Thumbnails Project - BODY LANGUAGE

This week task was a similar theme to the last project, but this time focusing more heavily on the use of body language to portray moods & feelings. We had a quick task in the lecture of producing a series of silhouettes to describe different feelings which was a very useful activity. The 6 scenarios we were tasked with this week were as follows:
Angry Boss - two figures - an office setting
Good News - a single figure holding a phone - 1950s
Mum can we go now? - two old friends meet on the street, the teenage daughter of one doesn't want them to talk for long
The Anniversary - a couple celebrating an anniversary in a restaurant. They hate one another...
The Big Jump - a figure in an aircraft just before having their first parachute jump
Genius at Work - serious concentration in an academic or scientific setting

I found this project interesting looking at the different body languages and how important these are to an illustration in portraying a message. I found it a bit of a challenge incorporating interesting compositions and perspectives with the main focus being on the figures body language so this was definitely a useful task.

For my 'angry boss' title I used scale as a bit of a factor as well to make the boss look more authoritative with the employee much smaller highlighting status, and I thought ink was a good choice as it's a more harsh material to link to the mood. The 'good news' thumbnail I chose to use ink as well as this is based in the 1950's so I thought I'd stick to black and white. I also tried to link the fashion and hairstyle to the era, and of course the style of phone. I thought the message was well portrayed with the figure jumping on the bed. For my 'mum can we go now' visual I decided to have a bored teenager, conveyed through the resting head on the hand, and blowing bubblegum out of boredom, whilst the adults enjoy their coffee leisurely. The 'anniversary' visual I decided the couple hated each other so much that one of them was stood up at the restaurant. While the woman is upset at the table, the balloon deflates further signifying the mood. I like the perspective I've used for the 'big jump', I think it's an interesting composition and I think the body language portrays the feelings of being scared and anxious well. Finally my 'genius at work' visual I have a scientist analysing their experiments closely. I used watercolour pencil crayons for these 2 visuals which I really enjoyed using and I'm really pleased with how they turned out.