Thursday 30 September 2010

a cartoony approach to my final character

Not very relevant to what we are supposed to do but...i like cartoons!  Here is my lionfish-mermaid I created myself in colour and with the outlines.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

experimenting with collage

I tried combining a woman's body with lionfish fins. It turned out bizzare and funny.


AUTODESK MAYA-DICES

Well it was a lot harder than I thought...it was actually a real pain since I haven't used Maya before. But with the tutorial's help and Simon's support I finally have my outcome.

Tuesday 28 September 2010

2nd live drawing

full figure drawing (30') The proportions look a bit wrong to me but i like the shading.
Full figure drawing using only lines and shapes.
 I didn't really know what we were supposed to do then but it was very interesting how different and unique everyone's work was.
different body parts (10' each)

LA BELLE ET LA BETE

mo
The films follows the story of the classic fairytale of Beauty and  the Beast with a rather theatrical touch. It was made in 1942 and is really manifesting the romantic atmosphere of the decade.
THE STORY
Adelaide, Felicie, Belle and Ludovic are young adult siblings living with their father. The family is in ruin as the father's merchant ships were lost in the sea. Nevertheless, Adelaide and Felicie are still spending their family's money on looking beautiful whereas Beauty is slaving for the house. Ludovic's friend, Avenant, on the other hand, is interested in Beauty and is planning to marry her. One stormy night as Beauty's's father was walking through the forest, he found and old castle and decided to use it as shelter over the night. After stealing a blossom from the rose bushes, which is what Beauty asked for as a gift, an angry beast approached him. It gave him two options for the theft, his own death or the one of his daughters'. Feeling guilty for what happened Beauty decides to sacrifice herself and live in the old castle along with the beast. But it turned out the beast did not want to kill her but marry her. But she was never forced to do so, she was asked every night by the beast to marry her even though she always replied negatively. As the time went by, Beauty began to look into the beast's soul  and uncovering it's good side. After finding out her father was terribly sick, Beauty begged the Beast to release her and promised she would come back. The Beast allowed her to leave the castle but he was about to die of grief because of her absence. But the love between them was so strong it made the beast turn into a handsome man and they both lived happily ever after in their magical kingdom.

WHAT I THINK OF THE FILM
I must admit this was the first time I have ever seen anything like it! It was a fantasy-fairytale film which had a strong taste of a theatrical play. The main theme of the fairytale-story was love triumphing over appearance which is what we most likely find in fairytales. The actors were acting as if they were on stage and the dialoge reminded me of poetry, yet the film didn't turn out over sentimental. The film wasn't even childish which was one of the main differences from the Disney animated version . What I noticed during watching it was the big influence the film had to Disney. The characters appear to be similar along with the castle scenery. The atmosphere of the film was gloomy and mysterious. I believe the fact that the shadows have a strong presence in the film made the characters stand out more. I think the best scene is where Beauty runs in the magical castle in slow motion. That reminded me of a childhood nightmare.  Overall,  it was a very interesting film to watch, an innovative way of telling the story, and was a real sample of romantic art of the late 50's. 


WHAT DO OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF THE MOVIE
"As Cocteau properly retains in his diary of the film’s making, Beauty and the Beast has the structure of a poem, its inherent ambiguity, moral narrative, and visual emphasis."


It really does remind me of a poem as it brings out a dream-like state.


"Director Jean Cocteau created a visually stunning world in which to populate his characters. Even seen today, the technical and artistic achievements of the film are quite impressive."


It is true that the film was ahead from it's time as the equipment was advanced for that decade.


"Jean Cocteau's frighteningly beautiful surrealist take on the classic story is a potent antidote if Disney's given you one swig too many of the sweet stuff."


Disney is an animation industry and somehow has to make it's films more childish. The first film's mood is more phantasmagorical and Disney gives an over-sweet taste to the fairytale.


STILLS

This is the nightmarish slow motion scene which gave me goosebumps.



The candles are obviously a good example of how much Disney was influenced by this movie.


The beast is hiding in the bushes ready to strike for Beauty's father who stels a rose from his garden.

Monday 27 September 2010

tracing over my self portraits

I came up with the idea of tracing different 'fish-like' characters over my self portraits. In this way the actual character would look more like me.







Sunday 26 September 2010

experimenting for final digital painting


I am in a bit of a dilemma whether my character should look feminine or not. It will either be a woman with some lionfish features or a lionfish with a woman's body.

Autodesk Maya introduction


This is the 3D image Alan, our tutor, gave us as a task. Our first tutorial had to do with the dices. They seemed pretty easy to do but I need to go through the process again as I can't remember much after Friday. Luckily, there is a video on my UCA which shows the process step by step. 

more head sketches






Wednesday 22 September 2010

studying the fish anatomy

ABE SAPIEN (hell boy)

This is a character my friend suggested me as research for my project. He is related to the animal I am working on which is a fish and he perfecty resembles one.







Abraham "Abe" Sapien (born Langdon Everett Caul) is a fictional character in thecomic book series Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola. He is identified as an Icthyo sapiens, similar to a merman. (Don't get too excited!! These sketches are not mine! :P)






As well as regular appearances in Hellboy and B.P.R.D., Sapien has also starred in his own one-shot comic, Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead by Brian McDonald and Derek Thompson, and the mini-series Abe Sapien: The Drowning by Mike Mignola.


