to the nighttime aesthetic the story was going to have (the child would be nocturnal and so most scenes would take place at night).The importance the cat has is to indicate a slightly darker tone due to the blood in its teeth. This is a reference to random creepy drawings children make that are not usually, but could be a indicator of some underlying mental issue

https://abclearningcenterfl.com/psychology-childrens-artwork/

The significance of the blood in the cat’s teeth is to parallel the child’s behaviour. As cute as cats are, they are animals at the end of the day and are predators at that. The blood indicates a fresh kill which is perfectly normal for cats to do but doesn't really match the cute personality ,that we as humans, impose on them. the child similarly is cute but again has an underlying darker nature, The difference here though is that this “darker behaviour” is completely normal for cats but not for children (generally) this tie back to the nature vs nurture theme as a cat cant really be “taught” to not hunt pests as thats it’s nature, but it can be prevented by keeping it indoors. children can however be taught not to harm others and whatnot however is this preventing a natural behaviours as with the cat or is it correcting an abnormal behaviour? These are all “again” questions i wanted readers to ponder in the story but I hope it will be apparent enough in the front cover so that at least some will pick up on it.

The title (Work in progress) is currently a place holder as I couldn't think of a satisfying title. It does however work as a decent title for now.

The reason being that it successfully encapsulates the core idea of the story, that the caretaker is attempting to put the child on the right path and prevent them developing abnormally which would be particularly disadvantageous for the world due to the supernatural aspect The fact that both the doctor and patient’s signature read “work in progress” symbolises their connection and eventual pseudo mother-child relationship. I chose for the crayon colours to be red and purple as these are the characters signature colours, dark but also striking.

The inclusion of doodles on a professional document also ties back to the child’s immature but also general lack of respect for authority and the caretaker’s professional documents and her by extension(as stated before she is weak and not really taken seriously) Disregard for authority/the law can also be a symptom of Antisocial personality disorder (generally known in pop culture as psychopathy) which I included to ground the character's personality a bit more as everything else about them is rather fantastical. I hoped by including this a reader may recognise this symptom as real one and think that my characterization is more convincing

 https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/antisocial-personality-disorder/

The child’s head is opened up to reveal that in place of a regular mind, is a brain entirely composed of string. 

The brain being made of string references the strings that character conjours (evident in one of my previous posts) but also to simply more heavily the supernatural elements as it is not normal for someone to have their skull opened up whilst remaining calm and conscious as well as having a brain composed of an inorganic material.

In terms of deeper meaning. The “string brain is a reference to the phrase “”Wooley headed ” which means  “ marked by vague or confused perception or thinking”

 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/woolly-headed#:~:text=Definition%20of%20woolly%2Dheaded,or%20confused%20perception%20or%20thinking

This applies to the child as they have not had any previous experiences with a parental figure or role model and so is social inept but also sort of messed up for lack of a better term. The phrase can also simply refer to hair that resembles wool which was further reasoning for giving the child a curly hair texture besides it having a youthful connotation in my head.

Another reason is to reference the delicacy of a child’s mind, they are very malleable and prone to influence. Childhood is primetime for  children to pick up learned behaviours and is generally the age period that is most referenced by the whole nature/nurture discussion. In other words, despite being kind of messed up, the child is still not beyond saving and is at the perfect stage to be returned to normalcy, thus the caretaker’s employment. The malleability is of a child’s mind is another reason that the brain is composed of string, string is easily manipulated and can be formed into intricate patterns with enough skill and patience - just like successfully raising a child. This is the reason why the caretaker is performing the surgery (correcting the child’s evil) with a pair of sewing needles rather than a scalpels and other normal surgical tools.

