Illustration
Title: Real vs Imaginary
Size: 38.2 cm x 25.3 cm Medium: Illustration board, pencil, colored pencil, pen Completion Date: February 14, 2023 Exhibition Text:
Real vs Imaginary is meant to show off the way the world around us has affected our perception of it. I have been influenced by E. H. Shepard’s illustrations of Winnie-the-Pooh and Omocat illustrations of characters from the game Omori. I took Shepards work which is intended for children and put a twist on it with the more mature Omori content. I want to be able to show the serious impact the world has on people. I purchased most of the items I used but was supplied with the illustration board. |
Inspiration:
Artist in Focus: E. H. Shepard
E. H. Shepard was an English illustrator that worked on many illustrations for children's stories or books. He is most famously known for his illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh. In his Bump, bump, going up the stairs and Bump, bump, bump, it is said that the boy takes his teddy downstairs to ask his father for a bedtime story, and then going up the stairs is the return to the real world. I would like to play on that and reverse it to match the context of my other source of inspiration where it is reversed. Going down the stairs symbolizes the real world while going back up is the world of imagination. I want to take this twist to match my other inspiration more but also make it to show going down and into the "bad" world around someone against going to your room where you have comfort and happiness with objects there. I also noticed in his illustrations that along the edges of it, his drawings kind of fade off into nothing. There isn't really a solid edge of the drawing, it just fades out when it gets far enough from the main subject. It is also seen that he uses varying line thicknesses to prioritize more a few objects that are considered the main subject, and then furthering away it gets thinner to the point that the lines are barely visible in the background. Shepard focuses more on the foreground and main subject than the world around it. I would like to do something similar but also still make the background a bit more visible to show more of the world's effect on why it is making imaginary fun and happy while making real bland and sad.
E. H. Shepard was an English illustrator that worked on many illustrations for children's stories or books. He is most famously known for his illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh. In his Bump, bump, going up the stairs and Bump, bump, bump, it is said that the boy takes his teddy downstairs to ask his father for a bedtime story, and then going up the stairs is the return to the real world. I would like to play on that and reverse it to match the context of my other source of inspiration where it is reversed. Going down the stairs symbolizes the real world while going back up is the world of imagination. I want to take this twist to match my other inspiration more but also make it to show going down and into the "bad" world around someone against going to your room where you have comfort and happiness with objects there. I also noticed in his illustrations that along the edges of it, his drawings kind of fade off into nothing. There isn't really a solid edge of the drawing, it just fades out when it gets far enough from the main subject. It is also seen that he uses varying line thicknesses to prioritize more a few objects that are considered the main subject, and then furthering away it gets thinner to the point that the lines are barely visible in the background. Shepard focuses more on the foreground and main subject than the world around it. I would like to do something similar but also still make the background a bit more visible to show more of the world's effect on why it is making imaginary fun and happy while making real bland and sad.
Artist in Focus: Omocat
Omocat is a Los Angeles art studio that created a video game known as Omori and also creates clothing and merchandise around that game or with collaboration of another group. I am specifically pulling reference from their video game, Omori, and its illustrations and story. In the game the main character, Sunny, had a group of friends that he would spend tons of time with until he got in an argument with his sister and pushed her down the stairs killing her. He then framed it up as a suicide and their friend group broke up. He lived in trauma during his days isolated to his room, but when he slept, he transported himself into a dream world known as "Headspace", where his sister is alive and his friend group is together going on wacky adventures. He uses his mind as an escape despite the fact that it is greatly hurting his mental health when he is already so young. For the reason of what the story is, I wanted to switch up the meaning behind Shepards work, flipping what is real and fake. I want to take the characters of Omori and put them into this scene, replacing the boy and his stuffed animals. The one he is dragging will be different versions of his sister to show the longing affect and hold that his trauma has on him. His sister's death affected him greatly and stays with him so that the person next to him is fitting. In the illustration, I would like to replace the stuffed animals at the top with his friends in their "Headspace" form. I would also like to take the colorful and vivid colors seen in the "Headspace" world for the "going up" drawing to show how it is more fun and lively staying to imagination while making the going down drawing black and white to show the blandness of the real world. It also relates to another area in Omori called "White Space'' where everything is black and white to represent the absence and containment of ideas. |
