Inspiration

 

Today, we were introduced to the first project we will be working on this year. The brief has not been officially handed out yet but we have started gathering inspiration early on so that we have a more streamlined project. As always, the first thing that we did is go over what inspiration is.

My definition for inspiration is taking an idea from something or using it to generate ideas, which I was told is a concise, nicely summarised meaning. The official answer from Google’s dictionary states that it is:

1.  The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
   “Helen had one of her flashes of inspiration”
2.  A sudden brilliant or timely idea.
   “then I had an inspiration”

 

 

My understanding of this brief is that we have almost full freedom in what we choose to do. The client wants a creative storyteller for their next big project and we are therefore allowed to do anything within our interests. This, of course, opens up an incredibly wide scope for ideas, and so many possibilities come to mind if we are able to choose both the idea and the format for the final result. With so much that you could do, it can be quite daunting, especially if there are a bunch of ideas buzzing through your brain. So, a good place to start is just listing some things that inspire you or simply that you enjoy, which is where I began:

 

Disney (Marvel, Star Wars, favourite characters Maleficent, Anastasia etc.)
Fantasy (Favourite films Avatar, LOTR, Midnight in Paris, essentially my whole Pinterest which is filled with inspo)
Art (Paintings, digital artists – my Instagram has a lot of inspo)
Music (A bunch of my playlists inspire ideas)
Culture (Travelling, mythology, dance, food, storytelling)
Books (Any story could spark ideas – explore genres)

 

These are just things that come to mind when I think about what I personally like, but I feel that I can go much more in-depth with initial ideas, so I began brainstorming and found that all of my interests fit into one or more of three categories. Using these, I created my first mind map.

 

Initial Ideas

 

 

I thought a lot about the glimpse that we got of the brief. One of the slides mentioned that this would be the next ‘big project’ for the client and we were asked to think about our message to the world. I took this as a sign to use ‘think big’ as my prompt, and it became the central idea in my thinking process. Using my three categories, I started to throw interesting concepts, ideas, pieces of media I like and so much more onto the page, making sure to link one idea to as many others as possible and grow the map – after all, it had to be big if I am to choose a big idea.

Naturally, the next task would be to select a few favourite ideas and start brainstorming them as well. It wasn’t as hard as I thought to do this, despite the fact that every single thing I wrote is either interest of mine, or linked to an interest of mine. The reason I found it quite easy to choose was because of the recent experiences in my life, which obviously stick out more, and therefore give me more ideas and are more logical options. The first stems from my resurfaced interest in the 2010 film ‘Black Swan’, which is a movie that I watched when I was quite young and I was terrified of. Later, I learned to appreciate that the story had a deeper meaning, and after Year 11, I finally understood what it was (duality). Recently, I watched a fascinating explanation video on the plot and themes, and I have found that I actually love the film and the theme of good and evil residing in all of us. I had a lot of imagery in mind when thinking of the film, which was a good sign to me, so I used it for my first main idea.

 

 

I decided that for each of my mind maps, I would put the ‘aesthetic’ into words, and that is the imagery section at the bottom, which is all of the things I see/imagine when thinking of the idea, and things that would help me later on in the project if I chose it. I also added some drawings to enhance the mind map and give me ideas at a glance. The film is about a ballerina named Nina who grows up by learning to accept the ‘evil’ parts of herself, so added sketches like wings, a halo, black scribbles and ghostly shapes, to reflect the key themes and concepts.

I conjured up a lot of potential ‘final’ ideas which could be included in an animation or whatever final piece of media I choose to do, a lot to do with the colours of black and white, birds, ballet and darkness (you can see the rest in the imagery section). I decided to create a mood board to have a clearer visual understanding of these ideas.

 

 

My aim was to not focus entirely on the film, as the theme of duality is a major part of the idea, so I included things like chess, blurred people and opposing tunnels. I wanted to channel the darkness, beauty and transformation that come alongside art and duality (since Nina is a ballerina, she devotes her life to a form of art). This is why although her growth is dark and horrifying to watch, it is still beautiful, and we are mesmerised, unable to look away.

