Research

The moon

The moon is an Astronomical body that is interesting to look into with mythology surrounding it with gods and myths. I want to create a character that is a personified/ humanoid of the moon and through research, I will hopefully find out some ideas and inspiration for the character and the story.

The moon is pretty far away from the Earth "238,855 miles (384,400 km) away. How far away is that? That’s 30 Earths." (NASA, July 9, 2015, <https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/moon-distance/en/> ) With the distance the moon is able it would effect the tides of the ocean making them both low and high, with it being high It would float coastlines. If closer, extremely closer it would increase the gravitational force, all known cities would be under water, but when the moon moves the water would follow.

Phobia: Exaggerated fear of a object or situation.

Horror: A genera with the goal to scare.

Thalamus: the processing section of the brain

Moon landings

The most famous moon landing is 1969 by NASA during the cold war, the space arms race. The Soviet Union was the first to have a human being in space and in orbit of the moon but America was, in fact, the first to land a man successfully on the moon. With the help of new technology, computers, and maths (old maths put into motion) The name of the mission was Apollo 11, there were about 6 Apollo's missions.

There is the conspiracy theory that the Apollo 11 was staged. There have been statements by many people even large groups saying it's the government is lying to their citizens.

Here are some of the reasons why people are believing it's a fake:

The light source, using basic lighting knowledge light should come from one direction and only that direction and in the Nasa photos the shadows seem to go in different directions showing that there are a number of different light sources.
To reach the moon the pilots and the scientists in NASA had to have gotten past the radiation belt around the earth, it brings up the topic that it would have killed anyone who got in it, NASA argues back stating they lined the ship with enough protection and that the team wouldn't be up their long enough to have long-term damage.
the American flag ripple on the moon - no wind on the moon. As there is no air on the moon reaction and action still works like normal which was the cause of this effect when the flag was pulled out of the tube
C Rock- there is a photo that was taken on the moon with a rock marked C on it, people believeing its a marked prop

Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin (pictured) landed the lunar module, Eagle, in July 1969

The Rabbit in the Moon

Otherwise known as the jade rabbit, It exists within many cultures and folklore which all branched out from the rabbit shape that can be made out on the moon. It is most common in East Asia, In china, the rabbit is a companion to the goddess named Change and the rabbit makes her an Elixir of life (An Elixir is related to immortality and is associated with the Philosopher stone.) In japan and Korea, the Rabbit is making rice cakes instead of an Elixir. During the Apollo 11 landing, the Rabbit on the moon was a topic brought up "Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, there's one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. " Houston, Nasa, 1969

Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Elixir of life, An ancient embroidered emperors robe from the 18th century,

The Rabbit has inspired many stories within pop culture and outside, but the origins are unknown but within the ancient time's china believes there were twelve moons which related to the twelve moons within a year and ten sun days as there were 10 days in the Chinese week. They believed there was a mother of those suns and moon, she would wash the moon at the end of the moon cycle within a month in the western ocean. It was also believed that the moon was made of water linking them to toads or rabbits (which links to the rabbit in the moon also)

An animated tale that has been the past down for many years about the Rabbit in the moon and how the rabbit ended up there in the first place. The story plot is of a man who lives in the moon notices a bunch of animals below on earth playing and wants to test which one of them is the kindest and would reward that animal by taking them to the moon with him. He goes down to earth disguised as a beggar and asks the animals if they would kindly bring him food. All the animals bring food apart from the rabbit who sacrifices himself for the beggar leading to the rabbit being seen as the kindest. Rosie Holmes and Helen Goodwin in February 2011 at Millais School, Horsham, UK.

The Rabbit in the moon within media

1972/1979 Kenneth Anger film "Rabbit's Moon" - A movie that was never completed and was rushed when it was released in 1972 when filmed in 1950, The movie was released with a different soundtrack in 1979. The narrative is a clown that longs for the moon and attempts to jump to it.
The 1966 children's book "The Rice-Cake Rabbit" by Betty Jean Lifton "It tells the story of a rabbit who wishes to be Samurai. Things don't work out quite the way he wishes, and he ends up on the moon forever making rice cakes. " Ryan's review
In the 1972 Richard Adams novel "Watership Down" This is a horror story which was adapted into a movie on BBC in 1978. It is loosely based on the idea of the rabbit on the moon and they all believe in the sun being the giver of life.

