There are 3 posts filed in Project 2 Forrest Gump (this is page 1 of 1).
Hi all! The images below are my final compositions for this assignment. If you are interested to see the work in progress please refer to the link below:
Forrest Gump Part 1: One Movie with 4 Quotes
Forrest Gump Part 2: Image References and Design Processes
Hi there, It’s been awhile! I finally came up with some designs for the 4 movie quotes from Pocahontas. If you guys haven’t checked out Forrest Gump Pt 1 (click here), you should! It’ll give you a rough idea why I choose to interpret the quotes this way.
Artist Reference
Source: http://www.biography.com/people/hieronymus-bosch-9220497
All my work were greatly influenced by Jheronimus Bosch (1450 – 9 August 1516), an Early Netherlandish painter who is known for its fantastic imagery and narratives. His paintings was said to be difficult to translate from a modern point of view; attempts to associate instances of modern sexual imagery. Today he is seen as a hugely individualistic painter with deep insight into humanity’s desires and deepest fears.
Jheronimus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, oil on oak panels, 220 cm × 389 cm (87 in × 153 in), Museo del Prado, Madrid
I enjoy evoking fears in people through my work. I think it’s easier for me to express myself this way and this is why I could relate to Bosch’s artwork.
Image References
I found some really cool books lying around in our ADM library and I thought it would be useful to scan some images from it. These are some examples:
Design Process
My design philosophy for this project was pretty straightforward. I dissect the quote into different parts and/or select key words, and then I try to find images to convey the message. I only applied “threshold” for all my design because it seems more consistent throughout.
1. “You flow through me, like a river.”
This quote was written for Pocahontas in the movie, and I thought it was more appropriate to use female image.
From Eric Gills’s Masterpiece of Wood Engraving, edited by David A. Berona
I thought the female figure I found in the book looked a bit oriental, so I choose the Japanese wave to depict “river”, and layer it over the female figure so that it looked kinda like the river flows through the lady.
However, The Great Wave off Kanagawa in this case was the work by famous Japanese artist Hokusai and it’s too recognisable and powerful. Hence, I came out with a few composition replacing the wave with:
From Eric Gills’s Masterpiece of Wood Engraving, edited by David A. Berona
Artwork taken from: https://citizeninsane.eu/s2007-08Juxtapoz.htm
2. “Come spirit, help us sing the story of our land.”
For this quote, I decided to use mythology creatures to depict Spirit and our mother earth as “our land”.
For my first attempt, I was going all out with the image. I include a lot of creatures and stars etc.. hence the composition looks visually heavy. Also, Prof Ina also pointed out that the creatures look like they were created from different people, so it looks odd when put them together.
Mythological creatures from Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures by Richard Huber.
Ancient Musical score. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_chant
Galaxy stars. Source: https://newevolutiondesigns.com/40-super-hd-galaxy-wallpapers
Earth. Source: https://www.pexels.com/search/earth/
The subsequent attempt i try to minimise it and went for the pattern approach. I include 1 type of creatures in it and play with the placement. I also include the human hand holding on to the mother earth to give a contrast between reality and fantasy.
Source: http://pngimg.com/img/people/hands
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag
3. “Keep both eyes open when you shoot. You see twice as well.”
This quote was written for the villain in the movie, and I want to emphasise on the villain’s attempt to “kill” Pocahontas and her people.
From Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels by George A. Walker
Source: http://www.virtualjamestown.org/Pocahontas.html
Source: http://weknowyourdreams.com/tree.html
Source: http://weknowyourdreams.com/mountain.html
My first attempt of this quote was to add in lots of hidden images within the artwork. I found an image of a creepy looking eye from the book and duplicate them to form a squarish traditional american indian mask, and uses the rifle dingbats to emphasise on “shoot”. To bring a little au-naturale feel into the picture (which is what the movie is all about – saving the environment from the evil), I hide a mountain in between the rifles and added trees underneath. so overall it forms a sculpture/mask from american indian tribe.
Also, using the image of a creepy looking eye I found from the book, I attempt another variation. I use the eyes to illustrate “keep both eyes open”, and image of a person holding a gun to depict “Shoot”. This is a simplified version and I thought this is easier to understand than the one on top.
A British soldier aims a Browning 9mm pistol on a shooting range at Basra, Iraq. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/defenceimages/5038803128
4. “This is what we feared. The paleface is a demon. The only thing they feel at all is greed.”
For this quote, I attempted to use female image as well, because I always thought that female villain gives a very powerful image. For the first attempt, I tried using a random female image found online and try to play around with it. And then I use a illustration of a red indian mask found in the book, and layer underneath the female image. I then use liquify to “melt” the female face to reveal the “demon” in her.
Source: https://images8.alphacoders.com/600/600193.jpg
From Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures by Richard Huber
I use this composition for silkscreen and I really love the result!
Silkscreen during F2D class.