My second idea is linked to the book series that I am currently reading, An Ember In The Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, which has a lot of Arabian Mythology even though the world is inspired by Ancient Rome. The fantasy series is exotic and interesting and also includes tribe people, inspired by the nomadic Arab Bedouin tribes, who travel with beautiful wagons across the desert. These tribes have a ‘tribe storyteller’ which isn’t part of the main plot point, but inspired me nonetheless when hearing about it. These storytellers are incredibly talented, said to weave words so beautifully, that you are drawn into the story whether you want to or not. This concept had me thinking a lot about how stories have affected our species throughout history, and how powerful they really are.

 

 

I thought it would be interesting to explore the meaning, purpose and influence of different types of stories, all based in a world similar to that of the AEITA series. The aesthetic for this idea would be golden deserts, hidden libraries, scrolls, ink and magic, which again, would be interesting to interpret visually, similarly to how I feel about the dark, elegant imagery of my Black Swan idea. I turned to Pinterest once more, to help gather images for a mood board.

 

 

Even though I am only using the AEITA as inspiration, the world has a very clear cut aesthetic that links well with the aspects of storytelling I want to explore. I wanted to channel a specific vibe: discovery, dark magic, secrets in the sands, lies hidden between crumbling scrolls, destruction and opening your eyes. I could tell a story of crumbling ruins, an ancient library and a dark shadow who is said to be the keeper of stories, a keeper of truths. I would want to include something like ‘what is your story?’ to leave the audience with something important to think about.

My third and final main idea is about the detrimental impacts that we are having on the Earth’s environment. This topic is very close to my heart and I have always considered myself an environmentalist, so it makes sense that when thinking big, it would pop up. I decided to add another element however since I have recently been looking at surrealistic art and it has inspired a few ideas, so I was thinking that I could merge the two.

 

 

In my opinion, adding some fantasy and magical realism would help carry across my idea more strongly and make it a more interesting project visually. I want to include dreamlike compositions and send messages to the audience in a more creative way. Lighter colours, magical but sad fantasy scenes mystical animals all come to mind when thinking of this project.

 

So Which One?

 

Frankly, I haven’t completely decided yet! And I think that’s alright considering that we haven’t even officially begun the project yet. However, I am leaning more towards the third idea. This is because I feel more strongly invested in something that’s grounded in an important concept of our world, but presented through an entirely different one, which would ultimately be my aim. Furthermore, whilst Black Swan and The Power of Stories are both beautiful, I feel that they are a little vaguer than the third main idea, and could also possibly constrict creativity. It all depends on what kind of ideas I’ll be able to come up with once I have decided on the format for the result of this project, but since they are inspired by/include already existing pieces of media, it might be harder to add my own original spin on them. I’m excited to explore each one a bit further and fully decide!

 

««——– ≪ °◇◆◇° ≫ ——–»»

 

Generating Ideas and Final Choice

( Added After Subject Research )

 

After doing research on all three of my ideas, I have not gathered enough knowledge to make a final choice on my project. As I predicted, I am most captivated by and engaged with the third idea, which is about environmentalism and surrealism but I had to thoroughly think through each one and navigate the pros and cons.

Black Swan was a very aesthetic-based idea and would have produced some excellent final results if done well, however, because of the distinct style and inspiration, it would have made it difficult for me to apply my own message and make the pre-production unique. This idea was the first thing that popped into my mind when brainstorming for what I could do since I recently watched an analysis on the movie’s theme and discovered an interest in the story and cinematography, but I knew even at the beginning, that this would not be enough for a whole project. Extensive research and idea generation is needed and an interest in one movie wouldn’t be adequate for my goals and level of detail. For my second option, a world based on the book series An Ember in the Ashes with a focus on stories, truth and their power, I had had, yet again, a good sense of how the aesthetic and style would be and also how I could add my own twist to the project. However, the problem with this idea was mainly the application of my research; how would I be able to clearly communicate the essence of my investigation into stories and truth. The obvious method that I jumped to, would be creating a traditional story-based animation, which would follow a character’s journey, or perhaps their exploration of a certain part of the world, like a library. However, it then brought up questions such as motif and character background and I started losing track of my initial goal. I found that it was hard to think about how I could translate my idea visually and implement the main themes evidently for the audience. I will be able to understand the meanings all throughout, but the idea is, of course, to share and convey them, which I wouldn’t be able to do without some strategy for a final product. So, based on elimination and my greater interest, my third idea won out, as I had originally thought. I think that, even if I didn’t find any problems with my other ones, I would still pick this idea because I am most passionate about it and the prompt behind this project is to think big and make it something worthy of a final paramount project.

