Research Blog Post 3 (Context & Analyzing, Interpreting the data, Reporting and Evaluating Research)

Ultimately I'm limited in my scope of this project, since I wouldn't be able to travel to any large cities to get a bigger sample of opinions. However, any direction would help me in my future monster designing endeavors.

By figuring out what traits make a monster scarier than others to a large group of people, I can design more terrifying monsters and hopefully enhance the feeling of danger in my webcomic. Once I've established which set of traits rank among the top most terrifying, I can pick and choose which traits I'll incorporate into which design. I'm not going to limit myself to solely these traits when drawing monsters. Each monster may have one or two of the scariest traits, but for the sake of variety I'd switch it up and keep things fresh for my readers. The monsters they should feel more threatened by might have more of these traits than less important monsters.

Research Project - Beyond yourself (Data Collection)

In order to research my question, I had to figure out how to narrow my parameters. While it would be really interesting to find out what scares people the most about images, there's simply too many flavors of horror to do this. So, I've narrowed my research specifically to what monster design scares the most people. This means no scary little children, no psychotic killers, or anything of that nature. If I'm wanting to create horrifying demons in my webcomic, I think researching monster design is the path that will help me the most.

The way I've decided to go about this is that I'll take a few of my friends or co-workers and show them a series of images. These images will show different common elements I've noticed while researching monster designs. The participants will rate the elements on a scale from one to ten, one being not scary, and ten being terrifying.

I know that horror is also very subjective, so I'll review the results once the surveys have been completed and ask why the participant may have rated one attribute higher than another. I'll probably use Survey Monkey to make the survey, so that it's easily accessible to my participants.

Once the results are in, I'll average out which elements got the highest scores, and create a monster design based on those elements.

Research Topic - Fall 2015

For the Fall semester of 2015, I have to research a topic in art. For this, I've chosen to dig deeper into what specifically makes a drawing or illustration evoke feelings of terror in the viewer.

This could be particularly useful to me in the future, as I'm wanting to make a webcomic that features demons, and knowing how to make something elicit feelings of unease or fright in my readers could enhance my work.

I've heard people say about a picture "Oh, that's scary" but they never really give a specific reason why. I'm hoping to break it down and find out which particular elements cause those feelings.

Personally, I'm intrigued by the dark and macabre, and get a thrill out of horror movies and scary stories. I'm curious about why I feel these things, too, and how a simple image that can't harm me in any way can cause such a panicked reaction.

Writing 5(blog posts) for Crit 4

At critique 3 I ended up showing the two images I posted last time, plus getting color feedback on two more that I didn't. I received a lot of positive feedback on them and a few suggestions. One of them was that I should try to push the story of my work farther, like giving the little girl a ferocious, rearing, monstrosity rather than the stoic horse-dragon. While I'm going to keep that piece as-is, I'll definitely try to push myself more in future pieces.

In the aftermath of my senior art exhibit, I haven't been doing much work (the few weeks before it were so insanely busy, I feel pretty burnt out). However, I need to start working on fanart for the two conventions I'll be doing this year. I've also got the 4th and final critique this week.

I have been doing some work since the show that I've found fun. I took the look and feel of old 50's Pinup girls and applied it to traditional fantasy races (Elves, dwarves, Drow, etc.). I also love clothing from that era. Right now I've got 2 versions of a Mermaid. I'm keeping their physical form fantastical, but basing the clothing on fashions of that era.

Two artists that I'm really looking to for inspiration are Gil Elvgren, and Duane Bryers. I love classic Pinup girls, because for the most part they are sexy, but still retain a certain amount of class that I really like. I'm also going to push myself and try to do them lineless and more painterly, to better mimic Mr. Elvgren's style. I'd also like to incorporate the humor of Bryers's work in some of my pieces, as well.

Here are some of Duane Bryers's works:

 

Here is some of Gil Elvgren's work:

 

 

As for my classmates, another whose work I'd like to highlight is Emily Westhoff. She paints a lot of pastoral scenery, and loves to depict the wide open spaces of midwestern prairies:



http://emilyrosepainting.blogspot.com/

Writing 4(blog posts)for Crit 3

Last critique went pretty well. I got a lot of positive feedback on my eight comic pages, along with some suggestions for reference materials to look at. My next critique is coming up on Friday, and I'm rushing to get things ready. I've got two pieces to show so far, and I'd like to get two more done. Here are the two I finished recently:

 

This one shows a character of mine named Samhain that I haven't drawn for awhile. Recently I've been going back and reworking his story to be more suited to an adult audience. Samhain has a being inhabiting him called either "Black Ether" or "Azrael" and it gives him powers over death. He helps the recently deceased cross over in his dreams.

 

This is the second piece I finished. Originally I drew this with no particular character in mind, but then my boyfriend pointed out how the little girl reminded him of one of our Pathfinder characters' daughters. So I made the little girl into her and I really like how it came out. She has a talent for bringing home unusual creatures. :)

Here's one of my classmate's blogs. She's also a commercial art student and has recently been doing a lot with photography and drawing. Check out her work here:

https://rebekahmparrish.wordpress.com/

Writing 6 (blog posts) Artist Lecture

Yesterday I went to Ariel Bowman's artist talk. Ever since seeing her art I'd been curious as to how she made it. Here is some of her work:

 

Out of all of the pieces displayed in Porter Hall right now, my favorite is this one:

 I like how precariously balanced the elephants are. Also the fact that they're different species of ancient elephant is very cool.