This is also the reason for the top down lightning scheme, a surgery is underway so i tried my best to illustrate that a bright surgery light was placed above the child

In terms of clothing, The child is exposed on one side revealing stitches causing them to resemble less of a patient and more of a cadaver- further adding to the supernatural theme. The appearance of stiches on every where but the child’s face is a left over idea for a plot point where the child would be revealed as having been altered upon death to have a more pleasing face to better resemble the beautiful fae beings they had temporarily been taken in by. The freckles on their cheeks would turn out to be sewing string loops/stiches upon further inspection

something like this maybe

The idea was to tie into the idea of beauty standards due to the unnaturally beautiful features fairy’s tend to have and what not

On their left side, the child wears their signature pijamas which contrasts with their bare skin to reference the contrast between the supernatural fun and idealised world their soul resides in whilst their body isn't in the best condition due to neglect but is the “real-er” form 

Finally the child is sticking their tounge out and pulling their eye down in a mocking way as this is a childish act and reveals the surgery is seemingly having no “painful effect” on them. their tongue is forked as this is a commonly demonic attribute for characters to have, further enhancing the supernatural therme. my signature and the issue number is red as it fits in with the rest of the colour scheme - dark reds and purples the placement obviously resembles the first issue of a manga or comic the main characters(or at least one of them) are front and center. 

Examples

The illustration is jam packed with bright colours, symbolism and (hopefully) an interesting concept. All implemented to catch a viewers attention and ensure they actually read the story

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Additional Evidence for FMP 5

At this stage in my work, I had fully accepted that my FMP was going to be purely conceptual

These are two concept sheets for the primary characters I made, This will be an elaboration on the notes already on the sheet.

Starting with the Child (still nameless) At this point I had decided to still keep them visibly androgynous as I didnt think that they gender was important, however at this point I am leaning towards making them a boy.

In terms of design I gave them what I considered a very cute gender neutral face with subjectively beautiful/cute features (thick eyebrows,long eyelashes, large slightly slanted eyes, freckles and a button nose and perky full lips). I also gave them a head of curly hair as Curly hair is a trait I attributed to young children even though it is also very much present in adults. Also wearing the curly hair in such a large bushy/afro-y styles is something that looks cute on a child as it makes their head look larger (a trait of cuteness- think babies, ducklings,dolls,cartoon characters) but might be hard to pull of by an adult- (my opinion entirely).

The reason for the cute facial features was to contrast and as a result, highlight Their problematic behaviour. 

I also drew them wearing pyjamas, consisting of bottoms, socks an undershirt and the pyjama shirt being worn as a cape- I imagine this shirt to constantly, gently flow around despite there being no wind to emphasize their supernatural origin. The reason I drew them wearing pyjamas was that I thought having the child constantly wearing them was a great way of characterizing them as innocent while also creating visual connections to the planned story’s association with sleep and spirituality by extension (dreams, sandman etc)

By characterizing them as innocent, I intended to convey to the audience a possible explanation for their questionable acts- cruel Pranks, Violence, Lying.

These are traits common in young children but ones that would be amplified in a child with a lack of parenting and one that is not of this reality

Through This I wanted the audience to question how much of their cruelty was a result of being a particularly lonely child or because of some innate evil.

I then drew the head at different angles and did some facial expressions for good measure

In terms of the Caretaker, I gave her typical nurse scrubs as well as wide circular glasses,regular trainers and a face mask- her hair is also tied up in a messy bun. This was done for a couple of reasons

1.To have her appear meek and average

2.To hide her facial expression - making her appear comical and hard to take seriously

3. To have her contrast greatly against the otherworldly settings and characters she would encounter in her profession

4. To represent her inner thoughts about herself (uninteresting, kind of worthless etc)

The central seem/opening of the scrubs winds around the form to represent her binding to her role as a Caretaker

As a result of hiding her facial expressions, I was surprisingly able to convey more emotion than I would have otherwise. This was because I could exaggerate, squash and stretch her hair bun, glasses and face mask to convey emotion in a cartoony fashion. Adding beads of sweat and shudder lines aided in conveying fear/nervous ness and forehead veins, a wrinkled mask and stray hairs allowed for anger to successfully be portrayed.

I suppose I decided to hide her facial expressions to convey that she was not only initially afraid of the child but also dealing with a lot of internal issues as a result of essentially being trapped such a volatile position

Self doubt, anger,fear and regret were all emotions I considered and In the end it was just more convenient to completely hide her face to portray multiple possible emotions rather than having her face just represent one as I did initially (general Apathy)

(Initial design- top row )

I was hoping that throughout the story she could gradually remove the items one by one to metaphorically and literally let her hair down. Maybe fighting to maintain her sanity on a regular basis would force her to loosen up?

