AD34 - Taking my timeline further

The original idea for my timeline was for me to illustrate some of the classics and they would then inform some monsters of my own that would make it onto the end of the timeline. The end result did not exactly end up going that way but after a final talk with my lecturer I came to the conclusion that I have been creating monsters the whole time. Earlier I posted this image along with some other images that came from my first module from the third year, the image above was the one that would inspire three more images for the second module.

I created the three images above for a Syfy channel brief and that got me thinking, what is to stop me expanding on this idea of zoomed in creatures?
I had talked about monstrous scale and letting the imagination do the talking during my essay and I think the above images deal with similar concepts. Maybe a whole children's book could be these zoomed in faces that only show a small part of the monster.

From that I went on to create three more monster in a similar style to the ones above, I wanted to remove the branding of the above poster designs and submit all 6 as a set, this way I would have 6 classic monster illustrations and 6 of my own design.

These three further explore the idea of texture being introduced to the images so that the audience guess what kind of matter they are made from. I went online to see if I could find a list of different textures and I came across some fairly odd ones. The first one is made of some kind of electric matter, the middle one is covered in a lot of gross lumps and the last is mostly wood and moss. They tie in nicely with the three above and work well as a set.

Over all I am really happy with the amount of work I had produced for this module, all of my questions seemed to answer themselves and unfold through me drawing an experimenting. I earlier worried about style and application when thinking about my timeline but through doodles and studying of the subject matter I found my way. It was also great to have such a patient tutor who I am surprised did not loose her mind with the amount of questions and concerns I had fired her way.

The previous modules had helped me build up a style that helped inform my final monster designs and I ended up making double what I originally wanted to do (6).

It was something very different, the dissertation itself was very intimidating at first but I have learnt so much from it and making my own representations of classic picture book monsters has really helped me understand how they work visually and contextually.

As for the six monsters of my own I believe they reflect the techniques and methods I had explored throughout making the artefact and my essay. They have a unique concept as they lead a lot to the imagination which allows the audience to make monsters of their own and engage their imaginations which is what I'd want from a picture book.

It would be nice in the future to push these faces to the limit and see how many different creatures I could come up with, maybe enough to make a 30 page picture book!

AD34 - The Timeline - The making of

Before I started my initial sketches I tried to draw up a mood board for characters faces and poses. Unfortunately I do not have an A3 scanner and had to result in taking a picture of it but you can make out most of the important information which is always good.
But either way I had started drawing facial expressions for the Grinch, Milo and his Monsters and the Jabberwock. I later decided that working on loose bits of paper and then digitally sketching final line work would present better on the screen so below I have made boards to show each image and it's sketches off.

I had already drawn Milo's face quite a lot from the first image and I had been a big fan of this film for a long time so when I came to making the small thumbnail sketch it just seemed to flow. Initially I wanted to add a few more of his monsters but I wanted to keep it all fairly uniform and did not want an anomaly. I ended up keeping him pretty much the same throughout the process although the creature on the bottom right hand side of the image eventually got moved further right as he was too close to the other monsters hand. Small changes for this one but it turned out really neat and polished.

Harry and the Terrible Whatzit was another that did not need much change. The original image was fairly simple in terms of colour palette and I wanted to emulate that with my own interpretation. The meaning behind this story was also straight forward and strong so the pose just came to me instantly, some digital tweaks here and there but that's all. In the book Harry has the mop and bucket helmet but I also decided to add a little wooden sword to complete the look.

Max and the Wild Things was maybe one of my favorites to do, not a lot of preliminary sketches, I just wanted to jump straight into a digital sketch after reading through the book and getting excited. He was one of the last ones that I had to illustrate so the ink was just flowing and I worked on a digital sketch until I eventually came up with the pose shown above. I wanted something playful on Max's behalf but something slightly intimidating for the Wild Thing. The Terrible yellow eyes blog really inspired me for this one, you can see some examples of the work below.

To see all of the Where the Wild Things Are posts click HERE!

Moving on

The Grinch was slightly harder because his relationship with Cindy-Lou is unique, he does not adore her yet he would not see any harm come to her, grumpy yet kind. There were a few more doodles for this one as I wanted to get the pose just right. I had him holding her in his arms like a present in one image but that felt too obsessive. I eventually went for a simple holding hands pose but Grinch is angled away slightly as to show that he isn't too interested on the matter whilst Cindy-Lou is gazing up at the Grinch, the bauble was just a little touch to add some context.

Boo and Sully were another awkward pair as I did not have an initial idea for how I would convey these two. I had Sully gently hugging her, I tried Boo climbing on his head and all kinds of father daughter interactions as that was the vibe I was getting from this pair. I also didn't know whether I wanted to draw Boo in her monster suit, I decided against it as I thought it should be really clear that she isn't a monster and is in fact a cute little girl.
Eventually I went for Boo on Sully's shoulders striking a 'scary' pose, Sully would humor Boo's attempt to be scary and look at her with a happy and content resting face.  Enjoyed this one quite a lot also, sometimes it is the simple poses that make the image really pop.

I have perhaps saved the best for last as the Jabberwock took the longest for me to get to grips with. I had watched the new Alice in Wonderland (2010) for my initial Jabberwock reference but I knew from the beginning that I would go down the traditional pathway where I would use Tenniel's original (1871) version. The two Jabberwock designs did change quite significantly, the new one looks more like a dragon where as the older one was more of a chimera, it had lots of different animals merged into one which was what  preferred.
In a way the older Jabberwock looked slightly more comical whilst still maintaining that intimidating feel which is what I wanted to capture for my illustration. The initial problem here was the beasts size, he is the biggest out of all the monsters I have drawn and I needed a way to illustrate him so that he would fit into the A3 scale I had given myself. I tried many different poses all of which had him lurking behind her with his long neck curling around so he could see her. I eventually went for the mid hover pose where her curls up and around to fill the space, he is then met by Alice pulling at his whiskers with one hand and her vorpal sword held in the other, she is confident and ready to fight.
The purple swirls and red glowing eyes were a little personal touch which made him look slightly more dangerous.


