Fleshing out the Narrative - Themes and artists

Fleshing out the Narrative

In this project I will aim towards creating a fantasy, sci-fi or horror world through a narrative that I will illustrate and design. From characters and creatures to fashion and plot specific items, I’ll create a large body of illustrations to help the viewer/reader visualise the world I’m designing.

I will either be writing the narrative myself or finding an interesting pre-existing story to illustrate. For my outcomes I’d aim to professionally draw main characters and show key plot moments of the narrative. As a final piece I’d like to fully illustrate and create a book, to help make my work more tangible.

My Themes

My themes are all types of narratives that could also be applied to artwork that I like to create. The themes would be the driving point behind what story I would choose or write. I could choose just one of these themes or I could find a way to include them all.

Fantasy of Manners –  A Fantasy of Manners story would be centred around a neighbourhood or a small community. Focusing on social status and secrets instead of battling a monstrous foe and usually in an Urban setting, somewhere with people close to each other.

Beauty and the Grotesque –  I find the contrast between the grotesque and the beautiful to be very pleasing to the eye. It gives a unique perspective on both sides of the coin. The grotesque would look even uglier when compared to something on the other end of the spectrum and vice-versa. This juxtaposition is something I explored in my Curate project too. 

Romantic Grotesque –  This theme would focus around a single character that is outwardly disgusting and hated however the viewer would not be able to help feeling sorry for the character. Invoking feelings of empathy and pity towards them. While you feel bad for them, you’d still not want to be near them. This theme was key for my British Landscape project as I wanted the viewer to pity my creations.

Mervyn Peake 1911-1968

Mervyn Peake was an English illustrator and author. He is most known for his book trilogy “Gormenghast”, which has been called the first true Fantasy of Manners books. He is also known for illustrating some versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, Treasure Island and Household Tales by Brothers Grimm. 

The below illustrations are ink drawings from his Gormenghast series, showing a few of the characters from the story. This series has been very influential to authors, artists and other creators all over the world. Numerous depictions of this story have been produced, even a mini-series from the BBC starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Christopher Lee, first aired in the year 2000.

His artworks have an interesting style, favouring the use of hatching and ink washes to shade his illustrations.

Omar Rayyan

Omar Rayyan is an American artist who has worked on some Magic: The Gathering cards and also The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. His style takes inspiration from Renaissance oil paintings to create these beautiful works. He likes to paint fairytale, fantasy and surreal subjects. There’s a series of paintings he created of young women/girls with their monstrous pets, showing that he also likes to explore beauty vs grotesque.

He works mainly with Oil paints on wood panels but he occasionally uses watercolour  too. He has a whimsical style that reminds me of children’s books and fairytales from my childhood. I love the designs of his monsters and animals, the way he illustrates and portrays these tales is beautifully done. He also sells his works online, some going for up to $6000 and others for $400.

Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph McQuarrie is an American concept artist, most known for his work on the original Star Wars trilogy. He designed many characters, including Darth Vadar, Chewbacca, c-3PO and R2-D2.

George Lucas and many fans of Star Wars have said that without Ralph, Star Wars would not have been as good as it was, his vision of the universe made Lucas fall in love, even telling his set designers to “make it look like this”. Ralph has a unique eye for dynamisism, George even composed a lot of the shots in the films to mimic Ralphs paintings exactly. He works mostly with Oil paints and on a large scale.

Here is a page from the artist Chelsea Douglas who worked as a concept artist for the game Bioshock: Infinite. This page is similar to the kind of outcomes I would like to produce, huge bodies of illustrations with variations on designs.