Week 1

Whoa...We're straight into it...no rest for the freakin' wicked! I suppose I should have known that's apart of being 2nd years. But what a way to start back especially after being so unsure as to whether I should continue, but this weeks class was a huge inspiration! It is great to have somebody who obvioulsy likes what he does, but also treats his career like a refined fine art skill but without being pompous. He has lots to share and an amazing array of reference materials at his disposal which I can 't wait to get a hold of - those DVD's of at working sketch sped up by 150% or something were really effective for me. Also felt like drawing with the DVD, but was too scared to miss something. And back to the topic of drawing, this week was a great refresher of those basic things I seemed to have so easily forgotten when considering perspective and composition.

Our task to be completed by next week is to design the main hall of an Inn, after reading the Brothers Grimm Fable Three Army Surgeons - http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-3surgeons.htm . We have to pay respect to the era in which it was set of course and hence Marks evil way of getting us to do a little research.

A little later that day...

Well this task isn't so easy!

At first it seemed near impossible to find any images of interiors of inns - in books or on the web! So I then began naking a list and referring to my memory bank. I imagined that there would be loads of wood throughout as in the floors, heavy doors, exposed beams, furniture. There maybe stone walls but definately a stone fireplace, some stairs leading upstairs to some bedrooms and a few lanterns. I didn't imagine the place being overly big as there was just the innkeeper and a maid, so I seen it being more homely and cosy as opposed to your Inn we think of these days which has bars included.

My Initial Sketches in class upon reading the story...you can see they lack alot of depth and have no real interest for the viewer. I was also struggling with the framing and getting a composition that would fit in both the ceiling and the floor.

The one in red had the right atmosphere and the values were right, with the contrast being at the end of the table where the fireplace is showing the open cupboard.






I then looked through a few books I had at home which covered period architecture etc...but didn't seem to find anything specific and some of what I did find made me re-think if my definition of an Inn was correct so I decided to go to Wikipedia online and search Inn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inn

This site gives a really concise definition of what Inns once were and how they have evolved. Also had some pretty good exterior photos of Inns which matched with my imagination. Upon seeing the 19th Century Inn from Romania at this link, I immediatly had visions of what its interior would look like. I also found that when researching what people wore in that period also helped project the image of the inn and its atmosphere alot more...

My Second Attempt of thumbnails after a bit more research.

Although I had pretty much got the materials and structure of the building right, I had mis-understood that in fact, Inns were a community gathering place even in the 18th century. So when I re-evaluated my thumbnails, I felt that prehaps my composition was a little too homey looking. The other thing I didn't like about this initial sketch's was the lack of space or dimension. I was beginning to get really frustrated at myself that all my thumbnails, although I liked the value aspects - the light and dark balance - the elements were all placed in corners or along a wall.

I referred to some old handouts on perspective from last year and realised I had forgotten to use elements as framing devices within the frame, to give the illusion of depth and angle. So before going any further I thought it best I looked at some professional examples of compositions and thumbnails. So I referred to Pixars "art of" series of books from their major movies - The art of Monsters INC (2001) and The art of the Incredibles by Mark Cotta Vaz (2004) both books were huge helps and great source of concept design.

This is a great example for me of how to convey grand space or the not so much space.

These two images below were again good examples of space and depth but also different perspectives.

I love this design! Its so emotive - I have also included it as an example highlighted from Marks lecture that the focus of the thumbnails, should be the highest point of contrast...I have purposely desaturated this image to show that it doesn't just work great in colour! You can almost just imagine something sitting in that chair!

CHECK THIS OUT! This web page has some awesome background layout designs from movies such as Jungle book and the Iron Giant. They are really strong examples of composition, framing and perspective techniques that I felt I was lacking - http://www.pencilmedia.com/portfolio/illustration.asp

And a few more interiors I found along the way...