And below is the final timeline, complete with dates and authors. Apologies for the size it doesn't seem to want to go any bigger.

AD34 - Post presentation things

An illustration that I did for my dissertation presentation, it represents my emotions towards the essay at the time which id say was confused yet confident.

This was another image that I had illustrated for my presentation, it was supposed to give a simple visual to my timeline concept. I had chosen at this point to illustrate a timeline that shows how monsters have changed throughout children's literature over the past 100 years or so. Each child would interact with their monster in a different way depending on the story.

Below is a list of famous monsters that have appeared throughout literature, film and television.
I wanted to have a good range of characters and at this point I did not know how many I would include so it was okay to have a large list.

Potential character monster relationships for evolution chart.

Alice and the Jabberwock – 1871

Cyndy lu and the Grinch – 1957 pencils

Milo and the monsters – 1961 pencils

Max and the wild things – 1963  

NEVER ENDING STORY – 1979

The BFG and Sophie – 1982

Harry and the terrible whatzit – 1984

The powerpuff girls, Mojo jojo, the gangrene gang, HIM etc – 1998

Boo and sully * - 2001

Ted and the monster – 2004  

Harry potter and dementors, dobby, buckbeak, aragog, basilisk etc – 2001 – 2011

Billy and mandy – grimm * 2001

Monster by mistake  *

Dirty beasts – more specifically the tummy beast – 1983

The witches - 1983

Ones with asterisks were ones that I was not too sure on as I felt like they were a little niche for what I wanted to do. 

AD34 - Annotated Bibliography

WARNER, M. (1994) Six myths of our time – managing monsters- The Reith Lectures 1994. London: Vintage.

This book contains information about metaphorical and literal monsters and how we as humans accommodate them and adapt to fight against them.  One of the earlier chapters named “Boys Will Be Boys: The Making of the Male” writes about the implication of monsters within video games along with a general concept and origin of the word and how it was derived from the Latin word Monestrum. Later chapters talk about children’s ignorance protecting their innocence and how they are the embodiment of humanity, they are alien and not yet a part of our society. There is also something about the child needing to empower himself and essentially become the monster in order to defeat his demons.  Finally it touches on famous stories that involve man becoming a beast and how that is then used as a metaphor for innocence.

Melrose, A., (2012) Monsters Under the Bed. Abingdon: Routledge 

A pychological study of monsters and children's picture books. One chapter was about the cult classic Where the Wild Things Are and it talked about the text supporting the 'known' but the beastly images however support the 'unknown'. A very useful study. 

ASMA, S.T. (2009) On Monsters – An unnatural history of our worst fears. Madison Avenue, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Marvellous compendium of the many different forms that monsters take and how we go about dealing with them. The book talks about monstrous desire, monstrous forms as well as the many methods of explaining monsters such as biblical and mythical. “Responding to the Marvellous” was a very interesting section that went through the three different stages of accepting monsters, this was first acknowledged as evidence from people who have been told stories or had paid to see a play. This information was first founded by historian Madeleine Doran around Shakespearean times.  The first was to innocently believe in what was being seen, the concept of witches and demons was not uncommon back in these times and therefore providing a fair agreement for people to believe in such. The second method demonstrated a sceptical approach where the viewer is willing to entertain the idea without actually believing in said story, but said person is still afraid of the concept and may be found praying for his life or touching wood for good luck. Finally the third approach was to not believe in the concept at all but instead choose to entertain the idea to gain some ‘symbolic or imaginative satisfaction’.    

DENICKE, l & THALER, P. (2013) Picto-Prophets. VAROOM. P.11b, P.12a, p.17a.

(May have to check how I’ve referenced that)

This article is about the digital shift in art and how we have grown to accept the future. There are parts in the article which talk about artists using a mixture of different media both traditional and digital and how the difference in media can change the characters outcome. There was a lot of talk about the white space used by some artists and how it is the ‘white noise’ in which characters exist. The article’s main theme was character design and digital arts but the talk of characterization and applying context to said character seemed interesting to my study.  There was also brief talk about web icons being created to welcome users to the digital world and help rid them of their digital angst. It spoke of smiling web icons being the metaphorical gatekeepers and I found that to be very interesting, it seems that characters, even in the digital world have a purpose.  

 COHEN, J,J. (1996) Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Collection of essays compiled together in an attempt to explain monsters within our culture and why they exist.  Some interesting sections included ‘The monster dwells at the gates of difference’ and it writes about how we push monsters away into a rhetorical world but they truly reside within.  Another section was about fear of a monster actually being a desire for the unknown, it also talks about how we consciously make monsters forbidden which in turn makes them more appealing. Amongst other theories and explanations I can see that monster are far greater that little effigies that live under the bed.

BUCHER, G, S. (2008) 100 Days of Monsters. Cincinnati, Ohio: How books.

Fun little book that documents 100 days of Bucher’s life, more specifically the images he created. Each day he would video himself splashing ink onto a page and he would then turn the image into a little creature. He then posted them online and collected stories that random people had submitted about each monster.  The DVD that originally came with the book was not there when I took it out of the library but it essentially brought the process to life, his work supports that monsters are a strong figment of our imagination and they spawn from literally anything. Some of the stories that people had submitted were absolutely ridiculous but that interested me because as far as monsters go I love their impossibility, their absurdity and their general effect they have on our lives.   

