The Four-Tierred Class System of Feudal Japan - Visual Breakdown

The era in which I draw most cultural influence for this project is Japan. In particular, between the 12th and 19th century of feudal Japan, where the elaborate tier system divided the people both structurally and aesthetically.  I decided to study this region in particular based on the wide diversity of influence and visuals available. In addition to this, I believe this era of Japan has the strongest recognizable shape language, which makes for strong concepts.

On beginning this research, I realised just how vast the Japanese Feudal era really was.
The below pyramid represents the complex hierarchy in which this era adhered to.

This is a fairly extensive list of classes, so below I have collated each individual class into a more manageable 4 categories. For aesthetic reasons, the highest rank I am researching at the moment is samurai. The reason being that the character I am designing will not be an emperor, shogun or daimyo, as Jack is seen to be of average to poor in status, ranging from variations of the Giant Killer tale.

Samurai

Samurai and their Lords (Daimyo) wielded vast power and wealth, thus are the highest class in feudal japanese society. Each Daimyo would own an area of land, and an army of samurai to command. These samurai would answer only to their Daimyo, and this lord would only answer to their military leader, a Shogun.

Visual Aspect:

Samurai would traditionally wear wide-legged pants known as Hakama. First worn by samurai horseman in order to protect their legs. They are similar to the wide leather pants worn by cowboys, but made from thick fabric. Hakama were originally used as functional armour, but later were worn as a sign of status to distinguish those of power.
The samurai often wore a long jacket known as a Kataginu. These were long sleeveless jackets with padded shoulders, and this ensemble was often completed with a silk cord belt.

Famers/Peasants

Interestingly enough, below the Samurai in this tier system are the farmers and peasants. They were considered an honoured class, as they supplied every class with the necessary food and supplies to live. Despite this, farmers were taxed hugely by their lords for most of the era, often not being permitted to consume their own produce.

Visual Aspect:

Despite being a valued class, farmers and peasants predominantly wore rough wool or linen. These were often handmade, and served as their primary item of clothing every day. Men wore tunics and long stockings, usually red, brown or grey in colour. In colder months, they would wear cloaks made from leather and wool, or a large rice straw poncho known as a Mino.

Artisans

Artisans produced many necessary goods including clothing, cooking utensils, farm tools, and ship anchors. Even the prestigious swordmakers who were charged with forging powerful samurai blades were considered below farmers and peasants.

Visual Aspect:

The artisans wore similarly styled clothing to peasants, basic kimonos made from rough wool or linen. Like the farmers, artisans were valued for their work but not paid as so.

Merchants

Unlike our current society, merchants were considered the lowest of the tier system. Merchants were often hated for their self-beneficial traits, often profiting from the artesans and peasants above them. Merchants were forced to live in a separate area of the city, and were forbidden to interact with any of the other class tiers on subjects that did not contain business.

Visual Aspect:

Dark coloured kimono similar to peasants and artisans.

Character design studies were created from these findings. They combine the newly utilized visual culture knowledge and my own personal character style to create new and interesting designs. These concepts will then be taken forward for use in higher-polished concept work, or used to create character turnarounds.

Cultural Appropriation and the Arts - James Young

Whilst searching for materials in my field, I discovered an interesting journal by James Young.

What is a culture?
Young attempts to explain the essence, of culture, and leads with saying it is "a set of beliefs, achievements, customs and so on that is characteristic of a group of people".

Artists are constantly pulling from cultures outside of their own for inspiration and design elements.
Traditional painters such as Picasso have used motifs which originate in African carvings. Musicians are notorious for borrowing and appropriating jazz and blues styles originally developed from African-American culture. For years, the film industry has attempted to do the same. Dreamworks' Road to El Dorado and Disney's Pocahontas are prime examples for these.

These examples of cultural appropriation and others alike have sparked controversy throughout all media platforms. There are both ethical and aesthetic issues that occur when cultural appropriation occurs as an art form. It can be argued that to produce art through cultural appropriation is immoral, as stereotyping can occur, as well as misinterpretation of the original culture.