Man in the moon

Just like the Rabbit in the moon, there is also shapes of a man/ face/ human on the moon and has inspired many western artists to recreate this in their work. Many myths raised around Europe about a man being banished to the moon after taking part in a crime. There is another folklore story involving a couple walking on christmas eve, they were punished and to be separated, to either freeze in the moon or to burn in the sun. The girl chose the sun as the man chose the moon which leads to people being able to see him. It has been proven by NASA that the features have been formed by bubbling magma.

This advert touched the subject of the man in the moon that really covered how lonely the man was. This shows to be a popular myth for the moon in western culture (America and Europe)

K Gehrig, Adam & Eve / DDB London, Nov 6 2015.

Horror: what is fear and how does it work?

Fear is one of the humans primal emotions and it controls our everyday lives and affects everyone differently. It's also responsible for our very existence as with fear our ancestors were able to survive and carry on their genetics to the people around to this day. Fear is also something we enjoy as it can give off an adrenaline rush and can be addictive.

When we experience something or see something that makes us scared and experiences fear, we go through a small yet fast cycle of events. The eyes and ears pick up the image or sound and send it to the processing section of the brain (thalamus)

The Thalamus picked up something out of rhythm and unexpected. The thalamus sends a slow signal to the cortex (the thinking part of the brain) and the amygdala gets a must faster message. The amygdala sends a message towards hypothalamus which causes your nervous system to create an adrenaline. This makes your reaction to the situation: pause quickens, muscle tighten and your body gets ready to protect itself. This all happens in a split second. Once the context has figured out the situation wasn't all that harmful it sends a message towards the Amygdala that there is no real threat.

We are lucky to live in a world with no threat around every single corner but we as a human species are still wired to them as they are the main leading cause of

the evolution that we went through as it was key for survival. This creates issues

in today's civilization as with fear being our core primal instinct, It's harder to be happy as we aren't wired for that and secondly we crave fear: Horror movies, rollercoasters, jumpscares.

Political parties and leaders use fear to manipulate its audience and people. "Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” – Hermann Goering <http://www.rense.com/general21/wara.htm>

Phobia's

Phobia is an exaggerated fear of an object or situation (spiders, heights.) According to behaviorism, it is a learned response from a behavior of a stimulus. Phobias are defined as extreme or irrational fear, often persistent, that compel sufferers to avoid the object or situation to which their fear is connected to a specific phobia related to a particular stimulus that causes fear, anxiety or avoidance and results in intense distress for the sufferer. Commonly its related to the fear of the unknown or the possible: Children create anxiety ridden situations that are extreme. A great example is with clowns; they were created to entertain and bring joy but ironically enough it scares them. "Most of America is scared of clowns than climate change" McDonald Fiona [http://www.sciencealert.com/americans-are-more-afraid-of-clowns-than-climate-change] October 2016.

Fears/nightmares

Yuki - 17-18 -

"I was really afraid of stickmen figures, like the ones primitive men use to paint in caves. Because I saw Ice age and one sequence featuring them really scared me.

Ari - 20 -

"I had nightmares about getting chased by my stepdad. Usually took the form of a monster before revealing it was him all along.

Quinn - 18 -

"I've always had a strong fear of being lost, I have a terrible sense of direction so it sucks."

Bethany - 17 -

"The witch from the lion, the witch and the wardrobe with the table scene scared me for years"

Emma - 18 -

"I use to have nightmares of my brother being killed or stolen and it would have been my fault: or having to choose between myself dying and my mother while at gun point."

(more in sketchbook)

Fear changes through growth of humans. When very young everyone has the fear of strangers and of new things as their minds are abstract and really have no sense of reality. The major fears/ anxiety of these years are: Loud noises, sudden movements, large looming objects, strangers, and large changes. Once in preschool years the fear is inspired by either movies/ media or the fear of the unknown, (active imagination): The dark, noises at night, masks, monsters and ghosts. These sometimes are carried through older years. Older years/ school years is where fears have been created by life situations: fear of teachers who are angry, fear of failure and rejection, scary news, illness, and death. Those are the normal stanges of fear set out in humans mindsets. This development has inspired me for the structure of the story.

Shapes

The meaning behind the shapes.

shapes have a long history with literature and symbolic meanings with the triangle for example used for evil and being used for cult relations in and out of media ( Kostanski Steven & Gillespie Jeremy, The Void, 2016 Movie, The Illuminati ) as the circle has been used to symbolize warmth, the moon and a family figure. Shapes have an easy way to speak to the audience through visuals as they are all around us and make up everything. Most commonly there is a cultural meaning behind the shape and its most common link.