SHARPE, A,N. (2010) Foucault’s Monsters and the Challenge of Law. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

Bit of a long shot but the book has some useful points about monstrous figures and habits. The book writes about some of Foucault’s theories on monsters and challenges them with current theories; there was a lot about monsters committing a ‘double breach’ over law and nature. The final chapter writes about humans ultimately fearing the loss of their own identity to animals and it writes about the link between man and primate and that we do not biologically have any particular feature that differentiates us as a race. This was just interesting to support my idea that monsters are a lot closer to us than we think. Of course the word monster has warped over time and can mean a variety of things and yes of course humans can be depicted as monsters, though fictional monsters are created by humans and therefore are often given human qualities and emotions.  You could even go as far as suggest that the monsters we make are the warped versions of ourselves, hell bent on stealing our personality, our individuality and ultimately wish to become the new us.

Poblocki, D. (2010), The Stone Child, Kindle version, Accessed January 2010 from Amazon.co.uk

A book I came across whilst I was online and it has some interesting things about monsters so I bought it seeing as it was fairly cheap for the Kindle. My opening essay quote “… we have bad dreams because our brain is trying to protect us… If we can figure out a way to beat the imaginary monsters … Then the real monsters don’t sound so scary… That’s why we like reading scary stories.” Was found in the early chapters of this book, I thought it was a good quote as it related to my findings near the end of the essay. 

McCoy, D. (2012) Fenrir. [online]. Nashville: Dan McCoy. Available from: http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/fenrir/  [Accessed on 16^th August 2014, at 9.32].

A useful website based around Norse Mythology and it provided me with a lot of good definitions and examples that I could use in my essay. Fenrir – the giant black wolf was one of the more useful categories as it considered real animal characteristics and mentions monstrous scale, both topics of interest. 

Cherry, K. (2014) The Conscious and unconscious mind. [online]. Unknown. Available from: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm [Accessed on 12th September 2014, at 10.15].

Thinking slightly more psychologically with this website, Kendra refers back to Sigmund Freud as his theory of the mind where he exclaims that there are three stage, the conscious, pre conscious and  unconscious. I wanted to understand how the mind works in order to understand where the monster concept may reside.  An understanding of the brain would help understand how we as humans make our own monsters.

Nastasi, A.(2013) The Greatest Monsters in Children’s Literature. [online]. Unknown: Flavorwire. Available from: http://flavorwire.com/426522/the-greatest-monsters-in-childrens-literature/1 [Accessed on 22nd August 2014, at 9.45]

Perhaps one of the more useful websites I came across. I has a list of the top 10 greatest monsters in children’s literature, featuring monsters like the Jabberwock and the Grinch. Without this site I would not have known about Harry and the Terrible Whatzit which is a great story that ended up making the cut in my final timeline.

Jones, G. (2002) Killing Monsters – Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make –Believe Violence New York: Basic Books.

Another valuable source, I found this book online and it just had a lot of great information concerning a child and their own monsters. It talked about children relating themselves to famous heroes from books and the idea that they aspire to become them. It also talked about violence and how that distorts a child’s reality.

Pullman,G,L. (2007) Chillers and Thrillers. [online]. 13^th January 2012. Available from: http://writinghorrorfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2007/12/metaphorical-monsters.html  [ Accessed on August 2014, at 3.00]

This was a blog post about accepting the concept of monsters and the meaning behind common metaphorical ones. It provided a graph that would show the different meanings a literal word can take on.
For example the word fog, symbolically it could represent blindness, existentially it could represent the fear of the unknown and spiritually it could represent death and or annihilation.  

Gray, P. [2011] Why Young Children Protest Bedtime: Evolutionary Mismatch .[online]. 11^th October 2011. Available from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201110/why-young-children-protest-bedtime-evolutionary-mismatch [Accessed on January 2015, at 12.45]

A blog post about children refusing to go to sleep because of their fear of being left alone with the monsters they create. It talks about human evolution and why children in in certain parts of the world protest bedtime because they are nurtured too much and that leads them to take advantage of their ‘soft’ parents. It is quite the analysis but maybe it will be useful.

Conley, M. [2012] Where the Wild Things Are: The Psychology Behind Maurice Sendak’s Classic .[online]. 8^th May 2012. Available from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/05/08/maurice-sendak-the-pointed-psychology-behind-wild-things/  [ Accessed on January 2015, at 3.00]

An in depth research blog about the famous children’s book Where the Wild Things Are and the psychology behind it. The blog talks about protagonist Max’s need for attention and how the Wild Things are a metaphor for his need to act out.

Godbey, C. [2009] Terrible Yellow Eyes. [online]. 1^st January 2010. Available from: http://www.terribleyelloweyes.com/ [ Accessed on September 2014, at 5.10]

My lecturer had showed me this blog after I had decided that I wanted to look at children’s picture books. This is a blog that collects artist’s interpretations of Where the Wild Things Are and it was amazing to see how many people had contributed to this site. This was also what fuelled me to make representations of my own.

Fritscher, L., [2013]. What Is the Fear of Monsters?. [Online]. 3^rd September 2013. Available from: http://phobias.about.com/od/phobiaslist/f/What-Is-The-Fear-Of-Monsters.htm [Accessed January 15th 2015 at 10.25] 

Blog post about the general fear of monsters (Tetraphobia). It talks about monsters being common in younger children and it is often something that they outgrow but in rare cases it can effect older teens too. It also talks about the subject matter of a monster being under the bed, it goes on to say that generally it isn’t a specific monster that they are afraid of like Dracula or Frankenstein, but instead something that has maybe been triggered by something that they have seen or heard.  

