Michael Gondry, illustration

Illustrations

For this entry is going to cover my illustrations I have created based upon, Michael Gondry's work, as after doing some research on this artist, I felt he could have potential for one of my artists choices as I found his work inspiring because I like the way he's used recursion, his use of colour is very eye captivating which I hope I can include in my work, illustrations and footage weather or not I pick him as my artist or not. His use of colour in his motion graphic work, particularly on his work on around the world is very flamboyant which gives the characters/people in the imagery a charismatic aesthetic to the imagery, which I hope too recreate with my illustrations (which you'll hopefully see below) I hope to establish those key elements for my animations.

How did I start this off you ask, well I have a look back at Gondry's music videos: Around the world, Come into my world and the white stripes music videos, I then tried pausing a moment in the videos to which I then recreated that frame, using the image in that frame as a baseline guide to recreate my own interpretations on Michael Gondry's work. You will see with my work that I work in a very cartoon like abstract style- in a sense bringing surrealism into my imagery in a simplistic way, yet you still have an idea as to who the characters are. In other words you could to some degree say that my graphic technique for creating my illustration style is under the category of lyrical realism, in terms go expressive emotion, in the sense my illustrations give character to which triggers a sense of excitement and ambiguity... in this case All my illustrations are original as I recreated them via illustrator and also created graphic experiments and edits also to accompany, but you could classify my work as a parody or as a pastiche in a sense because though my imagery is original it is based on the same image created by motion image framing by Michael Gondry, using the art of film, so here is another secret for you, I can't lie but the art of tracing can be wonderful... as it can help you get a clean and crisp shape for your outline for imagery and works well  for defining details. Which some may associate as cheating, a scandal or copying, when really it isn't if you create originality and put your own twist on the imagery, besides it cane classified as parody and accuracy- perfectionism. 

Anyway, here is my illustrations and inspirations below:

7 Nations Army: White Stripes

Frame Illustration, Michael Gondry, frame from 7 Nations Army music video
(Baseline image and Inspiration For my own illustration work)

My Illustrations and interpretations of this image/frame 

From the Music video 7 Nations Army

Line drawing based on the image above.

This image I actually like as a sketch like representation of the image above, this because it actually looks like an illustration you'd get in the classic comic books, this illustration is very comic book style, almost having a Litenstein element to the illustration. I think this sketch adds an element of its own in a melodramatic sense. I really like the use of lumsnosic kind of imagery that I have created here. I like this image because although it looks basic and you may think there isn't much potential with this image but ultimately there is... I like how the detail has still been captivated in a very simplistic way. 

Sadly this was not the original drawing, it was in fact an edit, on a Mobile app which is basically a programme where you can edit your photos in a graphic way using filters that artists have used in their artwork but apply it to your own photographs and illustrations, which is named Prima. I absolutely love this app as much as I love any other digital photo editing programme, I love the idea of editing my work in various different methods and processes... Pic monkey is another good one for Photo editing for illustrations and photographs, which good news for you, is I won't burden you with right this second.

Prisma, mobile digital photo editing app, released and bought onto our mobiles on Saturday 11th June 2016

Here is a link if you wish to look into it, if you do, you'll see why I love using apps like these: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neuralprisma&hl=en_GB

Which I think creating imagery like I have there and is such a clever element to this piece that where it has such a comic like aesthetic  it almost has the retro 60's-80's kind of aesthetic almost like a pop art comic kind of look except for the fact its in grayscale/luminosity... like you see some manga comic books that may have a colourful front and back cover but you'll look at the pages and they're actually created like this illustration above, grayscale... and written backwards for some reason, meaning their beginning of a story is the back of the book not the front, which I have learnt the reason behind that is because the Japanese culture see books written from right to the left as apposed to left to right, which ultimately mreans it isn't actually the wrong way, just because its peculiar to us, here is the reason and statement I found this out on google, 

"For a Japanese person, manga books aren't written backwards. Japanese language is traditionally written from top to bottom and right to left because ancient Japanese written system was imported from the Chinese one and, well, that's basically how Chinese people used to write" which I think is quite an interesting fact.

