I used the holidays as an opportunity for me to draw some artwork. After I saw the new star wars film. I began to develop some artwork of the Antagonist Kyla Ren. I liked the character for his appearance. Although he looked very much like Darth Vader in the previous movies, I did like how his design looked quite simple. I can understand why the film makers wanted him to be a very complex charter however form a different perspective he is basically a emotional stereotype based on his emotional and tempered performance in the film. The only difference is that when he takes off the helmet it feels like a completely different character. While it is a nice change, it feels somewhat out of place. Furthermore in this iteration of the character he looked like Jon snow from the HBO TV show Game of Thrones if he was a dark Jedi.I began this practice with a speed paint of the charter. It was an attempt to work on my skills in figure drawing. I drew Kylo in a superior pose with his saber out ,looking down at the viewer with head tilted upward and smiling quite menacingly.
First Attempt
Refined Line Art
Coloured Art
Flipped Character with Background
Flipped Final Version
Satirical Illustration
While I was in the mood and influence of the film I drew some doodles as a way to satirise the character. In the film, he was portrayed as a powerful individual but with a weak and unstable mind. I drew the character in a comic style playing the Mobile app, Flappy bird which has a reputation to be a frustrating but simple game. I tried to establish a scenario where the character would. I was inspired by some comics I found on Tumblr which satirized the characters's behaviour and personality. What amazes me is how quickly these out just after the film's release.
So I decided to include some exaggerated expression for the characters. The main reason I thought I would include these on this blog is because these brief exercises allowed me to warm up my skills in drawing figures and expressions for the start of this semester.
One form of media test I attempted was to take a scene from Star Wars and illustrate how it was portrayed win the film but also in a radio drama format. Although both mediums told teh same story ,the radio drama had a more in depth description of the story and the characters.
The segment I would like to reinterpret into a visual format is from 2:13:24 to 2:16:40
[UPDATED] This video is no longer available.
I chose the scene where Luke heads home to find the place burnt and his family killed. In the radio drama, this scene is reinterpreted from Obiwan's perspective. Luke heads off home while Obi-wan tells C3P0 to bury the Jawas. Luke returns emotionally scarred and he tells Obi-wan about what he saw so that we, the audience can understand what he saw. In this version, Mark Hamill delivers the lines in a more convincing performance. However it is cut short when he changes his decision quickly and decides to join Obi-wan on his quest. In my opinion, I think it would have been more effective if Obi-wan gave Luke some time to recover from his ordeal and to be by himself.
Here is my sketch of the scene based of the film's visual iteration.
Sketch
Line art
Here is how I visually perceived the scene as it was interpreted through the radio drama.
Sketch
Combination Attempt
Here is an attempt I made to combine the two together so that we cut back and forth to Luke when he's telling Kenobi about what happened. While I made this interpretation of the scene. I showed this to a friend and when we discussed the inconsistent and spontaneous change for Luke to instantly changing his mind and joining Obi-wan on his quest. It felt very rushed. He suggested that he may have been thinking about this while driving back. I had a thought of recreating that scene with Luke thinking about the homestead while driving he gets more upset thinking about it and almost hits a rock when he takes his eyes off the road. He parks alongside a canyon edge and a rest his head on the steeling mechanism. I feel this approach might be effective as it can be told without the character saying a word.
Reference
Daley, B. 1981. Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama. [Radio] Prince Frederick: HighBridge_Audio. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEPba_tdFbk [Accessed 1 Oct. 2015].
While I show great interest in Star Wars especially the sci-fi genre, I thought it would be ideal for me to take this opportunity to allow me to carry out some practice for my honours project.
I made series of thumbnails reenacting one of the pivotal scene in the Star Wars films, The destruction of Alderaan.
Star Wars Destruction of Alderaan Storyboard
At the time, I was trying to see if I could try and visualize a particular scene from the movie. What I did was listened to the audio from the scene without visuals and tried to draw quickly how each part of the scene would have been performed. Eventually I revisited the scene for visual reference on the costumes and scene composition. At times I feel that I have succeeded in capturing the performances of characters from the character Tarkin being threatening and menacing to Leia feeling oppressed and intimidated state. However the original scene itself lacked a form of emotion from certain characters. I focused on Leia's face as she witnessed the destruction of her home planet. I wanted to try and capture her emotion during this moment. I kept the visuals very simple to allow me to get an idea of where certain visuals clues would go.While I wish for my project to go for a minimal verbal approach. Star Wars is a major franchise that crosses multiple cultures and to me feels universal. This was just a form of practice to display my skills to tell an existing source materials while using old and new elements.
Rendered Still
I'm also made this drawing from one of the panels I made for this story board.