Tarantola, A., [ 2013]. Why we’re afraid of the dark (and why it’s good that we are). [Online]. 31st October 2013. Available from: http://gizmodo.com/why-were-afraid-of-the-dark-and-why-its-good-that-we-a-1448915260

Really interesting blog post from Gizmodo where Andrew Tarantola talks about the idea that being afraid is a good thing as it keep us aware and away from potential threats. Again it talks about human evolution and how we used to live outside in complete darkness and it was out instinct that kept us alive. I used this to help structure my theory that we enjoy being afraid as this post suggested that being afraid is an emotion our body instinctively puts into action. 

Edwards, P, A,. (2008) The Amygdala: The Bodies Alarm Circuit. [Online] New York: The Dana Foundation. Available from: http://www.dana.org/Publications/Brainwork/Details.aspx?id=43615 [Accessed on 15^th January 2015, at 10.35] 

AND 

Bailey, R,. (2014) Hippocampus. [Online] Available from: http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/hippocampus.htm [Accessed on 15th January, at 10.45] 

Rachman, S,. (1998) A Cognitive Theory of Obsessions: Elaborations. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd.

Book about human desire, the book traces the emotion back to its roots in an attempt to understand where it originates in the mind and how desire becomes a form of obsession. 

These pages were used to gain an understanding of the parts of the brain that are associated with fear and memories, two important factors that cause a monster to inhabit the imagination. 

Seuss,. (1957) How The Grinch Stole Christmas!. London: HarperCollinsPublishers   

Sendak, M,. (1963)  Where the Wild Things Are. London: Red Fox.

Monsters, Inc..2001. Directed by David Silverman, Lee Unkrich and Pete Doctor. USA: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios. [Film] 

Alice in Wonderland. 1951. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske and Wilfred Jackson. USA: Walt Disney Productions. [Film]

The Phantom Tollbooth. 1970. Directed by Abe Levitow, Chuck Jones and Dave Monahan. USA: MGM. [Film]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 2000. Directed by Ron Howard. USA: Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, LUNI Productions GmbH and Company KG. [Film] 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! .1966. Directed by Ben Washam, Chuck Jones. USA: The Cat in the Hat Productions, MGM Television. [Film].

Carroll, L,. (1871) Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. London: Macmillan

Gackenbach, D,. (1984) Harry and the Terrible Whatzit. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Norton, J,. (1961) The Phantom Tollbooth. London: Random House. 

All of the highlighted were the books and films that I used to support my study of monsters and the construction of my timeline. The films were used to colour reference some of the characters as a few of the book's illustrations were in black and white. Some of the films such as the Phantom Tollbooth were also used to guide my choices on certain characteristics that the chosen monsters had. 

Above are all of the sources that I ended up using to either structure or be a part of my essay. The amount of websites that I actually went on was ridiculous and felt that they weren't really that useful towards the final outcome so a lot of them are not included. 

AD34 - Original writing concerning Halloween themed monsters

The evolution of classic Halloween monsters

Frankenstein was an amalgamation of many men and was born into the world a monstrous figure, misunderstood and tortured, ultimately it was humanity that turned him into such a monstrous character. Zombie like figure made of of many different body parts, appears brain dead and or clueless but could kill anyone in an instant with a simple command. Now in current culture he has twisted and changed so much. Generally green now and has very little scars. Bolts in his neck and walks like a zombie, also has a square head. Made appearances in many kids’ shows such as Sabrina the teenage witch and the big bad beetle borgs.
Now within cartoons and illustration he is perceived to be completely stupid and is often seen making juvenile mistakes such as drinking out of the toilet and walking head first into walls. Further supporting his original purpose.

Mummies were raised from the dead to wreak havoc on the world and bring with them a plague which would torture humanity. Now within children’s illustration and cartoons they are seen as clumsy and old, they often trip over their loose bandages and a lot of jokes are made about them running out of toilet paper ~( because they are essentially a giant bog roll)

Vampires, more specifically Dracula and or nosferatu were the supposed kings of the monster world. Children of the devil himself they were one of the closest human monster analogues. Taking the at the time fairly rational fears of the devil and personifying it they brought about an era of terror. They drank blood and tore there enemies apart should they see it fit, possessing the power of immortal life, shapes shifting and even flight they were originally a fore to be reckoned with. Now within illustration and popular cartoon culture they are again twisted and changed to fit into our current culture. One of the most common cosplays for Halloween children and adults alike will sport a pair of fake fangs, a red cloak and a black suit which further helps to humanize the character. Many famous cartoons parody this character around Halloween time during their themed episodes. Mona the vampire was one of the best animated vampires throughout children’s cartoons. The drinking blood issue is often dealt with by the vampire having an unbelievable amount of blood in his/her fridge which conveniently comes in canes or bottles.

Popular culture has warped stories and myths to fit into our current way of analysing and thinking, the incredible scary stories written by skelly, stoker and Poe alike have managed to stay with us for decades and will continue to push forward. They stay with us because we are curious of the unknown and we as humans need to make areas that we must not go and then tempt our own fate by breaking our own rules.  Over the years we have seen hundreds of re writes and parodies and adaptations of the famous horror monsters. Maybe they have changed so much within children’s illustration because they needed to. Maybe children need to see these characters as weak and vulnerable so that they are easier to battle and overcome. Maybe accepting and depicting these monsters as a part of our lives will help overcome our irrational fears. Illustrating them with human like qualities shows us that we do not have to banish creatures because they are simply different. On another note the closer something is to humankind the more potential scare factor it has as it can emulate events and feelings that we as humans can feel and perceive. Illustrating monsters with human qualities can make them more relatable, maybe the newly illustrated Dracula looks like your uncle john? Thus bringing the story close to home. When shelly created the monster she could visualize it, she was the metaphorical Frankenstein as she created it. She can paint a picture for us but all of our renditions will not be the same. Brining the story back to home brings the story back alive and fills an old tale with new hope and fear.  