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Additional Evidence for FMP 4

This Illustration was at my FMP’s turning point where I realized that due to real life circumstances I could no longer produce a prototype chapter for my series and would have to stick to concept art, thus turning the focus of my project from the story to the production of what could have been.

This Illustration doesn't not have all that much meaning in terms of real world symbolism but is more of a piece of filler art that featured elements from the story. The boy is holding onto a giant sewing needle and blowing his dream sand into the wind, Behind him is a pattern composed of cupboard doors with some closed and some open revealing creepy smiling faces in the darkness.

The Pose the boy is in, was influenced by illustrations depicting the Chinese folklore/fictional character Sun Wu Kong from Journey to the west (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_West).

In journey to the west, Sun Wu Kong is a magic monkey that becomes a Taoist Deity through Illegitimate means and wages war against heaven and the established order. He is later converted to Buddhism and sets out on a journey to India to retrieve scriptures. He and his demonic cohorts are tasked with protecting a monk on this journey and must battle all manner of Demons Ghosts and Gods. As a monkey, Sun Wu Kong is Mischievous, curious whilst also bloodthirsty and quick to anger. It is these traits and base urges that he is forbidden from acting on whilst protecting the monk- If he does, a magic circlet on his head will tighten causing intense pain. As a result, One of the most powerful beings in the story is subservient to a very human monk who he could kill instantly if given the chance, and must walk the path of Buddhism and metaphorically evolve from monkey to man.

By putting the child in a similar pose I intended to draw parallels to Sun Wu Kong as well as tie in some more spiritual/religious influences into my art. 

In terms of major Parallels, both characters are supernatural in nature and (in the planned story) go against the heavenly bureaucracy.

Both characters have (for lack of a better term) monkey/immature characteristics. As the child is, well a child! and Sun Wu Kong is a monkey. Both are tricksters my nature and prone to mischief/pranks. The consequence of this however is that there is a fine line between a prank and an act of malice/violence. While Superpowered- Sun Wukong is still a monkey and an animal by nature- and is not above immediately caving someones head in with his staff if he feels he has been slighted in any way. Similarly the child is both young and has had no authoritive or parental figures in their life and so wouldn't have any reason not to lash out in anger. (Like a typical child’s tantrum only with a few more floating objects and possibility of death than usual).

Another similarity would be their purpose in their respective stories. In Journey to the west, WuKong is only freed from his millennia long imprisonment after agreeing to give up his “evil ways” and accompany the monk Tripitaka on the journey to retrieve scriptures and enlightenment. The child in my story is benefiting from a programme allowing “strange children” the opportunity for a somewhat normal life. As a result they would have multiple behavioural issues to address and shift through in the pursuit of normalcy. The contrast in the two stories however is that while Sun Wukong would eventually achieve enlightenment and mostly Give up his animalistic ways, whether or not the child in my story would be redeemed and I would attempt to have the audience think about how much change was actually possible and whether some traits were simply inherit or too far developed to be corrected completely (mischief, issues regarding empathy, manipulation anti authoritarian behaviour - traits found in children with antisocial personality disorders - https://www.healthline.com/health/parenting/antisocial-behavior-in-children).

I wasn't to make it blatantly obvious that the child suffered from some extreme case of antisocial personality disorder as i don't have much experience or knowledge in this field and did not want to portray stereotypes or present false information that may confuse or offend a reader. Instead I intended to have these traits mostly lead to hijynx and be more lighthearted, and weigh on the caretaker’s sanity- except for when the story called for serious moral questioning. More like a mischievous,pernicious monkey and less like a malicious entity

The inclusion of the giant sewing needle was the first inclusion of a child’s weapon, a sewing needle used to skewer and manipulate the strings they conjure from the dream sand(shown in last blog post). The needle is shown as being so large due to it’s size being dependent on the amount of sand available ,as it is also composed of sand, but also as another parallel to Sun Wukong’s staff which was also able to change in size. The reason i chose a needle was again to give them a medium to control the dream strings but also as a reference to sewing needles often being the weapon of choice of tiny characters in folklore with Tom Thumb of english mythology

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Thumb 

and Issun Boshi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issun-b%C5%8Dshi#:~:text=Issun%2Db%C5%8Dshi%20(%E4%B8%80%E5%AF%B8%E6%B3%95%E5%B8%AB%2C,old%20Japanese%20illustrated%20book%20Otogiz%C5%8Dshi.

