Task 1A

Task 1A

Adventure

Adventure has a very broad meaning. It could mean a huge journey through the Amazon rain forest to an interesting trip to the post office. Its an exciting or unusual experience that involves some kind of risk.

H.R. Giger

 "The face of this thing is a real human skull," O'Bannon, who witnessed the artist at work, told Fantastic Films magazine. "He took a human skull and jammed it right on the front, riveted it into place and then started modifying it. It was such a beautiful human skull. It had been a real person, not like one of those plastic model kits, and he takes out his hacksaw and he saws the jawbone off and extends it like six inches. He puts an extension on it, and creates this distorted jawbone. Then he starts attaching other fixtures to it and building a new extension on to the back of it. He's doing this to a real human skull. When he finally [finished], a cast was made of it. It was a craftsman who actually cast the rubber costume of Giger's sculpture. When they were finished casting in rubber, he used his airbrush and painted the costume the same way he does his paintings. I truly believe that that monster in Alien is absolutely unique looking. I think it is two strides beyond any monster costume in any movie ever before." – Quote from H.R.Giger.com

These images were done with pencil. I own one of these and cannot fathom how he did this. The image on the right feels like it’s a diagram from a science text book, which actually makes it feel creepier, as if it’s real. The whole idea of a creature that implants its offspring into creature’s bodies sounds like something that could really happen. The person being attacked looks like a cpr dummy which, again, makes it seems like a diagram from a science book. My only problem with the image is the object on the right that the man is leaning on. It looks like it’s been drawn at a different angle to the rest of the picture. I think adding colour to these images would probably spoil them because it would make them look warmer, cancelling out the cold harsh feeling of space.

 

 

Steve Dillon –Spiderman, Hellblazer

Steve Dillon’s art fits into most comic books well. His issues of Hellblazer and The Punisher all have distinct looking characters, though the appearance of the art can become much more light hearted or a lot creepier depending on the colourist. The structure of the faces is always very angular, which works well sometimes, but other times (The image on the left) it just looks strange. On the right is a page from Hellblazer in which the art and the colour blend together perfectly. The dull, pale colours give the page an unsettling look as Constantine convinces a teen that he’s just been cursed (When in actual fact he just said a bunch of gibberish). Something I don’t like would be the image on the right. It doesn’t look much like Peter Parker, with him having an almost square shaped head and a spiked haircut. He also looks to be in his mid-30’s despite Peter having been in his 20’s for the last 50 years.

Mike Dringenberg – The Sandman 

 

The art for the first half of The Sandman was done by Mike Dringenberg, who hasn’t really done much else. His pictures have a lot of shadows and he’s very good at drawing gothic characters. The shadows in the images help give a sense of creepiness and mystery to the characters, somewhat of a warning that they are not as pleasant as they seem. A big problem with his art is how he draws average people. On the left is a good example. His facial features are too plain and he just looks odd. His drawings of Death (The lady on the right in the first image) are done really well. She looks normal but creepy for some reason, like she has some kind of ulterior

motive.

Bryan Lee O’Malley – Scott Pilgrim

The art in Scott Pilgrim (And O’Malley’s other work) is inspired by Japanese manga, which works really well with the content of the series. It shows off the humour and gives some really cool fight scenes. The characters are all easily distinguishable, which can sometimes be a problem in manga.  The art doesn’t work as well for some of the more dramatic scenes. They have recently begun releasing coloured version of the comics which I don't think look as appealing, as something I always found amusing in the Graphic Novel was that all the characters were aware of Ramona's hair changing colour, while the readers had no idea. It could literally be any colour.

Ben Templesmith – 30 Days of Night, Dead Space

One of the things that always stood out about 30 Days of Night was the art. When you first see it, you think “This looks pretty silly”. But as you get further and further into the comic the art becomes creepier and creepier. During the attack on the town, the art is just downright scary. The vampires are drawn with lots of ferocity. The art really stands out when drawing the surroundings and the gore. Combining the snow with the bloodshed makes for a disturbing scene. In the Dead Space comics, the bits of the art that stick out the most are definitely the Necromorphs. They are drawn with such detail that you can really see where the organs of the human they used to be ended up. The only real problem with the art is when he draws people. Most of the time they look off. Their faces are too circular and their teeth look off for some reason. Its very noticeable when they are shouting and screaming.

Takeshi Obata – Death Note

Takeshi Obata is the artist behind the manga Death Note. I think his strongest point is facial expressions, which all look amazing(Especially the main character, Light's). His work on the various shinigami throughout the series is extremely impressive. They all look unique (Even the ones only seen for a few pages) and some on them especially creepy. Ryuk is easily the creepiest of the shingami, with a permanent grin on his face and his head seemingly attached through various piercings surrounding his neck.