Research Class
     So besides the epic conclusion from my list that these are not "touchy feely kinda things" I have noticed a few other things....still not very feeling-y though. I have noticed something in common with a lot of the characters in my lists: they all know what they are doing. "Whoopie" you might be saying, but really, sit down and think about it. Do you really know what your doing? Like, with your entire existence? Cuz these guys: Judge Dredd, Master Chief, Tyler Durden, Marcus Fenix, The Punisher, Sara Conner, Frodo Baggins, Space Marines, and Bruce Wayne all  know exactly what it is that they have to do with their lives. They know, beyond a shadow of a doubt what their life's mission is. Can you say the same? And even if they are human about it and have doubts or fears (like Frodo for example), they have the courage to still go out there, face it, and get the job done. And even if they would be seen as psychotic by the majority of the world, (im looking at you Punisher and Tyler Durden) they still have the balls to stick too their guns and fight for what they believe in.
     If I could walk through life with the swag and confidence of a man who knows why he is on this planet, I could die happy (unless I failed my life's mission in which case I would probably die horribly angry and depressed, buuuut you get my point) Hell, if I had that kind of confidence with my art id be a lot happier.
     Something else of note would be that pretty much all of the things on my list revolve around extreme circumstances. Bruce Wayne only became the dark knight because off some serious childhood trauma from watching his parents get murdered right in front of him. Walter White, a mellow high school teacher, only started cooking meth because he got terminal cancer and wanted to ensure his family's financial well being after he inevitably died. The Boondock Saints starting offing badguys for a living after they were nearly murdered by some. Ya see what I'm getting at here? It took extra ordinary circumstances to create these extra ordinary characters that have the level of conviction that they do.

Research Class

     Last class we discussed our first blog post and how that showed what kind of things we were interested in and how those things correlated to our art and ourselves. We talked about their fundamental basics and the roots of those things and how we should take a deeper look into them. All that got me thinking about what kind of stuff I tend to gravitate towards, so I made a list and there defiantly seems to be some consistencies.....here's the list so far :
     fight club, dredd, the boondock saints, 40k, brave new world, clockwork orange, django, gears of war, batman, halo, 300, jar head, claymore, blade of the immortal, fahrenheit 451, the sheild, breaking bad, sons of anarchy, game of thrones, the punisher, orphanage, aliens, terminator, star wars, braveheart, dbz, wanted, dead space, matrix, watchmen, kickass, lotr
     I think it's safe to say that none of these are real touchy feely kinda things.

Back to the drawing board

     Last critique class I was working on a sequential art piece that was centered around several characters that a friend of mine had created. They were a group of ordinary citizens who became vigilantes to get rid of the crime in their city. My plan was to focus on the sequential aspect and to make a multi-page project, possibly even an entire comic, using the backdrop and characters my friend had created. But I was directed to knock it off and do my own thing. So here we are back at the drawing board. Now my plan is to do a character creation form begging to finish for the class.

Rhona's Research Class: Portfolio Creation

     Only a couple classes into the semester and already I'm learning about myself as an artist (yay). One big thing that I've come to understand in particular is that I'm drawn to a good story and a fleshed out character. Doesn't matter what the medium is, could be anything: comics, drawing, video games, movies, books, storyboards, RPGs, whatever. What they have in common (or should) is the story and characters. Something could have crappy production value, poor graphics, anything...but if the characters are believable and well thought out and the story is compelling, then I'm willing to overlook its flaws.
     Medium is not the message. The medium is simply a backdrop for the real stars of the show; the stage for the actors.
     We did a collaboration/conglomerate of a project last semester in Commercial Art II for our final. And one of the first things we had to do was basically to invent this character and give them a life and persona of their own. And damn it, if by the end of that project I didn't feel like Dr. Frank after he gave life to his monster. I knew my character "The Wolf" inside and out. Heck we were finishing each others sentences by the end of the project...its like we were the same...person....O_O
     Now, albeit, in hindsight parts of his design may have been a bit...well say, well trodden...but I still pieced this guy together from scratch and made him what he was. I could really put him in just about any situation and know how hes going to react. In doing this I also learned a great deal about myself. He ended up teaching me as much as I taught him. I put into him my frustration, anger, confusion, hurt, and need for revenge; and in return he helped me deal with those things in a round about way.
     Ok DJ, getting sidetracked....back to earth now.
     Where were we? Story and characters, that's right. Yes, so that final project was a great exorcise in character building and story weaving, especially since we had to work with other artist within the class and even in partner with a GIT class from the Tech department to complete it.
     We also ended up doing a storyboard and a children's book illustration in that class (pictured below). We were giving the freedom of choosing how to illustrate the children's book and I was Inexorably drawn towards the comic book medium of storytelling. I think this is because of a certain level of comparability  within that style of illustrating, but also because it is a nice blending of story telling (like traditionally from a book) and of course from a visual standpoint as well. It's different yet similar to other mediums.
     So, for personal work, what I am going to do is to explore this interest in the telling of stories and the building of characters. I do enjoy the previous work I have done in this area (The Wolf, Rapunzel, Brave New World), and while I do think they are well done there is always something that can be improved upon. I want to find that. At the present I believe one of the major things is that I need to take that story or that person and really adopt them and make them MY own. To totally own that work and tell it in my way, which I believe I can see starting to come through in the Brave New World page. I had to translate a very adult conversation and make it suitable for a younger audience so I think I was in greater control over that piece that some of my other perhaps. But that is my goal: to completely understand and control a work so that I may express it in the best way possible, even if the subject matter started as someone else's, rather than just translating something into something else and calling it art.

The three images below are some roughs on some characters for a story called "The Prodigals". A friend of mine, in his spare time, likes to write and draw out comics. "The Prodigals" revolves around a group of ordinary people who are tired of the crime in their city and form a vigilante group to do something about it. These are a few of those people and what I think that they might look like.

"Is this really what I'm fighting for?"

"So they don't ever wanna see my face again huh? Well, lets see how they like this one!"