Animated Narratives Week 5 Work
This work focuses only exploring character through dialogue. In my group we used the premise quote ‘Yeah...nah, that isn’t a dog,” to create a short story. I then drew thumbnail sketches, and made this character sketch. I also redrew the final frame to show the scene with the dialogue.
The fun of this character comes from the indistinct shape of the ‘dog’ creature. This medium is perfect for bringing this comedic element because it allows for this squiggly creature to exist. The simple artistic style also contrasts with the creature, making it stand out more and appear more strange.
This work is closely related with a lot of children’s illustrators, like Quentin Blake (Roald Dahl books) and Lynley Dodd (Hairy Maclary). Both illustrators have also adapted their signature styles in animated series, and have a distinctive visual style which clearly communicates the personalities of different characters.
I really enjoyed bringing this story forth in a loose, fun style. It was perfect for the tone of the story and a fun exercise in bringing forth character from a simple starting point. This piece really benefited from contrasting shapes and textures, which highlighted the comedic tone. This relationship between shapes and tone will be worth a continued examination.