A Choice of Alienation Ryan Hammett Art 221
At the beginning, I brought in my five random items: a paintbrush, a Yahtzee game, a mustache that belonged to a Luigi costume, a Chewbacca hat, and a vinyl Stitch figurine. Once we were given the key word to use for the project- judge- I became very excited with the potential this project had. My first step in my braistorming was to define judge. After looking at the Miriam-Webster dictionary online, I found that judge could mean any of the following: -Judge in a courtroom -Hebrew judge as in the Bible -Determine/ choose -Sentence As I sat there reading the definitions, I realized there was nothing I did not already know about the word so I started a word map for judge. The first words that bloomed from the judge gavel related to who could be the judge and what items are associated with judge (robe, whig, court room, etc.) The word map helped expand the imagery in my mind of what could be the subject matter for the 5 x 5� finished piece. Several of the words or ideas that spawned during the word mapping process were either about competition or comparison. Namely, the subject of American Idol. With American Idol, the competition is judge by the people and viewed by the people. Based on their judgement, one talented individual will become the victor and begin a new vein of music through their career. Another repeated idea was the idea of judging in the passed tense. One example was politics. My thinking was that politics is not only passing judgement on election day but also is a state of keeping a preconceived opinion about a party or policy. In other words, an individual has already passed judge-
ment on their politics before hand and will not be moved, for the most part. Another example of a term that represented that idea of already judging an idea is “Professor X� from the Marvel Comics X-Men series. Proefessor Xavior, or Professor X, is a more positive representation of passed judgement because he is a protagonist that is always hopeful for a future where mutants and humans can live in harmony. Even to the point of death, Professor X does not relent his judgement that everyone has good inside of them and that a better future full of peace and harmony is still a possibility. A third example lies within the idea of prison.
Prison is the house of the judged and condemned. Prison is full of negative connotations; however, one of my first big ideas resulted from this idea of prison later on in the process. The idea of misjudging also came up through the characters of Kovu, Batman, and Robin Hood. Kovu from Disney’s Lion King 2 is a lion from the other side of the Pride Lands that wants to be with Kiara, Simba’s daughter. Because of where is from and his relation to Scar, Simba forbids Kovu to be with Kiara. The song “He’s Not One of Us” states this clearly in the movie. The Dark Knight, a.k.a. Batman, is judged as a vigilante that disrupts the work of Gotham Police and causes more harm than good in the opinion of the higher officials of the city. As Commissioner Gordon states in the film The Dark Knight, “...he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” In other words, Batman is exactly what Gotham needs in order to flush out the crime and corruption that has siezed the city, but the people of Gotham are not ready for him yet. So Batman is
judged based on who people think he is rather than whi he truely is-their watchful protector. Similar to the stereotype put on Batman, Robin Hood was seen as a vigilante out to bother the rich and the local royalty. In truth, he was stealing from the rich to give to the poor. In all three cases, misjudgement took place due to a lack of full perspective. As I stated earlier, this word mapping helped expound my understanding of the word judge and it provided many visuals avenues to trek through. Before I could embark on any idea I had from the word map, I needed to to explore the key terms and ideas related to my objects.
My next step in the creative process was the exploration of each item through the line of association- a continuous listing of words or phrases that describe the given subject. I took each item, illustrated it, described it, and colored aroung the illustration while examining the list of the words. I gained a lot from this step because it highlighted the intimate and fine details of each item; thus, helping me see the many contexts for each item. After giving my head a break from the brainstorming, I returned and highlighted commonalities between items. Between Chewbacca and Stitch, the were the common terms of “refugee”, “alien”, “cute”, “fluffy”, “strong”, “fugitive”, “rebellious”, and “space”. The other items did not have many apparent correlations. Nevertheless, interesting ideas did result from the general activity. The initial scene I saw in my mind when I began this line of association activity was surreal and fun. Stitch and Chewbacca are in a courtroom on trial for stealing money from another fellow during a game of Yahtzee. The judge presiding over the case is Judge Luigi. Luigi is stroking his music while listening to Stitch being interrigated at the witness stand. The prosecution is an irritated artist frantically throwing his arms in the air, paint brush flying into the
air. The point of view for the scene would be from behind Chewbacca. It is comical in my mind’s eye but that idea would not fulfill the specifics. The line of association process helped me realize that incorporating the items into an interpretation of the word judge was not going to be easy, to say the least. I thought to myself, “How in the world am I going to do this successfully?!” To my relief, I was informed that we had to use at least three of the five items we brought in. With this knowledge in mind, I began to write down the stronger combinations of three based on the five items. Based on the combinations, I made list of ten ideas:
show in which he is standing beside his still life painting of Yahtzee. Chewbacca is one of the art judges. Judge as in the context of determining good artwork.