How are monster going to continue to develop, new ones appear everywhere because the mind is an ever expanding universe of creation and inspiration and there is always something new to be afraid of.

This was one of the first bits of writing that I did for my dissertation, it was during the summer when I started drawing characters like the mummy and Dracula. I was initially interested in the Halloween monster paradigm and how we ultimately become monsters ourselves as we dress up on this holiday occasion. 

The idea soon got scrapped because it was not enough to base an essay around although the concept of human monsters was an interesting one, I would later explore this and implement it as a small section in the final essay. 

I also briefly talked about how monsters develop and continue to do so because of our ever expanding imagination. another point which was worth bringing up later in my essay.  

AD34 - word document early extracts

Things written in Italics are my original notes and regular type shows my reflective notes in post. Highlighted things represent crucial moments in my study process that helped to fuel the next sections in the post. 

Monster ideas of presentation

Long scroll containing timeline

Tiny wardrobe or cupboard that has a load of monsters inside with discriptions

Make a miniature bed with monsters in

Huge poster

Illustrated characters

Dracula

Mummy

Zombie

Monsters children are afraid of

Interest in monsters

Wide range

Such a massive variety

Origin stories

Creatures, aliens …… all sorts

The effect they have on children. Kids are terrified of monsters and yet they are the most popular protagonists within children’ s illustration

The evolution of a monster and how they have changed over time, how they are then depicted through illustration  - comparison imagery, classic monsters verses monsters in the now? 

The psychology of monsters within children’s illustration and how they have adapted from a phobia to a metaphore to help a child get over their fears

Illustrate monsters to represent common child hood fears and reflect on the fact that i have generated my own idea of how I perceive monsters and how that deals with fear.

Introduction to monsters… why they exist and how they metaphorically exist?

How long have they been around for?

Monsters come in many different shapes and sizes – examples of biggest and smallest?

Fear of monsters at a young age

Inaminimate obkects becoming a monster, monsters under the bed blab la bla

Childrens books about monsters

Conclusion

One of the first pages I had written during last summer, I believe I was trying to figure out what my artefact would consist of. I also seem to have started planning the content of my essay where I talked about metaphorical and psychical monsters. I also mentioned my interests in monsters in the bottom section where I talked about variation and the effect monsters have on children.

You can see that these notes were hastily made as there are a lot of spelling mistakes but I just wanted to get it all on paper before I had forgotten it. The timeline idea seemed like a good place to start as that would allow me to order my illustrations chronologically. 

Below are some more notes. 

Monsters

Egyptian – mummies – sphinx

English – dragons – trolls -

Folk lore – gog and mahog – loch ness – sprites and imps etc

Computer games – dark souls – sky rim -

Childrens books – edge chronicles -

Comics – swamp thing – hulk – mutants – beast

Films – monsters inc – meet the Robinsons – five children and it – spiderwick chronicles. Hotel translevania, the labyrinth. Dark crystal. Futurama – fosters home for imaginery kids

Toys – monsters in your pocket, trash pack,

What is a monster?

Literal or non –literal

Human monsters – Sweeney todd, Jack the ripper,

Metaphorical

Classics (jeckel and hyde, frankenstien, Dracula )

Non human classics. Godzilla, king kong, mothra, big foot

Halloween – Headless horsemen, mummy, witch, ghost. Zombie

Monsters purpose?  Existence?

Because the movie demands it?
to convey a point
to scare someone
to convince someone
to consult
to believe
to become a metaphor 

I guess here I was still thinking large scale and I was trying to address the topic of monsters as one singular genre. This was far too vast as the list went on and these were only a small number of examples, again here I am talking about the metaphorical and the literal so that concept seemed to have had an impression on me. 

Finally here is my first essay plan which came together just in time for my first tutorial with Mel in September. I had a brief idea of what I wanted to do but it was still early days and I just needed to get some feedback to direct me. 

Rough essay plan

The evolution of monsters and how they are depicted through illustration

General introduction to the topic, what I intend to find out and why am I interested in such. What is it about monsters that enticed me, talk briefly about the ever growing categorization of monsters and how they have expanded into their own little culture.

1^st case study – the evolution of the stereotypical move monster (Frankenstein, Dracula, mummies, werewolves and so on)

 Talk about how these monsters made a huge impact on our culture and are often parodied within illustrations and cartoons, explain why they have changed and why they have stayed with us for so long. Was it necessary for them to change so much, do they still stand for terror and anarchy, do their morals still remain the same even though their shape and design has changed to fit into our culture.  All the while compare using children’s media – cartoons – books films etc

talk about colours used – Frankenstein is originally greyish in colour and now is commonly green and doesn’t have many visible scars… stuff like that. Look more at the future and the now, touch on the past

Monsters are always important, they help us overcome things, they are really popular at the moment and they had a huge spike in popularity a while back, history will repeat itself again and again with this ever expanding culture.

They have always existed and have always had purpose.

Dinosaurs were the world first beast – original man would have been terrified – when they went we lost sight of what beasts were. Big huge imposing monsters that could eat us whole, so we told stories, we had nightmares and we saw things that weren’t real, we passed things on and monsters have survived.

2^nd case study – The connection between children and monsters.

During this part I wanted to conduct some research based on the way a child’s mind works and how they create monsters as a visual aid which is then used to map out fears and emotions. I also want to look at the empowerment that a monster gives a child, how they make children want to become bigger and stronger so that they can overcome fear. This metaphorical transformation is interesting as the child essentially becomes the monster and it would be good to write about the connection between the two.

