About the Work
For my final project of my Fall 2019 semester in my first photography class with Professor Coriana, I was instructed to create 15 images dealing with some form of imagery. I chose to illustrate my very own storybook, combining my digital art skills with photography.
What is the core logic of the work?
- My project is centered around two guardian spirits, the mannequin (Paris) and the ballerina (Melody), who are tasked with carrying the light in the form of a lantern through of a lantern through the night to the other spirits and then returning to their starting point before dawn. As they travel, they visit and play with the other spirits they encounter and their love for each other is revealed. On their journey back they are stopped by the shadow master who had spied on them with masks. He wants the light all for himself and goes as far as to capture Paris. Melody has to leave her Paris with the shadows, escape, and return to her starting point before the sun fully rises to make sure the light is protected. She fulfils her guardian task and vows to return for the mannequin spirit the next night.
- I want my audience to feel the hope and joy the spirits bring everywhere they visit and fall in love with the main characters as they fall in love with each other. I want them to worry when the masks start to appear in the frames, question why they seem so ominous, and feel Melody’s pain as she has to leave her love in the clutches of the evil shadow master. I want them to feel anxious and wonder if Melody will make it back before the sun rises, and fear for the other guardian who could not return to his post. As she sacrifices her love for the other spirits, I want the audience to ponder what is more important: love or duty.
What motivates your aesthetic and/or technical decision making?
- Because my work is centered around guardian spirits who bring light, I played with many shadows and bright light in this project. I wanted to show how bright and cheery the spirits made the worked and how sinister the shadows could be when they try to snuff out the light. I decided to draw cartoon characters and studied Thumbelina and Sleeping Beauty for their poses. I wanted the characters to feel like they came straight from an innocent children’s fairytale book and embody the light they carry. The masks were mainly scanned at an angle into the pictures so dark shadows could cover parts of the masks and make them more ominous.
- The Ukrainian artist Viktoria Solidarnyh combines photos and turns them into a new piece of digital art and usually deals with fantasy themes. I also combined different photos to make each fantasy picture. This artist creates beautiful pieces of art with the combinations but does not combine her own drawings into her work which is a difference in my work. My favorite part is adding my own drawings to the different scenes.
Check these out!
Here are some images that you can view in a larger scale by clicking on each one. See more in IMAGERY and SHOWCASE!
These are the final character outlines I created for the story.
This electric and antique-looking lantern was given to me by my grandmother. This was where the idea of the storybook was born.
I used my 10-year-old SONY ALPHA DSLR-A300 & A350 to capture most of my images before I manipulated and illustrated them in Adobe Photoshop.