For her lecture, Ms. Bowman used a projector and powerpoint presentation. Not only did she show pictures of her finished work, but she showed in-progress shots that explained how she made her art. She also included pictures of people whose work had inspired her, which I hadn't thought of doing but might consider for my final lecture.

Writing 3 (blog posts) for Crit 2

So, we had our first critique awhile ago. It was fun to finally see so many of my classmates' works in person. As for my own work, I think the ten comic pages I did went over well. Jamie had a couple comments about a few panel compositions and some suggestions for changes that I intend to follow. My classmates said they really liked how I drew my characters' hair and expressions. There were a couple anatomy errors that they noticed, some of which I knew about and others that I hadn't. Glad the latter got pointed out. :D

For this upcoming critique, I'll be bringing eight pages of a different idea for a webcomic. I'm trying to pay closer attention to anatomy (which is proving tricky with a character that has animal anatomy, something I'm not used to drawing). I'm also trying to come up with more interesting compositions. Another new thing for me to puzzle over is how to convey action in a comic. I've never done fight scenes before, and trying to show movement in a still picture is very difficult for me.  Here are a couple preview images:

For the creatures in this webcomic, I'll be drawing a lot of inspiration from horror-based sources, but particuarly from Stephen Gamell, who is best known for his child traumatizing illustrations in the "Stories to tell in the dark" series of books. Here are a few of them:

Even years after first seeing those pictures as a kid, they still freak me out.  :)

So, for this post I'd like to direct your attention to the blog of another one of my classmates. Her name is Gaga, and she does some really interesting things with non-traditional materials:

http://nanxuanzheng.blogspot.com/

I like how she takes mundane items and connects them in a unique way. I also think her jewelry is adorable. ^_^

Writing 2 Blog Post for Crit 1

Since I was told I could bring in-progress work to the critiques, I'm going to bring sketches for a future comic. I'd rather get feedback when I can still easily change things than have a glaring issue pointed out to me after I've inked the pages. It's going to be a scene from one of my books that I've wanted to make into a comic for almost a year. Here's a couple pictures of what I've got so far:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

This actually gave me an idea for my senior exhibit. I've always wanted to do a webcomic, and recently I've had 2 ideas. This story about Samhain is one of them, and the other is about an immortal Southern Belle named Savannah. I've decided I'm going to make the intro to Savannah's comic as well, then display both and have people vote on which story intrigues them more.

This week I'm going to share one of my fellow student's work with you. Her name is Hannah Coward and she does primarily 2D art. I like how she uses color and texture to make her work pop.

https://hannahcoward.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/introduction-3/

My personal favorite is the picture of the amusement park ride with the splatter on it. :)

A couple weeks ago I went to the ID series of lectures on campus. I saw the presentation about art therapy as it was used after the Joplin tornado. I had mixed feelings on it. While I think that art is important, I think that it could've been put on hold to help people find basic amenities. When the speaker said that this big fundraiser was held and all the money was donated to buy instruments and art supplies, this feeling intensified. As I said before, I think the arts are very important, but at the time of this fundraiser, I know there were still people without shelter, food, or facing massive medical bills. The $25,000 they raised could have helped a lot. Buy instruments and art supplies after everyone has a roof over their heads. I felt similarly about the 'spirit tree,' because the tree died as a result of the paint they covered it in.

I'd like to see this college bring in some non-fine arts speakers. I'd like to hear from someone who works in the graphic design industry, or makes comics. Something that's a little more applicable to what I'll be doing after school.

Writing (blog posts)_1 : About Carlie

I've always loved stories, and from a young age I had a cast of characters that I wrote about. Around age 8 I wanted to be able to show others what these characters looked like, so I began to learn how to draw. Fifteen years later, I've been lucky enough to have one book published at age 16, and I'm currently studying Commercial Art. I've got plans for several more books and webcomics, and ultimately I'd like to end up in the field of video games as a character designer. I still have many characters rattling around in my head, and they're all clamoring for their stories to be told.

This series of inked pictures were projects I did for school a year ago. They feature some of my favorite villains that I've created:

I've been inspired by many artists, including Hiromu Arakawa, Tracy J. Butler, and Shamine King.

The first of these, Hiromu Arakawa, is a Japanese Manga artist who wrote and drew my favorite Manga/Anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist.These next two pieces are hers: 

I love how she depicts her characters, and her ability to tell a story both through word and picture is phenomenal.

the next artist, Tracy J. Butler, works at a video game studio in the midwest and is also the author/artist of a webcomic called Lackadaisy. I greatly admire how polished her style looks, and how she can so clearly get a character's personality across with how they look. Plus, she also has a lot of extremely helpful tutorials. These next three pieces are hers:

One of my favorite Lackadaisy "Extra" Comics

The last artist I mentioned is Shamine King, who is another art student studying at Lasalle College of the Arts. She is studying animation and character design, two things I'm really interested in. There's a certain quality about her work that I really admire. I love how fluid her characters' motions are, and how expressive their faces can be. It's a bit hard for me to find examples of her work, as her Deviantart Account is on hiatus. These next three pieces are all hers:

 

Example of Miss King's comics

So, after taking some time to look at which artists inspire me, I realized that they are artists who deal primarily with character design and storytelling. Also, all of them make comics. I'd never really considered comics that much before going to college, but now that I've dabbled in it, it seems like a perfect marriage between what I love to do most (Writing and drawing). Almost every bit of art I do has a story behind it.
Here is some more of my work, all of them either characters I've created for stories or for Pathfinder (a tabletop role-playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons).

 

It's been a long time since I've worked with colors, and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of that this semester.