"The aesthetic failure of certain artworks may cause them to be wrongly harmful to members of a culture. (The work may, for example, misrepresent the originating culture in a harmful way.)" However, many acts of this can be seen as honoring culture, resulting in artworks of value.

This is relevant to my area of research, as through practical methodology I shall be taking influence from non-western cultures to inspire conceptual development pieces. It is important that the work produced is not ethically offensive, which could occur through visual stereotyping. In addition to this, it will also be important to consider the design from a researched and learned standpoint, as Young stresses the importance of accurate representation, and discusses the Cultural Experience Argument.

This argument is based on the premise that in order for an individual to successfully appropriate a cultural style, the artist must have experience as a member of this culture. Young explains this view as "living as a member of a given culture is the necessary condition of being able to create successful works of the types developed by the culture". A harsh argument from an artists point of view, as if true it would essentially limit their creative content to whatever local culture was available.  This point of view is often found in the music industry, with the argument that a musician cannot properly learn the blues unless they experienced the lifestyle of black men in America. Young quotes the blues musician LeRoi Jones; "the idea of a white blues singer seems an even more violent contradiction of terms than the idea of a middle-class blues singer. The materials of blues were not available to the white American".

Whether this argument holds true is based solely on opinion, at least in the concern of musical taste. Whilst it is true that blues originated in African-American culture, does this limit the success of blues musicians beyond this culture? The Cultural Experience argument appears to agree with this. It is true to say that blues music originated from the slavery and eventual freedom of black slaves. These songs and this style of music was created as a response to the experiences of this men.

The Cultural Experience argument concludes that artists (at least in the music realm) who do not have the experience or previous knowledge of a culture are almost certain to produce works of poor quality. Jesse Steinberg in his book "Blues - Thinking Deep About Feeling Low", states that "blues as a whole has become "diluted" under the influence of it's white consumers and performers", which further backs up the Cultural Experience Argument as far as blues is concerned. It seems that the cultural appropriation of blues music is less about the finished product (whether the song is harmonious or dissonant), and more about the origin and experience of the artist. It is hard to apply this argument to further subjects, as it condemns the vast majority of artists who draw inspiration from foreign culture. Simply because an artist is not from a particular culture, this does not necessarily have any condemning factors in their ability to create beautiful work.

Young goes on to discuss two methods of cultural appropriation, innovative and non-innovative appropriation. In simple terms, innovative cultural appropriation draws inspiration from a style without obvious replication. It is to draw influence and knowledge from a culture, and use aspects to improve the work being created. Bluntly replicating a culture that is not familiar or known to the artist can result in non-innovative appropriation, and can be received negatively. "We would have an example of such appropriation if an American performer were to attempt to enter into the tradition of Japanese epic ballad recitation by chanting (in Japanese) the Tale of the Heike while accompanying himself on a biwa" This ties in with my previous post on stereotypes.



Visual Culture Studies Journal: http://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/28934_Smith___Introduction.pdf

Cultural Appropriation and The Arts - James Young file:///D:/Cultural_Appropriation_and_the_Arts.pdf

Thinking Deep About Feeling Low: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ZT0dUgzmtL4C&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=white+people+can%27t+play+blues&source=bl&ots=1yq7RkxRDd&sig=Wm6RpPM8N1HHdSVaHJTqm9KuFmw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAjgKahUKEwiwrdq3honJAhXB0h4KHRmsAn4#v=onepage&q=white%20people%20can't%20play%20blues&f=false

Semiotics in Design

Semiotics in any form is the study of sign and symbols. It is commonly associated with language, and the study of how words and symbols create meaning. In literal terms, a Sign within semiotics is essentially anything that does not represent it's own self, but something else. This week i've been reading the dissertation of Faye Williams (2015), "Semiotics in Video Games: The impact of player choice on character design". In particular, I was interested in the subjects of semiotics in character design, and how I can use the same knowledge to apply symbolism and iconography to my entire concept design work.

