Thursday, November 4, 2010

Prism People

These are the painted figures that I've mentioned in previous posts. I was actually inspired to make the robots after making these little guys. I wanted to make a set of figures that were as simple as possible and make a comic to accompany them which would make the characters of the figures very complex.

I penciled all 128 pages of the comic, but in the end decided that my heart was really in the drawing and not in being my own little toy company. Where would the time come to ink and color and make multiples of a 128 page comic?

I've had a good friend of mine offer to help me finish the project, but I just couldn't commit to a large project like this after making my decision to focus on illustration and drawing. I was happy just knowing that I did write 128 pages of comics that did make the characters more complex and that I did make a set of 8 of them.

I call them Prism People.


Baby White - I think of light being a child compared to the darkness of space, and Baby White acted as such.


Yellow - Yellow was the intellectual with ego to spare.


Orange - A very delicate actress who performs plays that Blue writes.


Red - Harsh and emotional, often acting out irrationally.


Purple - The expressive artist caught between others' relationships.


Blue - The writer who feels he's entitled to expression and acts selfishly causing sadness.


Green - The man in the middle keeping delicate friendships together.


Mama Black - The calm and collected Mother who has seen it all.


Here are the thumbnails for all 128 pages of Prism People. Take a closer look to see the stage where Orange acts out Blue's play at the beginning. By the end, Blue has chosen to use Purple in his next play, instead of Orange. This causes the balance in their community to sway and relationships amongst everyone are tested.





These are the houses of the Prism People. I tried to make the houses based off of the shapes and patterns that I chose to use in the Prism People's designs.


Baby White to Mama Black.


Mama Black to Baby White.


While making these figures, I was in pretty rough times in my life. I was already living off of nothing and multiple clients were jerking me around about payment, one of my brothers was recovering from cancer surgery and it felt like no one believed in me. I even had a very close person in my life straight up laugh in my face about my goals in life.

When times like this happen and you know that you've got something inside of you that needs to express itself, it makes itself known in the art. Prism People was about how a community of people move on and positively grow when faced with change because of artistic expression.

I was told by a wonderful professor of mine at MCAD, Kenji Akagawa, that if even one person believes in you, then you are lucky. Sometimes, that person is you.

1 comment:

Hannah said...

those layouts are intense. also what did you paint the prism people on? did you make their figures or find them somewhere?

inspirational post. well done, well done. *proper clapping*