Since I’ll be adding more detail to this later, I am going to create a more simplified synopsis in one paragraph on what my project is going to be about. A Dreamlike Depiction of Earth’s Descent is based on the concern and action of protecting the environment intertwined with a surrealistic artistic concept. I plan to communicate an idea that has long been discussed and explored through a different perspective and method, which is why I chose to use fantasy and magical surrealism. My aim is to show the audience how precious our planet is, by presenting direct fantastical adaptations of important problems which are leading to the eventual death of our natural world (hence the title, dreamlike descent). I think that, if these problems are shown in a more magical way, they will be amplified and understood on a deeper level. Elements such as floating hourglasses, elven hunters and beings of water and earth all add to the theme and are visually interesting as well, which is why they would work well in multiple mediums, animation, 3D models, VFX etc. I will be asking questions and challenging the audience to think about where we stand as a species, perhaps through a textual component that could be woven into my final products. The idea is to present modern problems, such as plastic pollution, in a more perceptive, experimental way, as well as a general contemplation of why we are here and what our purpose could be in relation to our home.

Now that I have outlined what I’ll be basing my project on, I can start generating more specific ideas about the world I want to build, and ideas that I could research and perhaps create visually for my final products.

 

Creating the World

.·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩   *̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

 

Now that I understand what I am going to be doing, I want to flesh out the idea and start developing the world that I will be portraying through the animation. I know that my two main themes are environmentalism and surrealism, and if I was to create illustrations, paintings, sculptures, or other forms of static media, I would hone in on the surrealistic aspect and rely on my written work for further explanation and clarity. However, because my final product is an animation, I know that I cannot do pure surrealism, otherwise, the main message about how precious our home is will be lost. It will be misunderstood, swept away by the tantalising visuals and confusing, beguiling landscapes that make up surreal art. Whilst interesting, the animation would lose its primary purpose because when straying too far from convention, the audience either become uninterested in the message or baffled by what it could be. This is explained by Steven Neale’s theory on genre, in the statement “that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference”, a balance of which are needed for the audience to enjoy whatever it is that they are consuming.

 

 

An example: I need to depict a humanoid race of some kind in order for the audience to see parts of humanity, or themselves, in the characters. This connection to our life is what forms the link in the viewers’ minds that what they are seeing on screen, this made-up world, is actually a reflection of our world. It then follows that they would see that particular problem/issue in our actions and understood how terrible it is and the message would come through. However, let’s say that I really fixated on making this human-like species surreal – perhaps I make their heads ginormous, I give them wings for ears and elephant trunks for hair. I give them a particular walk and a strange style that trails about in their every action and mannerism. The audience would be enthralled! Utterly entertained – and entirely missing the point. My viewership would be so concentrated on the character’s appearance and behaviour, trying to figure them out or simply process what is happening, that they wouldn’t see the humanity in their actions. It would be too separate from us, too bizarre and alienated to be linked to anything on Earth. With this in consideration, I have to infuse certain archetypes and make sure that the world and its inhabitants are somewhat recognisable.

This is where fantasy comes in. I am quite familiar with the genre, having done it for my first project and used it in my second, and I think it can go hand in hand with the surrealistic movement. Especially since our imagination often takes us adrift into fantastical realities, and we create stories about exactly such. It will give me a chance to explore surreal elements, but also keep me grounded and ensure that I do not forget the audience, who will be exposed to my ideas afresh, not as I have for such a long time on the project, having achieved a deep understanding because of it. Fantasy will be the anchor that the viewers can grasp onto to make their associations and allow them to make sense of the world enough so that the seed of the main idea can be rooted.

Using my own knowledge of environmental issues, as well as the research that I have done in my Subject Research blog post, I have thought of fantastical and surreal adaptations of specific problems, themes or more philosophical ideas that I want to explore or send to the audience. Some of these came to me very early on, when I was still solidifying what I wanted to do for my FMP and are part of the reason why I was leaning towards ADDOED since the beginning – I had my vision, and it involved scenes like these.

