Synopsis: A couple has a child, but complications arise and a blue pyramid is born instead of a human child. The couple grapples and struggles, especially the wife, as they wait for the doctors to determine how to bring the baby into the human world. The situation continues to worsen, but the doctors find a solution: they cannot bring the baby boy into the human world, but they CAN recreate the conditions to bring the parents into the baby's world of abstract shapes. They will see each other as human, but to the rest of the world, they will appear as alien beings who cannot be understood. Because of their love for the child, the parents join their son. Here is the fifth illustration showing Peter's decision at hand: wait for the doctors to come up with a solution to bring their baby to them, which could take years, or join their baby in his world. Could I portray the thought and inner conflict that was in this scene? It starts with the thumbnail: Now I know that that doesn't really look like anything, but even in this 1" square thumbnail, I can tell that the composition will work. There are clear foreground and background, the main character is framed nicely, and the character posing already effectively separates Polly into her own space from the doctor and her husband, physically as well as psychologically.
I've drawn enough now where good draftsmanship is still something I strive for, but even more important is to tell the story. I've been studying a lot of Tom Lovell illustration lately and I noticed how he will use character eyes to direct focus. By directing where characters are looking, like Dr. Wolcott and Peter Horn in this case, this scene becomes all about Polly. I could have tightened up some of the elements here, but I really enjoyed the energy and looseness of this one. One more drawing to go!
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Synopsis: A couple has a child, but complications arise and a blue pyramid is born instead of a human child. The couple grapples and struggles, especially the wife, as they wait for the doctors to determine how to bring the baby into the human world. The situation continues to worsen, but the doctors find a solution: they cannot bring the baby boy into the human world, but they CAN recreate the conditions to bring the parents into the baby's world of abstract shapes. They will see each other as human, but to the rest of the world, they will appear as alien beings who cannot be understood. Because of their love for the child, the parents join their son. So here's illustration number 4 of 6. This was the illustration that I did last and took the longest time. This is a pivotal image, but it seemed very challenging; a single still drawing had to show that Polly is drunk, she is humiliating herself, and that Peter has witnessed it. Before I started the final drawing at all, I had to understand how to draw a drunk person. I looked up some reference, freeze framed some videos and made some sketches. There is the easy clue of putting a bottle in a hand, but you can make it easier to see; stains on clothes, unkempt hair and clothes. I even added a mismatched button. But for posing, I learned that the key is a lack of balance: I couldn't just draw the pose straight up and down. Also, drunk people can not walk in straight lines (I know this from Randy Marsh from South Park, not from personal experience.) When I gave my first pass at the final drawing, I scanned the below. Sometimes I don't see compositional problems until I see the drawing in the computer. When I saw this image, I realized that the silhouettes were just not reading. I needed space. What to do? It seemed like manipulating it all in photoshop would be too difficult, I can't really mimic my drawing with any Photoshop brushes. So the next best thing: Pulled out a scissors. Oof. So I cut up the image into pieces and taped them on a clean piece of paper. I think it was worth it.
Synopsis: A couple has a child, but complications arise and a blue pyramid is born instead of a human child. The couple grapples and struggles, especially the wife, as they wait for the doctors to determine how to bring the baby into the human world. The situation continues to worsen, but the doctors find a solution: they cannot bring the baby boy into the human world, but they CAN recreate the conditions to bring the parents into the baby's world of abstract shapes. They will see each other as human, but to the rest of the world, they will appear as alien beings who cannot be understood. Because of their love for the child, the parents join their son.
Here is illustration number 3. I'm quite proud of this drawing and I really think that the perspective is something that I could not have pulled off before. This is probably the closest I came to doing what I wanted with this project with regards to the variety and rhythm of the contour drawing. I actually took reference photos of myself for Polly because it was a very tricky pose. Maybe the subject of a future process blog? Even though a drawing like this takes a lot of time, it's so vital (and very difficult) to push the drawing to tell the story. As an illustrator, you are the director and the actor of the scene. All of the decisions are yours to make. As I drew this, I found it easy to sympathize with Polly. It was painful to be at this point of the story where Polly was being so self-destructive. I've had times (not now) where I was deeply unhappy with myself and my life and also made self-destructive decisions and habits. It is the rare times like this, where drawing becomes more than just a fun pastime and can become a deeply personal journey. Synopsis: A couple has a child, but complications arise and a blue pyramid is born instead of a human child. The couple grapples and struggles, especially the wife, as they wait for the doctors to determine how to bring the baby into the human world. The situation continues to worsen, but the doctors find a solution: they cannot bring the baby boy into the human world, but they CAN recreate the conditions to bring the parents into the baby's world of abstract shapes. They will see each other as human, but to the rest of the world, they will appear as alien beings who cannot be understood. Because of their love for the child, the parents join their son. Here is the second illustration. After being warned about the child, the Horns finally meet him. I may return to this one later as I'm not sure I like the posing on this one.
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Brandt WongThis blog shows the progress and describes my thoughts on my most recent project(s). Archives
September 2019
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