CASE STUDY : “TOLD YOU SO” BY MIKE KERR
“Almost there.” said Dak. Ava wasn’t convinced, Dak had claimed that before. Her frustration grew as they labored up the steep hill, Ava’s discomfort amplified her discontent. And, although Dak would never admit it, they were lost. He had them scrambling up the hill in an attempt to salvage his pride.
When they reached the top of the hill, Dak surveyed the horizon. He found what he was looking for, or pretended he did. “This way.” He said, and hurried down through a break in the densely forested hill. Downhill was murder on Ava’s stiff joints. The ache, hunger, and a growing distrust of Dak had her considering ending their relationship. She had been ruminating about it for weeks and her patience was reaching a boiling point. She contemplated how to approach the situation, should she talk it over or just spring it on him? There wouldn’t be a better time, she had the higher ground and he was distracted. She tensed her body, building up energy like a spring.
“Hey, do you smell that?” Said Dak. Ava held back at the last possible moment. Yes, she smelled something – wood smoke. “Dinners served.” said Dak.
Establishing a scene
This is the establishing scene and the inciting incident. I want to suggest the characters have climbed a high hill in a wooded area. I’ve added old stairs to imply a dystopian overgrown world.
I’ve drawn it as daylight, but with contrast, shadows, and overcast lighting to add tension. It is darker and dense towards the bottom to exaggerate height and make it feel more impenetrable. The left side is also darker and congested to suggest the characters have come out of a wooded area and into an open area on top of the hill. The light is brightest and open in the top right corner to create focus on the lead character.
The lead character is drawn with body language implying they are looking for something, and maybe found it; and about to move forward. The character behind is drawn lower to the ground to suggest wariness or uncertainty. Each character is inked in silhouette to keep them mysterious and emphasis the unusual body design. One is top heavy, the other bottom heavy.
The digital illustration techniques mimic sketchy pencil shading, brushed ink shapes, and loose tonal painting to give the image a stylized, informal and storybook feel. To establish an undiscerning plausibility to the scene. But real enough to create weight and tension.
Ava could be quiet as a mouse when she wanted. The humans gathered around the fire wouldn’t suspect a thing. She was on her prey before they could raise a defence, they scattered in all directions. A larger group headed towards the forest, the dense thicket would make pursuit more difficult and possibly dangerous. She saw a solitary figure dash in the opposite direction, one human alone wouldn’t be much trouble. She caught it easy enough and grabbed a hold. She turned back to the clearing, now filled with smoke from the trampled fire.
Ava felt a stabbing pain and she dropped the human. It landed hard and tried to right itself, it was holding something against its chest with one hand. It’s other hand held a wicked looking dagger. Ava reacted instinctively and swatted the human, breaking its neck. A pity, she preferred them alive and wiggling. Ava sat down and nibbled on its leg. It was dry and stringy, barely any meat on it. She had caught an older human. The old were usually easier to catch but harder to chew, and rather tasteless. She glanced over at Dak and saw his was fresher. Muscled and broad of shoulder. It looked delicious, she felt indignation at the disparity. “No fair.” She said aloud.
Dak laughed.
Exaggerating for effect
This is the rising action and climax scene. I don’t want to give too much away, I want the image to support and emphasis the text. It’s a worms eye view to create menace and scale to the creature. I’m using backlit directional lighting from the fire to establish strong silhouettes to keep the body language and action clear (dark against light shapes). The scene is framed by heavy towering trees on each side to form an arch that squeezes the characters into a confined area, adding tension. Lighter background trees, front lit by the fire, suggest some depth and background.
The creature emerges from background. Head and arms dark, toned down as its legs merge with the background. The soft tones also ensure that the fleeing characters body shapes are clear and intact where they overlap. The middle ground characters are drawn in high energy movements suggesting different narratives. The character on the left is high tailing it out of the scene, the centre character is reacting to the creature behind, and/or perhaps the right hand character. Which is stumbling as they run. All the characters are in midair to suggest motion, and cartooned to balance the tone of the writing.
The foreground characters are close to the viewer to create more depth in the scene. They are cropped to imply they are escaping and there may be others that have escaped ahead of them. Their grayscale value is similar to the arched framing device so focus moves away, to the mid ground action.
Her frustration boiled over, she wasn’t going to let it pass. She readied herself to strike. But again she was interrupted. Ava heard a muffled cry. Looking down she saw the human had been holding onto a small bundle, the cry emanated from the parcel. Ava carefully unwrapped it. The baby cried louder when exposed to the cold air. Dak heard the thin cries and took a closer look. “Told you so.” He said with a smug grin. If Dak had been less complacent, maybe Ava wouldn’t have bitten his head off. But if she was honest with herself it was going to happen sooner or later.
Ava had to wait a few moments for Dak’s headless body to cease convulsing before returning her attention to her meal. But somehow it was gone. She searched about, perhaps it had rolled off in the excitement? But she found no trace, just the blanket the baby had been wrapped in. Ava was confused, in her experience human babies couldn’t get away. But it was nowhere to be found.
Thankfully, Dak had only taken a small bite out of his meal so Ava finished the leftovers. It tasted as good as it looked and she felt content. She took a moment to digest and rest her aching joints. Maybe she would go after the little morsel later, it couldn’t have gone far.
Subtle Suggestions
For the falling action and dénouement I’ve used another framing element around the borders, but this curtaining is stable and used to create a sense that a viewer is observing the scene secretly from afar. The foreground painting is more expressive and has softer edges to suggest the focal point is on the character. There are lightly toned trees in back to surround the character and imply that the missing meal could have went off in any direction. There is also an indistinct silhouette on either side of the character on the horizon to indicate the corpse of the other creature.
The body language of the creature and the prop of the blanket reinforces the narrative, that the character is looking around for the owner of the blanket. The smoking embers of the fire overlap the character to give the scene a more in-progress feeling (less staged). A combination of softer painterly edges and sharper organic edges add atmosphere and help with the layering of the depth through the foreground, middle ground, and background. All of the images in the series use dynamic angles to create drama and excitement, and a handheld camera feel to further give the scene(s) a natural, live action sensibility.
The story and character work against type or expectation to define a unique point of view. The story is written from a human relationship perspective and circle of life theme. But the reverse casting of what is expected in a protagonist and antagonist act as prism to look at human experiences from a different angle.
FIGURATIVE ILLUSTRATION
Overview Part 1
Students are provided portions of a story that divides the material into three acts based on the story arc. The stories will come from writing, video games, plays, operas, or film. Students will create characters and develop figurative illustrations for the three acts exploring specific course outcomes for each weekly exercise. 4 weeks.
Method
Exercises will focus on storytelling through body language, expression, action, and exaggeration. Most preliminary development will be done using silhouette. Students will ideate, develop thumbnails, peer review, and refine sketches by the end of class. Case studies (as shown below) will be presented reviewing some methodologies. A refined colour rough of one of the solutions is due the next class. The theme is “hunt”, students are encouraged to alter or make their own story details.
After week four students will choose one exercise to expand into a six panel sequential story. Refined colour Illustration. 2 weeks.
SEQUENTIAL ADAPTATION
Overview Part 2
Student will use characters from part 1 as inspiration to adapt to their own content. They will create a three page comic book or storyboard pitch that will establish the exposition, climax, and ending for a story that would be applied to print, gaming, film, animation, or product branding. Project will include turnaround or character sheet, and a 3d model. 6 weeks.