After the our silkscreen process in class, I thought I could further improved this composition.I then try to reinterpret the quote and focused on “greed” and “demon”. I went over to Pinterest to find vintage Vogue magazine cover and found a really cool illustration. I thought I could use that as a based to add on the devil’s lips and tongue. To illustrate “greed” in this composition, I found images of money and place them in such a way that the “demon” is licking it.
Source: http://shu84.blogspot.sg/2012/07/kornelia-debosz-fashion-illustrations.html
Source: http://cdnstatic.visualizeus.com/thumbs/5b/5e/devil,evil,lips,smile,tongue-5b5eb16e52b34531c25cb1d8658062b8_h.jpg
Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/240379698838400269/
For the next composition, I took the same female image that i used for silk screen and play around with money on her head (“The only thing they feel at all is greed”), and place a devil horn on her.
Source: http://creativestockphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/images-of-money-notes.jpg
Source: http://www.keyword-suggestions.com/ZGVtb24gaG9ybnM/
That’s it! I will do a part three to consolidate all the final work into one so it’s easier to see. Ciao!
Hi everyone! I guess I will kick start Assignment 2 by posting the 4 selected quotes from the movie….. POCAHONTAS!
Movie Poster Source: http://www.impawards.com/1995/posters/pocahontas.jpg
A short summary of the movie:
Pocahontas is an animated feature film by Disney. The film is based on a real historic character, the known history, and the folklore and legend that surrounds the Native American woman Pocahontas, and features a fictionalized account of her encounter with Englishman John Smith and the settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company.
Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves English adventurer John Smith from execution when British relations with the “savages” in the New World turned sour. Pocahontas even starts a romance with Smith — who treats the natives far more kindly than does his superior, John Rolfe — and she and Smith sail away to Britain together at the end of the film.
However, I came across an article that actually told the true accounts of Pocahontas’ fate and the real story is much darker than the fictionalised Disney movie!
Portrait of the real Pocahontas.
Source: http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/pocahontas-1595-1617-granger.jpg
To start, Pocahontas also known as Matoaka by the Powhatan was just a nickname, meaning “the naughty one” or “spoiled child.” Matoaka was taken prisoner at age 17 while on a social visit to the Jamestown colonists. They held her hostage there for more than a year.
Matoaka had met Smith before her captivity, but sparks didn’t fly between them. Actually, Rolfe — the most vile character in Disney’s version — showed special interest in Matoaka. As a condition of her release, she agreed to marry him. On April 5, 1614, Matoaka became Rebecca Rolfe, and she soon had a son named Thomas. In 1616, the family, nicknamed the “Red Rolfes,” returned to England, where she was something of a celebrity.
When Matoaka and Rolfe tried to return to Virginia in 1617, she, for whatever reason, left the ship at Gravesend in England. That same year, she died there at age 21.
“It is unfortunate that this sad story, which Euro-Americans should find embarrassing, Disney makes ‘entertainment’ and perpetuates a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation,” Chief Roy Crazy Horse writes.
On top of that, controversy also arises about whether or not Matoaka saved John Smith.
When Smith first wrote about his experiences with the Powhatan people (in two letters in 1607 and 1612), he characterized his time there as rather nice and never mentioned Matoaka saving his life.
But in his book, “General Historie of Virginia,” published in 1624, Smith mentioned that Powhatan had tried to stone him to death, but Matoaka threw herself in the way to save him:
“[T]wo great stones were brought before Powhatan: then as many as could layd hands on him [Smith], dragged him to them, and thereon laid his head, and being ready with their clubs, to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the Kings dearest daughter, when no intreaty could prevaile, got his head in her armes, and laid her owne vpon his to saue him from death.”
Skeptics find it odd that Smith wouldn’t write about the occurrence until 17 years later and after Matoaka’s death, when Europe started to take notice of her story. Indeed, the prevailing viewpoint is that Matoaka’s self-sacrifice never happened.
Research from J.A. Leo Lemay, an English professor at the University of Delaware, however, makes the opposite case. As one of the first to fully analyze all the historical evidence, he found we have little reason to consider Smith’s later writing as untruthful. Some scholars might have even had political motivations for poking holes in his claims. On top of that, similar occurrences in other Native American tribes suggest that the attempted execution was a ritual to allow outside members into tribes.
But other accounts show the Matoaka and Smith didn’t have the special relationship Smith claimed. According to the Powhatan Nation, Matoaka disliked Smith, and when she saw him in London, she refused to speak to him and called him a liar.
The debate continues about whether “Pocahontas” truly saved John Smith, but we do know she never married him, as the film implies. She instead spent her short life, which ended in tragedy, with John Rolfe — the man Disney made the villain.
Taken from: http://www.businessinsider.sg/the-real-story-of-pocahontas-2014-4/#rZ25ShxLXUVYs7hY.99
Quotes from Pocahontas:
1. You flow through me, like a river.
2. Come spirit, help us sing the story of our land.
3. Keep both eyes open when you shoot. You see twice as well.
4. This is what we feared. The paleface is a demon. The only thing they feel at all is greed.
I was thinking maybe I could do a dark spin to these quotes from the movie….
