Visual Language Self Evaluation -- OUAN404

In which I complain about the same thing I have complained about in my previous two evaluations:

During this module I think I didn't push myself as hard as I could in terms of creativity. The Set, Series, Sequence task ended with some quite tame drawings of hats, in a style that I hadn't really developed. Once again I think initially starting to think of ideas for hats I didn't come up with many ideas that were much more than just quite plain illustrations, and then when I had an idea for the final animation, ended up drawing things which fit into that idea rather than continuing to try and explore. I often find it hard not to think about the end product straight away, and end up drawing things for a pre-determined outcome instead of playing around with different ideas and working out which ones work best. This is definitely what happened during Set, Series, Sequence in which the first frame of my final storyboard came into my head as soon as I began drawing hats, and didn't change much after that. I had a very strong mental image of it, but actually I think the rest of the storyboard turned out quite weak.

Similarly in Captain Character, after playing with primitives briefly and coming up with a few different characters that way, I decided on making a pirate. Very quickly I settled on a rough design and had to force myself to go back to the first stages of design, eventually ending up with lots of pirates of varying levels of menace - but still couldn't get my first idea out of my head, and the final product came out quite similar.

At the same time it is beneficial that I often have very strong ideas as soon as getting a brief - it means I can get to work very quickly, sometimes with a clear direction of where I want to go, but also a weakness which more often than not stops me from properly working out that direction before heading off.

I also struggled with blogging during this module. I feel sometimes like the blogging tasks in our briefs are very much geared to people who watch lots and lots of cartoons or animated films, and have an encyclopaedic knowledge thereof. When asked to "explore 3 animations and critically analyse them and identify how their use of composition, lighting, tone, texture, form, space and composition etc begin to tell an environmental story"(for example) I find it hard to think back over things I have already watched, and never get that "Oh, this film has a great use of ... " moment. I often find myself blindly trawling through the internet to find animations which particularly fit into a writing brief. I'm not sure whether it is my own interests, those of the course (or the majority of students the course sometimes feels geared to), or something else that made me find it this difficult.

Of all the modules this year, including Applied, PPP and COP, I have enjoyed Visual Language the least, in large part because of the work I produced not being quite as adventurous as I feel I should be. As I write this I am looking at a folder of work that, other than maybe one or two life drawings (a subject which I was already confident and comfortable in), I am not particularly proud of.

Warehouse drawings -- OUAN404

Tried a few different things with my drawings from the warehouse in woodhouse. Unlike the Abbey drawings whese have been scanned and played with in Photoshop to introduce textures and different colourings, or created completely digitally from reference photographs

pencil, watercolour and photoshop

fine liner and photoshop

photoshop brushes and textures

photoshop textures and blending layers

photoshop brushes and texturing

Favourite Cartoon Characters: Iron Giant -- OUAN404

The Iron Giant is a masterclass in how to display emotion in a character with very limited speech and minimal facial expression. Using only the tilt of his head, shape of his eyes, and the set of his jaw the giant robot can display a wide range of emotions. It is probably a testament to how people are able to anthropomorphise non-humans, that both Hogarth and the audience can empathise with the robot, but also down to smart design. These key elements of facial expression and body language - the mouth, eyes, and neck - are maybe the bare minimum required to properly tell the audience how the character is feeling, in the same way that Gromit uses his one dynamic eyebrow to such great effect. The robot also looks just futuristic enough to be impressive and still fit in seamlessly to the 1950s cold war setting of the film, but without resorting to obvious 50s sci-fi conventions like aerodynamic fins or rockets, or shiny glossy paintwork like was seen in "futuristic" car designs of the era.

looking angry

looking curious

looking sad

Favourite Cartoon characters: Rorschach -- OUAN404

Rorschach, the psychopathic masked detective from Watchmen is one of my favourite characters from a graphic novel. His design encorporates the trenchcoat and hat typical of the hardboiled pulp detective characters that he was based off - a tip to the parallel 1940s and 50s America in which Rorschach and the other Watchmen were most active. The most obvious feature is obviously his mask, representing the Rorschach tests which he takes his name from - and hinting at his extreme mental health issues which are revealed throughout the story, as well as his views that morality is a black and white issue with no grey areas. I like his design for a few reasons, partly just because I am a fan of the film noir genre and the tough private detective characters often found in those films, partly because the idea of a mask with constantly changing patterns is just really cool on its own.

rorschach blot test

Wallace Design Changes -- OUAN404

A sweet story I found on Living Lines Library about ow the design of Wallace developed. Originally Nick Park designed a straighter jawline, but when Peter Sallis exaggerated the word "cheeeese" during recording of the vocals it was decided to widen Wallace's jaw to reflect his elongated E sounds. It is funny that Aardman are now associated with that wide-mouthed toothy style that many of their characters share, when it was a last minute design edit that originally gave Wallace the look. You also wonder whether or not the design, which is unique and distinctly Wallace-y, played a part in the success of the franchise, as it makes Wallace much more memorable.

Pre and Post-Cheeeese Designs

Hercules Character Design -- OUAN404

Disney's Hercules has the really interesting quirk of using design that is reminiscent of artwork from Ancient Greece where the story originated (albeit in a highly stylised way), and yet they manage to still look like characters in a Disney movie. Character designs in particular incorporate many elements from Greek art, in particular the painted vases and bowls that famously depict their myths and legends. The main character Hercules in particular shows many design elements lifted from this art, for example the way his straight nose runs into his forehead without a crease, and the decorative swashes and curls that outline his muscles.