A physical representation of semiotics is this art piece, "One and Three Chairs" by Joseph Kosuth.
It features a physical chair, an image of the same chair, and a mounted dictionary definition of the word "chair". This piece is a little "out there" for me, but it does a decent job showing what i'm talking about,

Within this, Kosuth has physically represented the stages of a Sign;

The Signifier - This is the object, item or thing that we "read" = FORM
The Signified - This is the concept or idea that it represents  = CONCEPT

An example of this would be

• a signifier: the word open;
• a signified concept: that the shop is open for business (Chandler, 1995)

Visual Semiotics

Visual semiotics can be found in almost every form of art and media. In particular, i'm interested in how these signs can be used in the design stage of concept art, in order to further increase realism, depth and storytelling. "Almost every culture, religion and demographic maintains signifiers that denote the bearer as a member of that group" (Christopher, 2013). Constantly we are surrounded by humans who bear their clothing and appearance in order to further confirm their own belief.
In character design specifically, it is important to integrate the narrative visually on the character.
In video games, the role of the main character is to connect with the player, enhance the narrative and create a believable experience. So naturally, it is important to ensure that the character(s) are visually infused with every aspect of their own story.

As my own character designs for this project are asian-inspired currently, in the follow up to this post I plan to study and research particular time periods of feudal Japan and other areas that interest me visually, in order to further understand the signs and symbols I should be incorporating, as well as the existing semiotics surrounding traditional asian attire.

Archetypes and Stereotypes  

When applying visual semiotics in character design, is it important to understand the difference between what we see as an archetype, and a stereotype.
An archetype (particularly in game/film), is a recurring character, symbol or theme that the audience can recognise, An an example, these can be Hero, Villain, Victim, Healer, often based on their appearance and interactions. Often, these designs can slip into the uncomfortable realm of stereotypes. "In considering archetypes, it is therefore important that we acknowledge that they are a means of framing characters in terms of their narrative roles and behaviors, and that we should be cautious in attempting to use them as blunt instruments" (Sloan, pg 119).

An archetype can be applied with subtlety, allowing the audience to recognise the characters purpose without the use of limited visual tropes. When these tropes become immediately recogniseable, the type can become a stereotype. "The problem with this level of expectation, is predictability" (Parker, pg.88, 1999). Visually, if a character is immediately recogniseable in both Archetype and Stereotype sense (as characters often have aspects of both elements), they become boring. It is much more interesting to try and mix this up a little.

How I can use this:

Using the materials I have found (and continue to find), I can utilize visual semiotics when considering character design, and use the idea of object semiotics to further improve my design process. This will in turn allow my concepts to be more believable, in-depth and readable.

Presentation!

Presentation Link

Sparth: Closer Look

Above: 3 concept designs by Sparth

Shape Breakdown:

I broke apart the above image, splitting it into foreground (red) and background (blue).

This is a great example of form language, as one can clearly separate each layer of depth on the shapes alone.The boat in the foreground is predominantly a common ship silhouette, and the eye immediately recognises this. The hood of the ship is a strong curve, and combined with the rowing character creates a very readable form. The viewer can clearly see the ship form, even before detailing and texture. The background features multiple repeating Ziggurat's, the squared pyramids often built by Sumarian and Babylonian civilizations. It's square-based imagery contrasts greatly from the round ship in the foreground.
Finally, even though the "birds" in the sky are simple flecks and lines, our eye and mind immediately recognises these as avian forms. Not only do these add to the world that the artist has created, but they also create a sense of depth and scale.

The ship looks man made, featuring many patterns and designs appearing to be decorative.

The artist has designed the canvas area of the ship to appear stitched, with large recognizable rope ties and off-coloured patches. The asymmetry of the wooden planks that hold up the ship also add to the cultured, man made design.

The background buildings are peppered with small windows and rectangles of shading, increasing the overall sense of depth and further solidifying the idea that yes, these shapes are buildings.