Circle:

Circles have no beginning or end, mirrors its self and is seen as symmetrical and it represents a whole and a perfect shape. and as I mentioned before they represent the positive parts of life with its shape being so familiar from many kinds of fruit's, the sun and the moon. The shape is often refereed to being graceful, feminine, warm, infinite, unity and harmony. With it being less common designs it attracts attention as well as emphasis the focus point. I will use this for the main character for design and visual purposes to attract the audience to them and give them the sense of innocence and also relating them to their origin, the moon.

The shape has also been used as a halo most memorably in art for Mary who is a religious figure: the mother of Jesus. as well as all the other angel's in most commonly the renaissance artworks that are recreation of bible key moments.

Square/ rectangles:

A square and rectangle shape are considered the strong, honest and earthbound shape (In Buddhist symbolism a square inside a circle represents a relationship between the human and the divine (In the story case the stranger and the Rabbit).) The shape is scene are boring but it makes up along side the circle with perfect symmetry . This shape is more linked to mathematics with right angles and represent order. I will use this shape for the stranger character/ human as the shape is related to earthbound = human and nature.

This shape is commonly found with it being the shape of screens, the layouts for websites and it helps make it stand out making the inside more noticeable and attractive to audience members. This shape is also used to measure architecture to fit the humans aesthetics.

Triangle:

This shape is heavily linked to cults and has evil relations with it being used in fiction and non fiction. The shape is memorably seen for the Illuminati, and for the latest film the void [2016 movie directed by: Kostanski Steven, Gillespie Jeremy] where the triangle is frequent throughout the horror movie. This shape is often thought to be action, aggression with its power of stability ( balance.) with its sense of balance it is heavily linked with law, science and religion through symbolism. This shape also symbolizes movement with its pointed top. This shape I will use for the monster with aggression and its leading the main character

Artists

Michelle Czajkowski

Michelle is a freelance Illustrator who creates symbolic images that reflect on her illnesses and on her life struggles. She has created her own visual story. She creates her work through Photoshop and a wacom cintq. Michelle is a great inspiration to me and my work.

Her approach to digital art is through contrast helping the details and simple key elements such as the eyes with strongly display the mood and the emotion in the work. The isn't any harmony within the rule of thirds but the contrast and the scale helps bring the work in balance. The last of white in the image to the left makes the eyes and the bandages stand out against the vibrant cold colours as this is the same on the image on the right with the colour red.

Eric Carle

Eric is an American designer, Illustrator and children's book writer most famous for "The Very Hungary Caterpillar" A picture book with few words that has been translated into more than 62 languages making it apart of every child's childhood. His style is destruction and recognizable as he creates it through a collage technique with the use of tissue paper/ hand painted which he overlays to construct the bright a beautiful images we come to recognize.

His stories and work are inspired by Eric's love for nature and animals an interest that is common in most young children which Eric uses to help them learn whats around them and also entertain them.

The image on the right is an image of a large cat and two smaller cats, created by cutouts that have been over laid with contrasting colours so the image can be clearly made out. There's brush strokes on the shapes which add detail and more contrast with the lack of usage of green.

Aaron Becker

Aaron was born around the 1960's and had dreamed of being an astronaut which inspired his work as he was amazed by the adventure of finding out whats out there. His artwork is always made to seem like a large scale and that there is more out there. Inspires the audience for adventure. He has been known for working along side infamous animated movies such as: The polar express (film 2004), Monster house (film 2006) and A Christmas carol (Disney film 2009.)

His work always goes for soft colours with the main focus being a vibrant warm colour as demonstrated above with the main focus being the main character on a bright red balloon. The work has harmony and is met along the line of interest making the placement attention grabbing. The work is rather flat and limit amount of shading, the image is given depth from

colour overlay and outline bringing the work to life. I think the materials used are either water colours and marker or its digital made on Illustrator. Its hard to figure out as he doesn't state his methods or materials but you can make out by the outcome and the way the colours blend, I believe this was a sketch moved towards digital.

Robert Bradford

Robert is a sculpture artist who recycles objects and mostly toys which makes his work vibrant and dynamic and has that fun and playful side to the work, the inner childhood.