(one inch boy) of japanese mythology being prime examples

Tom Thumb weilding a sword made from a sewing needle

Image from Picture scroll depicting Issun Boshi and his tiny sewing needle sword

 The idea is also present in pop culture and has a couple of miscellaneous examples i'm not sure the origin of 

while i technically thought up the idea by myself, I was definitely not the first to make it up and definitely wont be the last.

The additional influence of the fairy tale motif was meant to add to the already childish theme and create a sort of Brother’s Grimm situation where light hearted stories have hidden or very apparent darkness that is initially glossed over until looked at with hindsight- sort of like the warning signs of behavioural issues in children looked back on when they are apparent and possibly permanent. Fairy folklore/celtic mythology was also supposed to play a heavy role in the story but now that I'm just doing concepts, its pretty irrelevant.

The final reason for choosing a needle as a weapon is that needles are used for creative practices- a positive connotation. But also very sharp and easy to loose sight of - like a child,

Evaluation

This illustration was also one I made in an attempt to mimic watercolour techniques however this time I removed the paper texture and focused more on the brush techniques. This was because in my last illustration, the paper texture reduced the quality of the image when uploaded online. As a result this Illustration lacks texture a lot of which is a downside

This was also the first illustration where I fully illustrated the child and gave them their pyjama  hoodie design. As a result of being a first attempt, it looks very bland I had tried to augment this at one stage by adding a pattern, however I found this difficult to shade and so it was omitted. Finally, as this is a conceptual design it is quite rushed to be expected. However, now that it is going to submitted as part of my FMP, It’s inconsistent quality is a tad distracting. The Child is fairy detailed however due to the size I displayed them at, their multicoloured hair isn't very visible and looks quote dull as a result. Also as the detail is focused on the child, the rest of the scene is underdeveloped as a result, what look like cards with faces in them were intended to be closet doors (monster in the closet theme). 

In terms of positives, I think the pose has been constructed well and is convincing in weight. I also really like the composition I went for where the bottom of the needle is obscured to accentuate it’s length and half of the scene is taken up by the cloud of dream sand to highlight it’s importance and capture the viewers attention.

If I could do things differently I would put more effort into the rendering- adding more details- clothing folds and add dimension to the doors, while not important in the scheme of things, It is a personal nit pick that irks me. Additionally I probably make the child larger and obscure the lower body to draw more attention to the hidden face and multicoloured hair.

I would also ad specks of white to the dream sand cloud to make it look more magical and eye catching as currently it looks rather bland.

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Additional evidence for FMP 3

(This illustration was also completed when I intended to create an entire chapter)

As a brief explanation, The caretaker is supposed to be waking from a dream/nightmare in a cold sweat, the room is illuminated on the left side by what was intended to be a lightning strike. Above her head is a thought/dream bubble like object who funnels dream sand (like the sandman) onto her forehead which is responsible for the nightmare. The stream of sand however is now disrupted due to the caretaker waking up causing the dream to end. 

Illustrations depicting the Sandman (A folklore character who provides good dreams for those who he sprinkles his magic sand on) and his bag of dream sand.

Extra details

. I chose to depict the child funnelling sand onto he woman’s head as an obvious homage to the sand man, with the main difference being that they are causing a nightmare and not a pleasant dream. This choice was made to further the story’s connection with dreams and ethereal concepts but to also consistently characterize the child as both cruel and playful but not entirely malicious. 

. Around the child’s fingers are strings composed on the same sand in the “cradle” position in the game Cat’s Cradle. I chose to depict this as I originally wanted to have strings emerge from the child's fingers to represent how the caretaker would soon be ensnared and entangled in a role that she severely underestimated the difficulty of, but I couldn't draw it without it looking silly. So I decided to look for a way to have them entwined around the child’s fingers (drawing from imagery of a tricky/controlling spider or puppet master) and settled on Cat’s cradle for a couple of reasons

1. Cats Cradle is a game and an especially old one at that, It would be very recognisable to a viewer [provided I depicted it well enough] and would continue to present the child as immature and maybe provide clues to how long the child had actually been around. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_cradle)

2. The “Cradle” position is the very first position of cats cradle and generally must be achieved before moving on to any other positions. by choosing the position over the others I could symbolise a new beginning for both characters but also that the caretaker lady would have to meet the child on their terms to make any progress (to continue to new Cradle tricks she would have to embrace the opening position- unconditional love)

Cat’s Cradle opening position

3. I always just thought the term Cat’s Cradle sounded creepy and had some sort of paranormal association, upon research however, this isn't true in the slightest and I guess then I just my own personal touch.