Shape Breakdown

Sparth is a particular fan of using domes and spheres in his environment designs. These are reminiscent of mosques and the domed architecture of the middle east. The use of these repeating shapes in varying sizes add depth and believe-ability in the piece. You can faintly make out repeats of these in the background, creating depth and implying that this is not the only structure in this environment. The use of stripes and stepped shapes form staircases and generate architecture for the viewer to interpret. 

The use of sweeping forms near the bottom of the piece guide the viewers eye, and serve as roadways and paths. On closer inspection, these are almost abstract in their nature, but collectively create a believable ground platform design. 

30/10/2015 - A New Hope (ft Ryan Locke)

Today I spoke with Ryan, mostly to try and set aside some of the doubts and anxiety that have built up over the last few weeks. Worries about my research not being relevant enough, or that the materials and subjects I've been looking at aren't leading me to what I want to create.
Ryan took my ideas and put a research spin on it, we discussed the elements of design, as well as the visual language of shapes, and how this is essentially the root of all design.
For this year, I not only want to improve my own work and knowledge in the concept art realm, but also fill my mental reference library with the form and shapes I will study.

I want to create a design book. A book that features all of the visual elements required to create a world and tell a story. I've decided to base this story on the Cornish/British folklore tale, Jack the Giant Killer. Using the visual language I absorb from research, studying non-western culture in current media, I will imbue this tale with this language, creating a new and unique visual document that will not only show a story and world, but also how I design these elements.

What I wanna do:

Research - How Film/Game/TV interpret non-western cultures and display this
                  Semiotics - How it works for art
                  Shape language - Character/Environment/ANYTHING
                  World Of Warcraft - Pandarin Realm 
                  Break down concept art and show cultural influences/why they did it
                  Shape Design - Character sillhouettes
                                            Environment forms
                                            
                                            
Practical -  Shape language:
                                              Shape study/Paintovers
                                              Character Thumbs (silhouette/line/etc)
                                              Environment Thumbs ("")
                                              Pattern studies
                                              


Production - Visual Design Book:
                                                       Thumbnails - Character/Environment/Composition/Props
                                                       Character Sketches/Clothing/Tools/Vehicles/Weapons
                                                       + Rendering: Characters/Environment/Composition pieces
                                                       
                                               --------------------------------------------------

So this little list is a combination of my own ideas and some of the research aspects that Ryan discussed today. I already feel better just looking at it. Titles! Categories! My gosh.
                                           

Character Concepts

Environment thumbnails

This week i've been looking at environment artists as well as concept designers. More specifically, how I can improve my own concept design pipeline and overall visual aesthetic. In particular, I struggle with creating depth, so this project is helping improve my understanding of environments and depth.

 I chose to focus on thumbnails at this point as I feel like it would be a good place to start regarding my project, which I hope to conclude with a large portfolio of design, covering characters, environments and all the elements necessary to build a visual world. Using the information gathered from my research on visual culture, I hope to improve my own concept art work, as well as collate my newly gained knowledge to further enhance my abilities as a concept designer.

The bottom right image I tried to replicate the colour scheme and landscape forms of a traditional Japanese town.

Side work

Recent commissioned paintings/illustration 

Preparation for presentation and idea collation!

The above diagram depicts how I believe visual culture is formed. Initially I was torn between Character and Environment influences. Both of these are huge regions to cover. However, these two attributes are interchangeable, and codependent. I realised a few things:

• People (or characters) are shaped by the environment around them. Physical attributes, how the characters look are visually reflected by their environment. Clothing is created from available materials, whilst the source of available food will affect the populations build.
  If these people were born in subterranean lava caves, would they need to breath oxygen?
  Would they be slimmer and more agile, or motionless to preserve energy?

• Environments are equally affected by the presence of people. Whether this is direct, like architecture and housing, or indirect such as footprints, destroyed monuments from a past era. There are also examples of deserted environments, which are defined exactly by that, the lack of inhabitants.