Anyway, going back onto my imagery I can see that era kind of arising to this piece it would almost give off the illusion that I digitally drew this image because it also looks like the type of illustration you'd see on comic strips or in some digital storyboards. 

Like this example of a manga comic strip I found on google images:

Manga comic strip: found on google images

I stupidly didn't take a photo of the developing stages of actually drawing the illustration unfortunately... it didn't occur to me till now the fact I am writing about how I created and developed my imagery for possible animation footage. Oh well, I will take that as a learning curve also, this line drawn image above is the best I could offer unfortunately. 

History behind comic book generations found on this link: https://www.sparklecitycomics.com/the-golden-age-of-comic-books/

I find the idea of creating tonal comic books and imagery that there is more power in the imagery, not because it is anymore or less dramatic to the the image but because of the detail on the comic and the imagery itself... was I am angling at here is the fact that this imagery creates a sense of drama in the story because of the illustration and I think grayscale creates a very strong and powerful dynamic to the imagery and black and white works very well and compliment each other well, you may think it looks old fashioned which yes it does it has the 1960's Pop art retro appearance to the illustration and that my friends and fellow readers is what makes this kind of illustration so special and dynamic, like look at this comic below:

Marvel Comic book page/storyboard grayscale

Look at this!! the imagery is very iconic, you can tell who each character is. The detail in my personal opinion is sensational, its very strong and what makes it so strong is the consistency of the grayscale, the use different tones, blends and the different greyscale gradience from light to dark, with thick stroke lines for the edges the added cartoon effects like on Captain America's shield because of the darker and thinner line strokes you can see and tell its moving... the use of the thick stroke lines on the characters give a strong dynamic to the characters it enables them to stand out from the backdrops in a similar grayscale tone. 

I think because of that it gives drama and action pact motional joyride in its own way. I personally love this effect and may use this kind of element in my future animations I hope to create for my work. I love to experiment with Greyscale just to
see what I can create, and I think using greyscale has a very powerful effect that the Comic style Pop art cartoons create, its iconic in its own right, I would consider this design process a classic in the comic book making. The typography!! I think works well with the imagery also... the swoosh, I think it says on the centre row on the centre right next to the illustration of the hulk. I love that the text is personified in the sense that the text is swooning as well as the action or the character holding the sword. Which in honestness looks like Iron man, guess to assume. I am trying to say grayscale comics look  as amazing and work as well comic bookstand storyboards with colour and saturation.

Marvel Comic book storyboard with Colour: Thor

It's Thor... you cannot knock Thor... he'd use his hammer! Anyway, back to the point, this Comic strip I like, I like the simplicity of the characters in the images, I like the simplistic typography saying the superhero's name its legible, easy to understand and works well because its part of the superhero's colour scheme. Only issue with the typography I have is the small text in the yellow on the t. That I think says "the mighty" guess to assume... problem with that is yellow is not the best colour to use with typography under a colour like red unless its been used like how it has for the Thor bit as a shadow to create a 3D effect, I can understand why they did it to correspond with that shadow colouring round the strokes on the word Thor which I like- that's great!, but I am sorry,  where they wrote the mighty it isn't as easy to read... its not the most legible piece of writing in the text, considering I struggled to guess what it said, for me I feel legibility is key as well as making the colour scheme and the story to make sense, especially if you're making something you're supposed to read. Which leads me onto another advantage with using black and white text for whenever is necessary on the comic strip like they did on the part in the middle in the speech bubble or looking at the Grayscale comic strip it is all legible because its all different shades of tone the text is black and black on white is easier to read in text than yellow on red personally that's my opinion...  I like the use of colour captivating the actions of the story and the characters but I can't lie to you I like them both but I have a preference in this case to the comic strip with the Grayscale aesthetic to it for the reasons I have mentioned above. The detail and clarity is there, the consistency, the legibility and the characters are dynamic. 

