Final image

After deciding to re shoot my image I found I that the photos turned out a lot lighter and clearer. So decided to use this as my final image after slightly editing in Photoshop, I feel my work needs to be photographed the addition of the light just completes the effect and enhances the story I wanted to create when I set out on this idea. I am pleased with my final image and feel it works well and turned out successful.

Further Editing and Making Decisions

 After playing round on Photoshop I found a feature that helped lighten up my images a bit more than just using the levels. I really wanted to try and lighten the light box images as I really liked the light coming through my image. Although even after this I still felt that there were just to dull so decided if it hadn't worked as well as I wanted the first time I would go back to considering how I could achieve a quality image using the light box. After consulting with some others we decided I could try and stand the light box on the rostrum stand, this would produce a clear photo as I wouldn't be holding it and also it would be straight. I also played around with the setting on the camera finding there was a setting that would correct the dullness being created by the extreme light sauce. Although this meant I would have to re create my in design files I would rather have a better quality image than just giving up. 

Lighting experiments

Since my illustration was about souls, light and was influenced by stain glass windows I though if I had light coming through my images it would add and extra competent to the narrative and really give the scene of lighting darkness and afterlife. 

To get this light I simply lay onto the light box and photographed it, image 1 and 2 are the results of doing this. Image 1 is just the light and image, this really lights up my image and adds a glow an makes the image very biblical. But I do think its stripped a lot of the colour away and has draw the viewers eye away from the other elements in the image and that it is paper craft. While image 2 I added tracing paper and then the card before putting it on the light box this has just added a slight glow from these areas and is a lot more subtle. I do really like how this experiment went on image 2  it think it displays what I wanted my image to be, but again it was harder to edit as the light effected the other colours and limited hoe much I could move the levels on Photoshop. 

Light box and photographed 

Image 1

Image 2

Photographed

Here I have just photographed my work (image 3) to see how the colours would turn out as when I create my 3D paper illustrations I have to photograph then so I wanted to see what happens to a flat image. I think the photo did more justice to the image but has came out a bit fuzzy as I couldn't hold the camera perfectly still. 

Image 3

Scanned

As my images were flat I decided to see what they looked like scanned in and if I could get ant lighting of the scanner. Image 4 was just scanned with tracing paper behind and with the scanner lid open to see if would pick up any lighting, this wasn't as successful as I had hoped. So for my next scan (image 5) I added the coloured card behind to make the light go from bright to dim. After looking at my other images I have found that the scanned images with the coloured card behind probably works the best but sadly none of my photos or scans look as good as the real image. This a problem I am still finding with my work and am trying to solve. So before deciding witch image I use for my Olio final I want to print 3 of them out and see what happens then edit them a bit more in Photoshop so my image is to the highest quality I can currently achieve. 

Image 4

Image 5

Colour tests

After colouring the hair I needed to chose a colour for the outfit the lady is wearing as she is supposed to be a spirit that leads lost souls, but due to my decision to leave it so the viewer could decided who she was I didn't want to give to much away. Then again I still wanted my version to be seen so after selecting these colours I decided to go with a pastel purple as it matches the colour scheme I wanted for the image and the light colour hints towards her being dead. 

Making the illustration

Here are some photos of what my image looked like before I added any colour. At this point I was considering how to colour the hair as it would be the main thing in the image that I wanted to stand out. I considered having it go from blue to white as she is supposed to be a spirit leading the children's lost souls to the afterlife, but after some consideration I preferred the idea of the viewer being able to decided who this lady was. So by making her blonde, she could be the lady lighting the the candles to lead the lost souls or the leader, at the same time she could be and angel or god of the river. This will allow the viewer to create an ever deeper narrative rather than making it plain and to the point. 

Artists/ Influences

Beauty and the Beast Disney

In the film there are stunning images of the castles stain glass windows. They tell a narrative of the princes curse and redemption. I want my image to tell the narrative in the same way as a stain glass window, one image that has elements of story. Also because I decided to go with the idea of the souls being lead to the after life it kinds of fits in being styled off stain glass windows. I will also use bold colours like seen in image 1 and 2 to make my image stand out and replicate real life stained glass.

Beauty and the Beast image 1

Beauty and the Beast image 2

- Disney Beauty and the Beast Diamond edition, DVD 2013, images 1 and 2 screenshots from film

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix 

Similar to my first images when I saw this in game I immediately liked how it had a limited colour scheme for the background making the character stand out. But this image isn't typical stain glass window its been stylised but even after that you can still tell what it is. This makes me think I could take some liberties and change it slightly and still have it like a stain glass window. 