An example was given to me today, explaining why farmers and country folk can visibly tell the difference between their own kind and city folk. This is obvious in a sense, as their clothing would not be of a farmhands, but they would also have smaller details such as an adjusted vocabulary to suit their environment, they may also have a completely different accent.

Artists:

One concept designer whom I find is particularly effective at creating "lived in" environments, is Nicolas Bouvier, more familiarly known as Sparth. These environments collate both natural formations such as mountains, as well as buildings and structures that draw influence from all over the world.

I feel that repetition of domed structures creates a sense of visual culture, as it reflects our own repetition of architecture. As we saw in Assassins Creed with the flat rooftops and tightly-packed cities, human beings like repetition. We like having an architectural "style" that is native to whatever area we inhabit. By having these repeating structures, Sparth creates a wider sense of depth and further builds the world that he has painted. The environments look "lived in".

Assassins Creed - Architecture and Environment Study

Whilst on the hunt for material to research, I was suggested by a colleague to look into the Assassins Creed series in order to find some non-western visual design in current video games. Specifically, I have chosen to research the first Assassins Creed game. I chose this game out of the other in the series mainly due to my own knowledge of it, as it's the one I've played the most! This is a personal favourite of mine, as it was one of the first "open world" games I experienced, and was immediately immersed in.

Assassins Creed is an open world, historical, stealth exploration game. By this I mean, there is a lot to do in the game. AC was developed by Ubisoft Montreal in 2007 for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Throughout most of the game, you play as protagonist assassin Altair Ibn-La'Ahad as you scurry and parkour your way across the rooftops and through the alleyways of the Holy Land, an area which would be more familiarly considered Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The environments are highly immersive, each building detailed with middle-eastern architectural designs. Each bustling street corner decorated with textures and brought to life with authentic characters.

The narrative takes Altair to the sky, as the character must climb and navigate rooftops and various historical buildings to complete missions and story objectives. This allows the player to experience the environment in it's fullest. Taking advantage of a long field of view, the player can see the vast span of buildings and architecture, made even prettier through use of cinematic lighting, This is physically implemented in AC, as in order to expand the in-game map, the player must scale particularly high structures and activate a "Sync zone".

A viewpoint in Damascus, Altair atop a Minaret.

Middle Eastern Architecture

The sprawling cities and asymmetry of the Holy Land is historically the result of a different style of building laws. Whilst western countries have strict land and building laws, resulting in organised, huge structures in a linear design, middle eastern countries at this time did not. Land was not owned in the same way, and people built structures that suited their own needs. People would decide to live somewhere, and would build structures wherever suited and would fit. This resulted in the cobbled-together, layered look that Assassins Creed recreates.

Motif elements of middle eastern architectural are as follows;

• Attached housing, often with little to no spacing between
• Flat rooftops, permeated with simplistic dome shapes
• Mosques - Religion was predominantly Islamic
• Minarets (Arabic for "Beacon") - These are tall, slim towers usually attached to a Mosque.
• Stone/Sand materials
• Beams connecting adjacent buildings
• Framed windows
• Tight streets broken up by courtyards and small market areas 

Above is a simple depiction as to how these motif's work

Above: Line/Paint studies on the structure and design of these common middle-eastern buildings.

Cultural Relevance

The minaret is a tower in which a Muezzin (the person who leads prayer and worship) call the faithful to pray and pay respect 5 times a day. Before modern technology like speakers and amplifiers, the Muezzin would have climb large towers like these in order to make themselves heard to the faithful. This is nodded at in AC as Altair scales the Minaret's in order to scan the city. This then expands the players in-game map, allowing more locations and missions to be found.

Although technology has since advanced, many cities from Delhi to Saudi Arabia still feature the tall towers. These are cultural symbols, kept to honour the past.