He has states that the main inspiration is to use objects that already have history such as up cycles toys, buttons and old objects that have been of use to someone in the past. He uses these objects to recreate a formula object such as dogs, rabbits and fairies.

The image on the right is a sculpture of a dog that what appears to have objects and toys from the 90's (there's a tomagotchi on the hip of the dog and old walkies talkies on the tail) The bright colours and objects would make a child and everyone feel nostalgic. How he makes his sculptures is he makes the shell/ skeleton of the sculpture then overlays the piece with timeless objects. It doesn't seem like he goes by a colour coordination but he uses objects with bright and welcoming colours that does give the work that playful appearance. The work has texture from the objects that have been placed onto the work. There is many shapes onto the work that creates clutter on the work.

carolien adriaansche

Carolien creates her animal sculpture through recyclable objects that can be found around the house such as light bowlbs, cartons, rubber gloves and other recyclable objects to create animals, small characters and floating little towns that she has constructed. She colours the packaging to give them the bright cartoonist appearance to it. Her goal is to been green about creating art. On the image on the right you can see its made from bottle tops, a milk bottle and a piece of clothing hanger to create a deer or a dog.

The usage of pink makes it stand out in a vibrant and fun way. I chose to study this artist because I want to look into recycling objects to create a fun and imaginative visual way to communicate a narrative to my target audience. With the usage of recycled goods i can teach the audience and inspire them to recreate their own art using such materials leading to a chain of events that has a small part on helping the environment and climate change. I think Carolien has intentions of making recycling more of a professional art approach as the same as creating little simple worlds that can be simple and easy. Inspired by this I intendo to make a few sculpture of my characters for the story in this style.

Chris Turnham

Chris is a print maker who was born and raised in Portland and his prints are vibrant and heavily inspired by nature and mid-century architecture of city's. This work to the left is a simple stylized image of people in the rain walking around with the main focus of the image is a person wearing a yellow rain coat and is expressing joy and interest in the rain droplets. Its shows a light mood about a miserable situation. The gray scale colours also contrast with the setting and mood of the main focus. This stylized work is inspirational and I think this contrast is interesting for experimentation or a way to set the story I have in mind.

The work hasn't got harmony nor does it meet the line of interest but the work balances its self out with colour and shape so the main focus is still at the center of the image and clear.

Fiona Dempster

timothy h lee

Dempster is a Australian calligraphic and book artist, she has made it clear that she loves books and her artwork is made to appreciate them in an elegant than place a complex expression of them. Her work is made out of paper to try and get closely related to a book's form as possible. But she does work with other materials such as metal, timber and perspex (she would use this to experiment with letters/ calligraphy to work outside the boundaries of the books.)

I chose to study Dempster Because of her interesting and textual use of recreating a book, I was inspired by her to make the story's book by hand making it more unique and more personal to the context of the story also.

This work here on the right is made from paper and red string/ thread. She intimidate the lines that the text would be as red lines. I personally think shes made a really effective piece and it clearly show that its her hermarge to books overall. The red is a contrasting colour towards the plain white of the sheets and it makes the lines stand out within the sculpture. "For me, artists’ books create an intimate and personal space to view and reflect on art. They let you interact with them, touch them, and go back through and re-read them. You can experience the work one on one and discover it at your own pace."

Timothy is a Korean artist (Seoul, South Korea). His main material is paper as well as water colours " a good friend told me ‘Everyone dies twice in their lifetime – the first time when their soul leaves the body. But the second time, even more frightening, is when the last person who remembers you dies.’ "

Research

The moon

The moon is an Astronomical body that is interesting to look into with mythology surrounding it with gods and myths. I want to create a character that is a personified/ humanoid of the moon and through research, I will hopefully find out some ideas and inspiration for the character and the story.

Phobia: Exaggerated fear of a object or situation.

Horror: A genera with the goal to scare.

Thalamus: the processing section of the brain

​

Moon landings

There is the conspiracy theory that the Apollo 11 was staged. There have been statements by many people even large groups saying it's the government is lying to their citizens.

