After having collected keywords about the market from family, I have started researching into the characters listed. (water men, storytellers, fire breathers, exotic dancers, snake charmers, beggars, fortune tellers) Below are some photographs I have taken during my holiday back home, Morocco, and others I have found very interesting in terms of exaggeration and style.
These are some drawings of the characters I find most interesting, however I will be drawing the rest of the list and pick those who would be more 'influencing'. In order to loosen up, I have experimented with ink and tried to get the gesture of the characters and went on to draw the characters in a slightly exaggerated, expressionistic style using graphite, charcoal, ink and watercolour. Next I will be focusing on facial features using the african masks research as well as experimenting with colours to find the right textures.
In order to understand the types of materials included in the set (From concrete to wooden stairs), I have put together an influence map for modeling and texturing reference.
These are my influences for now, showing some of Drobohych city pictures in which Bruno Schulz was born, as well as other images from Dr Caligari's that inspire in terms of their expressionism.
The second visual map will help me set the mood and colour palette, the use of light, reflection and colours I want to incorporate in my set.
Concerning the style of the set and its compositions, I have looked at Marcus Jansen, a former American combat soldier who became a leading contemporary painter known for his gritty urban landscape paintings since 1990s. The abstract expressionist style really caught my eye. Besides the painterly and collage techniques he uses, the smart use of the space gives the viewer an overall mood of the composition but still "sweeps the eye" around the painting through the use of details and mark making.
Next step is doing some collages to apply these styles and work on the composition of the set.
Concerning the style I am going for, I am thinking of a simplistic style in order to effectively communicate my idea, however I am thinking of incorporating some sort of metaphor of my idea into the design, this could be seen in the work of these artists especially Paul's and Rowan's designs. Paul Tebbott: An English designer whose work is characterised by the use of bright eye catching colours and simple style.
Saul Bass: An American Graphic designer, most famous for his minimalistic style.
Rowan Stocks-Moore: A Graphic designer famous for Disney posters:
Knowing that our idea is composed of four different time periods, which means four different art directions/styles, we were thinking of finding a way to work out the transition between each scene using for example a colour palette from scene that would match scene 2 in order to fit together.
These are some influence maps about the different eras of our story to help us get an idea about our art direction. At this stage we are still trying to find our way around the different art directions we are using. I have also done a quick sketches and experimented with ink and water colours as well as adding some grunge layers to get that expressionistic mark making touch which we are going for.
Style to use for the 21st Century Era: Some sort of grunge texture, expressionistic.
Style to use for the 1980's era: Bright colours.
Style to use for the 1930's-1940's era: Art deco This style if often characterised by rich colours and bold geometric shapes.
Style to use for late 19th Century: We were thinking of some sort of graphic novel style, line art and mark making touch to it.
Initial sketches and concepts
Next step is to produce concepts and a detailed storyboard enough to visualise our chosen art direction in order to make sure the styles fit and the transitions between the eras work properly.
Concerning
the style of my animation, I want to give it some sort of
Retro/Vintage abstract art
look
because of the energy it communicates.
Abstract
art
began
with the work of three artists who didn't know each other but
produced abstract works almost at the same time.
Wassily
Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich.
Abstract
art features forms that do not represent the outside world. When the
three painters discovered abstraction, they considered it as a
personal, philosophical and emotional approach.
Retro
Art Vs. Vintage Art
The
two terms are often interchanged in modern language; however there
are some distinct and important differences between them. Here we
will wade through the confusion and hopefully enlighten you with the
proper usage of each term.
Let's
start with the term retro.
Retro
derives from the Latin meaning "backwards" or "in past
times". The definition of retro that is most closely associated
with past trends of art and fashion derives from the French term
retrospectif, which was abbreviated to simply retro. The term retro
became popular in the 1970's to describe French fashion, and was used
in French novels and film. The word retro, shortly thereafter made
its way across to America and into American fashion and culture.
Retro
Art refers to art that just a little bit quirky. Think kitsch,
theatrical and eccentric. Retro is also something that is a bit more
modern than something that is defined as vintage. Retro focuses on
items dated between roughly the 1950's to the 1980's
Vintage
Art
Vintage
is taken from the world of winemaking and refers to the year in which
the wine was "laid down" or put into wooden casks. What you
should take from this origin is vintage art and overall vintage items
should be associated with a specific year.
Vintage
focuses on time periods of the early 1900's until roughly the 1940's.
The
recurring elements in the vintage style:
Background
and “paper effect” graphics : in
the 50s-60s the great age
of plastics had
not yet begun; shopping bags were of fabrics (raw cotton, mainly),
the packaging of the products in cardboard, and so on. Thus, the
paper played a fundamental role and just because of that the “paper”
effect – especially if aged, turned yellow, worn off because of
time and use – is one of the main graphic effects which recur in
the vintage style. The same holds for old postcards, stamps,
newspapers, pictures in black&white or the cuttlefish effect, on
condition that they have an experienced aspect.
Magazine
style and newspapers of the age: another
graphic style vastly used in webdesign is based on the aesthetics of
old newspapers, almost always in black and white or “turned yellow
by time”, combined with a retro typography.
Calligraphic
fonts or old style fonts: the
major part of vintage/retro design makes use of a typography based on
calligraphic fonts, which give a more realistic and informal imprint
compared to modern fonts and “old style” fonts, which with
difficulty can be integrated in other styles of design.
Colors: The
colors of the vintage style tend to recall the tonalities of paper
and cardboard: beige,
brown, cream,
maybe not in plain pigment but under the form of textures and
patterns. In addition the red,
the dark
green and
theblue are
used a lot. For who prefers a more dated and classic one, it is
advisable to limit oneself to black/white with
a hint of grey.
Broadly speaking the vintage style has opaque colors, “consumed”
(a bit like for the grunge): opposed to the retro effect (which is
famous for the style pop-art design and the brilliant colors) in this
style therefore bright colors should be avoided, limiting them to
some details which have to attract the attention of the user.
Visual
references:
The
thomas Beale Cipher Animation: An award winning animation in which
the retro/vintage textures and look is used throughout the animation
as well as the use of silhouette, this mix makes the animation very
eye catching and communicates very strong emotions.
My influence map changed because my character did as well, he is no longer a medieval executioner but a Sonderkommando, a Jewish prisoner working for the Nazis in the gaz chambers, wearing striped uniforms with wooden shoes.