1 Chewbacca and Stitch are in court arguing over a Yahtzee game in which the honorable judge Luigi presides. This incorporates the judge in the criminal sense.
5 Chewbacca is playing the role of the Israelite judge, Samson. “Chewy” stands blindfolded pushing on the pillars that will crush a room similar to Jabba’s palace where aliens are painting and playing Yahtzee. Judge as in the biblical context.
2 Stitch has a Luigi mustache and is at an art
3 Man with a Luigi mustache gives two thumbs up to the two gladiators, Stitchicus and Chewbaccamus, who are both wielding giant paintbrushes. Judge as in the context of the role of Caesar. 4 Several art judges nervously hold up five giant die giving positive feedback on Chewbacca’s painting while being held at laser point by Stitch. Judge as in the context of determining talent.
Out of these ideas, I chose five to post on the blog. The five ideas that I selected were ideas 3, 4, 6, 7, and 10. After posting them on the blog and receiving some feedback, the most successful idea according to my peers was number 7. In their defense, they said that this idea was interesting and would imply a thought-provoking story about the two aliens being put in the same cell. Not really confident in any of the other ideas, I heeded their advice and pursued furthermore into this idea. To incorporate Luigi into the concept, I decided to make him a prison guard. I drew a sketch of what Luigi would look like as an officer in the Nintendo style. It seemed too lighthearted for the occasion so I drew a semi realistic officer Luigi. 6 Stitch is playing the role of the Israelite judge Shamgar. (Refer to Judges 3:31) Stitch is engaged in battle with 600 “thinnerstines” using a paintbrush while sporting a Chewbaccan headdress. Judge is again in the biblical context. 7 Stitch and Chewbacca are sitting in a jail cell playing Yahtzee. They could possibly be in a space jail complete with laser cell bars and high tech atmosphere. Perhaps even floating in the cell. Think along the lines of Shawshank Redemption. Judge is in past tense since subjects have already been sentenced. 8 Stitch is playing the role of Indiana Jones at the third challenge from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Stitch is tossing Yahtzee dice onto the barely visible bridge. Stitch has adventure/explorer attire along with his Luigi style mustache. Judge as in the context of intuition or better judgement for a bad situation. 9 Chewbacca, Stitch, and Luigi are Olympic judges. They show their scoring via Yahtzee dice. Judge as in the discernment of athletic ability. 10. Dice portrait of Caesar “Stitchus” Aurelius. Looking from left to right, Caesar is holding hair of a gaul named Chewbacca. Judge is in the context of Caesar once again.
In regard to how I rendered the second Luigi, I wanted to incorporate the style of the late 1800’s. I gave him a traditional military coat that had a unique buttoning on the front. In addition, I gave him a thick thermal sweater thinking it would be cold in space. He still has his mustache and iconic gloves. To add some homage, I placed the superstar from Mario Brother’s into his officer cap. In hindsight, I realized that his pants are not accurate to the style of the 1800’s. They look as if Luigi borrowed some slacks from the cartoon character Goofy. Nevertheless, I preferred this new look over the bubbly and exaggerated cartoon version of Officer Luigi. My excitement for this new idea was short lived. I spoke with my teacher and she
told me that the idea was creative but it was going too far into the narrative element versus the graphic design element. We began to discuss new directions. We spoke for several minutes but did not feel confident in any idea suggested at the time. I had artist block and it was rough. This artist block continued for two days until I spoke with my mother. She and I were discussing school and life in general. At one point, we addressed my artist block. I told her, “I didn’t know what to do. My brain is fried and I basically have to start over.” While she was comforting me and talking, I was looking across the room. On the air conditioning unit, my roommate Tyler had several holders of Pringles chips and the logo caught my eye. I looked at the Pringles man’s mustache and I thought to myself, “the Pringles man has a mustache. Luigi has a mustache. Luigi could be the logo or part of the logo of a food product. Stitch and Chewbacca could represent two flavors of whatever food product I could come up with. EUREKA!” The next time we had class, I walked in with my head held high, chest pumped, and a smile on my face because the artist block was gone. I whipped out my larger sketchbook and drew the
Pringles logo along with a picture of Luigi with his arms crossed and his back facing the front. Trying to figure out how the theme of the food product should be represented, I went back to the lines of association that I did earlier in the brainstorming process. One of the commonalities between Stitch and Chewbacca was the word rebel. I began to think of articles of clothing relating to the image of a rebel. Excluding the rebel flag, I included in my list tattoos, bandanas, tattered clothing, mixed matched attire, grungy look possibly dirty, and conveying a sense of attitude. My first attempt of combining rebel with Luigi was not successful. It was cute but not what it needed to be. My first attempt of naming the company was poorly stated. The first name that I came up with was “Rebel Regenerate”. Initially, I thought this sounded cool and original; however, it sounded awkward and not appealing at all. If pronounced too quickly, the title sounded like rebel degenerates and nobody would want to be called such. Even though things were kina rocky, I did not lose hope in my idea.
