The Illustrated Self - Giants, midgets and all sorts of madness

What I'm interested in 

I came up with a brainstorm of things that interested me, I found this quite a struggle because I'm not really sure what interests me until I actually discover it? 

I started to look back at work I'd done previously and thought about what it was within that work that I enjoyed. I realised that I quite liked humans, our behaviour, what it means to be human. I know already that I enjoy making work that makes me laugh, but in particular what is it about my work that makes me laugh? I think putting people in situations that they wouldn't usually find themselves is a big thing. The shock factor, something against the norm.

Combining the two together I realised I was quite interested in humans that aren't normal. And what is normal?? 

In terms of voice and intent I know that I want to make something that is against the norm yet recognisable, playful, something with an underlying meaning behind the stupidity of it. 

I would like to create work that is funny, but at the same time I kind of want to step away from this for once. I'd like to create something that is quite emotive and not reliant on humour as much. 

I think my poetry reflects my thoughts a lot and this is not necessarily always funny. 

I like the thought of putting humans in situations they're not used to, but at the same time like the idea of creating a new world of people that aren't necessarily human or the norm and giving them human qualities. 

Crit feedback

I had a look at Kimya Dawson's lyrics and liked how playful yet honest they were and this influenced me to write poetry of my interests. 

Poetry

If I was to think of a giant in my head, someone based on something I would see in a fairytale or on a film I would come up with something like this

I made this portrait of a giant from watercolour and pencil. I really like the colours in this I think they reflect a friendly person. Especially within the eyes, we can see a sense of sadness almost. I really enjoy painting things to look realistic. I think in terms of the end of year show this would be something I would be proud to present.

Character Development

To contrast my realistic approach to character I started to fill a sketchbook based on things that make us human, or inhumane, extended body parts, weirdness. All borne from my imagination, no reference. This was quite a struggle as this is something I've never really done before. They are far from realistic. 

I became quite interested in this character I'd drawn so decided to run with that idea, the tall man, and started to draw a series of giants. I think there's something quite charming about them and giants in general, something we could relate to rather than ridiculously exaggerated body parts.

From this I created poetry based on giants and showing them as real humans with real emotions to make them relatable (they're quite sad).

Poetry

Research into poetry

I looked at my favourite poets and read back over some of their poems wondering what it is about them that I really liked. I guess I like their honesty and imagination, how they make you feel. The poems are almost like a song when you read them which I like. I like how there's no wrong answers with poetry. They could be based on something that you have absolutely no knowledge of, or a place in time that you've never experienced yet there's something within it you can connect with. Such as Robert Browning's 'My last Duchess' based on a painting of the late Duchess of the Duke of Ferrera - Never heard of him, but it's packed with emotion and I feel like I knew her just based on the descriptive words used. I really want my poetry and images to reflect this and create characters that people can relate to.

Wordsworth - I wandered lonely as a cloud & strange fits of passion I have known

Carol Anne Duffy - Havisham

Ivor Cutler

Really lovely poet and songwriter. Charming, down to earth, relatable. Especially like 'Beautiful Cosmos' 

- "This is our universe, cups of tea, we have a beautiful cosmos you and me "

I'd love that to be my universe! Cups of tea and sandwiches!

John Hegley

Jeffrey Lewis

Spike Milligan

For one of the poems I took a poem that I had written and put on my homepage of my blog called 'Always the bridesmaid'. This poem was quite a sad morbid one about how I felt about relationships, growing old, being messed around and wanting to feel complete. I decided to adapt that to the giant theme because I think this character needs an underlying message. In order to make him relatable and create emotion I have to feel something myself and so I edited this and included it in the giant poetry book which is quite a risk. I asked a few of my peers to read the book and one commented that the last poem (this one) didn't really represent giants. I think that is true, but I don't want every poem to be 'hey look at me I'm a giant' and I think is a nice change to just purely show feelings. 

A little book of big

Extending on from my original giants I thought of making a little book, with giants squeezed inside of it. This could be quite playful and I could consider this format further as to how small I could actually make the book. The small book represents how the giants can be seen in a different light, such big humans in a tiny book with poems alongside it I think is quite a nice idea.

Further character development

Working in such a small book can be quite restrictive so I have experimented with my character further on larger paper and pencils for speed. Ditched the small book idea for now until I am really confident with being able to draw this character lots of times.

