THE ESSAY // draft

INTRO (250)

Mention/Intro Off The Track, explain what is part of my major work (concept art) talk shit about progress or something

WHAT I WANTED (500) 

What I wanted to show in my major work was concept art that expressed story, character and mood. To do this, I planned on researching topics relevant to the story, using building on the art style of Disney, and a good work flow plan.

As my story, Off The Track, is an animated musical set in 1950’s America, my research thesis needed to include three important topics; 1950’s American culture, theater and set design, and Disney concept art style. I felt that these topics were particularly relevant to what my story was at that point in time. 1950’s American culture saw the rise of the idea of the “teenager” and a noticeable generational gap between children and parents. Rock ‘n’ Roll music and a sense of rebellion seemed to be a staple of this time as well. These ideas fit well with Off The Track’s themes of rebelling (against parents) or places where you were raised.

Where Off The Track’s main character Oakley was raised, was a town made up of sets, stages and props, so studying stage design would be important in shaping the design for this town. I looked at films such as Dogville and musical films like Chicago, The Red Shoes and Nine to study how these films used the theatrical styling’s that were heavily used in the look of the film. What I found was these films used over-the-top and hyper realistic set pieces to show the state of the character’s emotions, such as ignorance, anxiety and stress. Dogville’s barebones set design instantly made audience’s suspicious of the town of Dogville. I felt that this kind of set design would be perfect for illustrating Oakley’s uneasiness of living there.

I had always admired the style of Disney and Pixar’s concept art, especially the works of artist Mary Blair and I felt that emulating this style would be a good way to learn how to express these concepts in my own works. These styles that have a focus on texture, colour and composition rather than on detail, can help artists feel freer to make more dynamic and memorable designs.

While I was still happy to continue working with photoshop, I wanted to change up the tools and brush types I used to achieve a softer look. I planned to drop different real-life textures such as cardboard and timbre into my work with clipping masks to achieve a somewhat “rustic” style to my works. 

WHAT HAPPENED (500)

The next two terms of the year would mark the “production” phase of my major work. During this time I was planning to develop my story, experiment with my style and illustrate my big prints to show for the exhibition.

At the start of the second term of my major work I talked with my new mentor, Alan. My initial plans changed straight away. We agreed on researching similar films and developing the story over a two week period. The research went really well, at first I took notes on;

Wizard of Oz

Pleasantville

Roman Holiday

Enchanted

Rebel Without A Cause

Tangled

Dogville

And throughout the rest of the process I also studied extra films with similar themes and styles which included;

The Little Mermaid

Bolt

Princess and the Frog

Ratatouille

Anastasia

Road To El Dorado

James and The Giant Peach

Matilda

Anna Karenina

There’s No Business Like Show Business

Singin’ In The Rain

Developing the story however has been a lot longer process. I want had three main characters and a main location initially, but after talking to Alan we decided on including more characters to appear later in the story as well as adding 6 more locations for the group to visit. Designing these additions to the story took a lot of the 2^nd term, and in all honestly a bit of the last term as well included last minute story ideas and design decisions.

(COLOUR THEORY, TOWN COLOURS, RED/BLUE, CHARACTERS) STORY NECESSARY FOR COLOUR SCRIPT

Another aspect that took longer than planned was the experimenting stage. I already knew I wanted a style reminiscent of Mary Blair but Alan introduced me to the style of Pixar artists such as Lou Romano and Teddy Newton . Their use of block colours and college really appealed to me, so I ended up spending several weeks experimenting with this sort of style, which eventually ended up being a key aspect of my big prints.

The biggest change to my schedule however, was deciding to make a colour script. This is a practice that uses simple looking panels that tell the story using colours and shapes to show the mood and feel of the story beats from beginning to end.
(THE INCREDIBLES, UP, RAT, PIXAR BASICALLY)
 The initial plan of having 50 panels for my story had been up in the air during the whole time of my major work. It’s taken me longer than I would’ve liked to get used to working in the style of colour scripting (WHY, LEARNING COMPOSITION, SMALLER SCALE, NOT TOO BUSY, MOOD, FLOW!!!)
and my plan of doing a few panels here and there left leaving the overall look of the colour script until the end of 3^rd term of the major work.

(PROCESS GOT FASTER -> COLOUR SCRIPT) 

RESEARCH -> TITLE DESIGN?

RESEARCH -> GEORGE NELSON, METRONOME, MUSICALS STORY

used car instead of rocknroll

I also had a couple of speed bumps along the way to the schedule that I didn’t think to factor in. I attempted to start the 2^nd requirement to graduate at Raffles College, which was a 200 hour internship. Unfortunately after only a week it was easy to see that I wouldn’t be able to have enough time to properly work on my major work if I continued doing both so I had to postpone my internship for the New Year.

As well as applying for a post-graduation course (AFTRS) took up to almost a week’s worth of work the major work. However the application allowed me extra practice on doing colour scripts which helps out in the long run. (??)

WHAT I WOULD HAVE CHANGED (400 bad, 100 good?) 

As my major work is coming to an end soon, it’s clear to see in hindsight what I could’ve changed in my process. The factors that would’ve made for a smoother schedule for my major work would be better time management, decision making and illustration abilities.

The biggest change I would’ve made to my major work process would’ve been to have made a draft version of a colour script early on. With that I would’ve been able to see how it looked all together rather than waiting until the end to see the end product, which is ridiculously risky. It also would’ve helped with my mindset while making the script, as most of the time I still couldn’t picture the rest of it in my head.

Overall in terms of time manager, I wish I was stricter with myself. Unless I was working on a deadline, I never really had a solid timetable or followed my schedule too closely. I generally focused on what I felt like doing at the time rather than what I should be doing, which resulted in a whole lot of pencil sketches rather than colour script panels being made usually.

This also relates to my decision making skills. I wouldn’t blame anyone else “letting me down” when I don’t get a reply to a question or opinion as soon as I’d like. I’d put that blame on myself and my intensiveness, a trait that I now know I need to get over. A majority of the time I’d hold up production of my colour script or big prints or anything else because I was hoping someone else would make a decision for me or push me in a certain direction because I wasn’t able to myself. I think this trait is alright in the beginning of making concept art, as I can give a lot of different options for a director to choose from but later on in the production I needed to make decisions myself and faster, rather than just mull over them.

My illustration skills were also a factor in my productiveness. I’m already aware that I’m not as technically proficient as others in my class but I know this comes with time and practice. However it did mean that I would take a lot longer in terms of illustrating my colour script, big prints and even sketches.

However, I am proud of what I’ve achieved in my major work. I was happy that I was able to produce a large body of work, as well as keeping my blog constantly updated which definitely helped the post-production process. I know I can be confident in my grasp of colour theory and that I’m getting a hold on texture, composition and mood in my works. All of this has also contributed to improving and understanding my own art style significantly.

I’m happy that I’m sad to finishing working on this major work, because it means that I really enjoyed working on it and feel really gratified with what I achieved with the style, characters and story of Off The Track.

CON (250)

sum up, what ive learnt and reflect, end with a dumb pun