Artwork: Illustration
Inspiration
The first thing I drew inspiration from was the show "Devilman Crybaby", a Netflix adaptation of the older animated series "Devilman." The series is heavy in religious imagery, as well as LGBTQ themes and characters. The character I chose to illustrate, Ryo Asuka, was actually Satan in the series, though they were doomed to an endless cycle of rebirth. The title for the piece I made comes from a quote at the end of the series, where Ryo talks to their best friend and the protagonist of the series, Akira (Devilman), explaining that they did not believe that sorrow could exist because love did not exist. They go on to say that Akira proved that wrong, and that they genuinely loved him, but they ended up killing him. This is one of the many reasons the show has LGBTQ themes, but that isn't the only reason I chose this subject piece. Something I enjoyed about the media was that God himself was the antagonist. The way Ryo is portrayed as Satan, they are shown to suffer greatly. They are doomed to constantly be reborn, fall in love, and then cause the death of the person they care for. It isn't often that Satan is portrayed as a victim in media, and I found this interpretation of their punishment to be very intriguing.
The other part of my inspiration was actually one of Alphonse Mucha's works in his Seasons series, specifically summer. I chose this piece because I found the pose to be very interesting, and personally thought that it was a very beautiful piece. I decided to emulate it based on my own love for the piece. |
Experimentation
I really experimented with pose on this piece. The first thing I did, before even choosing who exactly I was going to illustrate, was pull the basic poses from different media I enjoyed through FireAlpaca. Two of these poses are pulled from Mucha pieces (Summer and Medea), while the middle one was pulled from a photograph of a model wearing a dress. Unfortunately, the reason I didn't pick the second or third poses was because the original sources left the legs obscured by dresses, and it was hard for me to figure out how their legs would be posed underneath their skirts. So, I chose to use the piece from the Seasons series. I also originally wanted to illustrate a different character, Trish Una from Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, but I decided against it because I had no way to connect her to a theme.
Planning
My plan going into this project was to use the pose from Mucha's work and tailor it to my own personal style of illustration. To start off the piece, I sketched out the basic shapes of the body digitally, which I then transferred to paper later. This was so I could create an accurate pose to the original. For the planning of the piece, I took a few scenes from the show and tried to mash them together for a background. To do this, I put them together digitally, with the sketch of the pose I was using. This gave me a rough idea of the composition I wanted for my piece. From this, I transferred the composition to a traditional sketch, and started working on the piece as I would any other piece.
Process
To start the project off, I used a Bic mechanical pencil and sketched the piece out with the most basic details I wanted in my piece. I started by focusing on the figure of Ryo, then went on to sketching out background pieces like the Earth below and the few angel-like lights in the background. After I finished the basic sketch, I shaded in a few areas, but began inking the rest of the piece instead of finishing the shading. After I inked the piece, I then erased the old pencil marks so that the lines were smoother. I went over the lines I needed to fix, then began shading the piece again. For the shading process, I used a Blackfeet Indian Writing Company drawing pencil. I started by shading the figure, then worked on the background with a mixture of ink and pencil. Throughout a few days, I kept coming back to the piece and fixing any shading or lining I didn't like. The hardest part of this was definitely shading the hair, but I think it turned out alright for what it was, Finally, after I finished that, I cleaned up any stray pencil marks with an eraser. I then scanned the piece with my printer, and edited it a bit so that it was clearer and sharper.
Reflection + Compare/Contrast
I'm actually very proud of this piece. I think it's definitely one of my favorites that I've ever done, mostly because I got to mix my own personal style into it. I enjoyed creating this piece, and experimenting with an entirely black and white piece rather than an working in color. Shading and sketching with pencil is not something I do very often anymore, so it was exciting to get to do it again. I also really enjoyed working on Bristol - pencil erases very easily on it, and it's a lot smoother than most of the paper I've used in the past. It's expensive, but I'll probably be doing most traditional works on Bristol from now on. Overall, I feel like I could have done a bit better with emulating Mucha's style in my work, but I do enjoy how it turned out nonetheless.
Compare and Contrast
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
For this piece, it's easy to see the relationship in how the inspiration effected the pose of my artwork. considering they are almost the same.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research for this piece was not biased, as it was a simple overview of the show, but some of the interpretations of this piece of media were definitely biased.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've made the generalization that, in many different forms of media, a God is treated as someone inherently good, while in this media, they are treated as the villain - religion can be interpreted in many different ways.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme/idea was the idea of Satan being a victim rather than an enemy, someone who suffered at the hands of God.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made many inferences about the meaning of the show, considering I used some of my own interpretation of it.
For this piece, it's easy to see the relationship in how the inspiration effected the pose of my artwork. considering they are almost the same.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research for this piece was not biased, as it was a simple overview of the show, but some of the interpretations of this piece of media were definitely biased.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've made the generalization that, in many different forms of media, a God is treated as someone inherently good, while in this media, they are treated as the villain - religion can be interpreted in many different ways.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme/idea was the idea of Satan being a victim rather than an enemy, someone who suffered at the hands of God.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made many inferences about the meaning of the show, considering I used some of my own interpretation of it.
Bibliography
- Cabral, Amanda. “Devilman Crybaby Ending Explained: The True Meaning behind the Tragic Netflix Masterpiece.” Earn The Necklace, 2 Feb. 2018, www.earnthenecklace.com/devilman-crybaby-ending-explained/.
- Gaudette, Emily. “Netflix's First Japanese-Produced Anime Is a Masterpiece.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 11 Jan. 2018, www.newsweek.com/devilman-crybaby-netflix-anime-akira-season-2-779002.
- Krell, Jason. “Sympathy for the Devil: a Lesson in Love from Devilman Crybaby.” Medium, Medium, 16 Jan. 2018, medium.com/@Krellitlikeitis/sympathy-for-the-devil-a-lesson-in-love-from-devilman-crybaby-a6c5947a787f.
- Vieilocean. “[Analysis] Devilman Crybaby.” Hana Ga Saita Yo, 29 July 2020, hanagasaitayo.wordpress.com/2020/08/09/analysis-devilman-crybaby/.