Talk about popular children’s books and how monsters are conveyed; maybe talk about how the younger audience designs a monster which isn’t that scary, one that is friendly. In comparison talk about a slightly older audience that create monsters with human characteristics in a way to connect with this seemingly terrible creature, talk about the monsters motifs and their general purpose.

Artefact keeping with the theme of evolution and moving forwards, may it be a timeline depicting how characterization of monsters has changed over time, or illustrating children transforming into their metaphorical monster superform which they use to fight their fears. Either way it will depict the change a monster takes and will link their characteristics to humans.  

That entire last section was really important for me as it made me think more contextually about the monster concept. Focusing on how a monster interacts with a child and the different kind of relationships that are present throughout picture books allowed me to condense my research topic down into something more manageable. Focusing on illustrated picture books also linked in better to my practice so it made a lot of sense to pursue this topic. 

Previous monsters lead to new inspirations

Before I really started drawing any new monsters I thought it best to first look back at what I had already done. Above are some of the monsters that came out of second year projects, a variety of styles, colours and shapes. A lot were quite bright in colour and most of them had a large gaping mouth bearing some rather unruly teeth. If anything I saw my dissertation as a chance to enhance my character design skills and push myself further.

Above is a mood board showing my sketchbook from summer last year. the character on the bottom left hand corner made it into a coloured version which can be seen in the first image top left.
A few of these monster sketches were made whilst I was on my internship at Hallmark, surprisingly they had briefed me to design monster cards for children so it made sense to keep a monster sketch journal.

These sketches again are from the same book but at this point I was deep into the summer break and was starting to experiment with new monsters and forms. After doing a lot of monster research I concluded that I wanted to design something that would show how monsters have evolved through time so at this point I was trying to decide how I was going to do that.

I remembered that I wanted to cover some of the monster cult classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein so I had started to draw my interpretations of these classics.

And here are some mummy drawings that I worked on, I even managed to get a digital render of the mummy (center image) finished before my first proper tutorial with Mel which was in September.

I had a busy summer of researching and drawing, I was trying to find myself as an Illustrator and felt like the dissertation was pushing me to explore new ideas. I still had two months or so before I was even due back so I returned back to the drawing board and came out with some more stylized monster designs as I wasn't sure on the cult classics idea any more.

And here are of the images that made the cut, I took some designs and rendered them digitally and there are also some new additions that were the result of digital drawing and experimentation. I had already seen a change in my style over the summer and these guys really helped me find my way. Things were starting to look polished and more professional.

Finally I just wanted to post some outcomes that came from the first module of my third year as they were probably some of the best monster designs I had ever done. It was really nice to see the evolution of my characters from second year leading into the third, I knew my artefact would have to be even better and it would have to push me further than before.

AD34 - Finding my way - monster inspiration

Way back when I first decided that I wanted to study the topic of monsters for my dissertation I did not really know where exactly to start as monsters have many sub genres and there are many debates over what is and what isn't a monster. I guessed that a mood board or two would be a good place to start my research as it might help me narrow the topic down to something that could fit into around 4000 words.

The topic of monsters has always been a favorite of mine because of it vast applications. Throughout my research boards I came across many a different monster, some were cute, some were nightmare inducing and a lot were based on cult classics like Frankenstein and Dracula. Either way there was a lot of variety here and that is a quality that I wanted my own artefact to have. I'd opted to do the artefact because it just made sense for me to create something especially when I am so keen on this topic.

Making mood boards became a little addictive, I wanted to explore the monster visually and see if I can find something interesting that would spark my imagination. The board above had some interesting hand made monsters like the felt ones in the top left hand corner, and the cut outs on the bottom left.

Another question popped up whilst I was looking for monster inspiration. When I come to illustrate my artefact, what style would be best?
I have two significantly different illustration styles and they would both work for this kind of theme but again I thought it best to maybe keep searching and the style would work its way out along the way.
The board above features a lot of illustrations that are slightly geometric and naive in style which I thought worked really well for the monster concept.

Nearing the end of my extensive monster research I was getting closer to an idea for the artefact. I knew that i'd want to draw a good number of monsters maybe in some kind of sequence. Perhaps something that would showcase monsters and their different forms.

Okay so the monster mood board extravaganza has been completed, throughout this study I came across monsters that pushed categorization to the very limit, a lot of variety and a lot of dynamic interpretations. The two detailed monster portraits going through the middle of the above board was an artists representation of famous rock stars, a pretty epic concept!
I decided at this point that I wanted to illustrate the way that monsters have changed throughout time, covering most classes of monster such as deities, mythical beasts, cult classics and so on.  I did not know at this point how large I wanted the timeline to but that is something I could figure out at a later time.

AD32 - conclusion

This has probably been the best project for me so far as I have produced a range of professional outcomes, this was also the first time that my work has been shown fully in context. The menu turned out really well and it looked totally believable when I had taken pictures of it at the dinner table. This time through I took a different approach to the planning process of my digital images, to speed up the process I made digital colour swatches so that I could just jump straight into the final image.
For me the last module was about celebrating my new found style and confidence as an image maker and for this module I feel like it was about pushing myself to the absolute limit.

I am also happy with my Syfy outcomes as they allowed me to try out some new things, the weapon wall image for example allowed me to work with geometric shapes to produce a sharp and uniform illustration. The menu and the weapon wall were my strongest pieces in my opinion and I feel that they have opened up some new doors for me in the future, I'd like to make similar busy images like these in the future.

To conclude I am very happy with where my work is heading and can't wait to see where it takes me in future projects.