The houses and buildings are tightly packed together, reflecting the traditional conditions in which middle eastern houses are generally kept. Between courtyards, churches and mosques stretch miles of winding passages, shaded alleyways and short bridges. Traditionally, doors were built specifically not to face one another, as it would mean seeing directly into each other's houses and would be a breach of privacy. The use of these structures and buildings add both cultural immersion and gameplay aspects.



Gameplay Function

The use of traditional middle eastern pattern and architecture has a direct and purposeful impact on gameplay. As Altair, the player finds themselves sprinting through alleyways, able to grab and climb from almost any object attached to a house or building. The use of narrow passageways, courtyards and tightly packed architecture not only immerses the player in an accurate middle-eastern setting, but also benefits gameplay through the free-running/parkour mechanic.
The rooftops are mostly flat, of varying heights and connected to most of the adjacent buildings through the previously mentioned beams and frame structures. Not only is this accurate to how traditional middle-eastern living conditions, but it again allows the player to further explore and traverse the land easily and at a running pace.

Getting specific

At the moment I am trying to converge my research and ideas into a more linear and specific region, so that I can properly study and learn from specific areas to a research question. At the moment, my research is around the lines of:

For my research (and dissertation) I plan to explore how current media, specifically game and film/tv,
draw influence and depict non-western cultures, and how this is represented visually. I plan to explore the definition and essence of culture, and how this has an impact on character and environment design.

Furthermore, I will explore how a culture can be formed visually, and how this can be used to "worldbuild" within concept art and design. I plan to research and practice how cultural iconography and visual design can be applied practically through concept art.

- Something along those lines.

Pinning down what a "culture" is, and how this is depicted through visual imagery

I've been thinking about what it is exactly that I want to do for this year.
I am interested in how worlds are built through the addition of cultural influence, and how this adds depth and narrative to 2D images. Above, i've broken down what I believe makes up the essence of culture. Not only am I interested in this, but specifically how this is represented visually, and how this can be applied to improve or add depth to concept art.

I plan to cover character design and environment design in this project, and how the essence of cultural influence can improve and create depth.

Exhibition visit! McManus Galleries, Dundee. Below is a collage of interesting items, textiles and patterns that I observed whilst there.

A quick character/composition piece I did based on 2 tutorials, once by Daarken on character design and another by James Paick on greyscalee environment thumbnailing. I tried to incorporate influence from Asian design and textile, whilst using a character silhouette i'd made a couple weeks ago.

Recent things i've made:

Some environment/composition thumbnails, inspired by James Paick and Daarken's Gumroad Tutorials

The above sketches were made referencing the pattern designs of maori and innuit cultures.

Apocalypto Film Breakdown

Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" takes place in pre-Columbian America, with the fall of the Mayan empire. This movie (and Mel Gibson) is notorious for it's "bending" of factual and historical evidence in order to sell visuals and plot. For this study however, I was mainly looking at how Gibson used elements of Mayan culture to influence the aesthetic of the movie and create depth. I won't sit here and describe to you the plot in long detail, as it isn't my aim here. My goal here is to define a few particularly strong ways in which Mel Gibson and his art direction team can imbue the Mayan culture, and how these techniques add depth and story telling to each scene.

Physical Character Influence

The film opens to a tribe of Mayan warriors hunting in the Mesoamerican rainforest.

These 4 characters are considered the protagonists of the movie, as they struggle against rival tribes and the dangers of the forest around them. Straight away the audience knows this is a collective tribe through visual cues: all the members have long, dark hair all worn in a similar fashion. The materials used in the tribesman's necklaces and body jewellery are all of similar origin, and look to be local materials such as bone, wood and plant strains. Looking closely, the tribe all have similar body scarification on their upper abdomen too. This is a good yet silent indication that all these characters belong to the same tribe, a point which is pretty important to the narrative, as the film features hundreds of native american and Mayan actors, so it is a strong feature that helps the viewer tell each character/tribe apart.

This is the opposing tribe. Note the drastically different hairstyles, bold facial modifications and surlier dispositions. The audience sees this tribe and thinks "these guys mean business".

