Introduction
How can you visually tell a structured story?
The second semester of Junior year is an exploration of narrative storytelling through the use of modern technology and descriptive storytelling. Using illustration programs like Adobe Illustrator, storyboards, and other production tools like Avid Pro Tools, we explored different narrative expressions throughout the range of our classes. Starting with drafting a story in English, we developed and illustrated the main character in Adobe Illustrate, recorded audio readings of the story, and combined them with sound effects in Pro Tools to create a published podcast video that was the final of the unit.
I valued the process that this unit taught me. From reading a narrative story to writing my own and eventually creating all the various parts that would become my accumulation of work. I realized just how much work goes into almost every part of the media we consume on a daily basis and just how much it takes to develop content I feel good about publishing.
Story
To really begin this unit, we researched different narrative stories, from John Logan’s “Red” to George Orwells “1984” we began to develop our understanding of what makes up and classifies a narrative story- then we drafted our own. Using character questionnaires and plot maps, we created a story. My inspiration was the movie “Death Becomes Her,” directed by Robert Zemeckis. My story is about a character that gets reintroduced to women from their joined passed life. A death occurs, mystery starts to build, and ends with two bodies. We then recorded the story, produced it in Avid Pro Tools, created album art and then published all of it onto the platform SoundCloud.
Album Cover for my short story- “Conservatory”
I had a photoshoot with a classmate, Whitney Ross where they posed with a shovel in their garden, a shovel representative of part of the plot of the story. I then applied effect layers to the image in Photoshop, blended the text, and added further grain over the entire image.
Pro Tools Session ScreenShot while creating the audio recording and production of my short story.
Illustrations
This unit was all about using Adobe Illustrator- From joint projects to our narrative character creature to the designs we made for clothing, everything was made through vector projects
Exquisite Corps Project
For this assignment, we were grouped together and told to blindly draw. When we were finished, the three files would be combined and a corps creature would be created. Below is my groups.
Illustrator Project.
For this assignment, we had to create a design that would then be forged and applied to a shirt, jacket, cut-out, or candle lamp shade. For mine, I wanted to create a t-shirt that featured my design. I took inspiration fro, the various places I may wear the shirt, as I tend to travel during the summer, I always pay attention to the windows in whatever room I’m in. I designed a shirt with three large windows on the back that have views out onto the ocean and hills.
Illustrator Project Artist Statement
AI Project Artist Statement
The inspiration for this illustration was the open doors of a house in the summer. Being that I was planning to put this design on a white summer shirt, I wanted the design to reflect the places I may wear it. I think there’s something peaceful about leaving doors and windows open during the summer and getting warm drafts flicking up window dressings and the way that curtails filter the sun.
When designing this illustration, I had to rework the design many times to get both the pallets correct for the color variation in it so that it can appear to have distance in the mountains in the background. I think if I were to redesign it, I would have included a word in the railing to make the design more playful and connect the concept to the execution better.
I’m proud of the way I was able to design and finish this design in the way that I thought it in my mind. I’m happy with the outcome and I’m excited to be able to wear my own illustration on a physical product. Throughout this project, I’ve realized to a greater extent how much hands-on work goes into making designs and illustrations for any project but especially clothes. I don’t think I valued graphic design t-shirts before this project but I definitely understand the amount of work that goes into them since.
Design
The goal of design this semester was to fully understand Adobe Illustrator and what a vector image is. We took the main character from our English story and developed it into a fictional creature that represented the traits of that person. We researched, studied anatomy and textures as well as spent a week practicing illustrating on Illustrator. Developing the animal was probably the most challenging part of this assignment but I learned what it takes to create a single shot of some of my favorite animated content-giving me a bigger appreciation for this skill.
Visual Narrative Creature Project Artist Statement
Narrative Character Artist Statement
The Greenhouse
My short story follows the character Pluveria, a woman who is at a crossroads in her life. Pluveria was once an avid gardener but as stress and age succumbed to her, her passion for what was, dies along with her greenhouse. While in a loveless marriage to a police officer, she reunited with an old fling at her house. She invites “the man” in and he unexpectedly dies while the two reminisce about the old days. As she finds a way to hide the body (under her greenhouse) and tries to continue her life, she notices a single flower growing over the body in the greenhouse the next day. In an attempt to hide the evidence from her husband, she takes up gardening again and is re-inspired to continue her passion. One day in the future, as her husband confronts her about the greenhouse, an argument ensues and she ends up killing her husband for not providing her with the love she needed. Yet again, a single flower appears in the greenhouse where both her loves rest.
To create the visual for this project, I used fellow student Whitney Ross (jr.) as a model that represents the main character-Pluvaria. I dressed the model in age-ambiguous clothes, making them seem middle- aged. The inspiration for Pluveria, was an Amy Winehouse, Helena Boham Carter type person and I think we did a good job of recreating this through costume and makeup. The setting of the photo, a backyard, was picked because it puts the model into the story and in the location where the climax of the story happens. I used clam-shell lighting to soften the model’s features and highlight the metal on the shovel. The shovel is telling prop because in the story, it was used as a murder weapon and used to bury both men in the greenhouse. Using Adobe Photoshop, I touched up the photo, added curve layer adjustments to emphasize the subject and added a dark vignette to draw the viewer’s eye inward. In the future, I would try to be more creative with the use of color lighting and possibly cover the models eyebrows to make the image more surreal and play into the uncomfort.