Combining Digital and Traditional

As experimental development, I used my own primary source imagery combined with illustrations to create new ideas and themes. These have been heavily manipulated in Photoshop so the quality may not necessarily be there although these could be used as reference to create new illustrations.

Here I have used a photograph of bars combined with an illustration to make it appear as though the elephant is trapped and caged.

Left: The original photograph.

Below: The manipulated imagery.

These images reflect the trauma of the Asian elephant when faced with threats from the human race. Rather than elephants being physically caged, my intention is for the cage for be a symbol of how such a large animal is made to feel demoralized and trapped in a number of ways. This could reflect on how elephants are used within the tourist industry in Thailand or even how they are kept behind the scenes of a circus. 

Intentionally, the elephant appears vulnerable and lost. Perhaps this is the only elephant left before they become a long lost memory into extinction? The red hues reflect violence and danger, a sense of darkness which is the elephants impending fate.

Using the same elephant illustration, I superimposed the animal into a forest scene. The forest scene is manipulated from a primary source photograph and put into a new context. The in the left image the elephant seems vulnerable in its own habitat whereas in the right image the elephant seems to be fading away. This sense of fading reflects the threat of extinction through habitat loss. Whilst the habitat is replaced and preserved, the elephants and forced to survive elsewhere, or not at all...

 Using an ink illustration, I thought about a comment I had during the formative assessment- why not add a background? Whilst I feel white space encourages the viewer to pay closer attention to the main subject, I decided to use a primary source landscape photograph to provide a sense of context to the image. The darkness of the landscape highlights the elephant slaves whilst the red tones in the sky imply a sense of danger and foreboding. Where are the elephants being taken? What is their fate?

These illustrations were manipulated in Photoshop and given a simple forest-like background. This background was painted digitally and fills out the image.

Overall, I believe these experiments were a success in how they reflected the threats of extinction and providing imagery which is more thought-provoking for the viewer. The colours are vivid and the use of photography brings stronger compositions. However, the manipulation in Photoshop can appear over-worked so it could it effective to replicate similar imagery in traditional media.

Development of Gif Animations for Campaign Advertising

After my initial experiment with Gifs in an earlier post (see here) I decided to explore this further in Photoshop as opposed to using an online generator to create my gifs:

I chose to use  a simple slogan 'stop the cull' which I have previously included in previous campaign poster designs about badger culling. Keeping the font and colours the same for simplicity works well and gets straight to the point. 

As I felt the previous gif wasn't smooth as an animation, I wanted to break the text down so it flowed better.

To create this animation, I saved each frame at different points adding one letter per frame giving the illusion that the text is being written. In total 11 frames were used to make this gif.

The same technique in Photoshop was used here though I added more frames (71 in total!) by including some experimental artwork that I had created. Changing the opacity allows a smooth transition into the next image. 

Photoshop screenshot of frames used to create gif animation

Although this implies that it is advertising against the cull, it would not work in a realistic advertising scenario as more information needs to be included. This gif explores the techniques which may be used in the animation to portray numerous images simultaneously. 

Personally I believe these techniques have worked effectively and make the illustrations more aesthetically appealing to the audience. Movement in the animation will capture the attention of the viewer for much longer than a still illustration as the changing images make it more interesting. More professional elements could be added for an advertisement against badger culling and perhaps a narrative of the badger cull could be portrayed to demonstrate the effects of the cull and why the audience should appeal against it.

Further Experimentation

Dead Bird:

Created with acrylic paint, originally in black and white tones. Relations to the film 'Drowing by Numbers' first scene where dead bird hangs from a post. Significant to the themes of tragedy and death and provides more serious and mature attitude towards the topic.

Trees:

Also painted in acrylic. Totally from imagination, I aimed to focus on the tonal aspects of the trees. The simple image gives an eerie vibe when inverted in Photoshop, signifying the theme of tragedy and death.

Ace of Spades:

This acrylic painting aimed to capture the composition of a dead bird in the form of a classic Ace of Spades. This was an initial idea to go towards my playing cards, though I think these images are too rough an unfinished. Red in the right image symbolises blood and death

Dice Prints- Ace and Two of Clubs

These two images were edited in Photoshop from the original image seen in a previous post 'Dice Printing'. The first image reminds me of a butterfly perhaps, giving a more light-hearted feel to the symbolism of numbers. The second image appears more abstract and more is left open for interpretation by the viewer. As two of the clovers are included in this image, I would use this as a representation of the Two of Clubs.

Overall, these experiments are all unique and successful in their own ways. At this point I am not sure which style to develop further for my pack of cards, though I will create more imagery in both styles to see which work best.