28/01/2016 - Research

Week 03

Research 

Final Physical Pieces

In this post I am going to compile my research into what possible techniques I could employ to make physical final pieces for my characters, as well as these, I will also aim to have digital paintings of my final designs...these will aid me in the final physical pieces. I have also decided to focus on 3 characters, "Hunger", The Minotaur and The Arch Rogue. That means I'm dropping Icarus and Kitty Grau, I do intend to finish them in the summer though to complete of this project for me.

The Minotaur

The Minotaur is from ancient Greece. The obvious thing for me to do for The Minotaur is a Greek pot, I have come across statues as well but I think doing any form of statue (clay/Plasticine) would be an unrealistic target for me in this project. As for the pot idea, here is a moodboard below depicting several pots and designs used on ancient Greek pots in general.

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

On the left are some Black-figure pots and on the right there are some Red-figure pots. in the middle are some common patterns that would be used to go around the whole pot. 

There are two kinds of ancient Greek pottery, Black-figure and Red-figure pottery. Black figure pottery was commonly used from the 7th century B.C to the 5th century B.C, it is around this time that Red-figure pottery was developed and it soon took over from Black-figure, lasting until around the 3rd century B.C.

The style that I go for will depend on what type of pot I can get. Of course, if I manage to get a black one then red-figure will have to be used...but if at all possible, I would like to do The Minotaur in Black-figure design because I find it more appealing.

"Hunger"

“There is a place at the furthest bounds of icy Scythia, with sombre, sterile ground, a land without crops or trees. Torpid Cold inhabits it, Fear and Trembling and barren Hunger." This is said by Ceres. 

It's on this basis that I am planning to research into for my physical piece for "Hunger". Based on the mention of Scythia and Caucasus, I can pin point the general location of "Hunger" to around present day Georgia on an icy mountain. The description above, for me, conjures up images of scared villagers who paint/scratch images of "Hunger" around her location to warn people not to go any further. Scythia was also a barbarian nation so it would be more likely that there would be paintings on rocks/caves to warn of the danger.

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

Above is a moodboard of stone art from around the world (my assumption of using stone paintings to depict "Hunger" from the point of view of a Scythian are purely speculation). There appear to be three main techniques used here, carvings, paintings and a combination of carving and painting. I find the ones that have been scratched into and then painted appear more interesting, its adds more depth to the paintings.

The Arch Rogue

Luckily I re-read the tale of The Arch Rouge, I had forgotten that he was accustomed to the black arts, this will inspire some of my newer designs for him. 

Its difficult to date and locate The Arch Rogue, All I know is that he is from Germany (because the tale is from Germany) and that he is placed in a time period where there are kings...which should give me a time span to work with.  Roughly Medieval Germany. My thought for this was to do it in the style of old German manuscripts (as can be seen in the moodbaord below). This would require an "epic" piece of paper that I can then replicate the style of German manuscripts for The Arch Rogue. 

I do not own these images or hold the copyright for them, they have been purely put together in this moodboard for educational purposes.

Here are the manuscript pages, This clearly shows the direction I am looking for The Arch Rogue.

After I have run these ideas past the lecturer I will do ore research into what I would need for producing all these physical pieces.