Speaking of colour, here is a spot of colour on the imagery below:

Coloured in Illustration Gondry Illustration I recreated made a parody on

This image here was my original image I drew and put together using Adobe Illustrator though the reason of the slick and sophisticated quality, to added avoiding problems with image sizing and pixelation issues... I also wanted my illustrations to have a more sophisticated appearance, I wanted the imagery to be simple, striking and effective, I think that ticks those boxes, thanks to using Illustrator for actually drawing the image, after taking ages to learn the world illustration is in the title... I absolutely love the programme for that! I then coloured int he illustration using the line tool and the paint brush stroke tool to ensure I coloured in every detail requited to be coloured in. I wanted to recreate this image using the same colours as the original image where I recreated this frame because I wanted to create a parody interpretation of the image, not necessarily in a Micky taking way more for experimentation, knowing and understanding the artist I am researching by using the same colours as accurately as I can drawing each stroke from an accurate perspective point... so I would say it's more in the purpose of creating a pasteishe piece but of course intertwining the imagery with my twists, putting my own cartoon like Pop art stylistic aesthetic to the imagery as this is my art style I have learnt to create imagery with in my own creative and original way. Creating imagery in a sense of originality. 

You maybe confused as to why the next image looks exactly the same below, but you will see the difference when the penny drops... 

Gondry, 7 Nations Army illustration coloured in

As you can see with this illustration is almost identical to the original image, which in some cases it is, considering I tried t recreate a more modern and cartoon like parodic variation of the original illustration above, there is some differences, for one the stylistic choice for this image I have created looks very cartoon comic kind of interpretation and seeing as this image was a recreation you could even ay this piece was in face and actually original... although Gondry composed the music video in the first place, he created art in a different way to what I have demonstrated with this illustration. 

There is a slight difference to my image, as when I watched the video for my research I found there was the use of recursion in his work which from learning about this artist is in fact what he is known for, which in some cases you could argue is actually a similarity but I created a difference with that, because I decided upon myself to repeat the key element to the image, the man playing the guitar, so you could see an element of recursion in my work- but creating it in a way to giving my work an element of motion, having said that you can see this image is a still image but where this image has a pattern kind of recurring pattern it almost gives off an illusion that the guy on the guitar is going to jump out at you, similarly to his video. I decided with this piece to colour scheme for this imagery with similarity to the illustration as similarly and accurately as the original image so it shows I have created an interpretation on that specific element of the video in my own cartoon stylistic retrospective. Rather than on the original image you can see there is a set of drums with the person in the centre of the image... which if I wanted to go as far as to draw the man with the drum I would of done but, I wanted to pay more attention to the repetition taken from the video, and I noticed it was mostly the triangular patterns I recognised the repetitive pattern recursion so I decided to repeat that pattern but making it smaller as you got to the centre as I wanted to make whatever in the centre give the illusion that it is at the back and the biggest variation was closest and more striking as I felt this would be a good purpose to ravish my imagery as so Steven adds more originality to my work... so yes it is a parody or in other for posh wording is pastiche I like my representation of Michael Gondry's art because it is ambiguous in a different retrospective as it is very abstract, very bold and has unique qualities to it which I feel works well with this piece and for representing this artist by incorporating motion elements to my work and using elements of pattern and recursion. 

These next two images are more experimental edits of the illustration I created above, this was purely out of scientific artistic curiosity and I recently downloaded Prisma which I described earlier in the entry where I developed and edited imagery by using various different filters, looking at using different exposures, saturations photo temperatures, colour tones etc which you can go absolutely wild when doing so, using elements of will known artists style filters to apply to your own work to add some energy to your own illustrations and photographs, like I have done with these two following images.

