Stage 2

For our Stage Two I had to make a children's activity instruction page based on the theme of 'flying' to be published in a magazine. All I could think of for this was paper aeroplanes so I started to look  into origami

 

Buttefly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbUGg7CDdc4

F15 Eagle Jet Fighter Paper Plane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WnAsrh3XvQ
 

 

 I figured to use these I would adapt them slightly so I wouldn't breach any copyright rules from these tutorials. However, I soon realised that illustrating these into a instructional activity would be very complex and time consuming - not to mention hard for the target audience which is younger children.

 

 

I then had a brainwave, an idea that would be thinking outside the box. I used to play a lot with cut out dolls from children's magazines when I was younger and thought I could still do this but make her a fairy to keep in line with the theme.

Below is the final product, it is a bit out of my comfort zone as I don;t have much experience with cartoons or digital drawing yet, but I am happy with the outcome. It could do with some tweaking, I would work on making the piece more visually attractive for children and clearer instructions.

Frank Miller

Frank Miller is an artist, writer and director that rose to fame when working on failing comic 'Davedevil'. His unique style made him a rising star and he progressed to become writer and artist for the comic. Though this he created a world famous character 'Electra' and went on to create one of the most famous stories ever, Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. His gritty and mature take on the superhero shook the comic book world and changed the way comics were made, making him a legend.


Frank then independantly created his series 'Sin City', which was then adapted into a movie that he helped to direct (trailer right). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKFLrTYKIXk
He seemed to work predominately in black and white for his work on Sin City to make it seem more grimy and dark which the film adopted too. I like it as when he does use a different colour (mostly red or yellow) it accentuates the emotion he wishes to convey. For example, the use of the colour red could reinforce or symbolise lust, love, blood or anger.

 

Jump!

 

Our first task for Sequential Image Making was to create a short narrative made from found sources, the only rule is that each narrative must include the word, 'Jump!'.

 

Immediately my thoughts go to a game called 'Doodle Jump' when brainstorming as all my other ideas either left me stumped or just made me think of Dawn French jumping in that unfortunate puddle on The Vicar of Dibley... (link below)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq2DNu66AD8

Settling with the Doodle Jump idea I drew up some ideas for my narrative and analysing the cartoon character named 'The Doodler' used in the game. The game was created by Lima Sky and released on April 6 in 2009. Since it has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

My feedback on this idea was that I should change the character and disguise the name slightly so I wouldn't be breaking any copyright boundaries but make it familiar enough to the audience to know the origin of the idea and the link to Doodle Jump. To do this experimented with making the 'Doodler's' shape the opposite to the original, making the lines on his shorts vertical instead of horizontal and the body wiggly. I then went through the alphabet rhyming letters with 'doodle' and drew up some ideas with the words I found...

 

 

I settled on the word 'noodle' because I think its the best and most fun way represent the characeter. To create the story I used tissue paper, card, masking tape and pen to make the final piece (pictured below in stages), which I like and i'm proud of. I like the 3D effect with the piece as it sets it apart from the rest and adds another fun quality.

 

 



 



Zoetrope

 

 The Zoetrope has been around since 1830's and was invented by British mathematician William George Horner. It is a mechanical optical device that allows to you see a series of images very quickly so it appears as a looped animation and was a very popular Victorian parlor toy until it was replaced by modern film technology. He named it the 'Daedalum' which translates to 'wheel of the devil' but was later renamed the 'Zoetrope' meaning 'the wheel of life'. It was created around the same idea of a device called a 'phenakistoscope' (pictured below) invented by Joseph Plateau, which requires mirrors but cannot be viewed by more than one person unlike Horner's zoetrope which multiple people can view

 

Zoetrope

Source: http://www.cutoutfoldup.com/images/1108-i.jpg

 



 

 

Phenakistoscope

Source: http://gifstumblr.com/cool/phenakistoscope-early-animation-device-1380 

 

 

 

 My Version

 

I decided to make an animation of a woman flicking her hair as drawing subjects is a strength of mine and the hair could have an interesting effect when put in motion. To create this idea I videoed myself flicking my hair around in a circular motion to see how it fall and what angles my body and head made in the process. Unfortunately this video was lost but you can see how I used it to influence my final piece.

 

Through observing this and using a lightbox I created a series of drawings to be used on a strip of paper for the zoetrope. To show you how it would look i've created a GIF image below..

If I would change anything I would make the transitions between picture more precise and accurate so the whole animation would be more smooth.

 

 

 





Yellow Kid

It has been argued there were others before it, but the most famous first newspaper comic was called 'Yellow Kid'. It was created by Richard Outcault and a series of them were published by The New York World in 1895. Due to it's popularity rival The New York Journal hired Outcault, effectively stealing him from The New York World, to work for them instead. The comic is based on a character named Mickey Dugan - better known as Yellow Kid - who is a bald snagged toothed boy who hung around slum alleys in 19th century New York City. It showed the adventures he got up to with the other odd kids in the area. 

I actually find this character quite scary, as I think it resembles a large baby that has grown but not changed in appearance and could belong in a horror movie. However, I find it clever  and creative that his speech and dialogue is printed on his shirt in each picture which is much different to comics nowadays.