AD 32 - Artist research - David DeGrand

David DeGrand may be one of my new favorite illustrators, I chose him because we have a similar way of drawing people, we both like to exaggerate features and make everything look a little disgusting. We also use similar shading techniques and our line qualities share similar traits, a perfect inspiration for me really. I also chose David because his client list is pretty marvelous to look at and it also has some clients that I would like to work for Including Nickelodeon and Walt Disney Television Animation. DeGrand has also landed clients such as MTV, Spongebob Comics and YUCK! magazine.

David's style is extremely cartoon and has an alternative feel to it, his work is a little gross and disgusting yet it is delivered in a socially acceptable way. He uses outrageous colour palates that are easy on the eyes but give the image that WOW factor to great effect. There is a lot of sketchbook work and from looking at the quality of line id say that he scans in original artwork and then colours it digitally. It's heavily based on character design but the lines and colours lend his work out to be used in comic books and cartoon ads.

David makes a lot of indie comics and higher caliper comics, there are a lot of kids books and design for cartoons in his portfolio. Id say his main audience would be aimed towards a younger generation but some of his comics fit into a slightly older catagory of maybe 18 -25 year old's.
So to sum that up he is an indie cartoonist who has a broad range of work aimed at the younger generation whilst still keeping the interest of people my age with a passion for all things gross.

David worked on a series of books called The Zombie Chasers and I would have liked to have worked on the dust jacket for one of them, it looks really busy and featured a load of characters on the cover, that would have been heaven for me to work on something like that.

I found David through a promotional website called Illustrationmundo which is a site dedicated to artists and their work, it's essentially a catalogue for illustrators and designers. The site lead me to his actual website which is really nicely set out, he also has a Facebook presence and a blog. His online space is pretty well managed and he has appeared at many art shows including Naughty Nineties, the end of an era, Cartoon Funanza and Seduction of the Idiots. Pretty much every art show he had attended was local to his home state Texas but the numbers were pretty impressive as he has appeared in around 23 local shows so far.


I couldn't really see if David works on commissions as there was no evidence on any of his sites, His main portfolio site did include a load of personal work though so id imagine if he had enough time on his hands to work on personal things he might have some room for commissions.

Speaking of personal work, David has a book of his own artwork published by Milk Shadow Books and a lot of his personal characters have been made into stickers that you can buy online.

It seems like David is busy but has enough time to work on his own things which he also makes a living from, I looked at some interviews with him and there was no indication to a regular job. David has illustrated for Spongebob comics for the past two years and is also a contributor to Heeby Jeeby Comix so it seems like he sustains himself by jumping between these two jobs and selling his personal work online.

AD 32 - artist research - Glen Mullaly

After looking through my folder of illustrators that I liked I manged to find a few that have similar styles and interests to me. Glen Mullaly was the first one that I chose, I did so because he focuses mainly on character design and the application of them. Most of his stuff is digitally rendered and includes a dominant black line which is similar to my methods as an image maker.
I would say that Glen has a style heavily influenced by retro cartoons and comics, his colour palates are gentle on the eyes yet still pack enough punch to give the characters some extra life. There is quite a lot of emphasis on the lighting on and around his characters, the light is emulated with a white mark. His heavy weight black line changes in size slightly to pick up the smaller details of his piece which fits in and pays homage to the traditional comic book/cartoon style. Most of his images are rendered digitally but there were some on his website that looked more hand made, see below for examples.

Obviously some of these images are still rendered digitally but they still have hand made features and textures about them, either that or Glen is really great at emulating hand made textures. 

Most of Glen's images target a younger audience, after looking through his client list I can confirm that to be the case as he has worked on various illustrations and comics for kids including some comics based on Star Wars Published by Dark Horse Comics. His clients also include Mcdonalds and Simon and Schuster, both of which are big names to have on an illustration CV. 

After going through Glen's blog I was able to find out some more information on the image he worked on as there was little description on his professional site. He worked on a book collection titled 'My Teacher is an Alien' which was a book I was looking into during the early stages of my dissertation, it would have been pretty awesome to work on a book with such a cool concept.

Glen has quite a large online presence including a Facebook page, Blogger, Glossom and a Thats My Folio. He also makes appearances at local art fairs such as Victoria's Ultimate Hobby and Toy Fair where he sells mini prints and autographs his work. He also has an online store and his books are also on the Amazon listings making him quite easy to come across. Finally I have found some of his books in stores such as Waterstones, this is one of the best methods of marketing he could get, to land a book in a big branch store can have great results.

I couldn't find much on Glen's agent but I found out that he works in a studio that he shares with his wife and cat, id assume the cat doesn't do much art. Glen has had work in TD Art Gallery and according to his blog post he appears at recurring events there and has done for a while. 

Reading through Glen's blog was pretty interesting as it showed me how busy he can be, one post stated that he was really busy getting work finished for a load of different clients, it seems that he doesn't have a lot of time to take on commissions, there was also nothing on his blog to support him taking any on. 

Glen makes prints and paintings to sell on his online store, he also makes appearances at comic book fairs and art shows where he sells mini prints and things. He seems to update his store quite frequently so there must be a high demand for his work. He seems to balance out doing art for fun and as a career pretty well. 

After sweeping through Glen's blog and looking at his impressive client list I couldn't find anything about him having any other commitments, he seems to be able to sustain himself using his chosen tricks of the trade. every week he seems to be working on something new, may it be character designs for an advert, new pages for a children's book or even some new paintings to go in a gallery.  

Syfy design campaign - A new inspiration

After completing my menu I was feeling super inspired and wanted to create more art in that style, I enjoyed working with shapes and I liked keeping things busy.