A different colour scheme for the same image

This image with the purple, I was experimenting with the Prima App out of curiosity and out of interest ultimately but it has enabled me to experiment further with other colour schemes and associations of the image, but generally it has enabled me to take a leap of faith from staying wrapped under my comfort blanket to experiment with colour scheme and complimentary colours. Which in its own way creates complete originality because  I went as far as exploring another colour scheme in which is completely different to my original illustration in the sense that the colour scheme I have used here the character in the image kind of reminds me a little bit of a samurai in a computer game... Nerd alert... but also reminds me a little of a mannequin, but when I look at this design, call me crazy and another nerd alert... but id look at the character design on a programme called Kar2ouche to which I have safely learnt has updated into a much more modern programme to when I remember this programme being when I was using it when I was back in the breathing days of primary education. this programme basically taught youngsters how to create a storyboard, how to create a story, social situations etc, nine times out of ten the subject would be things like types of bullying, how to talk to a person... and I would guess to assumed after researching further into the history of the programme that came around in the year 1999, it was to teach the less academic children in a more active and kinaesthetic kind of way for them to learn. Which to be fair it did that for me, but enough about that, the true reason I referenced this computerised programme was because the Image I created above, the way I've edited it, the body structure on the human character from legs to torso reminds me of the stickmen below which we used to use when learning. which you'll understand what I mean when you look at these mannequins stick people on this image below... 

Kar2ouche, 1999/2001

Here is a google description and a brief history into to Kar2ouche below.

"Kar2ouche was an educational software product developed by Immersive Education, a joint project between Oxford University and Intel that started in 1999. In 2001, Kar2ouche won the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) Educational Resource Award for ICT."

"Developer(s): Immersive EducationAvailable in: English
Initial release: 2001"

So yes I can see the originality connection with these two piece and how they can be interpreted in more than one different perspective because of a simple edit, you can picture and capture different associations just by really scrutinising the image looking at every detail, to magic up an interpretation of some kind weather its as random as to mention samurais or cow patches which you'll see in the next paragraph. 

A very Abstract, Bold Photo edit of my imagery

This for image I again experimented with colour and contrast, seeing what colours compliment each other in this kind of illustration, seeing a variety of colour to an image bringing life and more abstract pattern involved, which you is captured in the triangular imagery and the backdrop...  you can see some originality in this piece thanks to the fact this image is by far the most abstract variation, with the use of bold and fluorescent saturations, a variety of patterns creating various textures into this illustration, creating the abstract element to my imagery, which looks like there are various textures on the triangles is very paint splattered kind of reminds me ever so slightly of cow patches or almost reminds me also of camouflage army kind of patterns with the backdrop the texture is extremely on the abstract side, looking at the texture it looks almost like rain drops on a window, but with an overly futuristic Si-Fi kind of look to it which I quite like because it helps bring focus on the visual elements on the foreground and compensate very well together, because of that backdrop being very futuristic and darker colours are being used will 9 times out of 10 bring out the life and fluorescence in the illustration in the foreground making the image stand out almost like its popping out at you.That was my intention for this experiment as well as exploring my resources around me. this imager I like because there is so much small detail you can pick out and make interpretation as you like, I know its a man on a guitar, you all know if you read this entry but, if you hadn't I would challenge someone and say here is a five min timer really study the image and tell me what you see, the patten, characters, concept a narration- there is so much you can pick out on one illustration and this abstract photo edit portals this well, weather or not I end up using Gondry for future animations for the Ident or not, I still hope to incorporate this association into my illustrations, the idea of mystery integrity and imagination.

As I feel with Gondry's music video was conveying a similar message in my opinion like I say about 3 mins 9 seconds I think it is... features an elephant in the video I paused that for about two minutes and studied it yes its an elephant, a red elephant, but also I could even say is a costume as behind the elephant is a young lady with the typical fashion physique that body models would have... the elephant almost works as a costume or a cosplay of an elephant of some kind, it kind of looks like a start of a dress, as the ears cover the lady's breasts as a crop-top kind of thing and the rest of the elephant is like the front of her dress... in this video he creates, each time there's a new verse or a different beat to the song, a new added detail is put into the video, I hope to create something like that one day, weather I do for this project or not, in regards I would still love to and this has only inspired me to attempt it. 