Final product for Crit

Though for the show I would like to create a book, I thought for the hand in I would produce an A3 piece that represented what the book would be about. The character 'Ted' that I have created, with a poem that sums up the emotion of the book. I decided to re-draw one of my earlier ideas of a giant on top of a mountain to indicate his isolation from the world. I think this best shows a sense of scale alongside a poem of his feelings. I want to make him look really sad so his posture is key.
I've opted for one outcome ready for hand in because in previous briefs when I have been a little too ambitious and made many outcomes I think the drawing style weakens and I want to create one outcome that I have paid a lot of attention to.

I had issues getting his posture right so I posed for a photograph and used this to help me

I draw it out a couple of times until I was happy with it 

I then drew it out finally in fine liner 

Colouring on Photoshop
Deciding which colours work best together

Text

I wasn't sure which text would best suit the concept so I was playing around with this and the colour, and position on the page

I decided spacing the lines worked better and made it easier to read

I was finally happy with the font and position of the text and so added finishing touches such as tone, and clouds in the background

Final outcome

I am quite happy with this, though I feel the poem could have maybe been stronger and his posture is a little bit awkward and could have been more exaggerated. I think it does sum up a lonely giant as an outcast from the rest of the world. Maybe I need to think about the font more for my book and a colour scheme that will run throughout. Overall I am happy with my character development and look forward to seeing him come alive more throughout the book.

When I printed this in A2 I noticed a lot of gaps in the colour. I think this is really important to do, print things out and look back at them because it's something I haven't done in previous briefs until the very end and then seen areas of improvement. I will now go back into this and edit it.

I wasnt happy with the typeface and composition so decided to go back into it and work on it further

FINAL OUTCOME - No really, this one is! 

We had a crit whereby we displayed our work in the coridoors. I saw a lot of people around my work talking about it which was really nice to over hear what they were saying. A lot of them felt sorry for the giant, and one said they wanted to hug him. People came up to me to say they really liked my poem too which was a nice change to hear. Usually I get feedback about how my work is funny, so to see that it touches people or just makes them feel something is really nice to see. Especially because this character is not real, to create something people can relate to is brilliant for me.

Further plans for the book

I want to create a book that tells the tale of 'Ted' the character I have created. I want to show his loneliness and struggle as a giant, how he tries his best to make friends but everyone is scared of him and run away. This will be supported by poetry that runs throughout. I then want to show how he finds love with another female giant and his life is complete. I have already experimented with the different facial experiments for this. I would now have to come up with character designs for the female. 

Format

 This is something I have struggled to get my head round. The dimensions of the format. Fitting this book idea into an A1 format. I figured out that A1 is 8 lots of A4, or 16 lots of A5. With wanting such a small book full of big giants being my initial idea then A5 would work best. However, this means creating 16 illustrations in just three weeks which I think is too ambitious. Especially reflecting on previous briefs where I think giving myself so much work like that means that my final outcomes don't come out as nice and as finished as I would hope. 8 illustrations would be manageable and realistic but then can you really make a book of just 8 illustrations? And how would I show a story in just 8 illustrations? Would this be enough?

'Make something you're going to be really proud of'

Is this something I am proud of? Not necessarily. This is not my best piece of work, but I think its a nice idea. It's an idea that is borne from my interests, though it does not reflect my funny sense of humour. I think it is again something different, something showing emotion which I don't think I have touched on so far. Does this work sum up my year as a whole? Yes and no. I think you can see that I have started to consider scale and composition here as well as a colour palette that compliment eachother. I think it is clear that I've started to think about my line work more here, taking away lines (within the mountain). I think theres a clear sense of character development, and thinking outside of the box in terms of creating a poem and then illustration to support it. However, I am still not proud of it. 

Looking back I really like the watercolour painting I did of how I'd view a giant. I like how realistic it is, I like how I'm taking imaginary characters and making them real. I don't think this type of work (creating character) really suits me yet because I am not confident enough in my drawing style. 

For the show I am quite torn now, I am unsure whether to create a book or make a really nice painting. I want to do something I enjoy with a really nice interesting concept behind it, but on the other hand I don't feel over the whole of the year I've made work that I am really happy with. So for a change I kind of feel I want to just make a really nice piece of work. A really nice, finished painting maybe? I'd like to show 'Human' and what it means to be human through a character that is still a character, maybe with like big elf ears or something, but still human through emotion and realistic painting style. 

Though I'd like to create a book I think it's too ambitious when only having two weeks to create something of a high standard. I know I have previous experience but I feel it would not come across as well as I'd like. I think now I'd like to show the balance between character and human and what makes us human, emotion, through painting.