German expression timeline
Discussion of films
Nosferatu- A German silent horror film that is based on Dracula, focuses on Transylvania, a castle where a vampire lives and Hutter, a human who wants to live there. German expression is used with black and white colours. Also shadows are used as a way to create suspense.
Metropolis- A German science-fiction film that is based on a futuristic city which is also an utopia, however under the city is not the same as mistreated workers are below but Freder from the city, intends to help the workers. German expression has been used with black and white colours and distorted views.
Journey to the moon- A French silent film based on an astronomic group taking an expedition to the moon. German expression has been used with black and white colours.
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari- A German silent horror film that is based on Dr. Caligari, a hypnotist who sends Cesare to kill people in the town. German expression is used with dark and twisted visual styles where the only light sources are shown painted on the wall. The buildings (Also painted on) were distorted. Black and white colours were also used.
Short essay on the art style of German expressionism
German expressionism is the use of dark and sinister themes from German culture such as silent films from 1913 to 1930 like ‘The Student of Prague’ where the protagonist is conflicted with a double of himself, where he is driven to killing his double to turn out to die himself; dark endings were very usual in German films as the time that the German people lived in were dark since they were secluded in Germany. Many German films at the time were created by Jewish people, which is why most films that were dark, reflected what Germany was really like, so when Jewish people who made these movies went to other countries like America, the American people were fascinated by the movies but were shown the true dark side of Germany. The backgrounds in German films were usually painted to look 3D however, the proportions were not right as the backgrounds like were a different size then they should’ve of been; backgrounds that were painted would’ve been buildings, windows, trees, etc. Lighting would of also had to of been painted on to the background to create more realistic environments and to help make backgrounds look 3D.
German expression creatures
I created a German expression themed creature in Photoshop. I was influenced by Tim Burton's characters to create the creature. I used colours such as black, brown and white for the character; Black for the eyes, brown for the skin and white for the teeth and hook. The character is hunched, their arms are crooked and twisted and has a slender body. The light source is coming from the left so shadows are shown on the body such as the shadow of the head and shadows from the arm and leg. The part under the hook is darker as the light does not reach it.
German expression mindmap
German expression moodboard
Silhouettes
This silhouette is three buildings that are curved and bent in different angles to show they are unrealistic.
Plan of action
The theme of my painting will be a horror theme as the painting will be a dark forest with something creepy in it. I am personally interested in horror and action themes, usually displayed in media such as games and movies.
The details of the project brief was to create a digital painting base on German expressionism then to present your painting and your ideas on how to animate it, then finally animate a part of the painting.
The research that i need is what a forest looks like, torch, hand holding an object, hand reaching out, lighting and shadows; i can find my research on google images or bing images. I should do sketches of a forest. References i will need are trees, hands with different angles/shapes, lighting and shadows. Sources such as games can help with my painting as games such as limbo has parts where the player is in a forest with trees in the background and foreground; limbo uses German expressionism with a black and white colour scheme. I should do observation drawings of buildings such as the Mara Stata centre building as the building purposely looks broken and distorted like how 'the cabinet of DR.Caligari' uses broken and distorted perspectives of buildings. I should research artists like Vincent Van Gogh as his painting 'The Starry Night' uses German expressionism with the asylum room distorted and the sky twisting. Vincent Can Gogh is relevant as i want to use a similar style to how he has drawn the asylum room; i would like to draw the trees in my painting in a similar distorted style.I already knew how to use shadows. I learnt at college how to use one, two and three point perspective, how to use lighting and how to create a German expressionist style painting. I will animate the fire of the torch and the lighting from the torch on the trees; i will also animate the shadows that are effected by where the fire of the torch moves. Also, the shadow of the hand will grow slightly bigger to show show that it's approaching the viewer. I don't think i would have enough time to animate the trees and hand moving.
Sketch
I decided to develop the forest silhouette into a sketch, by firstly changing the trees to have very deformed shapes, changing the hand so that its shooting out fire instead of tentacles and having the focal point be the flying monster. The drawing is suppose to be in a first person perspective with a low angle.
Further development of sketch
I changed the hand shooting fire with a torch instead so that i could show German expressionism with an unrealistic shape of fire on an normal torch handle. I painted colour for the fire with orange and yellow, torch handle with brown, trees with a pale brown and light green tops, sky with a dark blue representing night time and lighting on trees from fire with an orange colour. I also drew a hand holding the torch but did not add colour as i ran out of time in the lesson. I wanted the front trees to be the dominant forms and the torch to be the subdominant form. All of the trees have a crooked part near the top half of them so that they can fit the German expressionism theme.
