Project Two (2330)

Instruction

Finish the project on a 11 x 17 inch tabloid.

Purpose

Finish the project.

My Interpretation

See above and previous progress posts.

     ​I know hunger more than you ever could. I have been “gifted” with a curse from what some call God, though I clearly see her in a different light. She decided one day to punish me for reasons I am uncertain. I simply woke up and I was hungry. Not hungry in a peckish kind of way, not hungry in a discomforting kind of way, not hungry in starving kind of way. Hungry in a kind of way that is reminiscent of having a hole where your stomach would be and your body desperately trying to tell you something is wrong the only way it knows how. Pain. Indescribable, unrelenting pain. I thought I could simply eat, and the problem would be solved, just a cruel joke my body was pulling on itself. I was wrong. I ate and ate and ate but I was still hungry, I had to eat more, I had to eat something, I had to eat someone.

     I don’t remember the first time I tasted human meat very well. I remember it was my own arm, out of sheer desperation to alleviate the pain I took a heaping chunk of it off. To my surprise it was filling. It alleviated the pain and I felt a moment of serendipitous relief as the blood trickled from my teeth down my arm and onto the once clean wooden planks below. I thought that was it, but I could feel the urge deep down, dormant. I realized that this hunger will not go away after such a small snack and my body can only hold so much flesh. 

     I was not a murderer. I was not a cannibal. I will not kill, I will not eat, this is a test that I can overcome, I told myself. Other people will not suffer because of my ailment and I will not be the cause of pain and destruction in others when I have felt such pain myself. I can overcome this. I can overcome this.

However, the hunger remained unwavering. It grew and grew with such force that it drove me mad. The pain was hardly bearable, and to have the solution be right in front of me at all times, just out of reach, was torture. What do morals matter when you’re desperate? It’s survival. I was hungry and I must survive. I stormed outside and made my way to the neighbors plot.

     My first full meal was alive when I had them, albeit not for long. It started with their thigh, if I remember correctly. I strapped them to a chair and made sure their leg was secure and sunk my teeth into the side of the leg. I suppose I must’ve hit an important artery because they fortunately bled out only a few minutes later. Good for them. What came next disgusted even me, selective memory has blocked it out. The point is, I had no leftovers and a big mess to clean, but I wasn’t hungry. I had a feast.

Instruction

Bring a draft of your progress to class.

Purpose

Allow for critique from other classmates and see how well the story is coming along with minimal verbal aid. Check if the style is consistent and emphasizes the tone of the story chosen.

My Interpretation

Presenting my project to other classmates revealed some confusion and critique that was extremely helpful. Obviously, the lack of color is currently the largest issue but that will change in the future. I plan to use a mixture of pen and faded colored pencil to allow for a contrast between stark dark colors (black and red) and muted, aged colors both of which reflect different eras of Romanesque art. Some miscommunication and confusion in character differentiation was brought to my attention through the critique and further efforts to change the character designs for more clarity is happening. Finally, frame eight was a place of confusion for the viewers of my storyboard, so I plan to make the frame smaller, add a border, and change the figures pose to emphasize the distraught feeling floating through the scene.

Instruction

Create a storyboard with 6-10 frames as a draft and template for your final.

Purpose

Find the best way to convey the theme and feel of your story. Experiment with different compositional shots.

My Interpretation

I decided to focus on composition rather than style for this step. I explored closeups, extreme closeups, mid shots, and more wide shots as well as canted angles, over the shoulder, and playing with Fibonacci spirals and golden ratios. I plan to play with changing the frames within the frame, as setting the frames themselves ajar is not an option. I expect to do this by zooming in and out with the composition as a whole, framing the empty space with black.

Horror

Mystery

Science Fiction

Instruction

Create three iterations on your story template using three different genres.

Purpose

Explore and research genre and how tone, mood, and setting can influence the same core story and transform it into something entirely different and new, even changing the narrative.

My Interpretation

I decided to use the genres of horror, mystery, and science fiction as I feel they fit best within the potential for my story.

Instruction

Explore and research possible art styles for your final submission to be in.

Purpose

Understand the fundamentals of the style you’re choosing to represent and be able to properly recreate the style with your personal story.

My Interpretation

I knew with horror being my selected genre that I wanted to learn into the twisted aspect of it all. I explored older dis of art, specifically gothic and Romanesque. Gothic was a nice place to start, but far too plump, flowing, and colorful. The general feel of it was more religious and ethereal than what I aimed to produce, so I moved on. Romanesque style painting was deliberately flat, had confusing and impossible geometry, a lack of proper human anatomy (thin wrists, strange hand forms, unnatural symmetry) and inclusion of words, text, backgrounds. The overall compositions were often more faded, usually only one vivid color, often red or gold. The contrast was extreme and usually the compositions and a whole were relatively dark. These elements combined and slightly twisted could definitely create a horrific scene that I want to pursue.

Instruction

Create mind maps for the three genres you will apply to your genre-less story.

Purpose

Apply conflict, add characters, and create a narrative arc where people change and they’re is a resolution.

My Interpretation

I decided to pick the genres of mystery, horror, and science fiction.

For mystery, the conflict arises in a person finding themselves living in a dulled out world, only the festival of color being vivid, but they detest it. The realization of this strange behavior shocks the character, leading them, to investigate themselves as, in a parallel B plot, another investigator catches wind of rumors being spread that the yearly summer festival is haunted by a ghost. The resolution is when both parties develop their own clues and the reader makes the connections that the main subject of the story was a ghost who died at the festival one year, the investigator finds nothing but this information.

For horror, the conflict is in man vs. beast. A town is terrorized by a terrible monster (human or otherwise) that sees in grays and vivid colors only. It hunts within the gray, the areas removed from the vivid world. The monster often finds itself coming across the color festival, becoming scared and fleeing from what it deems as dangerous (too many hunting humans). Resolution lies in the beast being killed.

For science-fiction, the world is destroyed and our main character is a survivalist learning the ropes of this newly changed world. Aliens have invaded and have taken the minds of many human, making them slaves who only serve the purpose to find more human slaves and work. The slaves/aliens have learned that humans are drawn to thriving civilizations, so they create fake scenes of grandiose fun and joy (the color festival) to trick unsuspecting humans into the area where they can attack and enslave them. The resolution lies in the explanation of this new world, a bittersweet continuation of humans living on regardless of adversity.