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:

1.  Eric Gills’s Masterpiece of Wood Engraving, edited by David A. Berona
2. Graphic Witness: Four Wordless Graphic Novels by George A. Walker
3. Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures by Richard Huber

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!