(DATABASE) Project 2 finals - jpg/png for sharing in class

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".

In my illustration, the bad guy looks the same as the good guy. The bad guy stabbed the good guy in the eye with her sword, but stabbed herself in the eye after penetrating the good guy. This reflects the concept of "harm set, harm get." And their identical appearance represents that they are actually two sides of the same person. Don't let the evil side go unrestrained, or it will come back to bite you in the end. In addition, in order to better fit the original folk tale, I added many symbols, such as crosses, food, flowers, crows, angels and demons. These symbols can also help me better metaphorize the concepts I want to express. 

Ryunosuke Kikuchi

Childe Rowland

Armed with his father's talking bat and information from the hacker Merlin,
Rowland set off to the city of Fae to rescue his sister and brothers from the Demon Mafia Boss.

For my piece I decided to go for Childe Rowland with a ChuthuluPunk twist.
It was quite fun to see how far I could push the story and still have it resemble the original. Experimenting with more xtreme angles that I am used to made the piece more interesting and fun to work on as well.
I also learnt that the original story had also been quoted by Shakespear in a play. Steven King's Dark Towers books were based on Childe Rowland and his version of Rowland is a gunslinger armed with his father's two revolvers.

Jing-Wen Yuan 

PDF of the research catalog 

https://courses.ecuad.ca/pluginfile.php/435080/mod_data/content/36224/illus%20401%20-%20Google%20Docs.pdf

https://courses.ecuad.ca/pluginfile.php/435080/mod_data/content/36224/thumbcc.jpg

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. 

Lin Jiang

I am going to illustrate the story "Urashima Taro and the Princess Of The Sea". I felt sombre while I was reading it as I know a fisherman is always facing danger from the ocean. I imagine these fairytales about disappearing fishermen came from the families who lost their beloved ones, so they imagined their children went to the palace of the ocean and they will come back one day, but the parents will not see them again. This story reminds me of a Chinese folktale that tells a story about a princess who drowned and became a bird. She hated the ocean because it took her life so the bird wanted to fill the ocean with pebbles. The story of Urashima Taro moved me.

Christopher Ashdown 

I chose to do Urashima Taro and the Princess of the Sea. I enjoyed the adventure underwater, and felt I could play around with different versions of the stories I found. The 1949 version, Taro is approached by the turtle after rescuing it on a sunny day while he fishes and is brought to the ocean palace to meet the princess. But, in the 1992 version, Taro is caught in a typhoon and saved by the turtle, then brought to the palace to meet the princess. I enjoyed the typhoon bit a bit more than the original calm demeaner of the '49 version, and found I could make for a more interesting composition. With a chaotic side on one end, and a calm side on the other, both tragic parts of the story. My main focus, however, was to try to keep the attention on the princess and how beautiful she is supposed to be. Her hand maidens on her side bowing as Taro leaves for his home, unaware of the devastating news he is about to receive when he gets to shore (I also wanted to add the face of the old version of taro in the corner, hidden in a darker part of the piece; foreshadowing). The palace far in the distance but still a reasonable size to emphasize how large it was described in the story. And, to move the eye, I tried to create a line the viewer can follow with a path of bubble from the typhoon that transitions to cherry blossom petals from the door of Spring described in the story, then to smoke emitting from the jewel box gifted by the princess. 

I stepped a little outside of my comfort zone for this project, but am not unfamiliar with ink and watercolour. Though, I am happy with the ink work and how the lines turned out and how some of the colours blended (in the dresses for example). I should've added more detail to the palace, but felt it would've taken away from the princess and her maidens. Regardless, I am happy with the piece, and I do feel it tells the whole story in one shot. 

Auto Guarin

For project two, I chose the story "The Two Travellers".  In the text given, the story was short, concise and very vague. I decided to read a few different renditions, which naturally allowed me to combine them.

For my work, I decided to highlight the key parts in the text given such as the traveller being healed by the dew, and hinting at the flowers that helped his reputation build in the kingdom. I also added in the 'bad' traveller to being attacked by the birds. These two events I think helped summarize the story to me. Another thing I kept note of was the consistency of the story taking place in the forest(for the most part). I used folliage and plants to not only place the characters in it, but also used it as a border to help present the setting further being a key element to The Two Travellers.

I also played around with colours, and found that changing hues altered the mood of the piece.

Bailey Coady

For my final illustration I decided to revisit my thumbnails and select a different composition. I was not feeling inspired by the concepts I had begun to render and I am glad I pivoted. In my illustration for the story of Tattercoats, each character and plot point is depicted symbolically except for the protagonist. Tattercoats has her grandfather's tears as jewels on her cheeks and is draped in a veil from her marriage to the prince. She is holding the "pipe" that I decided top depict as a flute and is surrounded by the feathers of the gooseherd's flock. The image of Tattercoats shows her as being the one in control of her destiny rather than being lead by men. The story references brilliant silver fabric and golden riches. I used this as the colour palette and muted it with gradation to represent the bleak state of her former rags. 

Katherine Cross

For my story in one shot, I wanted to explore imagery and subjects that I was not comfortable with, as well as some rudimentary photo-collage elements. Straying away from my traditional work on pen and paper presented a challenge for me, and I think that the lack of material process really worked to my detriment in this illustration.

Although I enjoyed the research and planning stages for this work, electing to place my illustration in an urban setting in a more drawn/inked style were two ideas that are very much outside of my comfort zone as an illustrator, and I think that very much shows in the final work.

In a revisited and revised version of this illustration, I might want to try again using the limited palette in ink painting or black and white gouache or watercolour paints. I enjoyed the process of incorporating additional urban elements and structures in the work, and sampling some antique photographs for the illustration, but I think that a rework here is greatly needed.

Jeongin Sung (Jack)

I chose "Two Travellers" for project 2. The reason why I chose this story is that the narrative, settings, and characters are very similar to the Korean folktale that I read when I was young. I thought it would be interesting if I could make it a different version from another region. Also, the contrast between characters, protagonist against antagonist (with their characteristics, their act, and ending) was clear enough to visually develop how both characters are separated. 

It is based on the story of two travelers and the story shows the different endings of two-character depending on how they act. The protagonist, the good one has shared everything with his partner and he gets betrayed by the antagonist losing both eyes. However, miraculously he cured his eyes and he also cured the ill princess as well (he listened to what three birds talk about magical dew that could restore the vision of a blind person, and also about the plant that could heal princess). On the other hand, the antagonist heard about what the protagonist experienced so he tried to do the same thing as what the protagonist did to cure his eyes and princess. But when he arrives he gets punished (losing his sight) by three birds that noticed someone heard their discussion. 

Kit Liu

Hansel und Gretel. Thinkin’ on good vs evil, innocent vs pure, large vs small, old vs young. Surety and uncertainty. Elongated shadows, shifting tiles, an outstretched hand. An asynchronous place (old fashioned oven vs contemporary wear). Unsure footing in a smokey setting.

I tried to abstract my watercolours to tell a (frightful) story through textures and patterns. 

Would like to push further with dry media, similar to my anthology piece...