Final Evaluation and Explanation

After quite a lot of work and experiments, the following images are the end result. I figured I would scan in parts of my 5 cell book and expand/edit them to make them better. It is obvious that I have been inspired by the artists I have looked into, mainly because of the dark black and white with contrasting colours (like Frank Miller's work) and the incorporation of both illustration and photography like Dmitry Maskimov. However, these are just an accumulation view and if I was to print it out, it would be instantly recognisable that I have used my 5 cell mock up as one of my main stepping stones.

Printing this out would mean that I would have it like a small Zine (just like my 5 cell mock up) which would be pocket sized and would be a book. It would have the front cover and back cover on separate pages and would be bound together with a piece of string. 

If this was genuinely going into production, I would be able to make promotional advances such as model space-ships, stones etc. I would also make the jelly fish in two formats: One a cuddly toy to express the compassion of it allowing the stones to evacuate into it and then a plastic version with a folding door so you can interact and genuinely put the stones inside. 

I have finally aimed it as 12+ audience, purely because if it was for any younger it could potentially unnerving (due to its explicit content.) I think that this could potentially appeal to adults too, because it does resemble that of a graphic novel. It does have a relatively in depth, deeper story line which involves knowledge of adulatory and religion. If I was to do this again, I would take even more time and make my entire story a lot longer because it isn't overly long and it isn't anywhere as in-depth as I planned. I have also realised that, the intention of drawing it up and making it really neat to then edit it and make sure everything in proportionate isn't quite up to the standard I had originally planned due to poor time management.

This is the front and back cover. Both are drawn up with technical pens and painted with water colour for me to then scan them in and edit on the computer. I didn't take into account that the water colour may seep and make black splodges where there was ink below it because of the writing on the other side, so it doesn't look as professional as firstly anticipated. But, however, that's something I would take into account if I was to do this again. I would do them individually on separate pieces of paper, then to scan in. Possible, I would do each part of it separate to then scan it in and build it all up on photoshop. I do like that the colour shows well and I think that the typography I used looks rather effective and somewhat hand-drawn even though it isn't.

This scene is the opener. I tried to make it look like an old religious movie where everything is pretty stired and strange. For example: any film from before 1980 with the vignette cinematography. It does a pretty good job of representing the up coming story by how it sets an eerie mood. It does the job of telling you the beginning date and the current year in which the entire story is set in, also. I decided to use the picture I took of the view from a cliff in Hafan Y Moor because I think the natural lighting and the way the sky is reflecting pastel colours, really contrasts with the heavy vignette and really gives it that good cinematographic feel.

The first scene: This scene is showing that the Stones live in a city and that it is always night time. The dots in the sky are very like how Frank Miller represents stars. I tried to capture the very heavy black and white style that Frank Miller uses (inevitably it is no-where-near as good as his) and show how heavily influenced my entire story is by it. The stars are (in the story) actually glow fish underneath the sea because it is a jelly fish that they live in. I also thought I would include the space ships, which is their form of transportation, in the first scene. Below the top half of the split screen, is the 'Head Stoner' Telling the other stone to get ready because they are off for their weekly trip to 'Human Land' to gather organs for the up coming week. The narration tells you directly what the story is going  to be about. I somewhat regret not having a very mysterious build up full of psychological turns and twists, but that is something I would indefinitely consider if I was to re-do a story like this.

My story kind of skips and the narration doesn't really make the reader hooked. It is quite self explanatory what they are doing and that their space ships are their source of transportation, but it's ok because the vignette is back. Vignette's aim on this is to make it not look so boring and make it a focal point. The actual scene isn't overly great put together, but I did intend to use both photography and illustration to then late create it up on photoshop, which I feel I actually did quite well. However, I don't feel as though it worked as well over-all, especially compared to some of the other designs. The narration puts quite a juvenile stance on the scene, which doesn't work as well as the other narrative parts.


HERE THERE IS MEANT TO BE A SCENE WHERE IT IS A BLACK-FLASH TO B.C AND THE STONES ARE FED UP OF BEING THE STONES AND THEY EVACUATE TO THE JELLY FISH. Stupidly, BLOGGER again failed and deleted the scene I posted and I have no access to college to re-upload the scene. This is an absolute annoyance, urg. I'm sorry. If you take a look at my 5 cell mock up in my sketch book, you will see the scene I am speaking about. If you look in my sketch book, you will find an illustration of the stones holding a human heart and wandering into (a void of nothing since it was on photoshop that I actually created it.) The image you can see, is actually edited so that they are walking into a jelly fish and then the sky is edited behind it.

I tried to capture the fact they eat human organs by showing just the red quite brightly. I didn't read this very well, stupidly, because I put "fet" instead of "felt"...(oooops)...But I thought if I put the writing in red, it would also contrast well with the over-all composition.The I also tried to capture just how chilled the human organs made them feel but making on sector close up and chilled and then a more 'zoomed out' version leant up against the wall as though a stereotypical, very chilled out person would be. To the right of the stone, you can see the fork firmly in the brain of a human they'd caught. 

Just like the Spongebob scenes, I decided to use a bright coloured (well, kinda) background with flowers and a big focal time scale. The vignette again, adds the focus on the time scale and makes it fit with the rest of the frames. I decided to use the flowers that I took a photo of because I thought they would look aesthetically pleasing and would be a good way to show how inspired I've been by Maskimov's work. Whenever I read it, I read it in the Spongebob narrator voice!
(The Spongebob Narrator Voice)

I actually originally planned to do this in colour but it sucked. So instead, I decided to do it in grey scale because I think it fits well with the rest of the other scenes. This scene is the illustration of when the entire earth goes into an ice-age and shows you the frozen Jelly Fish. It is then you know that all the Stoners are dead. The narrative works well describing the scene without being too patronising because of how self explanatory the actual illustration is. If I was to do it again, I would possibly consider drawing it up and then maybe doing different tones and try make it look a lot more realistic. I used the stereotypical fish-look because I thought it would look effective but now I feel as though they are slightly too simple. I should've looked into the types of fish and drew different, better looking ones. The cracks in the ice are somewhat effective though.

Being the final scene, I decided to use the very zoomed out/in space visuals of Jesus and the Earth. Jesus is laughing at the Stoners because he has always wanted to get his own back on the Stoners for steeling his heart. The narration explains the scene quite well. I wouldn't especially do anything different to the illustration except for tidying it up that little bit more to make sure everything is spot on, but other that I think it's quite visually appealing and still has the Frank Miller feel to it.

Over-all, I think the comic once illustrated and edited, worked well but could of done with a little bit more care and thought. The story is very imaginative (not to blow my own trumpet...) But the final illustration didn't do it much justice. I regret not planning it out the little bit further and spending more time on it, but the final didn't turn out that bad. The mistakes are easily fixable and so are the untidiness. I really wish blogger hadn't actually deleted one of the scene's because now the story isn't quite complete, but you can definitely follow it despite that. This is the final piece and it is entirely complete (besides the one scene but that would be easily fixable if it wasn't the holidays.)