Kylie Minogue: Come into my World

Come into my world, Kylie Minogue original frame baseline inspiration for my work

Art Created by Gondry's Brother Oliver Gondry

Though this is a different piece and a different section taken from the video I can't help but find this piece likeable and inspiring, I love the cartoon comic element to it but I also like the fact that the characters on the image like the one at the very front has a caricature like representation which I like because its exaggerated imagery that works well because he has captured the mood of the video well, I find this an inspiration for my imagery for which you'll see I have created below, accept it does have a comic style representation but not as exaggerated as this interesting take on the music video.

My Line drawing of character Come into my world

This was my first step to create my Illustration for the come into my world segment of my Gondry  animation illustration. I have drawn this illustration using the stroke paint brush tool via Illustrator, to get the crisp quality for my character design like I have recently looked and mentioned about the comic book thing they used a thick line stoke to make the character stand out against a backdrop the thick black stroke brings out the image I found... anyway this was the very beginning to this character design. like I said I found inspiration from the image where there is the frame taken from the music video on the top of this part of this entry.

Coloured in Illustration without the strokes

For this image I decided to create a parody twist on the frame taken on the music video of come into my world, by doing so I have redrawn the image in my own interpretation of the original image again basically creating a parody on the original image created by Gondry, why... because when I did some research on this artist Michael Gondry, suggested in my feedback from Paul to look at this artist, particularly at the white stripes videos but... I got more cutthroat curious, seeing as he had other music videos that intrigued me... like this video, Come into my world, as previously mentioned as this is a pop song I think the target audience for this music video is typically aimed for teens, without sounding too narrow minded, I would say that as teenagers I find are more likely to enjoy this kind of music, but I would even implicate older men who had the iconic celebrity crush on Kylie... and grew up with her music because of up brining and because icon pop culture consumerism.  This image I created I wanted to try and keep this imagery subjectively suited to this audience but, I had the thought of mind of perhaps spreading the audience, as in it could allow people into fashion and modelling to enjoy this kind of music video and may find the imagery appealing, I also wanted to try and target a slightly younger audience, because of the idea of the future generations having a similar upbringing in the 70's consumerist kind of music back int he day, so they have background behind music history as well as seeing some visual imagery for older music videos seeing what techniques and processes are used, so it could be argumentatively educational... to some extent, as it opens the young mind and brings the art off discovery.
Anyway. moving onto my illustration... for my illustration I have used a process in digital art as to how I create my imagery using the long and what may seem to be long and tedious but works well, is using the stroke tools on Adobe Illustrator and colouring my illustration using various tints and looking strongly onto tone and shading- focusing on the small detail of the imagery, creating blends together to create depth and power to my illustration using a simplistic process which in all fairness I cant lie to you involved scribbling to some extent to add the darker and lighter tones to bring that extra detail making my imagery look more crisp as well as effective. with this image though, you can see my line drawing which I created to begin with, I decided to remove the dark brush boarder strokes to see what my image would look like without compelling black outlines which in its own way brings some attraction to the image as you can see the small details much clearer in a much simpler way. When I was creating this piece I wanted to add my own stylistic twist by creating imagery of real life people into cartoons similarly to Michael's brother has done but in my own way, less caricature way more in a 1960's retro pop art comic style. 

Come into my world, my illustration

The person in the image completed her first lap and out came a replacer- reference to the video. This illustration is basically the same thing as the previous two illustrations I have spoke about but the line drawing and the coloured in illustration is combined together... along with a replicas but from a distance, reason for that is to continue the concept of Michael Gondry's work with the recursion considering it is one of the motion component this artist is known for with his motion graphics work which because I learnt and discovered this technique this artist used, I wanted to apply it to my illustration. as I wanted the actions and the accuracy there but as a recreated pastiche version basically. I was inspired by the image created by Oliver Gondry, who  I thought his work was bold and effective and I like how he's bought the characters together creating recursion using the came character in the image in a clever symbolic way. 