I have been a big fan of Andrew Kolb for ages and I love how neat and precise he can be with his illustrations. The Dexter's Laboratory image in particular was screaming at me, it was telling me that I could do something like this, I felt like I was on a roll and the workload kept flowing at this point. Although I loved my scientist Syfy poster design I felt like I could make something a little more busy, maybe think a little more geometric this time as well.

I had an idea to create a Syfy themed weapon wall. (See sketch folder for sketches)

I wanted to keep it well regimented and fairly geometric to see how much I could push my style.

The main idea that I wanted to capture was the idea of the Syfy channel being very at home, the low budget films give off a home made kind of vibe so I wanted a few of the "weapons" to look like every day items that you could find in your house. Some weapons would maybe have a retro science fiction theme to them so that they all tie in together.
Below is a screen shot of the colour mock process which is similar to the way that I mocked up colours for my menu. Just the original inks with some digital colour loosely thrown over the top to give me an idea of where the colours would sit against each other.

Due to the time scale I didn't really have time to alter this image or take any screen shots, I just wanted to commit to something and make it good, I planned this image out fairly well before I started it, I just wanted to let my digital skills do the talking. I am really pleased with these outcomes and it was great to work almost purely using shapes. The blue background was my original palette but I mixed it up with the brown and purple for some variations. The bright background was what kept me focused on the grey weapons, the contrast was needed. These however are not the final images as I felt that the background colour almost took something away from some of the more colourful elements like the hair dryer and the Super Soaker. Below is my finished image,

The black makes everything pop off of the background and it all looks a little more uniform this way. My lecturer mentioned that the Syfy logo maybe shouldn't have the white underline as it doesn't look deliberate but instead looks like a printing mistake. That is something that can easily be changed but for the college deadline I will keep it this way as I think it adds a little depth to the title and makes it look engraved within the metal.  I would definitely like to do more work like this in the future!

Self Initiated menu brief - Contextualization and the final concept

Here is the menu fully printed out with the two masks either side, they look good together but what could make this even better?

If the menu now came with an interior!!!

I apologize but there aren't any sketches at all for the interior as I did not have much time to throw it together but it turned out pretty good. I sampled some food options from an existing Mexican restaurant in London called Wahaca. click for website

 I re-wrote the text and picked various dishes I liked so as to make it as unique as possible. I took the check pattern from the outside of the menu and made it black and grey so it was easier to read the text and then I just drew all over it digitally, filling the gaps with similar elements from the outside cover.

This just polished off the whole piece and made it look totally believable, now the finishing touch.

 My cousins and their son were very kind to allow me 20 minutes of their time so that I could photograph them interacting with my menu as if they were out for a family meal, the first few shots are of their son as I wanted to contextualize the coloruing sheet and mask wearing.

The artist at work! 

Trying to decide what to have!

Taking the masks out for a spin. The image on the right is by far my favourite, that mask in particular was also a good choice as the expression makes him look as if he is having trouble trying to decide. 

Tried out the mask with eye holes and it does look good although I still prefer the one with cartoon eyes. The image on the left has the test flyer I made in the shot to show its use, when you are in a restaurant you normally have a little stand where the salt and pepper is stored and usually there are menus and things clipped to the top of it. You could even go as far to say that the design could go on napkins, if not that then a simpler version with maybe just the arrows or something along those lines.  

Trying to decide what to get for dessert! 

Happy days!
Menu fully opened and stomachs happily full! 

Finally I left them with some sheets to keep and colour in, I am truly thankful to my cousins for lending me their time and welcoming me into their home. They gave me the context that I needed for this brief to properly come to an end. 

Self initiated menu brief - The puzzle idea

After completing the menu and the masks I sort of wanted to make something else like an activity sheet of some kind that kids could do whilst they were waiting for their food. I remember looking at Thomas Flintham's work a while back and he has had many of his puzzle books published so I thought he would be a good place to start.

His puzzles and mazes are super effective and are really nice to look at. In my sketch folder you can see some basic concepts that I had come up with for a wrestling belt themed maze. below is my digital mock of what the maze section would look like.

The idea was to start at the entrance on the left part of the belt and work your way along to the middle and then out along the far right hand side. The centre maze would have extra paths going along to fill the circular space and I had thought about maybe adding wrestling mask in the middle, not unlike the logo for the menu. I used a program online that generated a square space, it then allowed me to carve various pathways into the shape and then all I had to do was screen shot it and use it as a guide for the digital sketch. In this case I actually found it easier to take the shape and lock off the pixels and then change the colour to whatever I please. The two side panels are constructed of four individually designed mazes and then merged to make a larger one, the middle section is a scaled up version of the smaller maze sections.

After a lot of thought I decided that I did not want to carry on with this idea as everything felt a little too artificial and although I made the mazes myself there was this feeling that made me feel like the mazes were not my own which obviously threw me off. My lecturers also mentioned that this kind of thing did not really match with the other images that I had made for this brief. So the maze idea pretty much ended there and then, it was a cool idea but not for the audience that I am aiming for, also I can do better than this.

Enter the colouring sheet idea. This was a lot simpler to do and a lot more effective, I thought it would be a good idea to name characters that are on the menu, they could have a favourite food and maybe a strength level as to tell who is the strongest, sort of like Trump cards. This one is called Fancy Pants and he was just traced from a section on the back of my menu, I have also added the challenge of finding him on the menu and a tick box to show that you have found him. The background elements were just made up to fit his body shape, they reflect the elements from the menu but I mixed them up to make him harder to find.

Sadly Fancy Pants is the only one I have had time to create for this deadline but there is nothing stopping me from making the whole team in the same style. That way if anyone wanted to take this design and make it a reality then I would already have the activity sheets finished.  Now to contextualize everything.