My evaluation and thoughts

At the end of my project, I looked back through my book with fresh eyes, I have enjoyed challenging my self and letting my self become stressed. I believe it was a good choice, as I have tested my limits and pushed boundaries, forcing myself out of my comfort zone.

I think I tackled the book in an interesting way, that has paid off, not strictly focusing on the pornographic side of things, having looked at scenes that weren't just about the sex, which is the sole reason why people read the book. I think I have illustrated it in a competent manor and my illustrations work well beside and with the book. Not focusing on faces was a good choice in my opinion because it has reverted the book to its original state, full of mystery,letting people imagine mr grey in their own mind, without this image of Jamie Dorman hanging over their heads, or Dakota Johnson. Because of focusing on hands I have been able to show both sides of the book effectively, letting people make  their own mind up about the story. I have sat on the fence- is it a raunchy love story or is it a harrowing tale of sexual and domestic abuse? You decide.


I am glad I strayed away from what I know and tackled an adult book, I feel like I could do this again now I have found my footing within adult illustration.

Cover and Typeography

For my cover, I wanted to attempt something different, something that the potential reader could interpret in their own mind, after all your perception is your reality.
I had ideas, that I mention earlier on in my sketch book, of Mr. Grey clutching Ana's breasts, i took a time lapse video of the process.
https://instagram.com/p/zx2Q_gP7_1/?taken-by=tattooilgan
https://instagram.com/p/zx2cwBP7wE/?taken-by=tattooilgan

Even though that was a rough sketch and completely out of proportion I enjoyed experimenting with lipstick, and how showed the grains in the water color paper.
I started drawing hands in chains, as then you could decide as a potential buyer of the book if it represents slavery or a kinky sexual fetish, like BDSM.

After drawing up sketches, and coloring them in loosely, I began experimenting with typography which really isn't my strong point, however I tried my hardest but ended up settling for goudy stout in white, sizes 60 and 36.

I played around with thick bold markers in my sketch books, staying away from dainty text that is favored by Romance novels as Fifty Shades is far from romantic.


The hand on the cover is shackled, on the red leather mattress as described in the red room of pain. I asked my peers what they thought of my final cover idea and most thought it was bright and caught the eye, standing out against already existing covers for fifty shades of grey that sport dark grays and blacks.

Bleeds

When working on illustrations you must provide a bleed, a bleed is the edge of the paper to be trimmed off. I have provided a minimum of a 3mm bleed to a five on all of my illustrations within the book. A bleed ensures that there are no untrimmed prints on the final piece.

Working on

As I progress through the book, I marked pages by folding the corner, of specific scenes I wanted to illustrate.

Page 10; as Anastasia meets Mr. Grey
Pages 98-99; The introduction the Red Room, misleadingly known as Christians Play room- two illustrations will be placed here
Page 117; Christian takes Ana's virginity, and one of the only scenes the couple have what is deemed 'normal sex'
Page 176; Anastasia is presented with the contract and she thinks to herself in the bathroom mirror about how the only man she's ever been attracted too wants to beat her with a flogger.

I had a sketch of Christians hands signing the contract but I've decided to swap it for the sensual dream Anastasia has that persuades her to sign the contract!
231; Anastasia has a sensual dream that Christian hits her in her sweet spot with a riding crop.

264- Christian and Ana engage in their first sexual encounter inside the playroom.
366- Christian and Ana engage in not-so-rough sex, at Ana's demand.
505- The deal breaker. Ana tests hard limits (Hard limits is a term used by those who practice bondage for when it is too painful.) Christian hits Ana with a broad leather belt full force, six times.
514- Ana has returned home after the breaking point with Christian, clutching a tear soaked handkerchief on her bed, surrendering to grief.


Page 10 - Ana meet Christian at his office- my final illustration for it, as she plays nervously with a pencil.

The beginning of my Illustrations

After experimenting with my colour palette and the photographs of peoples hands, I began sketching thumbnails for Illustration ideas.

Rather than having flowing brush strokes I am blotting out the loose ink with a tissue and it think it works well, and with reflection of the book as Christian expresses control over all things, to an odd degree. I am keeping odd control over my water colours. As the book furthers, I losing more and more control over my illustrations as Christian starts to lose control over his actions as Ana leads him more and more into temptation unwillingly.


Above is my thumbnails for the red room, my favorite illustration idea for this are Mr. Greys collection of whips, though the red in the opposite illustrations are bright and catch your eye. I believe this red is the best too use as its an angry and passionate colour and the sexual activities both Mr.Grey and Ana indulge in, are not Vanilla. BDSM is aggressive and is an act of one inflicting pain on the other. The sadist and the masochist.

                   

My Life Models

So, my next step was to advertise for life models, those willing to pose naked for me in order to have primary research of the human figure and those who would let me take photos of their hands for future reference. Weirdly enough, men shy'd away from the idea, not wanting to participate yet women loved the idea and I had many offers from my own gender.

Sadly though, the characters have a description that I must stick too so I had to turn some of the life models down, Anastasia is small and petite, a brunette with pale skin and 'blue eyes too big for her face', she is also a virgin at the beginning of a book, making her delicate and shy. She wears mismatching outfits and very rarely sports make up.

Christian Grey is described as tall, lean yet muscular with bright grey eyes. He is the dominant in the story line, also being the sadist, as he enjoys inflicting pain on his sexual partner.

