Wizard Book Illustrations

The Wizard of Oz book was delivered a couple of days ago,but I have just got round to blogging about it now. I was so excited when it arrived,I unwrapped it straight away and was immediately inspired by Graham Rawles illustrations.I can see his interpretations are very unique and there is something quite enchantingabout each characters design and appearance. Some images of from the book are below. I will definitely bekeeping this book for my children when I have them.

As previously mentioned my teacher suggested some artists I look into. Madame Peripetie is a surrealist image maker who is inspired by Sci-Fi and character design. Madame Peritpetie work and style is very striking and unusual, her abstract images are unique and have really inspired me for a number of my chosen characters.

We have previously done a workshop with Peripetie and this helped with us to really push the boundaries with design and creative materials. This is an element I want to use in my images.

I looked into Photographer Paco Peregrin, whose work consists of a mix of hyper-real futurism and high end beauty images, which is an element I want to capture in my images. His work has also really inspired me.

I have gathered a number of images from Peripetie and Peregrin as well as a few more and I will create a mood board of inspirational images for each character.

Characters I am creating

I have carried on looking into the characters, to see which ones I wish to recreate, I wanted the ones I thought had the most potential and would allow me to create interesting unique looks.

I have come up with the following

1.       Dorothy Gale

2.       Tin Woodman

3.       Cowardly lion

4.       Scarecrow

5.       The china clown, Mr Joker

6.       Hammerhead

7.       The wizard of Oz- Dorothy’s version which is a head

8.       The Wizard of Oz- Scarecrows version which is a lady

9.       Wizard of oz- Tin Woodman’s version 5 eyed beast

10.   Wizard of oz- Cowardly lions version- Ball of Fire

11.   A Winged monkey

12.   A Kalidah

13.   Wicked witch of the west

14.   Guardian of the gates

I have been waiting for The Wizard of Oz book to turn up but it still hasn’t arrived, so I have read the book online, to help refresh my memory on the story line. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and I have noted down important facts about each character, while reading the book a number of ideas kept popping in my mind about designs and looks for different characters, so I have jotted these down and tomorrow I plan to make a list of the final 10-15 characters I think will have the most potential to give me the best images. I will then start researching further into artists and photographers.

I am going to look into Tim Walker, as I have previously visited his exhibition at the Somerset Gallery in London. He is an influential fashion photographer known for his surrealistic and eccentric views. He is known for his fairytale sets, extravagant staging and romantic images, these elements were reflected in his exhibition the 'Story Teller'. Itis clear he truly creates a world of imagination, which reflects back to theidea of fantasy. His work is really inspiring and the life size props were very surreal. I have provided some photos of his exhibition.

When speaking to my tutor, she told me to look at the Wizard of Oz book illustrated by Graham Rawle. His interpretations of the original text by L. Frank Baum include elements of model-making, photography, collage and typographical experimentation to help recreate the characters. I have ordered book and I'm currently waiting for it to arrive, in the mean time I will be taking inspiration from his trailer based on the makings of the book.

 

 

Final Term, Final Project!

Today was the first day back to university after our hand ins and since submitting my Final Major Project Proposal I still wasn’t 100% happy with my idea. The theme was Fantasy and I was going to look into a number of subgenres such as Dark Fantasy and Mythical Fantasy, I wanted to create a range of creative images around these themes. I soon realised there are many subgenres and my idea was just too broad but I couldn’t work out how to narrow it down so I went to my tutor for some direction. Luckily for me the rest of my group didn’t turn up so I had a full 2 hours with my lecturer, from reading through my proposal we decided to keep to the idea of fantasy and explore into the book The Wizard of Oz, this is still in keeping with fantasy and surrealism which was spoken about in my proposal. The characters in the book help narrow down the concept but still allows me to explore and experiment different looks and ideas. My tutor bombarded me with artist’s names, photographers and a number of other inspirational sources so I am going to start researching, wish me luck!