(DATABASE) Project Two - Refined Sketches

Liangwen Qin

I'm going to create a one-shot illustration that tells the "whole story" in one shot. The folk tale I chose was called "The Two Travellers" and tells a story about "The good that comes with you". A good man and a bad man travel together, the good man gives his food to the bad man, and the bad man gouges out the good man's eyes when he has no food and leaves him in wilderness to die. The good man heard two birds on a branch talking about the dew that could heal the eyes and the flowers that could heal the princess. The good man finally cured his eyes and married the princess through these messages, while the bad man who tried to listen to the bird talk for profit was pecked out of his eyes by the birds. This is a very instructive story, and the author's writing is very succinct. He does not describe the dialogue and scenes vividly, but tells the story in a straightforward way from a third perspective. I looked up some sources and found many versions of the story, and the one that stuck with me was the religious one. In this version, the good man believes in God, the tree on which the bird rests becomes a cross, and the meaning of the story becomes that believers will be rewarded if they follow the dogma. 

I hope to use symbolic symbols to create illustrations about this story, because I think the focus of this story lies in its meaning rather than what kind of scene it depicts. Its scenes and characters are very general. In addition, according to my understanding of this story, there are no pure good people and bad people in this world, and more people are making a choice between the good side and the evil side in their hearts. If the evil side defeats the good side and makes people do bad things, people will actually hurt themselves in the end. I hope that after reading this story, people will not blame the bad guys and praise the good guys, but reflect on themselves. So in my illustrations, I represent the conflict between good and evil as a struggle within a person. I will use the composition of opposites and contrary to express this kind of struggle, and show the theme of "what goes around comes around". 

Jing-Wen Yuan 

For my project, I chose the Bird Maiden. I want to go with the Chinese version of the story based on the bird maiden's clothes being taken away from a poor farmer, Dong Yong, because their bull is a trickster fairy in disguise told him to take the clothes away. The maiden , Yunue can't become a bird to fly away with her sisters. So she is stuck on earth. The poor farmer sold himself off to service to pay for his father's funeral, and the maiden falls in love with the farmer marries him, in order to pay off his debt, she weaves 10 pieces of brocade them and pay off the debt When they finally can be together, the Jade Emperor, (the father of the maiden) is taken away and only on the 7th evening can the couple be reunited at the milky way. 

After reading so many different versions of the story, I noticed there is a common theme, that the woman is always helping the man by a) becoming their wife, b) aiding them in their adventure/journey or c) just being an object of desire. I don't like this, and so I've changed the story to suit my own tastes and to make it more contemporary. This is my version of the Bird Maiden: 

The poor farmer, Dong Yong, again takes the bird maiden's feather cloak dress because of the bull. The Bird Maiden can't leave, but she is not ashamed of being seen naked. She walks up to Dong Yong and demands he also strip down to his naked self, for that is only fair. Dong Yong also takes off his clothes, for he isn't very bright, and Yunue then steals his clothes for herself and wears them. She takes off to the market, and becomes a famous and rich fabric saleswoman. Dong Yong doesn't know what to do, so he wears the feather cloak dress and then flies to the skies to meet and live with Yunue's bird sisters, and he learns how to embroider, sew, and also sing and dance like a proper lady. They live their own lives separately, but sometimes Yunue's bird sister's come down and tell her how the farmer is doing, and Yunue quite likes her own independence as a human. 

My version is a more contemporary way of showing how a woman can also not need any man or partner to fulfill her dreams, and is confident in her way of living can change any situation. It's a parody of the original. 

Below is my pdf of research that I have done. 

https://courses.ecuad.ca/pluginfile.php/435075/mod_data/content/35454/illus%20401_project2research.pdf

Chris Ashdown

These are some roughly refined sketches that allowed me to figured out where I am going to place light sources, highlights, characters, and details from the folk tale. I chose Urashima Taro and the Princess of the Sea. I liked the setting and this story may allow me to work with different materials than usual (such as some inks or gouache). I kept the sketches simple for now as to not truly solidify any details. I would like to try and fix the end of the story in my piece. I feel it's too vague. And maybe find a better place for the title of the story. 