The flowers the Woman is holding are a budding daffodil and a wilting lavender. These were chosen simply based on their symbolic meaning in the language of flowers. Daffodils often represent hope and new beginnings due to their ability to weather winter and arise in spring. By having the plant be dug up before maturing fully, the newly budding daffodil now symbolises wavering hope or the improbability of success- as I wanted it to be somewhat ambiguous just how beyond redemption the child was, when writing the story. Lavenders are connected with both intelligence/wisdom and spirituality. They also have feminine connotations. the symbol I was going for by having her hold a partially wilting lavender was the degradation of her sanity in acting as a parent to a child truly beyond worldly comprehension. The Daffodil isn't quite fully ready to bloom and the lavender is no longer in its prime - Hope isn't assured and neither is sanity. By having both flower not truly be as developed as they should, the idea that there is potential for success but that it is mostly up to chance is created

Also the child’s fingernail’s are painted red and purple mostly because I thought they matched the childish sleepy, bedtime aesthetic I was going for but also to amply androgyny. While the child is not genderless, they are otherworldly So I thought that it would make sense for them to to not strictly follow gender norms, also from an anatomical perspective, the younger a person is, the harder it is to tell their sex facially as the defining facial characteristics developed during and after puberty are less pronounced or not even present at all (Larger more defined brow ridge in men, sloping forehead, more separation of nasal and mouth regions- generally the opposite in women).

Watercolour

This Illustration was done digitally however I used a watercolour paper texture and brush to complete it in an attempt to give it an interesting and authentic feel

A couple of months prior to my project proposal, I experimented with Analog Materials such as Watercolours, markers and pencils in the hopes that I could have my Fmp be done traditionally due to feeling kind of like a fraud For using digital media and seemingly not having to work as hard as others who made art the traditional way, Nowadays I couldn't care less but it definitely heavily influenced the early conception and production process. Here are some examples of my attempts at practicing watercolour techniques and mark making for the first time

Feeling somewhat confident, I then thought I was ready to start painting people so I experimented with skin tones 

Turns out I was Garbage

Ever since that day I've made a solemn vow to stick to what I'm good at

Jokes aside I obviously did take away some analogue influence from this which is evident in my use of the water colour brush and texture in the first image.

These simply landscape ish paintings came out rather nicely though so that's a plus, the use of blues and sunset colours link back to the nocturnal aesthetic i intended to create going forth soo that's consistent at least

Evaluation

In terms of difficulties with this first illustration, the major problem would be the lighting. As stated previously I was trying to depict the room being illuminated by a nearby lightning strike in typical horror movie fashion. At the time I couldn't find an reference at all online, books were no help and I didn't have time to watch movies frame by frame in the hopes they contained the horror trope. try as I might, something so obvious simply wasn't available

(turns out all I had had to do was look up tumblr gifs)

So for the illustration I had to use my very limited colour theory knowledge to get around the lack of reference. I darkened the right side of the scene and lightened the left. I then pulled the colours on the left side of the scene towards a light blue (lightning flash) and desaturated them. I did a similar operation on the right side but instead I darkened the scene, desaturated the colours and omitted some detail.

The lighting still didn't look convincing though, so I added curtains to imply a nearby window that the lightning was shining through. In the end though this wasn't enough and I could only go so far without reference.

Improvements

If I could do this illustration again I would heavily exaggerate the lighting as consequent lightning studies showed me just how much detail is destroyed by the intense light and subsequent shadows of a lightning flash. I would also dramatize the woman’s facial expression more by adding larger beads of sweat and making her eyes larger. I would also employ the use of cross hatching to imply more depth in the scene and make more use of hard edges to counteract the sheer amount of soft ones I used. This would serve to make the image seem less flat and also imply more depth.

