Illustrator Postcard Project

In my 2D digital imaging class we were to create a series of 4 postcards that had some meaning to us. I choose films because films are what inspire me most. I choose four films  that inspired me or made me view movies, or the art of storytelling in a new way. The four films I choose were Halloween, Pulp Fiction, Indiana Jones, and Watchmen.

Indiana Jones was the first film I watched that really got me into movies. Watching such a film at such a young age really got me into appreciating film throughout my childhood and teenage years. Indiana Jones was such a iconic and charismatic character. I envied his character as a child because he was able to travel the world and discover things no one else has ever seen, and defeating a few Nazis along the way. I used the silhouette of Indiana Jones because he is the most iconic character in Hollywood and wanted to portray that. I also used the image of the world map and plane to show his adventure.

I chose the film Halloween because it was the first film to really use music to completely alter the mood and feeling to a movie. The music itself worked as a characters itself, and I one of films most famous movie scores. I also was impressed at how an actor must portray acting through a character who doesn’t speak, and wears a mask. The way the actor moves his body, to give off emotion. No other horror movies were as successful at creating suspense and fear like Halloween. In my postcard I used the famous white mask the character Michael wears in the film. I also used the imagery of Michael standing in front of his house to visualize the tag line of the film, “The Night He Came Home.”

Pulp Fiction was one of the first films that really got me into story telling, and the plot of a film. Quentin Tarantino’s use of narrative and dialogue really makes his films stand out among others. In pulp fiction, the film is broken up into several short stories that are all connected to one another. Not only is the film broken up into several different chapters, but the chapters are out of order, the time line does not flow like a typical film. Tarantino also uses heavy dialogue throughout the film but it is very well written. All the characters feel so real and gritty as if they are real people, not actors. For the postcard I wanted to have something really powerful, bright and in your face, just like the film itself. There isn’t much action in the film, but when there is it is powerful and shocking. So that’s way I wanted to portray in my image.

The Watchmen film and graphic novel is a very artistic and visually appealing film. Zach Snyder the director of the film was able to create a film and have each scene and character just like the original graphic novel. The use of repetitive imagery and color tones, purple, yellow, green, really give the film the same feel as the original novel. In my postcard I used the same colors that were used in the graphic novel and film to continue the same theme.