I found suitable life models, my female model wanting to remain incognito as the book is about a BDSM relationship, so I must respect her wishes, and my male life model also wants to remain anonymous.

However, those who let me take photos of their hands (separate models from the first two) have let me publish the photographs onto this website and blog but not their names.



I love these sketches of Ana (two more pages of Ana alongside these), using a red fine liner, and a loose ink fine liner, allowing the ink too bleed once mixed with water. For darker and solid colours, I used water colour, marker and thicker nibbed fine liners. My favorite sketch of Ana, is on the first of the double page spread, she has her hands in front of her, with her back to us. She is naked, and her pose insinuates that she vulnerable and unsure of what is about to happen.

This is just the first of three pages of sketches of Mr. Grey's body, I went on to experiment with colour just as I did with Ana, using the same restricted colour palette of washed out reds, brighter reds accompanied by blacks and different shades of grey. Many suggested I illustrate in 50 shades of grey, but that would of been an obvious, as lots of people had that idea. I have drawn Mr. Grey in poses suited to his character, posing like a bird of paradise, giving his 'junk' a little air, showing the ladies what he has got, as he is the dominant character and he should have poses to suit to his powerful nature.


I will post more of my research and experimentation of the bodies and hands on my next blog update.

Fifty shades and eroticisim

I have read the fifty shades of grey trilogy, when they first came out these three books took the world by storm, so I had to see what the fuss was about. However when the brief was given, I went back to the first of the three books and re-read it, to give my self an idea of the direction I wanted to go in.

I have done research in ways I didn't believe I ever would, I looked at Bondage porn, to give me an idea of what goes in Mr Greys 'play room' and to see how the human body looks in detail when two people are writhing around naked. I have also looked at artists, who focus more on the human body than eroticism, such as Raphael, and Leonardo Da Vinci as they produced accurate sketches of both the naked male and female human figure and that is something I will be looking at a lot during this project.

My initial idea for Fifty shades of Grey was to take away the basics of illustrated characters, such as the faces, as I remember when the media first released news of the novels being transferred to cinema and women went crazy, wondering who would play Mr. Grey. Every woman who had enjoyed reading the book had their own idea of what their own Mr. Grey would be like, and the people who where waiting for the film got into disputes as to who would play his part, some wanted Charlie Hunnam, famous for his role as Jackson Teller in Sons of Anarchy and others wanted Jamie Dorman, who eventually secured the role to play Mr.Grey. Now that Mr. Grey has a face, a lot of people I have spoken too, personally after seeing the film felt let down by Mr. Grey as he is not all they imagined. Now that the film has been released, the book's cover has been reinvented with a photo of Jamie Dorman holding Dakota Johnson (Anastasia Steele) up against a wall, taking away the beloved mystery of Mr. Grey away from fans and first time readers. I want to reinvent that mystery, by taking away the characters face, and focus on the hands, giving readers the chance to imagine Mr.Grey as they see fit all over again, as this erotic novel does wonders for a ladies imagination.
Hands are a very sexual part of the body, as well a very dangerous part as we use them every single day for simple tasks, for example a brick layers hands will be rough in comparison to a beauticians who moisturizes every single day, this gives us an idea of what gender a person is, just by their hands if we can't see their face. We can use our hands to hold our lovers, caressing them during the throws of intimacy or use our hands to inflict hurt and pain with a punch or slap, or they can instigate the use of a weapon such as a gun (via pulling the trigger). This is why hands will play the most important role in my illustrations.

 (The image too the right is a sketch by Leonardo Da Vinci, and the image to the left does not belong to me)

As well as focusing most of my interest on hands, I will be looking at the human body, but not too the point that my work becomes solely pornographic. To fit the book, which is very strong pornographic literature (A study found that women are sexually stimulated more so by literature and words than watching porn), I will have to have some explicit scenes, but I do want to tackle this project from a classier angle. Time to experiment.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Fifty shades of grey has caused a stir worldwide, creating mass havoc in book stores, as one of the first best selling raunchy novels, strictly focused on some BDSM fairy tale about a multi-millionaire Mr.Christian Grey and an innocent university graduate Miss. Anastasia Steele.

For our new brief we where given a list of books to illustrate, and I often choosing children's books over adult was magnetized to the likes of J.R Tolkien's 'The Hobbit', Roald Dahls, James and the Giant Peach and other childrens classics on the book list. Then it occurred to me, I'll challenge my self and push my boundaries, as it is my first year at University, so I have time to make mistakes and experiment, I looked at a lot of childrens books while illustrating at A Level, so I choose the most infamous book on the list.  E.L James 'Fifty Shades of Grey', if this brief goes to plan and I can succeed it will prove I could develop into a capable illustrator, being able to turn my hand (or paint brush) to anything, rather than just being a one trick pony. Having gone from one extreme to the other, as I'm used to illustrating Animals in clothing, but now I'll be painting hard core BDSM scenes from this 'fifty shades of f*cked up' love story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQERFnGvi_A

Above is the trailer to movie, if you don't know too much about the book, that will give you an idea of the story line. I will be staying away from the movie as much as possible, as it is easy to give illustrated characters a look of the actors from the movie.

I will be documenting my research as I go.

P.S This has been a draft since i received the brief 13 weeks ago!