RE-IMAGING THE WIZARD OF OZ

Zoe-Lee Spero

Portfolio A: Fundamentals of Drawing and Design for Visual Storytelling.

Portfolio B: Life Drawing and Character Design for Visual Storytelling.

Portfolio C: Storyboard and Animatic.

The purpose and content of my blog is to display the composed drawings and textual notes related to the ideas and concepts of all three assignment tasks.

PORTFOLIO A

Fundamentals of Drawing and Design for Visual Storytelling

THE WIZARD OF OZ RE-IMAGINED

Everyone believes Dorothy is a sweet girl, lost and trying to find her way back home. After an encounter with the Wicked Witch of the West, she soon discovers this strange world and its beings hold a great deal of power. Set in a fantasy world, Dorothy, a Mage, no longer has the intention of going home but,  embarks on a long journey through the wild dark haunted forest to assassinate the Wizard of Oz, take his power and then the Wicked Witches.

FACES

Tutorial Week 2

Drawing Task: The objective was to draw our fellow peers as we see them, without looking down on our drawing pad.

This task was hard to do for two reasons. First, the fact that we were not allowed to look at what we were drawing made it quite difficult. Second, we learnt a new way to hold our pencils.

This new way can be called the ‘Monkey Grip’, which is literally holding your pencil as if you were a monkey picking it up. Although this grip makes for an easier style of drawing, as I was moving my entire arm instead of just my wrist, allowing the pencil to have a more flowing motion and more freedom, It was still hard to achieve. It is a new style of drawing to me which is evident as at times my pencil was not even touching the pad, but with practice, it will become easier and more comfortable to do.

Even though it was uncomfortable to do this task, it was a fun experience as our sketches of each other were quite terrible and looked hilarious.

PERSPECTIVE

Before I started to work on my haunted forest thumbnails for the assignment, I decided it would be wise to do some practice perspective drawings to help me learn how to make my thumbnails look more ‘realistic’ and to show depth. From these drawings, I was able to see my weaknesses, which was that I am not really good at showing perspective nor am I at drawing. This allowed me to realize that and change the way I draw to ensure that my future thumbnails and other personal artwork can better show depth and realism.

SET DESIGN REFERENCES AND INSPIRATION

After doing some perspective practice artwork, I then went on to thinking of ideas on how to re-imagine The Wizard of Oz Haunted Forest scene. Once I came up with an idea, the classical haunted forest, I then researched images of haunted/dark/forgotten/enchanted forests and used them as inspiration for my own take on a haunted forest. Resource: All images were taken from google images.

SET DESIGN THUMBNAIL SKETCHES

Using the researched images as a constant reference, I created around 20 quick thumbnails of my interpretation of a haunted forest. In our tutorials, we were shown how exactly to draw these thumbnails, use the monkey grip, and to only spend around one minute on each. Even though I saw how it was suppose to be done, I did not end up doing it how I was suppose to. I spent a lot of time on each one and found it difficult to come up with ideas as I was overthinking what I was suppose to do. From these thumbnails I was able to identify which areas I needed to improve and/or change. Once again, it showed that I was not very good at showing perspective/ making value distinguishable. Because of this, I believe it is the reason I did not like any of these thumbnails originally and went on to finding a new theme.

Note: In the week 4 tutorial I had Sorin take the class instead of Patrick and he went over one of my original thumbnails to show my how to create value and create quick and pleasing pieces.

SET DESIGN REFERENCES AND INSPIRATION

After doing the first set of thumbnails under the classical haunted forest theme, I then went on thinking of different ideas that could be a ‘forest’ without actually being a forest. First I came up with the idea of the forest being made entirely out of metal, like some space aged type look. I also came up with the idea of an underwater themed forest, being made up of seaweed and coral. I then furthered that idea with The Lost City of Atlantis being the ‘forest’ that the character venture through in order to find the Wizard of Oz. With these ideas in mind, I then researched images of them and used it as inspiration for my own take on a haunted forest. Resource: All images were taken from google images.

SET DESIGN THUMBNAIL SKETCHES

Using the second set of researched images as a constant reference, I created a few thumbnails of my interpretation of a haunted ‘forest’ with the metal and underwater /ocean theme. Once again, Even though I saw how the thumbnails were suppose to be drawn, I did not end up doing it how I was suppose to. This time, learning from my previous thumbnails, I did try and add value to some of the underwater/ocean themed thumbnails, however I still did not do this correctly. This was another reminder that I need to improve on my perspective and value and to further refine each image. I did come back at a later time, after I had been shown again how to create the thumbnails, and created a forest thumbnail again, this time with the knowledge of how to create a drawing that looked perspectively sound and had value.

SET DESIGN CONCEPT SKETCHES

These are the concept sketches that I came up with after I did not like the metal or underwater/ocean thumbnail themes and when back to classical haunted forest. In this set of drawings, I meshed a few of the forest thumbnails together to created a new set design as well as creating completely new ones all together. Each concept sketch is rough and incomplete, during each sketch I grew tired of what I was creating and started anew, yet still have some perspective and value. My final concept sketch that I chose was a refinement on one of my first thumbnails with a little something else added.

SET DESIGN DETAILING REFERENCES AND INSPIRATION

Ruins and pathways.

Once I had chosen my final concept piece, I then went on to find some references to help bring detail and inspiration to my final design. I gathered images of what pathways and ruins would look like in a forest, as well as how tree branches and roots look like. Resource: All images were taken from google images.

SET DESIGN DETAILING REFERENCES DETAILING AND INSPIRATION CONT.

Trees - Branches and Roots

SET DESIGN DETAILING SKETCHES

With the researched images as a constant reference on how to draw pathways, ruins and mainly trees, I was able to take inspiration from those and create my own sketches. My main focus of detailing was the trees, specifically the branches and roots as they were the main features you would see in my final drawing. I was able to get the shape and style of the tree roots and branches quite easily although they will still need a fair amount of detail to look more authentic.

PROP DESIGN REFERENCES AND INSPIRATION

Before I started creating my Prop Design sketches, I decided to brainstorm some prop ideas and gather some images to reference for when I begin drawing. I came up with the classical props, weapons - guns, swords, axes and bags. Most of the props had a different theme to them, bags had Steampunk, guns, swords and axes were from the video game series Assassins Creed and some axes just random images. Resource: all images where taken from google images.

PROP DESIGN SKETCHES

These were the first set of prop design sketches I created. There wasn’t a lot of inspiration coming from the referenced images I had chosen and left me with some sad looking props. These sketches show no signs of any real skills that I have learnt throughout this course and were discarded very quickly.

PROP DESIGN DETAILING REFERENCES AND INSPIRATION

As the first set of prop references was a fail, I started thinking of new prop design ideas and came up with Daggers and Staffs and started gathering some new images to reference and hopefully inspire me when I begin drawing. I also knew I wanted a Steampunk theme in my final prop design and researched some images, mainly cogs, to get the desired look. I also decided to focus on the detailing as well as the basic shape of the props this time round to save time and help the creative juices flow. Resource: all images where taken from google images.

PROP DESIGN DETAILING SKETCHES

At the beginning of this assignment, I knew that I wanted my main prop to be a staff as the background story of this re-imagined Wizard of Oz is set in a fantasy world with magic and creatures alike. From this idea and the images that I constantly referenced, I came up with some basic staff designs. As I referenced these images, I remember one of my earlier ones had a spear and I also liked the idea of the staff having that. I then began experimenting with the idea that the staff had the option of having a hidden dagger/becoming a spear. From these sketches I was able to identify that my designs, excluding a few, look quite basic and did not have a lot of detail. I came to a final staff design that would need to be refined.