In conclusion

This Illustration is the one I put the most effort into and as a result, is the one with the most errors. I've learned a lot and hope to grow from this.

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Additional Evidence for FMP 2

(This is also conceptual work was done when I still intended to fully write and illustrate the short story.

This Illustration depicts the child character floating over the care taker. Its very similar to the previous drawing with the main change being the angle and the position of the child character. I again decided to exclusively use grey tones to better create a creepy atmosphere.

I attempted to depict the child as wearing some sort of hoodie/onesie pyjamas to illustrate their innocence and the would be story’s association with sleep. As the last illustration tied to another phenomenon associated with sleep (Monsters/childhood fears), I decided to have this one implement sleep paralysis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis). The child is positioned above the woman in a sitting position as it is a common occurrence in sleep paralysis for the sufferer to sense or even hallucinate some sort of figure pushing down on their chest or even sitting on their chest. So I essentially just took this motif and adjusted it slightly so that the child would sit cross legged (a sitting position commonly associated with youth[sitting on the floor during class, playing with toys etc- also harder to do for adults due to ageing/inflexibility]) and float above the caretaker as I thought this would be more visually interesting and make it more obvious that the child is paranormal in nature and not just a random kid sitting on some persons chest while they sleep. Also, the creature generally sighted in sleep paralysis is often a goblin or hag like entity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_hag) which makes the child a decent deal less intimidating

The Nightmare - Henry Fuseli

Different cultures have personifications and entities that appear during sleep paralysis such as ethereal woman with long concealing hair in the case of japan (the visual inspiration for samara/Sadako from The Ring and Ring respectively)

The woman lays wide-eyed and unable to move as she is experiencing said paralysis. If I was being more faithful to actual experiences of sleep paralysis, II would have drawn the woman laying on her back as to make it more obvious that the child floats above her chest, but again, I thought it would be more interesting to adjust the angle so that her entire face is visible. 

By not having the child fit the established sleep paralysis monster description and by looking down with a smile, I hoped to create the impression that they are not entirely malevolent and to portray innocence. -this is more of a cruel prank than an attempt to induce serious fear

In terms of lighting I decided for the drawing to be backlit as to accentuate the silhouettes of the characters and draw attention to them (especially the caretaker’s wide frightened expression), to do this I simply placed the window in the background so that the scene could be revealed by the moonlight flooding in. This was just a quick sketch however and so the lighting situation isn't illustrated all that effectively.

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Additional Evidence for FMP 1

This is a sample to be submitted as part of my FMP

(This conceptual work was done when i still intended to fully write and illustrate the short story. This is no longer the case and my FMP will now consist of a front cover with complementary sample work )

It is conceptual and is meant to illustrate the care taker character waking up at night after feeling she is being watched. (the room she is resting in was provided by the child care facility she now works for - thus allowing for the meeting of the two primary characters). The character staring from inside the cupboard/closet is the supernatural child character the care worker is now employed to take care of.

I chose to have the child staring out from the closet to reference the childhood fear of monsters in the closet/under the bed and to tie together the themes of childhood innocence and the supernatural. In this way the child is now the ”monster” and the caretaker/parent now occupies the position of the child. This was done to  display the power dynamic between the caretaker and the child. while the woman is older and employed to be a caregiver for the child(pseudo parent) she is now meek and fears the child due to her lack of understanding of the supernatural /paranormal etc.

Image illustrating monsters hiding in typical places, under bed, outside window.

This was done rather quickly and done tonally which resulted in a very sketchy style, I feel the decision to exclusively use greys and blacks helped create depth which is something I often struggle with.