Planning:
To start planning out what I would do, I decided to look more into Shepards work. I tried to get a good look at his style with drawing characters and drawing backgrounds. I noticed that on the outside of his characters, he uses thick lines to define the shape of the character and also show some shading. He is using these thick firm lines to show priority to the subject and let it stand out. I plan on doing that in my pieces to show priority in the characters. There are also some small spaces in his lines at times to show that the area is more exposed to light. I don’t know if I will choose to add this feature due to how the background involves thin lines as well and I would like the characters and main subjects to stand out. In his backgrounds, he also uses strong, thick lines to show the main subject or as extra support for the immediate area around the main subject. In the background, he is using thinner and lighter lines to make sure the subject is in focus. I would like to do this in my work as well to focus on the subjects more. However, it can be a little difficult to make the colored pencil parts that light especially when I am blending layers of colors on for the background, so I could keep that feature mainly in the real world drawing so that it also show’s self-centeredness and separation from the world around you. At the edges of his work, the lines kind of fade off into nothing no matter if the line is lighter or not. I would also like to do this to furthermore show separation but also show some childishness in the “Headspace” drawing with the colored pencil lines more being randomly colored at some edges. I also notice on the stairs that he is using dark, diagonal lines to show some shading. I will plan on using this to show more connections to the source material.
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I then decided to look at the characters of Omori to see how they are laid out. The style of Omori makes it look very pencil drawn which can be beneficial to the medium I am using. For the “Headspace” version, you can see more of the pencil lines and strokes whereas everything is a bit nicer in the “real world” version. The “real world” characters also look more lively with better defined pupils in their eye as well as a solid colored underlayer with the pencil lines on top of that. Comparatively, the “Headspace" version looks more empty. I also wanted to look at the background of Omori's "Headspace" world so I decided to look through the colors of that a bit. From there, I went on to actually work on my piece.
Process:
I first started off with making the pencil sketches of both drawings. Then I got an idea of the scale up from the reference image to my actual one by measuring out where certain features started. I then measured out some placement lines of a couple stairs to lay everything out. I noticed that on my reference, some of the stairs were separating a space into thirds. So, I approximated the points at which it would be split into thirds and turned it upside down to verify if it was correctly separated. Once I had the layout marks, I needed to draw the actual stairs and rails. In order to get similar angles to the actual reference, I lined up my ruler along a line and transferred that angle over to the actual drawing very carefully. I drew the pencil lines very lightly so that I could easily erase them if needed.
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Once I had everything sketched out on both boards, I went to start using pens, going over the lines and drawing out the “real world” illustration. I had to keep in mind that Shepard used different line thicknesses to let subjects stick out. I used a set of pens that were of different sizes ranging from 0.05 to 0.8 and a brush tip. I decided to only use the 0.05, 0.2, 0.6, 0.8, and brush tips to add a variety of line thicknesses. I started out with doing some of the thinner lines. In Shepard’s work, his backgrounds were drawn out of focus with the thinner lines and I tried to capture the same idea. I upped the size of the pen tips as I got closer and closer to the main subject of Sunny. When I got to him, I used the brush tip to make sure that lines were not only thick, but varying in size at places. When it came to coloring in his hair and shirt as well as Mari’s hair, I added a lighter pencil layer on the bottom and then drew individual pen lines on top to get the look that is seen in Omocat’s illustrations.
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I then moved onto the “Headspace” illustration. To start off I started with the railings. It didn’t occur to me that the blending of two colors I chose for the railings would be a little difficult and maybe not the best looking as it is just a thin line. I eventually overcame this, but it was different to the style of Shepard. Despite that, in making the “Headspace” illustration, I was able to still capture his style in the way I drew the staircase and shaded in the sides diagonally. I also managed to capture it by fading out the drawing on the bottom. I also made sure to capture the color and style of the Omori characters in both normal and plush form to match the original illustrations by Shepard which contain plushies.