 

 

You’ll notice that this is a slide from my pitch, which I did indeed dedicate to a sneak peek of these very ideas. They are a key part of my pre-production since they summarise all of the possible scenarios (for now) that I can pick and choose from for research and possible final products. I won’t be using all of these, and I could even come up with different ones, or more in general, later down the line. However, I doubt this, since I am now well underway with concept design and do not have a lot of time for extra ideas. You can see that most of them involve major ecological obstacles that we are facing such as overexploitation and pollution, which are my main focus. However, I have also added some subjects that are related to our problems such as how we perceive death because I think that they are a direct cause of human greed. They also spark poetic ideas and make me more convinced that text would truly round off the animation and also make the audience understand the scenes better.

Initially, I was thinking of doing all of the top ones, but I know that it would be unrealistic to do everything and I need to practice scaling back. I also considered my technical ability and what I can actually do to the standard that I want. Creating an entire forest of gold/crystalline trees and showing it go up in flames would not only be time-consuming but also difficult to communicate in a consistent style to the other visuals in my head, which is why I have chosen not to do it, despite the fact that it was the example I included in my pitch. Here are my chosen ideas:

 

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ Overexploitation ࿐ྂ

To showcase this problem in a fantastical way, I have decided to use an elven species. Elves are stereotypically excellent hunters, which makes them ideal for the problem of overhunting in my world. I want them to represent human vanity and entitlement through their blindness to the balance of life and the role of animals in the ecosystem. Due to this, the scene is going to show an elf hunting a deer in the woods. The environment and characters will be based in fantasy, which is shown through the very conventional scene (an archer hunting an animal) but will also be surreal, which I will do through the appearance and visuals. After the elf has succeeded in killing the deer, I envision them standing over their catch with many arrows sticking out of their back, that wasn’t there before. The arrows are to show that every kill has had an impact on the elf, although they don’t know it, and taking life without thinking has consequences.

 

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ Our Power & Responsibility and Time ࿐ྂ

This one is very important and also has the potential to make a cyclical ending, so I’m thinking of putting it towards, if not at, the end of the animation. It will be in space and show two beings/gods of sea and land merging to form this fantasy – surreal world. Then, I picture a zoom-out in order to show the planet fully, and a pair of glowing red eyes will appear, with a giant black hand moving underneath to hold the planet. It is a representation of our power, and how through our numbers, we have achieved deadly greatness. We are at the top of the food chain, at times seeming more god-like than nature itself and I want to show how much responsibility we truly hold because of this. Quite literally, Earth is in our hands, just as this imaginary world is in the hands of this ‘evil’ shadow. Next, the hand will close over the planet, and sand will pour downwards, which we follow into an hourglass. I have yet to think of the design, but I want it to be very surreal, perhaps with an eye in the middle that opens up to stare at the viewer. This is to show the truth which is staring us in the face – time is running out.

Here, I could potentially make two smaller hourglasses and put them over the head of the deer and elf, essentially circling back to the start of the animation, before the death happens. I think that a cyclical animation is perfect for the theme of environmentalism because it shows the cycle we have to break out of, but also the natural cycle of life and death.

 

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ Pollution ࿐ྂ

This one is far more straightforward. I will be focusing on air pollution, but also touching on aquatic pollution, with a giant character. Quite literally, the scene will show a giant sitting near the beach, struggling to do their job, which is to keep the skies clear. I will make their design surreal but also relevant to their purpose on the planet, which is to clear clouds and harmful things in the air – unlike the elves, they represent something good. However, the giant will be reaching out and clearly struggling because of a scarf of fumes and smoke around their neck. It will be strangling them in order to make the statement that we all suffer because of the chemicals and toxins in the air. In the background, the sea will be tainted and dirty, although I am still brainstorming a fantastical/surreal way to show this.

 

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ Overpopulation ࿐ྂ

One of my earlier ideas showed a lake brimming with merpeople, and I quite like the absurdity, so I have decided to include it. I imagine a slow pan, first showing a beautiful, clear lake, with the odd merperson dotted her or there but slowly transitioning to a more dull, dirty lake with far too many mer. It reflects how humans have slowly expanded and soon will exceed the capacity of the planet, just as the mermaids and men have filled up their lake. Another zoom out will show that they are on a floating island, and water is spilling off the edges. I am thinking of other imagery I could possibly include, such as chains or broken wings.