This tribe has bold chest tattoos, mainly strong geometric pieces (as were popular in Mayan times).

Their facial/ear jewellery is harsher, with larger stretched ears mostly made from bone. The use of more bone on these characters injects connotations of hostility and creates an ideology of threat.

We see the bone, we think "oh damn son what did he kill to get that".

Clothing comparison

Above: Material Studies

24/09/15 - Meeting with Ryan

Today I met with Ryan Locke to discuss the ideas and thoughts I had for my project. I explained how I wanted to create a strong portfolio piece, predominantly 2D concept art/visual development for film and games. I also explained how I was interested in different visual cultures and how they were used in current film/games. We discussed how a lot of cultural overlap happens without the viewer even noticing, and how it is used to create depth and help build a world.
An alien bar scene would seem bland without prethought to the worlds that each alien belongs to, and dressing them accordingly. Adding symbols and glyphs invented or borrowed from other cultures has been used throughout entertainment history, with most movies paying homage or referencing to other, older movies pretty much all the time. I found through experimenting with patterns and layers, I could add depth to silhouetted characters almost instantly.

So combined with my drive to produce concept art and my interest of cultural influence, I have composed a bunch of questions to do with my project:

• How does cultural influence improve depth within concept art?
• What IS culture?
• How is a culture defined?
• What is it that we as the viewer recognise as "culture" within a piece of art/concept/scene
• Which cultural traditions and visual iconographies are most present in current media (film/games)
• How does one "build" a culture in order to create character/world concepts?

What is culture? - A definition

Culture can be defined in a hundred ways, and my aim is to narrow this down to the barest of ideas and learn to build it back up from there. When I think of culture, I imagine textiles, patterns and dress. I imagine being able to look at something, whether that is a place or a person or a vehicle, and know it's history or location of origin by aesthetic alone. This is my own visual bias. Culture is more of what makes up a group of people, not singularly how they look. Culture forms from a group of people, and their traditions, religions, beliefs.

According to an article by Livescience, culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people. This is defined by language, religion, attire, music, art, and everything else that makes up a "people". We can see this in modern day. As many different cultures emigrate from their homes and travel across the globe, larger countries become more culturally diverse. Even in Dundee, I see different ethnic groups, different collections of people. Each of these groups belong to and possess a "culture" that makes up who they are. This culture is past, present and future.

My goal currently is to properly refine and categorise all the aspects of what makes a "culture", and to create a list of subcategories that I can investigate in detail.

OpenCulture Star Wars Article

So today I encountered this article whilst searching the internet for articles and books on culture inspiration in film/games. Immediately I was intrigued to discover that the Star Wars series was directly inspired by Japanese samurai!
I learned that the series of movies were directly inspired by the Japanese movies being produced in the 1950-60's by director Akira Kurosawa.
Kurosawa was famous for taking inspiration from American westerns and detective movies to tell stories of Japanese samurai. In his prime, Kurosawa had wanted to produce western-style movies in Japanese theatre. At this time, Japan was at war with multiple countries, and had a heavy censorship on media release. Kurosawa was only able to release his films if they were heavily injected with war propaganda. It was only after the war that Kurosawa was finally able to release the western-styled movies that he had originally wanted to create.
His film Rashumon was suggested to be entered into the runnings for Venice Film Festival, which it won. After this, the film industry became obsessed with Japanese movies and a boom of samurai and Japanese romance films flooded the theatres. This influx of japanese movies inspired young film producer George Lucas to make a "space opera" about samurai in space.

Physical Resemblance

Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers are both modeled to look like Samurai armour. The helmet shape is the most obvious, with the large sweeping rim a direct inspiration from traditional Japanese helmets.

Above: Some notes I made on stormtrooper/samurai armour comparison. Note the layered segments and bell-shaped helmet.

Above: Basic shape armour breakdown and comparison. 

Lightsabers are samurai swords, this is a given.