Experimentation:
When making this piece I had to mess around with and experiment with a couple of different things. First, I was using this set of pens for the first time so I had to get accustomed to them as far as the line thickness went. After drawing out the lines of the pens, I went on to experiment with the brush pen and the others together. I drew little images of the Omori characters and a small snapshot of Shepards work to mess around with the pens and see what sizing I liked for what. I ended up using the brush for some of the main subjects outlines and the detail on the stairs. Then I used 0.8 as details on the main subjects. Finally I decided to use 0.6, 0.2, and 0.05 as details and lines in the background. When I had the outline done I noticed that the drawing looked a bit too empty so I decided to try and add in some little shading and also make the bottom darkness to show that he is descending into the dark parts of the world around him being what is real.
I also needed to experiment with the coloring for the “Headspace” illustration. The characters and background in the game for the Headspace world is very vivid and colorful. From the colored pencils I had, I wasn’t able to cover every single color exactly normally. I then had to mess around with the colors I had to match the look of the “neighbors room” which is a specific area in the beginning of the game that contains stairs. I first started off trying to get the colors of the stairs which overall came together to have a rainbow gradient look. I found a specific image to base it off of since the actual colors change in the game, and started at the top. I found most of the time that I could use just one color I had, but mixing it with white to give it a lighter, pastel kind of look. There were a couple instances in which I needed to add on multiple colors but I got it all figured out. I then moved on to get the color of the walls which I also got to relatively easily using only a couple of colors.
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From there, I needed to find the color schemes of the characters. Again, there were only a few colors I needed to find, but it took a bit more effort this time. The outfit that the character Aubrey wears got a little complicated. I had to mess around a little bit but eventually found it after having blended 4 colors together. The rest of the colors were relatively simple to find and I got to them pretty quickly.
Critique:
Similarities:
There are some similarities that can be seen between my work, and Shepard and Omocat's work. For example, it is all just illustrations that were made with pencil and other drawing utensils. It can also be seen in Shepard and I’s work how there is a use of line thickness throughout the piece to define subject and background. You can also see that I have used a similar idea to Shepard’s work in how I fade out my illustrations on the edges since it is getting further away from the main subject. The overall layout of my work and Shepard’s is very similar as well. The layout is almost identical and contains the same elements. My work is also similar to Omocat’s work as I tried to use their exact style of drawing characters in my illustration. I made sure to use techniques that I saw in their works and how they drew their characters specifically to make my piece accurate to the source.
Differences:
There are also some differences between my work and my inspirations. For one, I changed the meanings behind Shepards work and reversed them. He describes going downstairs into the world as being the imaginative one that is happy,and going upstairs is going to bed and to your room to be isolated and be sad. I however flip these meanings around as it more coincides with the story of the game Omroi and also how I feel about the world around me and how it presents itself to be fun or not. There are also some differences with Shepards work seen in my “Headspace” drawing where my lines don’t really vary in thickness, and the background is prominent and not faded out. While this was partly due to a limitation in my medium, it also makes more sense with my ideas behind the piece, with the imagination being bright and full and changing the outside world from what it really is. There are also some differences in Omocat’s work in that I put a little spin on the style of the characters, specifically Mari who is being dragged and also Aubrey, Kel, and Hero at the top of the stairs in the “Headspace” drawing to more match Shepards work. I did however still base their looks and sizing off Omocat’s plush merchandise of the characters.
There are some similarities that can be seen between my work, and Shepard and Omocat's work. For example, it is all just illustrations that were made with pencil and other drawing utensils. It can also be seen in Shepard and I’s work how there is a use of line thickness throughout the piece to define subject and background. You can also see that I have used a similar idea to Shepard’s work in how I fade out my illustrations on the edges since it is getting further away from the main subject. The overall layout of my work and Shepard’s is very similar as well. The layout is almost identical and contains the same elements. My work is also similar to Omocat’s work as I tried to use their exact style of drawing characters in my illustration. I made sure to use techniques that I saw in their works and how they drew their characters specifically to make my piece accurate to the source.
Differences:
There are also some differences between my work and my inspirations. For one, I changed the meanings behind Shepards work and reversed them. He describes going downstairs into the world as being the imaginative one that is happy,and going upstairs is going to bed and to your room to be isolated and be sad. I however flip these meanings around as it more coincides with the story of the game Omroi and also how I feel about the world around me and how it presents itself to be fun or not. There are also some differences with Shepards work seen in my “Headspace” drawing where my lines don’t really vary in thickness, and the background is prominent and not faded out. While this was partly due to a limitation in my medium, it also makes more sense with my ideas behind the piece, with the imagination being bright and full and changing the outside world from what it really is. There are also some differences in Omocat’s work in that I put a little spin on the style of the characters, specifically Mari who is being dragged and also Aubrey, Kel, and Hero at the top of the stairs in the “Headspace” drawing to more match Shepards work. I did however still base their looks and sizing off Omocat’s plush merchandise of the characters.