 

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ Death ࿐ྂ

Nobody can be certain of what waits for us on the other side. However, I feel that a lot of people subconsciously rely on it – using their limited time on Earth as an excuse to live selfishly. I will be dead before the planet is, so I should focus on living my life to the fullest or there’s no point in trying, I won’t be here to see the results of my actions. If everyone adopted this mindset, and most people do, there would be no future for the generations to come, and only more problems for our children to try and deal with, making it more likely that they too would ignore them and make the same mistake. I want to explore this topic by presenting the idea that death could just be a door back to the beginning. Reincarnation is one option, or something painful depending on a person’s lifestyle. We have no idea what death is like but I will suggest that our negative actions and mistakes could be there to greet us, which is also one of the many possibilities. While it is scary, it is necessary to make people think about how they are reacting to their space, how they are thinking and experiencing, and how to be accountable.

Visually, this will be done in a very dark space, with an angel or spirit walking towards a door of light. This is the doorway to the ‘after’ and they will reach in, hesitant and curious. We will see, however, a dark hand grab their arm on the other side, and a darker version of the angel is revealed – a reflection of them in all of their negativity. I am envisioning a sort of circular transition, perhaps a radial wipe, which leads onto the next mini-scene, which is death itself. It will be a skeleton, dressed beautifully, laying in a coffin. There are moths/butterflies, vines and flowers, and a rosy-gold colour palette. Death is essentially glorified, because we rely on it, even without meaning to.

 

---

 

And that’s everything for now! I have picked these five ideas to focus on for pre-production and production because I believe that they encapsulate the key ideas of my project well. I am not saying an outright no to the other ideas however because I believe that they still have possible uses and relevant messages. If I have time, I could include them in my secondary or tertiary products, or even make them into illustrations. Like I said in my pitch, surrealism branches out into so many possible experimentations and opportunities to explore; the symbolism and concepts are endless. Be that as it may, I want to paint a picture of my world without all of the added surrealism, so that I have a base that I can build on. This means isolating the fantastical genre from the project and using it as inspiration to gather images and make a mood board. As always, my most trusted site for visual inspiration, Pinterest, proved useful and I gathered a substantial amount of imagery that I can use. Since this is my chosen idea, however, I want to do more than just put screenshots of the Pinterest board in this post, which is what I did for the other two options I had further up. I want to truly capture the energy of my world, which is why I used a site called VistaCreate, very similar to my other most used visual editing sites, Picsart and Canva, to make aesthetic mood boards for some of the creatures/people on the planet.

 

Aesthetic Mood Boards

 

 

I wanted to first touch upon the setting that I will be most focused on. Earth is beautifully diverse in its environments and habitats; rainforest, woodland, savannah, desert, etc. and of course, this world is very similar, however exploring all of these would take too much time and would also diverge from the primary focus. In the board is the sort of imagery that comes to mind when we think of ‘nature’ – green and blue are prevalent, with associations of health, freedom and vigour. Even if there is surrealism in my world, I still want to make its natural beauty close to that of Earth, so as explained in the description, although there are unfamiliar aspects to the environment, things like trees and water remain. When the theme is environmentalism, no matter the piece of media, the life of this kind cannot be skirted around.

 

 

Pardon the typo – cloaked*

Once again, I’d like to reinforce the purpose of these mood boards. I am not solidifying the appearance of even the final characteristics of any species, but rather stepping into a deeper conception of the aesthetic and ‘vibe’ of the world. Here, I have gathered images that match with the feeling that I have towards the elves, and have even explored some extra information that could go with the visual aspect, even if some or all of the images aren’t used in the final design. For example, the fact that they are cold killers makes me think of white, black and grey, like the moon, but this could very well change when I mix in the surreal style (remember, these boards are purely the fantasy aspects). I think of crystals and dark castles  – a dangerous elegance, poise and power. A legend about the origins of the species was also fun to imagine; born of the love between the prince of the dark side of the moon, and the prince of the light. Yin and yang, good and evil, the same things that reside in every human. I feel that the name Moon Cloaked is fitting, and could be spoken in terror by other inhabitants of the planet.

 

 

Number 3, sadly, won’t be used according to my current plans. I made these boards before deciding that I wasn’t going to be including the scene with the burning trees of gold/crystal, in which hands would be shown sweeping their palms towards the forest to make them rise up in flames. These hands would belong to a different species, one of magic. The Wizards are people that can control wind, earth and fire and used to use their powers for good. helping their surroundings and prospering life – harmony with nature. Like us humans, they lost their way and started becoming greedy, obsessed with having more and making the next big profit. It isn’t particularly fantastical, however instead of chainsaws and harvesters, the wizard people can simply use their hands: igniting entire forests in seconds and gathering the either indestructible or melted goods that remain (I haven’t decided yet what exactly that ‘precious commodity’ is on the trees – it depends on what feels right in my concept art). I still wanted to include the mood board even if I won’t be using this particular idea in the animation because this is still a part of the world.