I was partially inspired by the illustrations made by Fred Dunn who provides art for the youtuber Bob Gymlan who creates videos pertaining to the supernatural / strange cases and unexplained occurrences

(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJLEQ0AoKBwD0I_IzSO5wg) - Bob Gymlan

(https://www.youtube.com/user/dredfunn)- Fred Dunn

Examples of his work

I admired how successfully he was able to illustrate the unexplained through tonal drawings and realized just how successful it was to create a creepy atmosphere (This may be because the  drawing the illustrations tonally makes them resemble old newspaper clippings and courtroom sketches(which can be rather simple and tone deficient). both cases are associated with something off-putting such as creatures/ occurrences that shouldn't exist/have happened. This is most effective in the above image from a video pertaining to a missing child case believed to be so strange it must have some sort of paranormal factor (not my thoughts, just a perspective from the video)

examples of creepy/strange black and white news paper images/ courtroom sketches

Bigfoot

Loch-Ness Monster

Wendigo

Courtroom sketches

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Week 4Update- Reality check

So I guess I was too a little too ambitious, circumstances dictate that I now must cut down my project considerably. I’ll no longer be producing a pilot chapter but now will be making promotional art and storyboards as if I were still making the finished product.

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Quick notes on influence’s (Artists)

I Essentially took all my art influence from artists I followed or Mangaka/Japanese comic artists such as Elilie maple fox https://twitter.com/elliemaplefox?lang=en

Yoshihiro Togashi (Works-Yu Yu hakusho, Hunter X Hunter)

Yu Yu Hakusho-

Some HXH fanart (not mine- i wish it was)

Junji Ito (Works- numerous- notably examples include Uzumaki, Tomie, Gyo etc)

Uzumaki official Art

Hirohiko Araki (Works- JoJo’s Bizarre adventure)

Some art from JJBA

All of these examples (save for Ellie maple Fox) Use traditional art mediums(analog). This may seem a tad out of place for someone like me who exclusively works digitally but truthfully I much prefer working with physical mediums- I'm just kind of terrible at them. As i have only being studying art and trying to improve for a little over a year and a half now, I have virtually no experience with traditional mediums and only really turned to digital art as I didn’t have years to improve  and learn the base fundamentals. To make up or this I try to imitate the textures of traditional mediums so that my work looks less “digital”. This in combination with using regular art supplies in my free time has helped me slightly disguise the digital truth of my work but now I suppose the jig is up- consider this a confession lol.

Jokes aside this relates to my work as I am currently attempting to imitate a collaring pencil and watercolour style that is stylized in a sort of “manga” way. This will hopefully be more apparent in the next few posts as I slowly figure my weird situation out

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Random sample from a couple weeks ago

These were just some quick drawings of the main characters from a couple weeks ago. Not happy with how they turned out but I suppose its important to include as many samples as I can.

Top row was just sketches of the care worker. I wanted her to have a face that said (”I’m partially of dead inside”) if that makes sense. I figured that's the only type of person who would agree to be a foster parent for a child that existed on another plane of reality(a bit extra, I know). For the child I originally intended to design two faces that would relate to a pivotal revelation/plot point without giving too much away. I  attempted the original face to be overly curtsey an some what idealized while the second would be much more grounded and physically flawed

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The sculpture Of Lao Tzu author of the Dao de Jing (The primary religious text in Taoism) Tied into the idea of an immortal society as the many branches of Taoism are focused on achieving immortality through either physical or spiritual themes. (Supposedly)Through the the practice of Neidan (internal alchemy) and spiritual body could be nurtured so that in the event of death, the practitioner could escape the cycle of reincarnation and either do as they please or become integrated with the heavenly aristocracy. In the event the latter took place, the practitioner would be given a rank in the heavenly aristocracy based on their merit achieved in life or how well of a Taoist practitioner they were. Its evident in Taoism that the afterlife is not only somewhat reserved for those who have access to secret information but also that there is seemingly no escape from class systems and being treated differently because of of were you stand socially. Even in death your position in society will define you. As this is essentially just a spiritual reflection of society in general, I imagined a modern equivalent would require no spiritual work but would almost entirely be based upon your social position and connections made in life. Prosperity is again reserved and restricted to those born lucky while everyone else is fated to be stripped of personality, memories and potentially their intelligence as they are recycled into some new form somewhere else. If a spiritual mechanism such as Neidan or Samsara were as natural as the weather or an integral part of reality like gravity, I believe Humanity would definitely do everything within their power to control it for their own benefit. Maybe that was a little too pessimistic

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Additional Images

This Illustration depicts Siddhartha Gautama if I recall correctly. I honestly cant remember what was being depicted which isn't aided by the terrible image quality but I do remember finding it interesting as I wanted the story I was going to tell to, implement elements from different cultures and religious doctrines. from Buddhism specifically I wanted to implement reincarnation / samsara as well as ideas referenced or implied in Buddhist scripture that have now been taken out of context slightly in the modern day as the such as the idea of an immortal spiritual form (an idea very prevalent in spirituality and religion originating from Asia) with the main example in Buddhism being the Rainbow body- a state of enlightenment achieved through self mummification. On a less morbid note, the idea of still having some form of a body after death through some form of spiritual practice had me wondering what a more grounded afterlife would look like.  

