1. My friends! Endless sources of support/ideas.
2. Human relationships; similarly, love, but only other people’s/fictitious love
3. The human figure, esp. exaggerated
4. Deer/antelope/related animals
5. Philosophy/religion, esp. debate/discussion regarding those things. The human psyche.
6. Crazy patterns/lines
7. Insects! Moths/butterflies, beetles, dragonflies. I used to be into entomology. Still am tbh, but no time/space.
8. Music, especially longer songs that build up intensely, narratives, bands that are just enjoying life (uh, Polysics)
9. Books! I like things like House of Leaves and Good Omens, which have nothing to do with each other OR DO THEY
10. Comic books, esp. cheesy campy superheroes / crazy artsy things
11. My experience w/ chronic illness – as maybe 70% of you know I have chronic Lyme disease and it’s, uh, well, really terrible sometimes, but I never run out of fodder for art, and I don’t want to go on forever but near-death experiences were involved so it taught me all those cheesy lessons like Enjoy Life and Take Care of Yourself and such. Even though I forget anyway.
12. Separately, human health/medicine etc. (I like drawing bandages/bruises/cuts/eyepatches)
13. Living vicariously – through video game ‘lives’ (“well my real life is terrible but I caught all the pokemon/have a gigantic farm/unlocked all the weapons/saved the universe”), my own characters, and movies/comics/etc. Escapism.
14. Humor of various sorts… satire, right-out ridiculousness, dark/almost-sad, etc
15. Pretty colors- I tend to go for rich and saturated, but muted colors can be gorgeous too
16. Being out in nature. As long as I have bug spray. See 11. Ticks don't count as insects so they should all die
17. Cute thingssss
18. Character design- despite not spending very much time on it anymore, it’s something I’d like to get into
19. My Little Ponies (or maybe just childhood/nostalgia)
20. Animation, especially Disney movies—I know I’m supposed to consider them Corporate Evil or whatever but I just can’t.
21. Retro children’s books/things in that style (like Tiny Kitten Teeth)
22. Surprises/the unexpected
23. Artist’s books, especially the more user-friendly, still-a-book sort. Children’s things like pop-up books, also.
24. Other languages, especially German
25. My high school art teacher who has MS and is the most positive, caring, motivating person ever
So I was thinking I want to do a series of children’s book illustrations, maybe involving papercut again, because I enjoyed that project and think it’s a pretty appropriate aesthetic. I’m going to write a really simple story that can be understood without the text- and although there might be space for text, I'm probably not going to put it in, because Typography Is Hard and I know nothing about it and I'm just asking for trouble.
I’m guessing it will involve an adorable antelope and weird/pretty insects (maybe it’s like a Learn About Bugs book with a [geographically appropriate- probably going to be in Brazil or Madagascar or somewhere in Africa, places with cool insects, I have to research] deer/other animal bug-hunter). I’m wondering if it could involve a 3-dimensional (like popups or moving tabs, yknow, children’s book stuff) element too, but I don’t want to overcomplicate things, so I’ll sketch it without that first to gauge my time, etc. I know that sort of thing can be really time-consuming. I can certainly work humor, surprises, etc into the narrative as well.
3 comments:
Hey Kelsey, I like the papercut idea! I think that would interesting to explore. However, how many of these illustrations are you going to do?? It sounds like you're coming up with a whole plot, are you going to do more than 2 or 3 pieces? Or just pick 2 or 3 key scenes? It may be easier & more recognizable to pick one of your favorite kids stories and reinterpret it into 2 or 3 scenes in papercut form (and adding visual elements that you enjoy, like antelopes or bugs). If you want it set in brazil/madagascar/africa, you could start out by researching local myths (I know that the anansi stories involve a lot of animals)
I'm just doing 2-3 (probably 3) pages... I guess by "story" I really meant "scene/event," like an excerpt from a larger book.
Using an existing story would help me focus on the art, and I'm definitely going to look into myths. But yeah, the story I was thinking of was just like... a character finds different kinds of bugs. Definitely not anything complex. Maybe I'll post again with some preliminary sketches.
Okay, that sounds manageable, haha. But yeah, using a pre-existing story or myth might help give it some context. :)
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