"Tailypo"

I have decided to start off the project with the story of 'Tailypo', from modern North American folklore. I knew when reading it that I wanted to make quite a large comic out of it, so it's best not to leave it too long. I have struggled to find a wording that I like enough to use in the comic, so rather than struggle to write a new version myself, I have decided that the comic will be for the most part wordless.

So here is the general gist of the story.

A man lives in a remote cabin in the woods with his three dogs. Food is scarce, so they go out hunting. The man shoots a small rabbit, which he cooks and shares with his dogs, but they are still hungry. He comes across a black animalistic shape with glowing eyes. He tries to shoot it, but only gets a glancing blow and the creature runs away into the woods, leaving its tail behind. Desperate enough for food, the man makes a stew out of the tail.
That night he hears a strange voice: "Tailypo, tailypo, all I want is my tailypo..." The man sets his dogs on the creature, which runs away, but only two dogs come back. Again the man hears the voice, and again he sets his dogs on the creature, but only one comes back. For a third time the creature returns and the man's remaining dog chases it away, never to return. Terrified and unable to sleep, the man cradles his gun and waits for dawn. The creature returns once more, and again demands the return of its 'tailypo'. The man tells the creature he ate its tailypo. The creature attacks him, ripping him to shreds, with such force that all that is left standing of the cabin is the chimney.
It is said that you can still hear the creature's voice: "Tailypo, tailypo, now I have my tailypo!"

Style-wise I have struggled to research artwork that is distinctively American, without relying on Native American artwork. I decided at the beginning that I would use Norman Rockwell as influence, but I realise now that I need a bit more.

Rockwell famously portrayed everyday American life in his illustrations. They are for the most part entirely realistic, which doesn't suit my project goals, but there are still certain elements I can take from his work, including the poses of his characters, the expressive faces, and the colouring - he generally uses very warm colours, and skin tones often have a lot of orange and red in them.




I decided I could also look at early Fleischer animations, as these have an incredibly distinctive style, with their simplified limbs, exaggerated poses and recognisable eyes. They are almost all, if not entirely, black and white. Everything looks very 'rounded'.

 Brian Taylor has used the Fleischer style to great effect in his series of prints, with a little added creepiness which would be suitable for this creepy tale.

Due to the creepy factor that the story holds, I thought that though Fleischer is distinctive, and I could take certain elements from it, it was still too "nice"... The comic book scene took off in many countries, including the UK, but nowhere did it see more success than America. I chose to look up images from Batman comics, as the Batman story is generally very dark.

 What I like about these comics is the high contrast between black and white, with almost no shading in between. The black shadows are almost stencilled. The comic strip pages have cross hatching for different textures and shades, reminding me, though not shown here, of half-tone. I think I would like to include some half-tone. The colour schemes, when colour is used, are amazing. A lot of blues, but also occasionally some warm colours to offset the blues. What I really love about the more modern, coloured images is that hte backgrounds are faded slightly to give depth to the scene. I would definitely love to do that in the Tailypo comic.

Back to the story...: The creature itself is generally drawn something like this:

By Michael Wandelmaier

... which is along the lines of what I imagined anyway. These artists n DeviantArt have given designing the creature a go too:

By SelfRightousSuiside

By TurtleShelltered

 The one by SelfRightousSuiside is along the lines of the traditional drawings of the Tailypo creature, but more fox-like than cat-like. I love the Cheshire Cat style grin; I think it makes the creature very creepy!
The designs by TurtleShelltered are not the traditional. They are also pretty mucht he only ones I've seen in full colour - usually the creature is just described as a black shape and so that is how it is drawn. I like that this artist has gone against that and used colour, as well as coming up with some very unique designs. I love the glowing effect around the eyes, and the fact that they are blank and perfectly round - this is roughly what I pictured in the story when the glowing eyes are mentioned, so it's great to see it visualised.


http://celiasbluecottage.blogspot.com/2011/01/norman-rockwell.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Bluto-popeye-fleischer.jpg
http://museum.walterfilm.com/cpg14x/displayimage.php?album=22&pos=27
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l7mrb4ZVfX1qagzayo1_500.gif
http://drawn.ca/archive/brian-taylors-bumtown-bruiser/
http://waffyjon.blogspot.com/2009/06/cool-stuff-original-comic-art.html
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Batman_%28Bruce_Wayne%29
http://www.lostateminor.com/2008/05/12/michael-wandelmaiers-tailypo/
http://selfrightoussuiside.deviantart.com/art/Tailypo-111953676?q=boost%3Apopular%20tailypo&qo=0
http://turtleshelltered.deviantart.com/art/Tailypo-Concepts-256418435?q=boost%3Apopular%20tailypo&qo=1

Super Sculpey

Some cultures focus more on sculpture than 2D artwork. I can use a polymer clay called Super Sculpey to do some sculptural pieces.
Polymer clay is a little like plasticine, until you bake it and it hardens up, becoming quite resilient.

 Based on the elongated animal shapes I saw on Roman brooches in the Ashmolean museum. A faun, from Roman mythology.

Based on the aesthetic of Inuit sculptures - skeleton showing, black and white, deformed looking.

 

Needlefelting

Experiment with needlefelting - this is a Baku, based on the description of the more modern Bakus that look like tapirs. I really like this little guy! Especially as it was my first ever attempt at needlefelting.

Lino Cuts

Using a Brush Pen (+Metallic Inks)

Using Fine Liners

Research Summary

• Ancient Aegean art - distinctive hair, poses similar to Egyptian.
• Meso-American art - geometric, limited colours.
• Mexico, Day of the Dead - bright colours, skulls, flowers.
• Inuit - sculpture more than 2D art, strange faces, lots of animals, lino cuts would work well for 2D.
• Norse / Celtic art - knotwork.
• Norman art - simple figures, simple colours, think Bayeux Tapestry.
• China - predominantly paintings.
• Asia, general - papercuts, shadow puppets, simple plush toys with painted details.
• African art - bright colours, limited palette, shells, masks, geometric patterns.
• Aboriginal art - dots, earthy colours and white, always show both eyes and ears and all limbs.
• Roman - mosaics, statues, colourful murals.
• Egyptian art - famous stance, head and feet facing sideways, torso facing forwards. Interesting way of showing multiple items. Gold, red, blue, black. Different skin colours mean different things.
• Greek art - red figure and black figure pottery, statues very accurate.
• Indian art - highly detailed, metallics, complex poses.
• Japanese art - distinctive facial shape.
• Native American art - geometric, limited colours, bright.
• Navajo - sand paintings.
• Persian art - bright colours.
• Russian art - gold.
• American - think Norman Rockwell.
• Noh theatre masks - great for expressions.

•  Think about trying humour, comics.
• Can make 3D models...
• ...Like art dolls...
• ...Or plush toys.
• Can add distinctive cultural detailing with felt.
• Try using Super Sculpey for adding details too.
• Can print onto fabric too.
• Needlefelting can create awesome 3D figures.
• Look at colour theory for colour schemes.
• Experiment with not using outlines.
• Try to achieve a 'folklore-ish' style.
• 'Build' characters using distinctive elements from each culture, but make them consistent enough to belong in the same world.
• I'm drawn to high levels of detail in art - good for cultures with a lot of patterns, shows my interests.
• A limited colour palette can work really well.
• Try combining elements of traditional fairy tale illustrations.
• Extra 'structure' lines on the face can help blend in unusual facial shapes.
• Think about using metallic paints and inks.
• Gold accents can be added digitally with the clone brush and a picture of gold leaf.