THE FLY- the remake ( 1989)

The film was made in 1986 and was the remake of the classic blockbuster film of 1958 The Fly directed by David Cronenberg. The plot is based on the old version but has had several changes.
THE STORY 
Seth Brundle is a brilliant scientist working on the subject of teleportation. He has basically invented two teleportation pods and has managed to teleport several inanimate object but never living flesh. When he begins an affair with Veronica, a journalist, he offers her the opportunity to be the first one to witness the actual machine working . She found the idea intriguing  and accepts to help him with his project. After several attempts he finally succeeded in teleporting a living thing. But after Veronika's lover, Stathis, threatens the couple, Seth decides to use himself as a guinea-pig for the teleportation pod. As the days went by he realised a number of changes on his body and began to think it had to do with the teleportation. He then discovers a fly was accidently in the pod with him which results to a genetically spliced man with a fly. His condition gradually got worse and turned him into a monster-predator. The love triangle between the three of them emerges into a terrible 
 ending where Veronica had no choice but to kill Seth and Stathis was left heavily injured by the fly-monster's predator instincts.
WHAT I THINK OF THE FILM
When I first heard we would watch the remake of a film I was a bit skeptical about it. But after watching it I understood why this particular film is  a note-worthy, landmark of modern horror movies. The cast, though small, was very helpful in terms of enabling the viewer to focus on the the subject matter of human relationships. The directory was astonishing and  had a building up suspense which made the film more attractive to the viewer. Of course the last fighting scene was the zenith of the whole story. The atmosphere of the film had grayish tones with sombre moods but then and again being enlightened by the couple's happy moments.The special effects were jaw-dropping and exquisite for an 80's film. Seth's transformation was subtle, gradually growing into his body and mind, which turned him into an unconscious predator. I wouldn't say it scared me as much as it made me feel disgusted of our own body parts, especially the scene were all the extra flesh was falling off Seth as he was turning into an insect or when he used his own vomit to melt skin.  All in al, I enjoyed the film as much as everyone else did yet with a rather upset stomach.


WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF THE FILM
"Cronenberg mucks up the original in a good way"


As I said I was a bit concerned about the fact that the film was a remake as they are usually not as impressive as the original ones. But including some certain changes in the story it turned out better than the first one, in my point of view.


"Instead of being a pretty good cautionary fable about the limits of technology, it's a show-and-tell in fifth grade biology."


It did give me the impression the story wasn't going to be devoted to technology from the very begining.


"Creepy, moody, and downright gory science-fiction horror flic that generates many moments of utter disgust, revulsion, pleasure and sympathy."


The film had a huge diversity of mixed feelings which gradually progressed to the shocking ending.


Seth is about to teleport himself in this scene and where he didn't notice the fly which was with him.

This is probably the most disturbing and shocking scene of the film. Seth is turning into an actual monster bug and chunks of flesh are falling off him to reveal the hideous transformation.



The monster pukes on Stathis's hand and melts it. Something that just gave me an upset stomach.



THE FLY (1958)


The Fly is a 1958 American sciennce fiction film, directed by Kurt Neumann. The screenplay was written by James Clavell, from the short story "The Fly" by George Langelaan. It was followed by two sequels, Return of The Fly and Curse of The Fly.
THE STORY
Apart from a member of a happy family Andre Delambre is an ambitious scientist working on a teleportation device. After a number of experiments he decides to teleport himself. What he didn't notice was a fly that accidently flew in the teleportation pod with him. The result was a hybrid man spliced with a fly. Andre's wife, Helen, now has to find the fly to reverse the progress. After trying several times to catch it the fly flew away leaving Andre with no other choice but to destroy every evidence of this horrific experiment- including himself. He then  forced his wife to contribute to his self destruction by making her press the button of a hydraulic press. Helen is now traumatised and obsessed with flies, particularly a whited-head one and  is named as a murderer which leeds her to commit suicide.


WHAT I THINK OF THE FILM
The Fly is one of the definitive big-budget horror film of it's era. It's impact and it's influence are still being felt in modern horror films. Although the film's special effects don't match the current ones it seems like it was pretty scary for that time (1960's). Two scenes are the ones which are indelibly impressed on my memory. First, the one where Helen uncovers her husbands head, revealing the horrendous transformation of his face. Second is the screaming scene of the man-looking spider and it's eventual death by a spider.  What I really enjoyed about the actual film was the scenario and the acting which is very different to what we see nowadays. A lot of people thought it looked very fake and out of date but I believe it's been beautifully made even though it's visualisations are contrasting to today's horror films. In addition, it was a story of the psychological adventure of this traumatised woman who has to live the rest of her life thinking of her crime. Psychological films genuinely appeal to me as it's more engrossing looking into people's mystifying minds. To sum up, I am the kind of person that dislikes old movies but this one proved me wrong as it was way ahead from it's time.


WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK OF THE FILM
"A barometer for what some people perceive as funny and what others think is creepy"


I think that the people who perceived it as funny are the current ones. Obviously this film was named as one of the most horrific ones in the late 50's.


"A true classic of the genre ... but I still like the remake better."


Of course, the majority of people believe the remake is the best along with me.


"Clavell's script successfully treads a fine line between black comedy and po-faced seriousness."


To be honest it did seem like some kind of a comedy to me but only because I am not familiar with what was considered as frightening for that time.


STILLS
This is one of the most memorable scenes of the movie where Andre's son and brother are unable to help the fly as it's been eaten up by a ferocious spider. 

 'Help me! Help me!' is the squealing sound of the half human spider. The close up of the spider is rather freaky and it's what most people remember from the movie. 


Even being a monster Andre is still in love with his wife but feels miserable that he cannot express it her as he feels repulsive.


Tuesday 21 September 2010

Some experimentation with the lionfish's skin colours.

My first live drawing lesson

Although I haven't done that many live drawing lessons this is what I managed to come up with. What I mostly enjoy about it is the shading....as you can see!  I think I've done quite well for my first live drawing lesson but I still need a lot more practice to get the human body proportions right.


 This pose had to be done in 30'
In this we had to chose 3 different body parts from 3 different poses and draw it on one single paper ( 20' each)