Here are some of the reasons why people are believing it's a fake:

The light source, using basic lighting knowledge light should come from one direction and only that direction and in the Nasa photos the shadows seem to go in different directions showing that there are a number of different light sources.

the American flag ripple on the moon - no wind on the moon. As there is no air on the moon reaction and action still works like normal which was the cause of this effect when the flag was pulled out of the tube

C Rock- there is a photo that was taken on the moon with a rock marked C on it, people believeing its a marked prop

Mission commander Neil Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin (pictured) landed the lunar module, Eagle, in July 1969

The Rabbit in the Moon

Image courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Elixir of life, An ancient embroidered emperors robe from the 18th century,

The Rabbit in the moon within media

1972/1979 Kenneth Anger film "Rabbit's Moon" - A movie that was never completed and was rushed when it was released in 1972 when filmed in 1950, The movie was released with a different soundtrack in 1979. The narrative is a clown that longs for the moon and attempts to jump to it.

The 1966 children's book "The Rice-Cake Rabbit" by Betty Jean Lifton "It tells the story of a rabbit who wishes to be Samurai. Things don't work out quite the way he wishes, and he ends up on the moon forever making rice cakes. " Ryan's review

In the 1972 Richard Adams novel "Watership Down" This is a horror story which was adapted into a movie on BBC in 1978. It is loosely based on the idea of the rabbit on the moon and they all believe in the sun being the giver of life.

Man in the moon

This advert touched the subject of the man in the moon that really covered how lonely the man was. This shows to be a popular myth for the moon in western culture (America and Europe)

Horror: what is fear and how does it work?

When we experience something or see something that makes us scared and experiences fear, we go through a small yet fast cycle of events. The eyes and ears pick up the image or sound and send it to the processing section of the brain (thalamus)

We are lucky to live in a world with no threat around every single corner but we as a human species are still wired to them as they are the main leading cause of

the evolution that we went through as it was key for survival. This creates issues

in today's civilization as with fear being our core primal instinct, It's harder to be happy as we aren't wired for that and secondly we crave fear: Horror movies, rollercoasters, jumpscares.

Phobia's

​

Fears/nightmares

Yuki - 17-18 -

"I was really afraid of stickmen figures, like the ones primitive men use to paint in caves. Because I saw Ice age and one sequence featuring them really scared me.

​

Ari - 20 -

"I had nightmares about getting chased by my stepdad. Usually took the form of a monster before revealing it was him all along.

​

Quinn - 18 -

"I've always had a strong fear of being lost, I have a terrible sense of direction so it sucks."

​

Bethany - 17 -

"The witch from the lion, the witch and the wardrobe with the table scene scared me for years"

​

Emma - 18 -

"I use to have nightmares of my brother being killed or stolen and it would have been my fault: or having to choose between myself dying and my mother while at gun point."

​

(more in sketchbook)

Shapes

The meaning behind the shapes.

​

Circle:

​

The shape has also been used as a halo most memorably in art for Mary who is a religious figure: the mother of Jesus. as well as all the other angel's in most commonly the renaissance artworks that are recreation of bible key moments.

​

Square/ rectangles:

​

This shape is commonly found with it being the shape of screens, the layouts for websites and it helps make it stand out making the inside more noticeable and attractive to audience members. This shape is also used to measure architecture to fit the humans aesthetics.

​

Triangle:

​

Artists

Michelle Czajkowski

Michelle is a freelance Illustrator who creates symbolic images that reflect on her illnesses and on her life struggles. She has created her own visual story. She creates her work through Photoshop and a wacom cintq. Michelle is a great inspiration to me and my work.

Eric Carle

His stories and work are inspired by Eric's love for nature and animals an interest that is common in most young children which Eric uses to help them learn whats around them and also entertain them.

The image on the right is an image of a large cat and two smaller cats, created by cutouts that have been over laid with contrasting colours so the image can be clearly made out. There's brush strokes on the shapes which add detail and more contrast with the lack of usage of green.

Aaron Becker

Robert Bradford

Robert is a sculpture artist who recycles objects and mostly toys which makes his work vibrant and dynamic and has that fun and playful side to the work, the inner childhood.

He has states that the main inspiration is to use objects that already have history such as up cycles toys, buttons and old objects that have been of use to someone in the past. He uses these objects to recreate a formula object such as dogs, rabbits and fairies.

carolien adriaansche

Chris Turnham

The work hasn't got harmony nor does it meet the line of interest but the work balances its self out with colour and shape so the main focus is still at the center of the image and clear.

Fiona Dempster

timothy h lee

I chose to study Dempster Because of her interesting and textual use of recreating a book, I was inspired by her to make the story's book by hand making it more unique and more personal to the context of the story also.