Reflection:
Overall, this project was a good experience to work on my skills more. I have done little illustrations in the past but nothing of this size really before so it was nice to get out of my comfort zone and work on a bigger drawing. This was also helpful in working on colored pencil techniques, I have not really worked with blending colors too much until now so it gave me a good idea of how it works. I feel as though my inspiration does connect as it can easily be seen that I am using the exact layout of Shepards work, and also I am using Omocat's art as well through the way the characters look. I have connected with my inspiration nicely. I think the biggest challenge was using the colored pencils in general and for blending. I am not too familiar with blending colored pencils so it was interesting to work with. I also found a lot of challenge in actually adding on the colored pencils onto the illustration board as I was in fear of making a mistake and not being able to erase it enough. I did still make a mistake in the end but I worked with it and erased it as best I could. My favorite part I think was actually drawing it and seeing the end product be made and complete. It was fun to finally see the finished product all put together. It was also fun to work with Omori as part of my inspiration. This work continues to tie into my idea of the world around us affecting what we create or do. I have been exposed to the game Omori from friends around me which is part of the reason I made this work. It also shows how the world around me has affected my portrayal of what is happy and what is sad. I find it more enjoyable to be in my head rather than out in the world because of what is out there. It specifically affected me and influenced my choice in how I made and twisted this piece. I hope that when people do see this, that they can think about what the outside world really means to them.
Connecting to the ACT:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
There is a strong cause effect relationship between the layout of my inspiration and my piece. I am using the exact same layout, however I am flipping the meaning of it. You can also see Omocat's character design choices in my work with how I replicated their style of characters.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Shepard's work has a similar topic to mine, however I am flippinng what he is making around so that the fun is contained inside and by yourself, while the sadness comes from the outside world affecting me. I am also taking direct inspiration from Omocat's game Omori in that they use the same kind of ideas that I have with how the outside world is.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have learned a little bit about work you want to do not being as represented for you as work you are known for. Shepard has worked on many different pieces but his work for Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed it all.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea or theme around my research is relating to how the world around you changes how you feel about what is fun to do and what is not. It is affecting how you are and what you do.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made inferences about the design of Omocat's characters with how they look slightly in my "Headspace" drawing as I was not too sure how the character Omori looked from the backside or how his pants would look at that angle.
There is a strong cause effect relationship between the layout of my inspiration and my piece. I am using the exact same layout, however I am flipping the meaning of it. You can also see Omocat's character design choices in my work with how I replicated their style of characters.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Shepard's work has a similar topic to mine, however I am flippinng what he is making around so that the fun is contained inside and by yourself, while the sadness comes from the outside world affecting me. I am also taking direct inspiration from Omocat's game Omori in that they use the same kind of ideas that I have with how the outside world is.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have learned a little bit about work you want to do not being as represented for you as work you are known for. Shepard has worked on many different pieces but his work for Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed it all.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea or theme around my research is relating to how the world around you changes how you feel about what is fun to do and what is not. It is affecting how you are and what you do.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made inferences about the design of Omocat's characters with how they look slightly in my "Headspace" drawing as I was not too sure how the character Omori looked from the backside or how his pants would look at that angle.
Citations (MLA):
“About OMOCAT.” OMOCAT, https://www.omocat-shop.com/pages/about.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Bump, Bump, Bump: Shepard, E. H.: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1024370/bump-bump-bump-drawing-shepard-e-h/.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Bump, Bump, Going up the Stairs: Shepard, E. H.: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1028781/bump-bump-going-up-the-drawing-shepard-e-h/.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Bump, Bump, Bump: Shepard, E. H.: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1024370/bump-bump-bump-drawing-shepard-e-h/.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Bump, Bump, Going up the Stairs: Shepard, E. H.: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1028781/bump-bump-going-up-the-drawing-shepard-e-h/.