I began to look at various cereal boxes
for inspiration. While examining designs of various brands, I also measured the boxes to assess the standard size of a cereal box. The standard size for most cereal boxes is 11.25” tall, 2” wide (front to back), and 7” 11/16” long (left to right). Once I completed my research, I drew a concept idea for the Chewbacca cereal that I entitled “Wookie Here”. drawing for the cereal design on the front of the box was very successful. I stylized Chewbacca to look simpler than the film adaptation so that he appeared more animated. The style of the font created for “Wookie
Here” is influenced by the Star Wars font used in the title. Following a long pause of relief, I began to work in Adobe Illustrator to begin the final design for the cereal box. Originally, there were going to be two boxes for each character, Chewbacca and Stitch. These two flavors would be under the same brand name, which was undecided at the time. However, during the in progress critique, one of my classmates suggested that both flavors be inside one box similar to a campaign that Doritos has done in the past three years. Two flavors would be in one bag of Doritos chips and fans would vote and
decide which flavor would join the Doritos family. I thought the idea was outstanding and it would certainly make production and advertisement interesting and less chaotic if this were a real cereal. After the critique, I hit the ground running with this improved and more focused direction. I was confident in my understanding of how to render Chewbacca but I needed a reference for the illustrating of Stitch. Therefore, I put Lilo and Stitch the movie into my laptop and began to comb through the scenes trying to find Stitch in the appropriate stance. To explain the improved idea, I had the image in my mind of Chewbacca and Stitch in a western type stance as in a showdown. Both characters are holding spoons and ready to sprint toward a central bowl that represented the bowl of the world. Whoever receives the most votes online based on this fictitious campaign for the flavors, would join the ranks of regular flavors of the cereal company. The name is still undecided at this point. I worked on Illustrator for hours. I stayed up several nights working on the appropriate rendering of the characters and the other graphic elements of the design. My many hours of labor were not in vain. The design came out better than I had originally imagined although it was very accurate to what I had envisioned.
Once I finsihed the design, I printed off all of the sides for the cereal box, cut them out, and sprayed them on to a cereal box. Once I successfully created the cereal box, I prepared a photoshoot with my friend Tim. I then took took photos of Tim interacting with the cereal. By combining the two photos taken, I created a scene where an individual is enjoying a bowl full of both imaginary flavors, Wookie Here and Aganas. I combined the two photos using Photoshop. I resized the image to be 5’ x 5�.
Which alien would you prefer to dine with? Good Query Cereal
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Let the Wookie win
Which alien would you prefer to dine with? Good Query Cereal
Go to www.goodquery.com and decide today!
Unleash the monstrosity
From a galaxy far, far away, Chewbacca has come to celebrate the end of the Empire by sharing a Kashyyykan recipethe Rich Leaf Soup. The Rich Leaf Soup is a chocolate medley of flakes with a dash of cinnamon. Chewbacca enjoys sharing what he can about his people even though he is a creature of few words. Believe it or not, “Chewie” is a very emotional fellow. His true quality is in his heart, but he does have outstanding strength. Keep that in mind when giving feedback on his recipe. Chewbacca thinks himself a chef just as much as he is a warrior. To challenge his skill or artistic ability could prove to be hazardous. He has been known to, how should I put this, “unarm” individuals that push his temper. Do not fear the “walking carpet”, though. He is willing to take some criticism, but do not overdo it. Anyway, have a bowl of the Rich Leaf Soup and let us know how well Chewbacca has done. Sincerly, Mr. Stache
Breaking loose from the Intergalactic Federations is the infamous Experiment 626. You may know him as Stitch. Stitch is a much beloved “dog” of Lilo and he is wanting to share a sample of his own experiment. Similar to his own creator, Dr.Jumba Jookiba, Stitch has the desire to create a little chaos. Don’t panic, though. Stitch only wants to drive your tastebuds crazy with a mixture of Hawaiian fruit flavors along with a touch of meterorite to tickle your tongue. Help Stitch by sampling his cereal, and give some feedback. However, choose your words carefully. The wrong choice of words could lead to mass mayhem- traffic lights will be reversed, plunbing will be backed up, and everyone’s left shoe will go missing. Now that you know, try Stitch’s tropical flavored cereal and let us know if we should put Stitch in the big leagues. Sincerly, Mr. Stache
Judge the cereal. Do not condemn the trees. Recycle this box, if you do not want to keep the spectacular design.
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