Category: RP: Part 3

Pick a range of different animations and try to identify how they have been made. Are they digitally created or do they use claymation, live action or a combination of technologies? You may want to do this historically, picking animations that chart its development, or aesthetically by choosing animations that interest you. Can you identify… Continue reading Research Point: Animation

Athanasius Kircher began experimenting with magic lantern slides and projections in Rome during the 1640s. Magic lantern shows combined the magic of theatre and legend with the illusionary quality of the projections themselves. How has animation maintained this connection with the idea of ‘illusion’? The ‘illusion’ of animation is created by persistence of vision. This… Continue reading Research Point: The ‘Illusion’ of Animation

There’s a wealth of comic books, cartoons and graphic novel artists about there. Pick some examples of work that you find interesting. What’s the relationship between the narrative and the style of drawing being used? Which is most important in making the story work? Before undertaking the Graphic Fiction unit at Level 1, I had… Continue reading Research Point: Comic Books, Cartoons and Graphic Novels

Pick a film, read a book or look at a comic strip. Can you boil the story down its most basic elements? What’s driving this narrative and how is it resolved at the end? What genre is it or is it an amalgam of more than one? Reflect on your findings. You might want to… Continue reading Research Point: Basic Elements of a Story

There are plenty of examples of illustrators who have defined a story visually by being the first or best illustrator to respond to it, such as Winnie the Pooh (1926) written by A A Milne and illustrated by E H Shepherd, The Gruffalo (1999) written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, or Little… Continue reading Research Point: Linking Illustrations with Text

Look at a range of book or magazine covers that use illustration. How does the typography of the title, author and other details interplay with the illustration? What’s the relationship between type and image? Identify examples where the illustrator has created space in their image to accommodate the typography, and other examples where this relationship… Continue reading Research Point: Combining Illustration and Type

Kafka’s short story The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung), first published in 1915, is a strongly visual tale of a man called Gregor who wakes up one day to find himself transformed into a beetle. The story then explores how Gregor and his parents deal with this transformation. The Metamorphosis is set in Gregor’s bedroom in his… Continue reading Research Point: The Metamorphosis

Published by British artist William Hogarth in 1751, the popular satirical engravings Beer Street and Gin Lane were part of a campaign to curb gin drinking amongst the poor in London. The prints show the consequences of excessive gin drinking on Gin Lane in comparison with the moderate consumption of ale along Beer Street. The… Continue reading Research Point: Denotation and Connotation