If people still had some sort of body after death it may stand to reason that they would act relatively to the elite today, especially if the methods to achieve such a state are closely guarded secrets and only taught to those with connections. How would this world be policed? what would people do with an immortal existence? Eventually you would grow bored and said boredom would presumably last forever unless you could influence the people less fortunate than yourself in order to create unpredictable events. wouldn't said boredom drive you insane over an eternity? what would a chronically bored group of insane transcendent upper-class  do to those in the world down below to distract themselves from a fate that proved to entail far more than they signed up for?

Probably not ramble on Tumblr using big words they don't really understand

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Week 3.5 (miscellaneous)

These are just some random images that hadn't been documented yet

Firstly these are photos (of varying quality) from a trip I took to the the V and A museum. The illustration exhibit was unfortunately closed so to make the most of my trip I sort of wandered around and took photos of anything I thought might prove useful. Included are generic paintings that were honestly only included because they are technically Illustrations. My trip became worthwhile once I got to the Asia section (district? department? the correct term escapes me). Besides the random Pinup, I was interested in Illustrations and statues/sculptures that depicted supernatural elements in a both religious and satirical contexts. The Ukiyo-e style artwork depicting the Oni or animal headed humans on the underground/subway are presumably intended to be humorous as in the first instance the Oni (demon on the phone) is removed from its usual religious/folklore context and placed in the middle of a modern work commute and seems to be struggling with technology it doesn't understand.

The illustration depicted the animal headed people on the subway is likely representative of loud or disruptive people on public transport that are unaware or do not care how there actions affect others, like an animal (this is heightened by the constant social pressure in japan to conform and) not cause issue for others. Additionally the animal people(?) seem to be influenced directly by ukiyo-e paintings depicting Yokai (generic term for supernatural entities in Japanese folklore) or more light-hearted paintings or humanoid animals to portray irony or to caricaturize groups. Examples of Artists known for producing such work are Toriyama Sekien and  Utagawa Kuniyoshi” respectively.

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Week 3

This week I decided to actually look a little bit more into the actual process of storytelling and not just assume everything would work out. Following loose guidelines created by the Mangaka Hirohiko Araki (Of JoJo’s Bizarre adventure’s fame) I analysed the elements of what made a successful introduction to a manga/comic (this includes the cover, opening chapter, initial dialogue, first impressions, the 5 W’s and 1 H and the title’s name).

The most memorable useful advice was analysing the 5 W’s and 1 H which stand for WHO is doing WHAT, WHERE,WHEN, WHY and HOW. The second attached image shows some opening chapters from series that personally immediately reeled me in which I later analyses in search of similarities, patterns and main takeaways.

I suppose a main commonality (and a rather obvious one at that) is simply striking imagery that captures attention by evoking questions within a viewer or simply leaving them in stunned. YuYu Hakusho for example (pictured in the centre with a red background) begins with the protagonist already having died and pictured looking down at his own body which creates both intrigue and shock. Series like Berserk and Jojolion however begin with more “Graphic imagery” that is nothing but eye-catching due to the somewhat risqué nature. Infer from that what you will. 

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Week 2

Week 2 Summary - 

This week was mostly just research and creating samples, more research needs to be done into story telling (both through text and visually).

To further expand on themes, I wanted to have the story superficially focus on supernatural/sleep related elements such childhood fears, sleep paralysis and lucid dreams, ghosts, astral projection etc.

Beneath that and more prominently though. I want to focus on ideas such as found families, nature vs nurture, early childhood development, purpose, family relationships and redemption/ people beyond saving (whether there is a limit to what a person can be forgiven for doing).