Ziltzy's Scribblings

Here are all five of my panels together, “finished”. This time around I spent the majority of my time on my fourth panel, art nouveau. I’m still not really too happy with it, but sometimes you just have to let a piece be what it is and move on.

Here are all five of my panels together. My fourth panel (art nouveau) is still unfinished, and I’m honestly still not completely sure where that one is going. I thought that I had a plan for it but it didn’t turn out the same way that I had imagined. Still, here they are.

Panel 1:

Panel 2:

Panel 3:

Panel 4:

Panel 5:

Today I update with my third panel in the series. This panel is the one that is influenced by cubism (transparency). This is the part in the story when Boot envisions himself letting go of the rain cloud and watching it float away.

This week I began to work on my first two panels; my “establishing” panel and my “florescent pigment” panel. Unfortunately, I worked on the second panel first and halfway through my drawing tablet began behaving strangely. It began by sporadically not responding to the tablet pen being pressed to the surface, and it only got worse. By the time I began working on my establishing panel it was drawing just about anywhere but where I had it aimed to draw and I had to give in. I tried to get as much done of the first panel that I could, but it’s extremely unfinished. For the first panel I just basically blocked in shades where could to at least get things started. I suspect I’ll be starting from near to scratch on that one, though.

Panel 1 (Vastly unrefined):

Panel 2 (Please Full-view):

For this next project I decided that I wanted to show viewers a bit deeper of a look into the character of Boot. Instead of continuing on from where I left off in the last project I’ve selected a new circumstance to further explain the condition of Boot’s psyche instead of just his current situation (or, his reaction to the raincloud instead of the fact that he simply carries it). The words that I selected ended up being Fiction and Nonfiction, which I felt were nearly perfect for Boot’s story.

In my five panels I will first show Boot as he really stands, raincloud overhead and acceptance of this fact. I will then show the progression of a daydream that he is having (through the reflection in his eye) of him letting go of the raincloud and letting it float away. Finally he will snap out of this daydream only to show himself once again in his actuality, staring up at the raincloud that he never really let go. To me this could be read two different ways: The nonfiction (or reality) could be the fact that he never actually lets the raincloud go, leaving the fiction (unreality) to be that he does let it go. Alternatively, the fiction could also stand for the fact that he is fine with holding on to the raincloud and the nonfiction could actually be the daydream itself, the real truth of how he feels.

Research for Individual Panels:

Panel 1: Panel 1 will be black and white like I did in the past project, though I will be using a more dynamic angle than I did previously. I do, however, want to start with a Boot that is “familiar”.

Panel 2: Pop Art

For my “Florescent Pigments” panel I want (of course) to begin to add color to the piece as Boot begins to daydream. I wouldn’t suddenly have a full chroma panel, but I would incorporate some of the linework that I normally do and add some splashes of color to it. When I was researching pop art I came across an artist that I had never heard of before, a Sigmar Polke. In a few of his pieces he has a nice dark linework as well as a colorful pallet that sort of backs up the piece instead of completely filling it up. Below is an example of his work that I find a bit inspiring for the direction I would like to go.

Panel 3: Cubism

For my “Transparency” panel I want to show movement that is effective yet stationary using a repetition of similar shapes in different transparencies; I thought that the cubist influence would be the way to go. There is some strange sense of movement in cubist paintings, such as Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”. He uses the repetition of forms to evoke a sense of descension. This panel is the one where Boot will be shown letting go of the raincloud, so it is important that movement be shown as well as an overlapping of colors and shades to show transparency. Below are a few examples (one being Duchamp’s piece) that I feel evoke this sense of movement by using repetition.

Panel 4: Art Nouveau

My fourth panel is of Boot quickly snapping out of his daydream, so I wanted to pull away much of the chroma from the piece without completely taking all of it. Since he is not yet completely aware that he is simply daydreaming and has not let the raincloud go there should still exist some color (though it begins to dull and desaturate). I thought that a cold color pallet would work well for this, something of an “afterthought” of his dreams. The example below shows a mainly stark and desolate color pallet, though I plan mine to be darker.

Panel 5: Expressionism

For my last panel I wanted to almost completely break away from color (save for a few dark hints of it) and move back to a more loose style as the story moves back to the reality of the situation. Because the style of the first panel is on the expressive side I felt that ending in a similar way may help to create a closing to the story. We take a peek into Boot’s mind and then we come back out to reality. In this last panel Boot will be shown from behind in an almost complete silhouette still holding onto the raincloud and looking up at it. The city will be shown around him to illustrate the fact that he is no longer daydreaming; he is indeed back in the real world. As I was researching expressionism I came across the absolutely beautiful work of Kirchner and it was a nice example of what I’d like to achieve to a degree.

Sketches:

Lastly, here are some sketches that did to begin to layout my five panels.

Once again, here is the progress on my 8 panels. I didn’t get a chance to animate any more of them just yet and they aren’t all stylized as I want them. Still, here they are all together.

I’ve spent a lot of time working in Adobe Flash since last semester, so I decided that it was time to attempt an animation using it yet again. This time I actually have an inkling of what I’m doing. I stuck to my scribbly (slightly Edward Gorey inspired) illustrative style, even if in Flash this is not the easiest task. Unlike the animation that I did last semester I did not draw these by hand first and then scan them into the computer, I instead drew them all in Flash from scratch. I plan on doing all the animation “hand drawn” in Flash, there will be no tweening or use of bones. Sometimes it’s just easier for me to do things the “hard way”.

The way that these were done was with a drawing tablet and pen, lots of scribbling and then lots of erasing on top of that scribbling to achieve the feel that I wanted. So far I have two panels that I have animated, one completely animated and one close to being finished. So far things still look pretty lifeless (except for all the rain), but the rest of the panels will not be so still. Part of the reason these opening panels do seem so static is to illustrate the importance of the climax of my story when the cloud becomes trapped in the door and Boot wrestles it out.

Panel 1

Panel 4

Keep in mind that Panel 4 is not completely finished, so it does kind of cut off at the end.

Here is my story and my basic sketches of the 8 panels for my character, Boot.

Basic Sketch Panels

Boot’s Story:

Boot spent everyday in the rain whether it was actually raining outside or not. From his grandfather he so luckily inherited a rain cloud, and it was his duty to carry this inherited burden wherever he went. As young as he was he rarely complained; in fact he had ceased speaking a long time ago. The only communicating that he did was to give his answers to the necessary questions in life with a collection of (what were supposed to be) meaningful glances and gestures. Unfortunately, Boot’s eyes were small, dark, and inexpressive, and thus they were often ineffective in their messages. Above these two insignificant eyes perched an over-sized messenger hat, dark and worn in color and always at least slightly drooping. This, consequently, did not matter to him and even ended up for the better as the hat kept the rain from dripping unmercilessly down his face and into his eyes.

Everyday Boot slept, ate, played, and thought in the rain. Many wondered why it was that he didn’t just let the chained rain cloud go; then they would both be free. The strangest thing about Boot’s absurd struggle was that when the rain cloud had become trapped or hindered he did all that he could to free it, thus keeping the cloud hanging forever over his head.

For this next project (Props to Helen) my word was “barbaric”. Below is my series of progressive panels.

Panel 1: dominant shape + accent shape

Panel 2:  + decorative element

Panel 3: + pattern

Panel 4: + texture

*Post edited*
Slight changes have been made to images, but I just re-posted them in this entry because the changes were minimal.