FMP proposal

For my Final Major Project, I intend to write and illustrate a fantasy narrative. Whilst doing initial research and thinking of idea’s for my FMP, the key thing I kept coming back to was a fantasy based narrative and the idea of a fairytale inspired story appealed more so than other idea’s I considered. On a personal level, I feel this project will help me with my character based work. Creating and writing about my own characters has always been something I loved and have been keen to improve upon. I plan on the majority of my illustrations being character based so this will help advance my character drawing to keep up with the narrative. This project will be a challenge for me as I will be plotting out my own narrative as well as drawing it. It will be a lot of work but I feel that pushing myself for this challenge will help me advance the skills I need. On a professional point, my FMP will also be helpful in advancing my continuity between my illustrations. I sometimes feel that continuity isn’t my strongest point, but with this project I will repeatedly be drawing the same set of characters for the narrative.

As part of my initial research, I began by looking at different artists. One of my favourite artists has always been Brian Kesinger, not only for his artwork and style of drawing but for the content he portrays. Kesinger is a story artist who currently works for Walt Disney Studio’s  in California [1]. He went straight from high school to his first paid job working for Disney on the artwork for Tarzan [2]. Currently, whilst still working for Disney, he has begun to publish his own work, the main project being his work for his two main characters he has created, Otto and Victoria. His book, Walking Your Octopus, has little in the way of story but the artwork itself focuses entirely on the characters and their interactions and evidently shows that his biggest influence is the Steampunk genre [3]. Any part of a narrative is given to the audience through the drawings, a lot of wording narrating the images not necessary to understand the piece. I feel that I can draw parallels with my own work as I also prefer to focus on character interactions above all else, as Kesingers' work even has little in the way of background so as not to subtract from the character imagery [4]. Kesingers' work has influenced my own personal work in the way of both style and layout so naturally his work was a consideration for me towards my FMP. His work definitely made me look at characters being a huge focus for my work but I felt I would want to work with a greater narrative behind my work.





Looking for ideas of narrative, a huge inspiration to me was a pair of books that have been turned into hugely successful films. I tend to look towards films just as much as artwork for influence in my work. Both Stardust and The Princess Bride are personal favourite films of mine. They both contain a fantasy narrative that can be linked very closely to fairytales, with The Princess Bride being narrated in the traditional fairytale style [5] and Stardust containing many of the stereotypical elements of fairytales such as wicked witches and princes so typical of the Grimm's brothers style of fairytales [6]. Both of the plots serve as inspiration for my own narrative outline with the link of the fantasy genre and fairytale influence. Before the film, Stardust was also originally a full colour illustrated novel written by Neil Gaiman [7], drawing a parallel for my current idea of an end result for my own FMP, though the style in which the novel is drawn does not entirely appeal to me.



With my illustrations, I hope to intrigue, to thrill and, most importantly, to entertain. I want to be able to tell a story that has the audience hooked and to make them actually care for the characters with whom they journey through the narrative. I want to be able to take my audience to this world and make them feel a part of this story. I want my audience to enjoy this story and be entertained by it. Being entertained by something is what will make the audience love it, so that is the initial aim of this adventure.

Another area of work I am interested in but have never really looked at in depth is the area of concept art for films, animations etc. Thus for my research project I plan to look at different parts of concept art for different end medias like films, TV shows and stage productions with the possibility of doing some of my own conceptual work for my fantasy narrative. 

The actual audience I initially had in mind for my final major project were older children, probably around the age 10 area. On a personal level, I enjoy creating longer, slightly more complex stories which can be dark in places, something I imagine wouldn’t be entirely appropriate for a much younger audience. Earlier in the year I did a children’s book module for which my book was aimed at 5-7 year olds. Whilst I enjoyed making the book, the story itself lacked the detail which I prefer to work with, hence my decision to not make a book for much younger children for my FMP. However, I don’t want to limit my audience to singularly older children either. I see no reason why I cannot go through my project with the idea of young adults or adults in general in mind as another potential audience who might enjoy such a book just as much. Adult books rarely have illustrations in and personally when I come across books such as ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ I love it more so because it has the illustrations in without it being a young child's book. I feel that, looking to the world of film, Disney is a good example. Whilst its main aim in audience for the majority of its films are children, Disney is popular with practically any age group or set of people because it is still accessible. I would rather aim my work towards older children to young adults with the idea in mind for making it accessible still to anyone.

It is important that the type of illustration I use fits the narrative and the idea of it being accessible to a wide range for my audience. The illustrations will be fantasy based, reflective of the text in a more cartoon based style, but most importantly the illustrations will be a way of telling the narrative as much as the written word. I plan on the main content of these illustrations to be focused on the characters, again what I see as one of my main strengths. The characters will reflect the narrative and so most likely be depicted interacting with one another or doing something rather than simply being static representations of the characters repeatedly throughout the narrative. The final media I plan to produce will be in book format. 

