Student work and sketches for VAILL 310: Digital Illustration 2. Justin Kunz, Assistant Professor @ BYU Department of Visual Arts, Spring 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Bronson Call song sketches
Here are two sketches for "Farewell" by Apocalyptica. I'm still deciding on the composition. I really want to paint a cello but I think it might be a bit obvious for a song illustration. What do you think?
Having listened to the song, I don't think the cello is too obvious (if it were a CD cover, a cello would make perfect sense), but I also think that the second image portrays the song better. It seems to have all the right flow and contrasting strength. I think her grabbing onto the tree is great for the song's orchestral arrangement.
I like the cello idea, too. For myself I prefer the comp on the left. The flowing lines in that one strike a better chord with me. I might push the curve of the tree (?) even more, though. I'm a little confused about what's happening in the bottom bit. Is she on a sort of cliff/knoll thing? What are the dark shapes to the left and right of the knoll? Mountains in the distance? Also, what is she sitting on? A tree root? It doesn't really bother me in the comp, but you might want to take that into consideration in an internal structure sense. Great idea- I'm excited to see it done!
Alright so this might be taking your idea way out of context, but there's a video game called Journey. Its soundtrack is amazing, and it heavily features cello.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGcXI_BaR2Y
What I'm trying to get at is that the composer put the idea in that the cello would be representative of the player's character, and when the cello played along with other instruments, it meant the character was interacting with something, whether it be another creature or the environment. With that in mind, I think it would be cool to implement that kind of thing, which is why I kind of gravitate more to the idea of the second comp. I think you can implement the same kind of rhythm from the first comp into the second one.
Then again, it's kind of your idea. Since the whole song builds into this epic rock opera kind of thing, you may want to punch up the epic-ness of it a little. I don't really know how, but it wouldn't be hard to think of something.
Nice like work in these sketches, flowing hair, etc. If you want to paint a cello then do it. Only you might work the form into the composition in a less direct, literal way, like they did with the album cover. You don't necessarily have to show a person playing the cello to make it part of the image. Maybe the clouds take a cello shape or the landscape forms in the background resemble a cello laying on it's side. You could make it subtle so people won't notice right away but it might be fun when they recognize it.
Also think about the idea of "farewell" and how that might inspire some decisions. You might play with scale, especially if you're going for something "epic." Usually this means making the figures small and something else large—the tree, the clouds, a mountain, etc. But you could also make it "epic" by featuring a large, powerful figure.
I would try doing a few full-value thumbnails to work out figure-ground relationships, major shapes, overlapping and contrasting elements. You'll be amazed what important compositional issues you can solve quickly that way.
Having listened to the song, I don't think the cello is too obvious (if it were a CD cover, a cello would make perfect sense), but I also think that the second image portrays the song better. It seems to have all the right flow and contrasting strength. I think her grabbing onto the tree is great for the song's orchestral arrangement.
ReplyDeleteI like the cello idea, too. For myself I prefer the comp on the left. The flowing lines in that one strike a better chord with me. I might push the curve of the tree (?) even more, though. I'm a little confused about what's happening in the bottom bit. Is she on a sort of cliff/knoll thing? What are the dark shapes to the left and right of the knoll? Mountains in the distance? Also, what is she sitting on? A tree root? It doesn't really bother me in the comp, but you might want to take that into consideration in an internal structure sense. Great idea- I'm excited to see it done!
ReplyDeleteAlright so this might be taking your idea way out of context, but there's a video game called Journey. Its soundtrack is amazing, and it heavily features cello.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGcXI_BaR2Y
What I'm trying to get at is that the composer put the idea in that the cello would be representative of the player's character, and when the cello played along with other instruments, it meant the character was interacting with something, whether it be another creature or the environment. With that in mind, I think it would be cool to implement that kind of thing, which is why I kind of gravitate more to the idea of the second comp. I think you can implement the same kind of rhythm from the first comp into the second one.
Then again, it's kind of your idea. Since the whole song builds into this epic rock opera kind of thing, you may want to punch up the epic-ness of it a little. I don't really know how, but it wouldn't be hard to think of something.
Nice like work in these sketches, flowing hair, etc. If you want to paint a cello then do it. Only you might work the form into the composition in a less direct, literal way, like they did with the album cover. You don't necessarily have to show a person playing the cello to make it part of the image. Maybe the clouds take a cello shape or the landscape forms in the background resemble a cello laying on it's side. You could make it subtle so people won't notice right away but it might be fun when they recognize it.
ReplyDeleteAlso think about the idea of "farewell" and how that might inspire some decisions. You might play with scale, especially if you're going for something "epic." Usually this means making the figures small and something else large—the tree, the clouds, a mountain, etc. But you could also make it "epic" by featuring a large, powerful figure.
I would try doing a few full-value thumbnails to work out figure-ground relationships, major shapes, overlapping and contrasting elements. You'll be amazed what important compositional issues you can solve quickly that way.