Bailey Coady

After reading through the various short stories, I decided to illustrate the story of Tattercoats. I began by brainstorming different imagery while filling out the reflection and research worksheet. One thing that caught my attention was the consideration of how you could interpret or reinvent a story. In the short story, Tattercoats is entirely reliant on men. She seeks the love of her grandfather and is only given scraps by an old nurse that works for him. It is the gooseherd who raises her spirit and makes her go into the city, where he later transforms her for the ball. In the end she relies on the prince and king to give her wealth and status.  I want my depiction to focus on Tattercoats and represent her emotion and strength that I wish she had. The other characters in the story will still be represented but using symbols rather than literal depiction. My illustration will focus on the independence of Tattercoats and show the whole story with visual metaphor. While doing research I found myself interested in two different concepts: fashion illustration and mythology. I want to reference the style of fashion illustration and bring an avant garde element to the clothing of the story. Additionally, I found a few fantasy references that tie into the original story. The concept of rebirth that is represented by a phoenix relates to Tattercoats. Additionally, I looked at the legend of Nike the goddess of victory (another link to the visual of birds). 

Alexander Starzomczyk

Decided to do my project on the story The Ghoul and the Youth of Ispahan. This story is about a person who outsmarts a much stronger giant (Ghoul). Instead of running away, the person tricks the giant and convinces it that despite being much smaller the person is actually much stronger. In my illustrations I wanted to focus on that large and small dynamic, but I also wanted to focus on how the giant was tricked. So for two of the three sketches I did, the person is doing a card trick because when reading the story it was much like watching a magic show being performed on the giant by the person. The third one I drew the puppeteer controlling the giant, much like how the giant was being controlled by the tricks in the story. The scenes are all in the forest because the story is in a forest.

Helen He

I’m thinking about doing Hansel and Gretel for this project since it was one of my favorite fairytales as a child. The classic story originated from medieval Germany, and most of its illustrations take place in a medieval fantasy setting. I wanted to try and give it a modern twist with horror-centered aspects, depicting a scene of how some things aren’t as good as they seem and exploring the subject of blindly trusting strangers. Since it originated from Germany, I wanted to go for a European-styled apartment home, especially those that make you feel a sense of coziness as if you were in grandma’s house, contrasting it with the dangers going on from behind.

I also made colored thumbnails for some of the other tales because I had difficulty deciding which story to use. Just wanted to share in case I change my mind later, but I’m most likely sticking to my current idea. 

• Shengqiao Huang

I chose Urashima Taro and The Sea Princess

The subject matter of the first draft is the box given to Urashima Taro by the princess of the Sea. This box is described in the story as containing Urashima Taro's youth. The image inside the box is therefore of Urashima taro being carried by a turtle to meet the princess of the Sea. The patterns on the box are all of the waves of the sea. The string used to pack the box is seaweed.

The second picture shows Urashima Taro leaving reluctantly with the box given to him by the princess of the Sea..

Angie Wall

I picked the two travelers as I grew up with the grim's version. It's a very nostalgic tale for me. Since this story has traveled to literally all corners of the planet, it was pretty free for me to pick where and who for this pic. I decided on romania, focusing on the Romani culutral dress. I read some other Romanian fairy tales and used that to inform what kind of bird I should inclued. All the birds pictured have been punished by god in some form, usually for being greedy or seeking forbidden knowledge. The castle in the background is castle bran, which is the least creepy castle in Romania.

Joshua Kim

The following pages are the sketches of my character design and the settings for the fairy tale story that was on my selection for this project: Hansel and Gretel. My techniques were sketch the characters first, then move the characters into the setting.

Tat Peterson

I decided to choose the story Tattercoats since it is very similar to Cinderella (which is a childhood favourite) and I really loved the imagery of the grandfather whose tears created grooves in stone and hair had grown so long it had attached him to his seat. That imagery in particular inspired my work because the stories only really descriptive story moments are when the writer talks about what comes as a result of the grandfather's sorrow, which is mostly equated to the sea. So in my mind, the greatest parallel to the ocean is a forest, so I decided to explore the idea that the place Tattercoats is going to is a parallel to all that has been brought upon her by grandfather's sadness. She's walking into a place that is full and wild and free, the great party where the prince confesses his love for her means change and happiness which is opposite all she knows, aka the sadness of her seaside childhood home. So my sketches are that moment, and all the figures are meant to appear incredibly small whilst surrounded by an insurmountable forest. It is incredibly hard to communicate the detail work that will be included in these trees in a sketch so I have also included a completed sample of what the trees will look like so you have a better visual of what all the cubes are. 

(Also the blocked in faded blue and pink in the background is the plan for the colour palette)