There are two artists who’s work I have been intrigued by and drawn many a parallel with my own practice. Tony Diterlizzi is a contemporary american illustrator based in Massachusetts [8]. From a young age, Diterlizzi was intersted in both drawing and writing, creating his own fieldguide of fantasy creatures when he was just 12; an idea he would later revisit for ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles [9]. His primary style of work consists of fantasy illustration for various books, many of which he has written himself, with nature being his primary influence and inspiration behind a lot of his work[10]. The book series he is most famous for is ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’. The books were written by a close friend of his, Holly Black, a personal favourite author of mine. Diterlizzi illustrated the book series, most of the illustrations being pen and ink drawings consistently placed throughout the book [11]. The Spiderwick Chronicles books are what I aspire for my work to look like as an end result. The series is aimed at older children, but again has a far larger audience who enjoy it as the books were turned into a film. The books themselves I see as quite special to children as they have that feel of an old, classic book. They don’t look or feel like a mass production book, what with the quality illustrations and well presented hardback cover that makes it feel like an older book. 









Chris Riddell’s work is similar to Tony Diterlizzi in the end product of the books he produces. Riddell is a british illustrator and political cartoonist who works for the Observer [12]. He’s illustrated many kids books, collaborating with author Paul Stewart on the ‘Muddle Earth’ books [13]. The latest of his own books to be published was ‘Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse’ which won the Costa Children’s Book Award for 2013 [14]. Riddell’s books again contain an array of detailed ink illustrations in a well presented hardback book, not a typical layout for a children’s book. Both of these books were key inspirations in coming up with my initial proposal for my FMP. The one thing both books have in common is the incorporation of the illustration into the body of text. Neither the illustrations or the text look out of place, they have been incorporated together into the design of the page so it feels like a whole piece, rather than the illustrations added as an afterthought. The whole feel of these books gives the impression thought has been put into every aspect of making them, something I aspire to achieve in my own work. Both books also have incredibly similar illustration styles with all of the images being in black and white. This may be down to printing reasons, but the overall affect makes them more appealing to an older audience: if they used colour, the books would be much more like younger children’s picture books, which is not the aim. Black and White would be a good style of illustration to try for my own professional practice as it is an overall look that I prefer but am yet to fully try working with. However, I feel black and white would fit the project well, as it works well for these two instances that I aspire my work to hopefully resemble in some way.




With this project, I plan to make the narrative detailed and probably to the same size as a book from The Spiderwick Chronicles, which is around 128 pages [15]. Therefore, I don’t plan to write the entire book. Instead, I will write out a basic plot outline for the narrative from which I can work on the illustrations. I will write the first few chapters fully and work on the written part of the narrative in later stages but my main priority is the narrative outline and of course the illustrations for said project.
As part of my initial development, as well as creating a plot outline, I will need to design the key characters with character profiles. I will also need to experiment with incorporating image and text together on the same page in composition experiments, again like Chris Riddell and Tony Diterlizzi’s books. This is what I plan as my next body of preparation and experimental work for over the summer period leading up to third year.

References

1.DeviantArt, ‘Otto and Victoria’ 
2.DeviantArt, ‘Otto and Victoria’
3.Kesinger, Brian, Walking Your Octopus (2013)
5.The Princess Bride (1987)
6.Stardust (2007)
10.Diterlizzi, Tony, http://diterlizzi.com/home/faq-art/
11.Diterlizzi, Tony, ‘Spiderwick Chronicles - The Field Guide’ (2003)

Bibliography

Books

Black, Holly & Diterlizzi, Tony (2003), The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Field Guide, New York, Simon & Schuster Books
Jones, Stephen (2007) Stardust the Visual Companion, London, Titan Books
Kesinger, Brian (2013) Walking Your Octopus, Los Angeles, Baby Tattoo Books
Riddell, Chris (2013) Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, London, Macmillan Children’s Books

Films

Stardust (2007) Matthew Vaughn, UK, Paramount Pictures
The Princess Bride (1987) Rob Reiner, USA, Act III Communications 

Websites

Diterlizzi, Tony http://diterlizzi.com/home/tonys-biography/ Accessed 28th March 2014
Diterlizzi, Tony ,http://diterlizzi.com/home/faq-art/ Accessed 28th March 2014
Diterlizzi, Tony http://diterlizzi.com/home/project/the-spiderwick-chronicles/ Accessed 28th March 2014
Gaiman, Neil http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/
Kesinger, Brian http://www.bkartonline.com/subgallery-page/otto-and-victoria/ Accessed 28th March 2014
Panmacmillan http://www.panmacmillan.com/gobstoppers/chrisriddell Accessed 28th March 2014
Panmacmillan http://www.panmacmillan.com/author/chrisriddell Accessed 28th March 2014

Image Sources

Black, Holly & Diterlizzi, Tony (2003), The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Field Guide, New York, Simon & Schuster Books 
Jones, Stephen (2007) Stardust the Visual Companion, London, Titan Books
Riddell, Chris (2013) Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, London, Macmillan Children’s Books


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