The Colour - The colours used are appropriate and the ways they're used are very clever. When the characters are talking in the dream, the colours are bright and unrealistic and when they talk in reality everything looks more natural and blunt. There isn't a wide range of colours however, just simple, primary colours with different tones.
The Text - I think that the text is pretty boring as it's all just plain text, all in the same size and all the same colour. The only time that the text changes is when they put some in capital letters so you know that it's important although they could have done more.
The Use of Images - All of the images are hand drawn and then put into photoshop. I think most of the images look pretty good but it's clear that some were reused where they have just been flipped around.
Artist Appreciation - CentralIllustration.com
CIA's, or Central Illustration's, work is the most inspiring to me.
CIA are based in London and are considered to be a huge inspiration to online graphics in the UK.
They focus on 'Contemporary Commercial Art and Interactive Motion Graphics.
They have done projects for multiple museums and companies but they also do work for individuals.
Jamie B Edwards (urbancolors)
This is Jamie B Edwards from Urbancolours who does football related artwork. He also does large landscape images of cities in this same style. I like his work a lot and it looks like something I could try and recreate in my work. I like the use of all his colours and how they compliment each other with complimentary colours. He tends to stick to very bright images all the time. He makes his work very realistic usually although he tends to colour the sky the colour of the football team's stadium in that piece of work.
Jamie tends to stay away from text as he doesn't think it belongs in artwork (www.urbancolours.com). I like the way he does this as it lets the image tell the whole story.
In general, my favourite thing about his work is the fact that it looks very real. You could go to Everton's football ground and see what's in the picture. It's almost like he takes pictures and recreates them on Photoshop or Illustrator.
Jack and Jill Workshop
BMD Design
BMD are a French design organisation.
I think their work is really appealing and their use of words inside of the actual images almost makes it look like the objects are made from the words is very clever. Their use of complimentary colors on cool colors makes everything stand out and their use of color is always appropriate to the image.
I think taking inspiration from their work is a good idea for our graphic narrative as, to me, their work gives off quite a dark and eery feel. Looking at their website, the majority of their work is done in dark blue or black.
Statement of Intent -
What Grimm tale have you selected and why?
I chose Little Red Riding Hood because I think with one of the main characters being a wolf, it would be relatively easy to turn it into a more sinister graphic. I also know the story well and find it already enjoyable so I think this is the best one for me to do.
What format will your Graphic Narrative take?
My Graphic Narrative will take the form of a comic book because everyone knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood so putting it into a comic without words will be interesting as everyone will perceive it differently.
How will you change your script to make it more modern, historical or futuristic twist to your script, illustrating a mood/style or intended target audience?
I am keeping the story as it is throughout the most part, although I am changing the classic ending with a more dark ending where the wolf actually kills Red and her grandmother. I have decided that I am also going to keep the friendly appearance of the original story so that the ending is more of a shock. I have also decided to take out one of the characters - that being the lumberjack who eventually comes to Red's aid.
What designers or illustrators do you feel will influence and inspire the style you are working toward and why?
I would like to use inspiration from the CIA, whose work I analysed above. Although I don't think that their style would work for a dark tale as they use bright colours in their work. So I don't think I will have any influence.
I am going to create my product in photoshop only as it is what I am most comfortable with. I am going to need to use a variety of tools, although mostly the shape tool, magic wand and crop. I will also use other techniques like changing opacity and depth of images and even text.
Final Product -
EVALUATION OF FINAL PRODUCT
Above is my final product. I swiftly decided to use photoshop to produce it as opposed to Illustrator as I am much more familiar with Photoshop and it's tools. I used many different tools to make it. Mainly, I used the shape tool and the crop tool as I had to draw a lot of shapes onto the frames . I drew the backdrop squares to create the sky and grass illusion. I also drew the clouds and had to draw many squares to cover spots which looked bad or didn't crop correctly. In my narrative, I gave the ending a dark twist although with the colours and start of the story, I kept it bright and upbeat so it seemed like the original tale. I also didn't give it a definite ending so the consumer could decide how it ended in their head - I thought this gave it a more interactive feeling. Instead of just having frames, I decided to have boxes at the bottom of each frame that was a text narrative that you could follow. I think overall my narrative was good, in terms of quality. I feel like I could have gone with a more dark visual so that it was clear I had put a twist on it although if you follow the narrative you can notice. I also think I could have made the frames clearly as in the forest scenes there's a lot going on which forces some of the images to over lap. I think It was right to add some text, as well as have a graphical narrative as it could have been hard to follow. I didn't use to much as it's not needed due to the graphic being the main story-teller.