Hercules' father Zeus sports a pointy triangular beard, exactly the same as is found in many Greek paintings, and wears long white robes with lots of overlapping folded fabric, another common image in the Greek art.

101 Dalmatians Background art -- OUAN404

The beautiful backgrounds in Disney's 101 Dalmatians (1961) were quite a departure from the styles of previous Disney feature lengths, using lots of angular blocks of colour and much more straight lines in a style that would later become synonymous with 1960s graphics. There is also a really sketchy use of overlapping colour, where the fill from one object or detail in a scene spills out of its outline, which looks nice in general - but works especially well on the wet streets of London where the overlapping blocks of colour suggest reflections in the rain on the paving slabs and road surface. The watercolour washes also produce a lovely foggy effect, as London was famous for its thick smog in the 1950s when production would have begun. The contrast between the colour schemes inside Roger and Anita's house - all warm reds and browns, and other colours in high saturation - and Cruella DeVil's mansion, depicted in cold greys, greens and blues, as well as eerie pale yellow lighting also helps suggest Cruella's evil nature, in opposition to the warm and loving household that the Dalmatian pups must return to.

Environmental Storytelling, Soundscapes -- OUAN404

I really liked the short film "Roadtrip", which really nicely portrayed the feeling of insomnia. A big part of this is the sound of the city as Julius lies awake at night, and the use of POV shots in his bedroom. As he lies in bed tossing and turning, Julius' internal monologue, the use of dim lighting and the invasive sound of the city outside his window really work to make his bedroom feel tiny and claustrophobic - a feeling I really recognise from my own sleepless nights. The noise of the city is ever present, and Julius can't even escape it as  he dreams of riding his motorbike through the countryside. A few extreme close ups on ashtrays, speedometers and light switches provide diegetic sounds to cut through the oppressive hum of the city, but it is the contrast between quiet and thoughtful Julius and his ever-noisy surroundings that really sets the atmosphere for the film. As he finally escapes the city a thunderstorm breaks, providing yet more inescapable sound, and using the rain as pathetic fallacy as his plans for a peaceful holiday away from Berlin are foiled once again.


ROADTRIP from Xaver Xylophon on Vimeo.

Environmental storytelling, Misfits titles -- OUAN404

The title sequence to Channel 4's Misfits (2009) Is a nice mix of photography, live footage and animation. The titles make use of very heavy texturing and colour grading to represent the environment of the show - a massive brutalist concrete jungle. The piece is so desaturated it has almost become grayscale, and even the vibrant orange jumpsuits of the main characters look dull. The contrast is also pushed right up to heighten shadows, and this also makes the gritty dirt and concrete textures more emphasised. The show is almost entirely set in an unnamed part of England crammed with tower blocks and sprawling estates, so I think the title sequence makes a very good representation of the environment of the show.

Images from the title sequence

Images of the Thamesmead estate where Misfits was filmed

Ed animation -- OUAN404

Nice animation telling the story of a life-model who imagines a character for each pose he strikes. I like the mix of sharp clean lines and more rough pencil-like textures when the animation transitions from real life to Ed's imagination. The animation has a good pacing and flow, staying on each character of Ed's for just long enough, but without dragging them out. I like the contrast made between the shy and quiet looking Ed, dressed in his big coat and hat pulled down over his face, and the flamboyant Ed on stage. One tiny moment makes it for me, the bit between 1:30 and 1:32 as the music begins and the artists' raise their pencils all at once, in anticipation. Somehow that small movement seems to suggest they know they are going to see something exciting.

Life drawings animated -- OUAN404

Really nice animation made during a life drawing class, by photographing each person's drawing from round the circle to give a 360° turnaround of the model in a few different poses. I like how the different drawing styles affect the look of the figure as she is rotated. It is reliant on the artist's all making fairly accurate (or at least similar) proportions, but there is a really good sense of volume. I would like to try this myself at some point as I tend to draw quite quickly at life drawing classes and if there was enough time for me to move around the class and get different angles during the same pose I think I could make quite a nice turnaround video.


Here is my own attempt from my drawings of Dan flowing (or jerking) through a space:

Life Drawing -- OUAN404

Rhythm is a Dancer:

5 seconds

10 seconds

10 seconds

10 seconds

Like a Puppet on a String
I liked being given only 10 or 15 seconds for each pose, it really pushed me to get just the basic form down. Using charcoal which is quite an expressive medium I was able to draw fairly detailed figures in a short time and I think I managed to convey the movements quite accurately.

Ah, Push it
In the 5 minute poses I was more able to explore 3D volume using shading and line weight, to properly give the impression of body mass. I was also able to give slightly more impression of creases and folds in the clothing.

Strike a Pose
During the long poses I had more tie to explore the use of shading to give a better 3D impression through the use of highlights and lowlights. I also spent lots longer on the clothing as I think that detail here further improves the level of perspective and volume. I was able to take my time and consider line density and thickness with the charcoal more than before, which is evident in the different forms of shading used.

The drawing of Vlad was the first time ever using ink and brush, I quite like how it turned out, but I found it much harder to keep things in proportion than I do with charcoal - as you can see by the position of his shoulders and the size of his head.

Notebooks -- OUAN404

A selection of scribbles from the notebooks which have been almost constantly somewhere on my person over the last few years. They are mostly people I see on a bus or train, friends in the pub, or snatches of dialogue from the radio or conversations I overhear. These sketches in particular involve a lot of old people from doctor's waiting rooms.