Peanuts movie inspiration/ideas/relation to project

I just saw the new Peanuts/Charlie Brown and Snoopy movie (and loved it), and both thematically and aesthetically it's given me a lot to think about. The way the film is animated combines grainy cartoon-esque line work with vibrant computer generated colours and surfaces (e.g hair, clothes) and I feel that is works as a beautiful modern update on the old erratic line work of the Charles Schulz comic strip, without being garish or desperate like a lot of modern neon technicolor nightmare reimaginings (*cough* Thunderbirds *cough*). 

The film also had a lot of themes that I found refreshing and interesting, as a lot of children's movies today assume that children are stupid and just like bright colours and loud characters that fall on their arses a lot (*cough* Adam Sandlers Pixels *cough*), but Peanuts deals with themes such as self confidence, selflessness, the importance of being honest and general values of childhood friendship and family relationships. For this reason Peanuts will be a big influence in the way I choose to select and design a character, as I think a picture book is the perfect opportunity to tell a story larger than just what is on the page and hopefully get across a similar message that means something, which is the main driving force behind why I'm doing illustration in the first place. 

Project Proposal

Picture Book title or theme:
Dealing with ideas of growing up and how people grow up, but places stay the same.

Idea: What is your picture book about?
I'm not sure about what my actual title will be as of yet, but the theme of my picture book will be centered around ideas of the permanence of nature and the impermanence of human life, and how we grow up and change in environments that remain largely the same throughout our lives.


Intent: What are you trying to achieve with the tone and atmosphere of the work?
I want to make a book that is quite playful in terms of colour and character but perhaps gets darker, tonally and visually as it goes on, to express the message of impermanence that I'm investigating in this project.

Structure: How might this book function in terms of format, layout and sequence?
I definitely want to make a concertina book as it's a process I am unfamiliar with and want to learn, and I think a consistent visual journey of a landscape altering over time would be best expressed as a single long image with different aspects on each page to signify the passage of time, such as character changes, colour alterations etc.

These ideas are based on my research into:
My ideas are influenced by my own experiences growing up around Temple Newsam woods and having a constant connection to nature and woodland areas due to where I live, and how that relationship has altered and changed over the years as I have developed. I went to Temple Newsam for my field trip research and it was interesting contrasting how I remember a certain place contrasted with how it looks to me now. I also think the fact that it's winter is influential, as a lot of my memories are centered around summer, so it's a different experience seeing how winter affects the same places.

In order to develop these ideas, my research over Christmas will be:
Developing more detailed observational drawings to get a better idea of the tone I want my book to have, and going back on another trip to get more reference photos. I also want to start experimenting with character designs to include in some roughs.

What have you discovered about research over the last two weeks?
I have learnt that research can be a much more visually engaging and interactive tool than I thought, as my definition of research before this project probably would have been based around reading books and finding webpages related to whatever I was investigating. But the research I have conducted for this project has been much more personal as I have been researching an element of my own life rather than an unfamiliar subject. I also enjoyed being able to go out into the real world and observe real objects and areas rather than relying on secondary sources like articles or photos. I think that secondary research like that is good for finding facts, but the more real world research I've started to do is much better for gauging tones and feelings to convey in my work.

Which approaches to research did you struggle with? and why?
At first I would say that photography isn't mt strong suit as I prefer to do observational drawings, but this project has helped show me the value of good reference photos and how they can capture things that you may not have time to capture when drawing.

Which approaches to the research did you find beneficial? and why?
I feel that in the end my photographs are the best part of my research as they're the most extensive aspect, and I can use them to improve my drawings.

What could you have done differently during your research period?
I think that because the focus of my book is primarily dealing with personal themes like the growing up and development of me and some of my friends, I didn't really consider interviewing others on their personal views or experiences concerning Temple Newsam. This could have added some extra depth and outside viewpoints to my research, so I hope to utilise that method in the future.

What kind of media, skills, tools and processes are you going to explore?
I want to use this project as an opportunity to develop my ability illustrating backgrounds and creating tone through colour and composition rather than relying so heavily on character as I have in some other briefs. To do this I'll have to explore more wet media that I'm unfamiliar with such as gouache and paints.I'd also like to try screen printing again and try to apply that effect to some of my designs.

Temple Newsam Field Trip Drawings

I am happy with the drawings I completed while on my field trip as I tried to sit down and draw every time I came to a new or interesting area on my walk. I took a lot more photos as I wanted to get around temple Newsam while it was still light and get enough material to make some roughs out of, but I'll go again with just my sketchbook go focus more on drawing my environment. I think these drawings are a good starting point for the work I want to make in the final book, as I think they illustrate the sequence of my walk as I did stop and draw them every so often while I was going. Im quite sure I'll be using a concertina format for my book so this idea of a journey through the woods lends itself to that, as the background doesn't have to be broken up and can stretch across multiple pages. These drawings are quite sketchy and unrefined because I was fighting against the weather to draw them, so as the project goes on I'll be refining them using my reference photographs. 

Bull field trip photograph thoughts

I felt that this photo deserved a post of its own on my blog because the context of it defines everything I aimed to capture in this stage of research. The bull in this photo probably would've crushed some part of my flimsy body if I hadn't been familiar with the field I found it in. Turns out Bulls aren't mad on being unwilling subjects in illustration students work so it decided to charge me after I took this. I learned Bulls aren't so good at going uphill or jumping small rivers so thanks to said hill and river I'm alive. The fact that I was chased down by an angry bovine with enough power in its monstrous head alone to probably kill me is (weirdly) exactly the kind of thing that encapsulates what I have always felt about Temple Newsam. Being a huge woodland area on the outskirts of a massive urban city centre it has always seemed like a liminal place to me, a place between places that doesn't properly adhere to the rules of the outside world. A sense of strange contained almost-freedom defines my feelings for it, as you can go get lost in the beautiful woods for hours, but ultimately if you go straight in one direction for long enough you're probably never far from a kfc or a poundland. 

For these reasons I've always seen it as a source of weird creativity, and being chased by angry cattle is one of the strange things and memories i aim to adapt into humour for my book.

Temple Newsam Field Trip Photos

I feel these photos are a good base upon which to develop further ideas. On my field trip I captured what I saw with both drawings and photographs to get different interpretations of my surroundings. I think to really capture what I want my book to be saying I'll have to combine the aesthetics of my drawing with photographs taken of specific locations I want to deal with. I took a lot more photos that reinforce my ideas but I feel these are the ones that best reflect what I feel is working about my research so far. 

Shape Outfit Task

I struggled with this task as I feel that 3D work isn't really a strong point for me, so I aren't entirely happy with my outcomes as a whole. I feel that I need to further investigate shape based work as I'm not really that confident working this way.

I am happy with the flight suit outfit because I feel that one is more easily recognisable purely from shape, and I tried not to focus too much on making the whole thing symmetrical or measured. I think this asymmetrical aesthetic works here as this task was aimed to work with and around shapes to warp and fit them into images we chose, without just drawing them.