Creative Writing

As part of this creative writing brief, we were given several themes and in a short space of time had to write down the first thing that came into our heads when we heard each word... here's what i came up with:

1) SKY ~ Clouds, wind, hurricane, sun, birds, blue
2) TREE'S ~ Green, leaves, coconuts, roots, squirrels, bark, lumberjack, wood
3) PLANET ~ Circle, earth, space, cosmos, world, large, immense, colonisation, animals 
4) SHIP ~ Water, sail, pirate, captain. cannons, speed, discovery, buccaneer
5) BIRD ~ Flight, wings, perspective, worms, eagle, majestic, pigeon 
6) TALL ~ High, intimidating, basketball player, giant, mountain, ladder
7) SKIN ~ Body, human, protects, shell, wrapping, enclosed, blood
8) HAIR ~ Long, wavy, gel, lots, head, strength, coat, warmth
9) EYES ~ Striking, soul, view, look, see, vision, window, glass
10) TEXTURE ~ Rough, pattern, bumpy, feel, nature
11) SCHOOL ~ Kids, play, teachers, maths, chase, rounders, drawing, writing
12) FEAR ~ Spiders, unknown, loss, darkness, failure, uncertainty
13) HAPPINESS ~ Joy, smile, sunshine, laughter, friends, jokes
14) TAXI ~ Drunk, laziness, chat, direction, comfy, dodgy, costly
15) ATMOSPHERE ~ Ambience, feel, warmth, glow, burn, planet

Then after i had noted down all these words i began to form each lot into a sentence, trying to make as much sense as possible with the words i had thought up....

1) The blue of the sky, and the sun made way for the hurricane as the clouds whipped around, the wind sending the birds off course.
2) The lumberjack chopped wood, as his axe sunk into the bark, the green leaves shook right down to the roots, making the squirrels throw their coconuts. 
3) The immense earth formed a circle in space, travelling through the large cosmos, as a colonisation for animals. 
4) A pirate captain signalled the cannons, the sail unfurling, as the ship speeded across the water, the life and discovery of a buccaneer. 
5) The majestic pigeon in flight ate worms, but in perspective an eagle came along and clipped its wings. 
6) A giant basketball player climbed a ladder up a high mountain so it didn't seem intimidating any-more. 
7) The human body protects us like a shell, the skin wrapping us up in an enclosed network of blood.
8) Though the coat was long and wavy, the marmoset's head had lots of gel on it adding to its strength and warmth. 
9) Looking through the glass window, was a striking vision into the soul, and made me view things differently. 
10) In nature the feel of things such as armadillo's are rough and bumpy, and appear in a pattern.
11) Kids play rounders while teachers chase them, trying to teach them drawing, writing and maths.
12) The uncertainty of darkness makes me think of spiders of failure lurking in the unknown.
13) Jokes and laughter in the sunshine makes me smile with joy as i spend time with friends.
14) The drunk laziness of the dodgy character, was costly in chat but sent me in the right direction. 
15) The planet had an ambience that gave it a feel of warmth. as the pod breaking through the atmospheric burn gave its hull a bright glow. 

Now i had a very vague outline of what was going on, i tried to form these sentences into more of a narrative i could then base my storyboard on...

 

...Then moved onto writing up a final draft, rearranging all the words and ideas i had come up with so far, so that they all try to fit within a 12 panel storyboard template. Some words and ideas were removed completely, as adding them would make some sections too cluttered, and i thought the storyboard was already confusing and random enough as it stands so i left them out. 

With the story draft sorted, i then translated this as best i could into illustrations, working to the twelve panel layout id decided on (with the exception of one panel that is split into two, to get 2 different perspectives in one).

...And the finished storyboard! scanned in my original pencil work, coloured over it in Photoshop  adding shading, light, etc. What with the surreal and random nature of this project, kept the colouring and style very colourful, and i think it shows how much fun i had working on this! :D 

I decided on leaving the panels without frames, and with the paint overs left messy, as it gives the whole thing a very hand-made feel and that's what i wanted to get across. 

Overall, a very fun project to work, on due to the completely random nature of it, and the fact that a lot of the illustration work relied on thinking up surreal things from your imagination, and that's the sort of work that really appeals to me and that i can easily find myself getting stuck into. I'm definitely going to set myself more of this sort of work given the chance, as i think its a good showcase for my illustration and imagineering skills, and will hopefully lead to strong portfolio work in the future :)

~Chasing The Moon~