 Here we go again another photo graphic edited illustration using Prisma.                  

                                          Come into my world Illustration editing

This image I like because it almost has an origami like look to this image the way this image has been edited using the filter it has really enhanced the use of the skin tones on the ladies which works particularly well on the arms, which I thought gave this illustration dynamic and edge to it that my original image above may not necessary show so much of as the filter I used on my illustration gave my work a scrunched up paper like texture and then messed around with the exposure, saturations, temperatures and other components with photo editing which I did purely as an art like science experiment trying to jump out of my comfort blanket and to try other softwares and other ways of editing photos and imagery in unique and various ways, I enjoyed doing that in fairness, but if I was to really scrutinise this piece I could see much more texture in my imagery giving my work more life and more power to it, like around the edge on the top left I like the effect with the black lines, you're confused I can imagine but I like it because to looks like it is raining... it kind of adds more strength and depth to the lady in centre attention, she's seen more as the line light, which is what I wanted to convey in my imagery as it is similar to how Michael Gondry has done this. 

Experimentation with colour and pattern

With this photo-editing, again using Prisma I decided to try experimenting further by experimenting with colour and pattern further by going even further from the faces of reality, I wanted to experiment with abstract imagery seeing as abstract art is one of my all time faculties, again using Prisma for the filters, to then enhance the imagery by experimenting with light and dark exposures, temperatures, tones and other components for photo editing. Anyway the thing I like with this one is the use of pattern incorporating in this piece creating an electronic like buzz to the imagery on the lady in the front her right hand looks like she's holding part of a face, almost like a nun's face, because of the black head cloak and then looks like threes an abstract face there... as there is a pointed like triangle looking like a nose. Anyway I think the way I have edited the imagery does work well in a sense because the use of the pattern particularly in the background as it looks like the people in the imagery is moving even though this is a still frame image. 

Abstract Comic Illustration 

Now this is my favourite photo edit of my imagery out of each piece from this illust. I love the use of colour I have incorporated in this image . It is very abstract and to my liking in my opinion.  this piece has surprisingly worked better than I expected it to. the pattern work is very abstract, it is also very retro comic book style. but there is a lot going on but it works well. I like the use of the white outline around the ladies because it gives a more 3D aesthetic to the image and is almost like a exposed light silhouette if that's the right terminology but I think it works well with the image as well because it adds dynamic to not only the ladies in the foreground of the image but it makes a play on negative space in some cases, works almost like a white shadow. but I love the patterns in the women, with he small cross hatch like dots of pattern almost like what we see in Roy Litenstein's work- giving my work the 1960-70's look to my work, which you could argue consider Kylie Minogue was such a consumerist character and very iconic back in those decades that this pop art aesthetic works well and makes more chronological sense as to why I have chose to create my artwork in this genre. This kind of illustration I feel would best appeal those who love comic books, possibly fashion designers and models as the imagery almost looks like you can get away with a catwalk like appearance to this imagery.

              

                                                      Popart Kylie

This variation is based on the illustration that I coloured in but left the strokes out and just out of my own curiosity I wondered, what would happen if I put a filter over it still using Prisma, but in a unique way I used the filter called "Roy" why's it called Roy, because of course... its only the Mr Roy Litenstein filter, which I think works really well with this image, it has the complimentary colours that I didn't expect to see Fromm this image to be fully honest with you but I am happy with the outcome, I did this by experimenting again with different exposures, different tones, colour tones and patterns and on the image itself. This piece has a 1960-70's Pop art kind of aesthetic to my imagery which works well with this piece because the older audience may like this piece because they would grow up liking Pop Art as a consumerism popular trend as well as growing up listening to Kylie Minogue and teens who like pop music may like this image as well as people who like the aesthetic of comic books. Which therefore each thing was popular in the notion on the same kind of decade therefore the use of Pop art element works well with this illustration. 