Further development was made with the fire's colours being blended together, the torch's handle colour was change to black, the trees' colours were changed to a darker brown and the tree tops to a darker green. A thumb was added to the hand to show that it was holding the torch handle and also painted brown to show that a glove is worn.
The lighting from the fire was added to the trees and tree tops as well as the torch handle and top part of the hand. I drew a bat as the focal point
I removed the bat as i wanted to change my mind about it. I drew shadows on the trees to show that the light did not reach all the trees and that the trees on the far left and right were blocked behind the centre trees. I also drew shadows on the sides of the hand facing the viewer to show where the light couldn't reach. The lighting is suppose to look distorted to fit the German expressionism theme.
I added a shadow of a hand reaching out on the part of a tree that had lighting as the focal point and to give the painting more of a spooky theme. More shadows were added on the trees to give some more depth to the painting. When animating the painting, i want the lighting, hand and torch to move in various ways, for example the fire will wiggle in a wave-like motion but the shadow will slowly move closer to the viewer.
I started cleaning up the messy parts in the shadows and lighting on the trees.
Finally, i changed the hand's fingers to look more monstrous by making the fingertips sharper. I used shape dynamics in my painting such as the circles for the tree tops, triangles for the hand and torch fire and square for the hand holding the torch and tree trunks.
Painting plan
Painting plan
Further development
Final animation
3 week plan
References
The Starry Night
https://www.vangoghstudio.com/starry-night/
Creepy monster
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/302867143661867332/
Fiery torch
http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mf0qSks/Torch
Forest
https://www.birdlife.org/europe-and-central-asia/news/paradise-lost-devastation-bia%C5%82owie%C5%BCa-forest
Evaluation
My first ideas for my project was firstly with silhouettes of 10 different environments. I decided to do a sketch of one of the environments as i felt that i could make it very interesting. The 10 silhouettes and sketches helped me to decide what i wanted to paint for my final piece as i was able to think about how i could of developed these ideas to fit well with a German expressionism theme. I planned my environment by showing what my focal point would be and where the dominant forms would be. I also planned out the lighting like where it would reach and where its coming from. I learnt how to use animation in Photoshop. I researched how fire on a torch would look, such as shape and colours and how it flows. This research effected my ideas for my painting as instead of painting a hand shooting out fire at a monster which was my original idea, i instead decided to paint a torch on fire as i felt that i needed my painting to feel eerie and horror themed rather than action themed. References i used were 'The Starry Night' by Van Gogh, a forest, a torch on fire and a creepy hand that reaches out. The torch and hand affected my animation as they were what i animated with the torch moving left and right while the lighting from the torch shows on the trees moving as the torch moves and the hand in the form of a shadow moves back and forth towards the viewer on one of the trees even though the hand itself can't be seen. I had already known of Van Gogh but i did learn of the references from googling them and visiting the sites they were from, i needed to learn of these references so that i could understand them better to draw, like how a forest can be overcrowding, How to draw a hand in a perspective where its reaching out towards the viewer and the torch's colours as well as the lighting. I am satisfied with my 2D work because i feel like i have completed what i set out to do for my painting such as the setting, German expressionism, dominant forms and focal point. I could have made my painting better by making the setting more crowded with much more trees. I am satisfied with animation as i have made it turn out the way i wanted it to be, with the torch flowing left and right with the lighting on the trees also moving, also the shadow hand moving back and forth to show it battling with the light of the torch to try and get close to the viewer. I could've made my animation better if i made the trees move, as if it were windy.
Evaluation of presentation
I think my presentation to the class went fine, i talked about my painting such as the ideas and research i made for it. I also talked about how i would animate my painting, showing where i would animate the fire, lighting and shadows. I think i was prepared for my presentation as i had created a powerpoint file with slides to talk about my ideas of my painting and ideas of my animation. I could of gone into more detail about my ideas and include silhouettes. I made sure to keep my blog up to date, as soon as i had finished work, i would screenshot it and upload to the blog. My blog helps me keep track of my project as i will be able to see where i have gotten up to when i see my latest work uploaded to the blog; it also helps with my development as i can have a better understanding of where i need to develop when comparing older states of work to the newest state of the work.
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