 

 

Now we come to the merpeople. This is one of the prominent, straightforward ideas and links in with one of the bigger, more complex ones. From the scene about responsibility and time, we see the gods of land and sea merge to form the planet, which shows that, like Earth, it is mainly earth and water. An underwater species greatly inspired by the merpeople of fantasy reside in all forms of great water (hence the name, depths great and small) and represent human recklessness and chaos. Ocean-mer do not show themselves at all, sea-mer are rare because they mainly live in the deeper parts of the water, river-mer are small and cunning but can sometimes be glimpsed and lake-mer are most commonly spotted since they fill up their space very quickly. My main focus in the animation is directed towards lake-mer since they clearly showcase our problem with overpopulation. They live careless lives, seeking pleasure, joy and thrill at every turn with no regard to their habitat. Eventually, it dies out along with them if they receive no external help.

 

 

This final mood board is unlike the others because it does not demonstrate a particular creature or species. I made it to express the aura of my idea about our perception of death. Using conventions like dark colours, foreboding, fear and pain, I put together this combination of images. I also kept in mind what I wanted to include in my animation – which is a door to the other side and an angel-like being, as well as his dark counter. The text also adds to that dire feeling because it confirms what most of us are truly afraid of – not dying, but the obscure unknown that comes after.

 

Surrealistic Moodboards

 

Now that I have outlined the fantasy side, it’s time to gather surrealistic inspiration. Even before doing research on the movement, I knew what the general characteristics were based on previous studies and visitations to museums. I also personally love contemporary surrealism, so researching the history and entire style more in-depth has been enjoyable. In Pinterest though, I was less focused on gathering art that simply fit into the category and more focused on finding pieces that inspired me and helped spark ideas. For my projects, I like to have a visual grasp of what I am doing, especially if the final product is as such. All of my mood boards are reference points that I can go back to, containing a bank of untapped ideas that can refresh my passion or help steer me into new perspectives if needed. I am currently going through that phase somewhat, after doing concept art for a week straight, I can feel my creative juices running dry. Going back to Pinterest is the remedy!

 

    Surrealism Art Mood Board  

 

I didn’t limit myself to just paintings and illustrations – you will see a range of styles, formats and genres, all of which I either find interesting and really cool or just get me in the right mindset for the project. ADDOED is not simple and the themes can sometimes become very distant in terms of thought, so I like to scroll through my image collections and just free my mind. This is one of the most delightful parts of surrealism; it originates from the desire to tap into the unconscious, so for me, looking at art like this is like opening the gates of fantasy and letting the mind wander and express itself however it likes.

Just surrealistic art itself isn’t enough, however. I knew that I would need more specific inspiration if I was going to apply surrealism to my ideas. The above mood board is fit for general inspiration and environment design, but what about characters? The more I scrolled through Pinterest and found interesting, idiosyncratic designs, the more the need for a separate space for them arose. So that’s exactly what I did, and it has helped massively, especially with Pinterest’s ‘more ideas’ button, which generates similar images based on what you have already pinned. I could find more character art, and not lose myself in all of the general surrealism.

 

  Surreal Character Mood Board   

 

I love how surreal characters can vary so greatly, in texture, detail, form, colour and style. It all creates a gallery of eye-catching, inquisitive art and again, gives me many ideas when scrolling through. For example, adding extra parts to the head/hair of a character is quick common, giving them big/small eyes or something entirely different for eyes is a great way to make them surreal – in fact, any unusual features, whether in the anatomy, clothes or background, gives the piece a hint of surrealism (which can be a very hard style to pinpoint). You’ll also notice that neither of the mood boards has a specific colour palette because there is simply too great an assortment. It is even difficult to say that the art generally has bright or vibrant colours because there are also perfectly viable examples with dark or muted colours. The only consistency, really, is that the designs are generally non-conformative and do not try to make sense within our realistic confines. Even if some have a statement to make or could be interpreted in some way, they simply exist, which is one of the most beautiful and core notions behind the art.