Chosen Silhouette's

Chosen Silhouette's

I have some of my favourite silhouette's that look human enough to proceed to the next level, however I did think of choosing some of the character's to be similar to Japanese mythology, but I abandoned that idea in the end.  The silhouette's feature all women, as I decided to chose the witch as my character, hopefully once i've finished it, i'll be able to give my final character a back story to give her a stronger narrative.

I had chosen to make the witch my character so most of my chosen design's are around women, or blobs that look like women.  Left to right, a quick description for each one as follows.

1: The witch is a magician, she carries a staff around with her, showing the way to wandering strangers, thinking that the staff needs the tinderbox to work at full power.

2: she is running away from something, could be after the soldier kills her, she's a ghost running from the sword forever.

3: looks like a preacher to me.

4: looking at the direction of the left arm, she looks bigger like a giant or something, showing the way to those smaller.

5: I'm thinking of a simple shrine maiden here.

6: she looks like she's gonna explode or something, or maybe her power explodes, causing her body to do the same thing.

7: A mixture of running to or from something.

8: Grim Reaper.

9: probably the only one that doesn't look female, looks like the silhouette is holding a wrecking ball of some kind. 

Character Ideas

The Overall Character choices we could use where:

Soldier
Witch
Princess
King
Queen
Shoemaker's boy

Our objective is to choose one of these characters and iterate to match our chosen time period.  With my chosen time period, some ideas of samurai's come to mind, also I have to take into consideration what some objects would look like with my chosen character.  As an annoyance, we are not allowed to do the dog, I think some people are persuading the tutor's if they can do the dogs but not as dog's more as humans. (originally if we weren't given time period I was thinking of a mixture of Ancient Egyptian and Steampunk, wonder how that would turned out).

Some first thoughts about the characters can to mind, related to 'The Tinderbox' but in my own time period...

Soldier: Samurai, though at the first group crit, I found out that samurai's where mostly gone then, so that idea was kinda far-fetched.
Witch: young or old maiden in a kimono
Princess: Young pretty maiden.
Soldier: Simple farmer who had been forced to go to war.

Although I did have some ideas for the other character's I kinda let them go because they didn't really clash with the time period.

 

Basic Research: Edo Japan

My chosen Time Period was Edo Japan, this is just an introduction into that time period:

The Edo or Tokugawa Time period started in March 24, 1603- May 3, 1868 lasting over 200 years, It began by the first shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, who unified the country after the decisive battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu established a new government in Edo in 1603.

A small town until then, was transformed into a huge political city by aggressive public works including land reclamation, new canals, and clean water supply systems.  The Tokugawa family ruled the country in the next 264 years (15 shoguns).  Ieyasu Tokugawa was defied and worshipped in Nikko Toshogu Shrine (even today).

source:http://www.grips.ac.jp/teacher/oono/hp/lecture_J/lec02.htm

Images of Tokugawa and landscape:

The Tinderbox Synposis

The story of ‘The Tinderbox’ revolves around a man called the soldier and how his greed helped him to get everything he desired.   The story starts with the soldier walking home from a war, during that time he meets a witch, who asks him for help with retrieving a tinderbox from inside a hollow tree, in return the soldier was allowed to take anything else in that tree that he wanted.

When the soldier climbed down into the tree, he found three rooms with money protected by three dogs; “one with eyes the size of teacups”, who guards the chest filled with pennies. One with “eyes the size of supper-plates”, who guards the chest filled with silver, and one with “eyes the size of windmills”, who guards the chest filled with gold.  After stuffing his pockets with money the soldier leaves the tree and refuses to give the tinderbox to the witch without a reason, when she denies him, he chops off her head and takes the tinderbox for himself.

The soldier starts living the life of luxury with his wealth, he learns of a princess kept in a tower after a prophecy foretold her marriage to a common soldier; his interest is piqued and he wants to see her but realizes his whim cannot be satisfied. Eventually the soldier has his wealth reduced to mere pennies.  He strikes the tinderbox, and to his surprise one of the dogs appears before him, he then learns that he can summon all three dogs to bring him money whenever he likes and once again becomes wealthy.

One night, he remembers the story of the princess in the locked tower, and wishes to see her. He strikes the tinderbox and sends the dog with eyes the size of teacups to bring her to his apartment. The soldier is overwhelmed with her beauty, kisses her and orders the dog to return her to the tower. The following morning, the princess tells her parents she has had a strange dream and relates the night's adventure. The royal couple then watch her closely. When the princess is carried away again, they unsuccessfully use a trail of flour and chalk marks on neighbourhood doors to find where she spends her nights. Eventually, her whereabouts are discovered and the soldier is clapped in prison and sentenced to death.

On the day of execution, the soldier sends a shoemaker’s boy for his tinderbox, and, at the scaffold, asks to have a last smoke. He then strikes the tinderbox and the three monstrous dogs appear. They kill the judge, the councillors, the King and Queen. The soldier and the princess are united, and the dogs join the wedding feast.

Silhouette's, First Try

I was given the theme of Edo Japan to work with.  I had also just read The Tinderbox, and had to create silhouette's based around the characters in the story. These first sketches where mostly random, taking between 1-3 minutes for each one, some I got inspiration from the music I was listening to at the time, some I was thinking about Edo Japan but most where just random.  Not to mention this was the first time I'd used a graphic's tablet in ages.

A few days later, I got a couple of books out of the Library on the Edo period.  I decided that I will do the witch as my chosen character, I then started to do quick kimono sketches based on what I found in those books, Specifically Hokusai and His Age.  I picked a few out of these to develop further into my next stage of my character.  I think I chose around 8-12 different silhouette's to iterate to the next level.

The First Project: The Tinderbox

The First project I have to do is a 2D Concept art project.

Submission:

· Short Synopsis -This is a quick version of the story, it just has the basic facts and information about the book.

· 100 Silhouettes -Pretty simple quick and fast work.

· Character Iteration -This will be the main body of work 

· Model Sheet -That is the completed character shown with extras (weapons) and at different viewpoints

· Character Sheet -Showing narrative, personality, characteristics, expression and movement of the character. This will help build upon all of the drawings.

· Environment Studies -Thumbnail, value and colour sketches, 12, four of each. Finishing with 2 complete environment designs and one containing the finished character.

· Research Portfolio -Everything I have done with life drawing, time period, and book research.

· Reflective Journal -Creating a blog containing all of my thoughts and reason's about my own work and decisions.

· Final Piece -The final result of the workload.

I'm looking forward to working on something i've never had a good chance to work on!!