Final and Rational

Rational

The song that I have chosen for this assignment is Civil War by Guns n' Roses. With the two lines and chorus of the song I have chosen to depict it literally. However, I have created a fictional nations of the "White Rose" and the "Red Rose" as disputing nations. This was to create visual metaphor for the futile objectives of war as both are roses yet are only differentiated through colour. I have also done this as a reflection on racism and prejudice still present today. I have used mainly photoshop to digitally paint these images. I have used thorns as a framing device to visually and figuratively "trap" the child in the foreground as well as creating different layers within the restricted composition. I kept the warm colour scheme consistent to create a cohesive set of images in which they are all interchangeable with each other.

The lyrics I chose include:

"Look the hate we're breeding, Look at the fear we're spreading"

This image depicts my main character trying to hide herself as a man vandalising a wall clearly harbours malice towards her and her people.

"Look at the leaders we've followed, Look at the lies we've swallowed"

This image depicts a government official broadcasting propaganda whilst rallying a group of gullible fanatics. The main character still in the foreground, looks over with a sense of foreboding and dread.

"I don't need your civil war, I don't need one more war"

The main character is trapped and helpless as she watches her city engulfed in flames. This image symbolises the helplessness of children caught in war. The girl is forced to watch while visibly suffering and confused.

Developments to Triptych #3

"I don't need your civil war, I don't need one more war."

In the end I chose to interpret the chorus through a negative approach. The main character is trapped and helpless as her hometown is engulfed in flames. Her expression is visibly distressed as she is suffering the lost of things that are important to her. The thorns in front of her have barricaded her to look helplessly as the destruction ensues. 

Developments to Triptych #2

"Look at the leaders we've followed, Look at the lies we've swallowed."

The main character is watching from a distance a government official rallying fanatics. He uses propaganda and the main character looks on with a sense of dread and foreboding.

Developments to Triptych #1

"Look at the hate we're breeding, Look at the fear we're spreading"

In this image the girl is trying to hide from a graffiti artist with an obvious hatred for her people. "Fear" is symbolised by the girl and "Hate" is symbolised by the tagger.

Developing Triptych

I've used a circle with thorns as a framing device to symbolise the destructive nature of war. Also by clipping in the scene within the circle it figuratively "traps" the girl inside.

Scanning Images

Week Five- Character Study and Final thumbnails

Initially I had two main characters directing the narrative of the triptych. However after much thought and consideration I decided that it might be conceptually stronger if I only had one. I have chosen to create the triptych from the perspective of a child part of the "minority" within the nation, depicting her suffering and struggle under a totalitarian government.

Character Study

I also experimented with different hairstyles.

Final Thumbnails

This stanza needed more development when it came to composition so I drew a few more thumbnails. My concept is using a white rose to symbolise "purity" . The nation that uses the white rose as an emblem is the dominant one and therefore views the red rose as "dirty" or "evil".

For my final I have decided to use a framing device of some sort so that all the visual elements in the image are condensed giving it a claustrophobic feel.

Week Four- Interim

Scanning in images 

These are what I presented below:

What I need to work on conceptually:

• Creating a better "scene" for the other two panels. The first one is getting there but it does need more work.
• A more consistent colour scheme so that the images are more cohesive.