Character design/attributes

(additional top knot added)

Above: These characters and this scene are inspired from 2 wandering peasant characters from Kurosawa's "Hidden Fortress".

This is more character inspiration that visual, but even Kurosawa's use of a large character against a smaller one echoes R2-D2 and C3PO.

I painted over an image of a sandtrooper to demonstrate how easily the imperial armour could translate into Japanese samurai armour.

Textile Research

This week i've been reading Sheila Paine's Embroidered Textiles. This is a large collection of stitch, pattern and other media depicting various eras of history and culture. It provides a wide array of images and technical explanations, often providing the history and function of each item. Traditional outfits like the Japanese Kimono and Native American dress are covered as well as Turkish robes, Chinese dress and more. This book has provided a useful insight into the different designs and purposes of historical wear, as well as specific guides on pattern and colours for each time period.

Above: Front cover of newest reference book!

I used this book as reference to paint some pattern studies. I found these useful not only for practice but to later use as texture overlays in concepts. To create these, I used a variety of photoshop brushes to try and replicate the traditional patters.

I used the textures as overlays to add detail and motif's to base character silhouettes. This created an interesting layer of depth and provided strong inspiration for clothing details and colour pallettes. 

To create these, I placed each texture in a variety of ways and played with Photoshop's layer settings until I felt the image felt right. After this I painted additional details using these as a template. These designs were mostly Indian inspired, with some Scandinavian geometry thrown in.

I am very happy with these results. I feel that the addition of the patterned textures have greatly added depth to the silhouettes, and from this point I can take the forms further, using light and form to further build on the characters. These were sketched with Jack the Giant Killer in mind, as I tried to incorporate different Asian cultures whilst keeping with a "lone hero giant killer" idea.

Today with Lynn we were tasked with creating a "jellyfish" (essentially a very open mind map).
This involved asking ourselves questions based on our project, and writing them down.
Initially I found this difficult as I wasn't entirely sure what sort of questions to be asking,
But after some discussion I managed to fill the page. After this, the questions were sorted into themes, Personal, Industy, Technical etc.

Little messy (this was advised) but the main questions I got of this are:

Technical = How do I make my concept pipeline(s) more efficient and consistent
                    How to keep my art style consistent throughout character/environment/comp
                    How do I achieve a more balanced colour pallette?
                    How do I generate multiple usable outcomes from a concept?

Personal =  How do I make myself more employable?
                   How do I justify all this with a question?

Theoretical = How can I create new and inspiring concepts using a previously established theme?
                       How to research traditional cultures and incorporate this into my designs?
                 

Stuff i've been working on!

Some recent sketches/pieces i've been working on, taking into consideration my "character" pinterest board, using lots of dynasty-era asian clothing and armour as inspiration. This is mostly just to get myself back into the swing of character design whilst I wait to speak to a lecturer!

Jack the Giant Killer - Adaptation

A lot of people know this tale, or at least the latest retelling of it.

The original Jack and the giants story dates back to the early 18th century, where Jack was a commonly used character in puppet shows, depicted as a cunning young man who frequently outsmarted multiple-headed giants with ease and finesse.

This simple plot device was remade, republished and refreshed throughout the 18th century, with instances of Jack and Giants cropping up with nearly every new edition of children books. It is speculated that the public had grown weary of tales of King Arthur, the original giant slayer, and Jack was created as a new entity to depict these stories.

 Jack is renown for slaying specifically British giants, most of which resembled giant hairy men, often with multiple heads.




I would like to reinvent this story, drawing inspiration from other cultures and pulling Jack away from traditional British folklore.
As I said in a previous post, British armour and weaponry is not particularly interesting to me, and I would love to completely turn this tale on it's head. 
(see image on left, hehe)

Pinterest Research!

I've been using Pinterest to quickly collect lots of reference on characters, creatures and composition pieces that inspire me for this project. These ideas are still loose as I have yet to discuss my plans with a module tutor!

These boards can all be found at https://uk.pinterest.com/cthulew/