Visual themes and genres for FMP

THEMES AND GENRES – BLENDING THE WORLD OF REALITY WITH FANTASY

One of the main themes for the fictional world I am creating is fantasy and enchantment. The settings of the fictional world I will create will set in places that we are familiar with (a forest, a lake, a street, etc.) or places that celebrates an event (e.g. festivals). It could even be a place where it holds personal/special memories, such as a faraway home from childhood. Basing on real locations to work with I would incorporate fictional elements to produce the blend of mixing fantasy with reality as my fictional world.

The Japanese animations of many Studio Ghibli films such as “My Neighbour Totoro” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” show some examples of mixing in fantasy in a reality-based world. The animation films holds some of the influences that I would like to incorporate in my works, such as the enchantment of the world and the simplicity of the characters.

“My Neighbour Totoro” (1998) has a friendly giant creature, who is mythical forest sprite that is living in the woodlands in rural Japan. An example of mixing a fantasy/fictional character with a reality-based location is perhaps the key thing I want to produce in my artworks.

"Howls Moving Castle" (2004) a story set in a fictional world where both magic and 19th century technology is predominant with strong anti-war themes, reflecting on the director's (Hayao Miyazaki) opposition of the Iraqi war in 2003. 

I always had interests in these kind of genres where you mix imagination with the world around us, yet relate to the things around you, whether they are personal to you or something that reflects the world we live in. 

COLOUR MIXING - TONE AND ATMOSPHERE

Over the years of practicing digital painting I always sought to produce some visually appealing artworks through the use of colour mixing. It has recently becoming more and more relevant in my current works and is becoming part of my painting style. I want to continue the process of colour mixing to create atmospheric sceneries that would help support the tone of the visual narrative of my characters.

“5 Centimetres per second” (2007) with some of its scenery based in the afternoon/evening times. The colour palette and colours makes some of the scenes visually appealing, one of the things I like to see in artworks where colours play a role to bring a sense of joy, happiness or sadness, depending on the colours that are being used, in combination with composition, to illustrate the tone within the image’s narrative.