10/10 Class #7
Critique: - Final Children’s book image due today!!!!
BOOK Cover!
In Class: Discussion of Assignment #4. Working on sketches for
new project. Discuss book covers and artists specializing in them. Talk
about composition and storytelling. Draw from Masters compositions in
class, focusing on composition, tone and value.
Assignment #4: Classic Book Cover: 2000 Leagues under the Sea. Begin visualizing , finding reference and taking photographs for new assignment.
Be sure to use lighting and think composition. Also remember that the title of the Book and the Name of the Author will need to be accomodated for. The best way to handle this is to draw them in on your sketches. Sketches should be in the ratio of 5 x 8 inches.
I’m attaching a short synopsis of the book, but I suggest strongly you research further into it. Reading the entire book is not necessary, but having a good idea of it’s contents and being able to talk intelligently about it is a good idea. I would skim the book and look for interesting passages to illustrate.
Research and be able to discuss five book cover artists. For each artist,
write a short paragraph about their work, their area of business and why
you chose their work. Bring 3 examples of their work.
Sketchbooks: Draw 5 compositional/tonal sketches from the master
book cover artists you covered in your research.
For Next Week: Bring sketchbooks, larger drawing pads, drawing
materials, colored pencils. Due next week: 5 compositional sketches and
found reference for book cover assignment.
Victo Ngai
James Jean
Jon Foster
Brom
Rebecca Guay
Eric Fortune
Shaun Tan
Jason Chan
John Jude Palencar
Donato
Dan Do Santos
David Palumbo
Vanja Todoric
Matt Smith
Frank Cho
Jeff Preston
Bruno Werneck
James Gurney
Sam Weber
William O’Connor
Paolo Rivera
Gregory Manchess
Short Synopsis
As the story begins, ships of several nations spot a mysterious sea monster, which some suggest to be a giant narwhal; the creature also damages an ocean liner. The United States government finally assembles an expedition in New York City to track down and destroy the menace. Professor Pierre Aronnax, an expert French marine biologist and narrator of the story, who happens to be in New York at the time, receives a last-minute invitation to join the expedition, and he accepts. Canadian master harpoonist Ned Land and Aronnax's faithful assistant Conseil are also brought aboard.
The expedition departs Brooklyn aboard United States Navy Abraham Lincoln and travels south around Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean. The ship finds the monster after a long search and then attacks the beast, which damages the steering. The three protagonists are then hurled onto the "hide" of the creature, which they find, to their surprise, is a large metal construction. They are quickly captured and brought inside the vessel, where they meet its enigmatic creator and commander, Captain Nemo.
The rest of the story follows the adventures of the protagonists aboard the creature--the submarine, the Nautilus--which was built in secrecy and now roams the seas free from any land-based government. Captain Nemo's motivation is implied to be both a scientific thirst for knowledge and a desire for revenge on (and self-imposed exile from)civilization. Nemo explains that his submarine is electrically poweredand can perform advanced marine biology research; he also tells his new passengers that although he appreciates conversing with such an expert as Aronnax, maintaining the secrecy of his existence requires never letting them leave. Aronnax is enthralled by the undersea vistas, but Land constantly plans escape.
They visit many places in the world's oceans, some known to Jules Verne from real travelers' descriptions and speculation, while others completely fictional. Thus, the travelers witness the real corals of the Red Sea, the wrecks of the battle of Vigo Bay, the Antarctic ice shelves, and the fictional submerged land of Atlantis. The travelers also don diving suits to hunt sharks and other marine life with specially designed guns and have a funeral for a crew member who dies when an accident occurs inside theNautilus. When the Nautilus returns to the Atlantic Ocean, a "poulpe" (usually translated as a giant squid, although the French "poulpe" means "octopus") attacks the vessel and devours a crew member.
Throughout the story Captain Nemo is suggested to have exiled himself from the world after an encounter with his oppressive country somehow affected his family. Near the end of the book, the Nautilus is tracked and attacked by a mysterious ship from that nation. Nemo ignores Aronnax's pleas for amnesty for the boat and retaliates. He attacks the ship under the waterline, sending it to the bottom of the ocean with all crew aboard as Aronnax watches from the saloon. Nemo bows before the pictures of his wife and children and is plunged into deep depression after this encounter, and "voluntarily or involuntarily" allows the submarine to wander into an encounter with the Moskenstraumen, more commonly known as the "Maelstrom", a whirlpool off the coast of Norway. The three prisoners successfully seize this opportunity to escape, but the fate of Captain Nemo and his crew is unknown.