Here are the filters you can find on Prisma it is an app I recommend: Take a look, https://www.imore.com/prisma-filters

Around The World: Daft Punk

Daft Punk: Around the World Illustration

I feel this target audience for this illustration is aimed towards people who like a disco, those who like the life of the clubbing and raving for an age group I would say is about 18 to 30 year olds I feel would find this imagery can interest I feel.  so I wanted my illustration based on this peice here to appeal to that audience as much as I can.

Tonal and Grayscale perspectives

This image here I have created and edited using Prisma, I did recreate this image based on the frame above, but sadly I didn't save or remember to take a photo of this image before adding colour or edits in my work.  Personally I wish I had taken a photograph of the line drawing just so you can see how I formulate and constructed my imagery. but I will take that as a learning curve. that could perhaps be something I could improve on.  the image here again same as what I did for the work of Gondry's illustrations I decided as an alternative to start this off with a Greyscale retrospective of this image to experiment and see if its worked well, to be honest... it does the job but I don't think it works as well as say the 7 Nations Army image where I put greyscale components to the image as I think this one has less detail and the image has too much black and I could have experimented further looking at various tints and grayscale tones.

My illustration and recreation of Around the world by Daft Punk

This illustration above, I created again using illustrator but because the image has a lot of abstract shape components to this imagery therefore I will tell you a trick, I created this image mostly by using the the pen and anchor tool for creating the abstract humans in this image and the shape tool for the cuticles and the stairs with a black rectangle for the backdrop in which I sent to the back of the image. For this image I saw it was ver abstract so therefore I wanted this image I recreated too look abstract. With this illustration... I created it as a pastiche, parody kind of Illustration based on the a frame from the music video Around the world by Daft Punk that Michael Gondry created the motion graphics for the video. I found this to be an inspirational component and hope to include this illustration for my animation footage. the thing I would say to improve is to make sure I create the shapes of the people on the steps was bitterly created and had a much smoother aesthetic to the imagery basically for the idea of sophistication, so that every person in the image is cleaner. 

A Mondrian Variation on my illustration

Yes... this illustration is basically the same image as above but I used Prisma to edit my work in the style of Mondrian just for experimentation, to see what this piece would look like made from squares and pixels, the thing Mondrian was known for was his abstract and geometric art where he draws square in his imagery and didn't like using the colour green. I put this Mondrian filter on my imagery for a different retrospective on this illustration, to experiment with colour scheme, pattern and image perspective, this representation makes this parody of my imagery more of an abstract image, creating the same image but almost creative something completely different which I liked the idea of experimenting with different geometric shapes, because I wanted to add some originality to my imagery and create something new using the same conceptional image. 

 

A mix of both worlds

This image here is basically just a recreation and a parody twist on my imagery with the Mondrian filter and my original imagery I did this to show a compelling contrast in the concept of geometric shapes and formation. Which I think works to show the different contrast and shapes in one image I like this peice because it shows abstract ration two very different styles, one being very simplistic for the eye of the detail and the other being pixellated almost like the Mondrian imagery came from a 80's retro arcade game, particularly with the characters and the background. I like seeing the different composition there because you can see development and you can picture differences and similarities to this image an example for a similarity for this being that  both sides of the image is abstract, just in two different ways and use a lot of bold colours particularly addressing the colour red. I like the fact that the half on the right looks very retro arcade game aesthetic whilst the half on the left is very futuristic and like a disco tech. 

Red, Blue and Black, colour experimentation

For this illustration I used a filter again from Prisma, in this case I wanted to see what this illustration would look like with less colours but in different tints and shades. I like the paradox between red and blue, it is very compelling and brings magnetic attraction to the audience's eye I feel, plus because its simplistic and generic but it works well in that perspective, so this piece ultimately was experimenting with complimentary and contrasting colour schemes to make an image look powerful but effective, in which I hope to bring to the table for my animation footage, you'l see on the next entry.