Kingdom hearts hd remix image 3

-Kingdom Hearts HD Remix, Game 2013, Disney and Square Enix, 

Image 3 found, http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Dive_to_the_Heart accessed 02/12/2013

Finalising my idea

After getting feed back about how to make my image flow better I did some more small ruff sketches and came up with three new ideas how to incorporate my main female. These seem to work a lot better and added more to my narrative, now the figure was now part of the river. I wanted her to be leading the children's lost souls to a better place.

In the end I decided to go with this composition because I thought it flowed and would catch the views eye. Also because the narrative within it was clear but could be read in many different ways and I wanted people to stop and look and think about what my image was about.  

Third idea ruff draft

After realising my first ruff wasn't up to scratch I changed the idea slightly and re created it. The idea is still using the pretence but is very different. It came about because I was watching a TV show called Ghost Whispers and that got me thinking about how different countries see death and how the celebrate and remember it. After looking at these I came across an Asian tradition that has slight difference all across Asia but has the same core, respecting the dead and leading any murdered or lost souls over to the after life. They do this by lighting lanterns that either float up into the sky or down a lake or river. This is very symbolic and I really like the idea of helping lost souls find there way and how I could illustrate this into a narrative, so I firstly decided that I would look at types of water lantern that they use across all of Asia. 

I then started sketching out ruff layout and how I could incorporate that striking female that I liked from my first ruff. She soon became a very important part of the narrative to my image, she was a lost soul or maybe the lady who is lighting the lanterns for the lost souls of the children in the forest. I tried a few layouts but found I like the idea of the lost children running and seeing the lights through the forest, it gave the image a spooky yet heart pulling feel to the image that there not just nay spirits there children's. 

This was my first ruff of this image but after talking to some other students they told me they felt she was to static and separate, after thinking about there advice I could see what they meant and went back to re thinking how I could make my composition flow better.

Second idea ruff draft

This idea was from my third lot of ideas, I liked the idea of showing a strong mother who cares for her child in every way rather than waiting for a man to bring home food. The tree is supposed to almost represent her two sides, hunter and mother. The tree was also meant to show the two ways that the mother interacts with it linking the two images. I do like how the narrative formed for this idea and think it shows it well.

When creating the sketch I realised I want to sure how the female form would be hunched over in a hunting stance so at life drawing I requested the model held it so I could quickly get down the form and how the hand and foot would look. 

First idea ruff draft

This is a ruff sketch from my second idea, it is about remembering a past love that has moved one. I thought how the new lovers touch would be important as I only wanted to hint towards it so I first looked at hands just slightly touching. I then sketched out the final image but after getting so far realised it seemed a bit flat and easy to read, so although it suited themes I usually have running through my work I wanted more of a narrative within the image. But the one thing I did like from this design was the striking image of the woman taking up one page, I though with her hair connecting the pages that it helped the composition flow and showed how it should be read. 

Idea three

Using a different version of the phase this idea came from 'Use riven on a nearby model'. This made me consider the archetype of a princess and how children's stories present them. So I played around with idea of the princess being strong and more like a normal young girl would be. This then after drawing the first sketch made me think of how different cultures might see a princess, and that she could be a hunter to protect and serve her people.

However I wasn't to taken by how I would represent the princess and a hunter and kind princess so I rethought the idea into 'Tearing apart the idealistic family' so rather than the man work and the woman stay home, I flipped it and made it more modern. But in the end I felt the father figure was not needed and that instead show the two sides of the mothers life, having fun with her child and then hunting to feed and protect.

Idea two

Again using the newly changed phase of 'Use an echo as a model' I thought of rather than forgetting the pain or joy of remembering someone that not around any more. I felt this could be quite personal and many people could relate to the narrative within the image. 

Idea one

For my first idea I had used 'Use an echo as a model' this sparked the idea of children going up and forgetting about a loved toy. The toy would be and echo of that persons past that they no longer thought about, but on the other hand the toy still remembers the love they once received. 

I did like idea of a doll as you could give them human expression making the viewer feel compassion for the forgotten toy.

 

Idea generation

My starting statement was 'Use something nearby as a model' this was randomly picked and the starting point of my ideas.

The first thing I did was to define the words that made up the sentence and look up other alternative ways to say it.This would help me understand my sentence and then help me spark more ideas of what I could do with it. I then wrote down my first thoughts and then moved one to other tasks witch could help my idea process. 

To further my ideas I then randomly opened three different books and randomly opened to a page and put my finger on it, this selected the line I would then use to put into context with my starting sentence. I then did the same with a poetry book and a dictionary. Although the book and poetry lines went to helpful I found the random words worked well as I had such a vague word 'something' in my sentence. Replacing 'something' with the selected words aloud me to spark more idea that seemed more narrative and interesting. 

Finally I complied all my new ideas together with the three new phrase's I now had.