Dia De Los Mentros Around the world Daft Punk illustration and edit

If you're wondering as to why I referred this image as Dia De Los Mentros, it is to do with the Mexican day of the dead, Dia De Las Mentros means day of the dead, which is a traditional carnival that happens in Mexico, celebrating the life on the other side basically referring to life after death kind of thing, they believed if you were remembered you had the second chance in life, but in the life of the dead and if you're forgotten then you're forever forgotten, they usually celebrate this festival in a very traditional way using red roses, symbolising the death flower and rose petals they use as they believed it worked to be a path for the dead kind of thing... with skulls which is the main tradition to Dia De Las Mentros... and wearing cosplays of the Day of the dead.

Anyway, this image I have created I have a liking for because like I said it reminds me of a day of the dead vibe as it is a colourful tradition with skulls, roses, cosplays etc, which I thought was interesting culturally and in general. my imagery I created gave me the Day of the dead mode because of the use of multi colour, patterns and there are skulls on the image with people surrounding them symbolising the living remembering the dead. I would like to possibly add some of this kind of vibe to my animation texts, experiments and the 10 second bumper. The two people in the front and centre is a skull, which makes me associate the day of the dead and the people on top on the stairs as the living, living life celebrating and remembering the lives and the dead on the other side. Which I found an interest in. I like the day of the dead as a subject matter and an art form, I can see the meaning to it as it is a way to celebrate the dead's lives. by remembering them and sharing it with their fellow community. 

For those who don't know,  Day of the dead, this festival would be a yearly celebration on November 1st-2nd, which was to remember the children and ancestors from the dead to welcome the diseased (welcoming the dead)  this all started as a tradition in the 16th century, but became a bigger recognition on the 19th century. 

"Spanish explorer or conqueror of Latin America in the 16th century. (Day of the Dead) holiday honouring deceased family and friends, celebrated on November 1 and November 2 in Mexico and throughout Latin America." found this out on google...  here is some more information on the day of the dead if you want to look into it further, it is an interesting subject. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/north-america/mexico/top-ten-day-of-dead-mexico/

Here is a some more history on the matter, they say this tradition started from the Aztecs 3000 years ago "The Spaniards learned that when they arrived in central Mexico in the 16th century. They viewed the ritual, which was started by the Aztecs 3,000 years ago, as sacrilegious" https://eu.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/holidays/day-of-the-dead/2014/09/24/day-of-the-dead-history/16174911/ (Where I found this subject out)

Here are some illustrations of the day of the dead on Google images: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=day+of+the+dead&client=safari&channel=mac_bm&sxsrf=ALeKk01N9xUF02aTPmxklszy779ylkRzMA:1588132821939&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKsdTl34zpAhW6RhUIHba6DKAQ_AUoAXoECBoQAw&biw=1716&bih=857

Anyway, the reason as to why I am rambling on about this festival is because my illustration above is exactly what this festival reminded me of and made me think to associate and reference the Disney Pixar film released in 2017, COCO... which is a film based on the Day of the dead, where a boy called Miguel wanted to play music, like his hero but we find out his hero isn't who he says he is and the plates soon spin, but it is all about the dead and the living coming together to celebrate the living and the deceased and this image reminded me of that.

Here is a trailer of the movie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga6RYejo6Hk

I highly recommend it, it is very meaningful, gives you goosebumps and you move with the film, it is one of my favourite Disney Pixar films because I like the subject day of the dead and some of that has some meaning and relation to the Mexican's beliefs. Some that I could get for a positive spin on bereavement which makes me relate to that to some degree, as it puts a positive on a bad situation, but I can consider the fact it is a cultural tradition and belief. 

Coco, Disney Pixar  2017