Marissa Stanley
Changing Gears
My thesis project is a short cautionary tale about how you shouldn’t trust everyone you meet. This story is based off of events in my school life that taught me this very hard lesson, but told in a more abstract way for the most part as some key events are still depicted as best as possible. Many of the events involved multiple people of all ages and genders so I took attributes of each group to be represented in one bully character. That character is Patches Burlap who is a very large male figure made of burlap with a porcelain face that bares a warm smile and button eyes but has copper hands with claws to hint at his danger. Another group of people represented through a character in the story would be my family, significant other, and the small friend groups I had growing up. That character would be Strings Puppeteer who is but a pair of disembodied hands wearing leather gloves that help get the main character on her feet at times throughout the story. That character would be Tinker Gears who is an abstract representation of myself.
The piece shown is inspired by the characters themselves with each object representing the characters in their key ways. Strings is represented by a spool of blue thread which is the color of the skin shown as well as the strings produced from the fingers. Tinker is represented by a clock key since she is a wooden windup toy and the key plays a crucial role in keeping her moving forward throughout the story till something happens. Then Patches is represented by a blue button like the ones that make his eyes and this has a representation late in the story as a reminder for Tinker as she moves forward from the valley.
My process for developing each illustration was to draw them traditionally then transfer them into Photoshop for digital coloring and in some cases background development. This is a process I have used off and on ever since I found a very basic photo editor that I used to digitally color drawings I have done in the past. Though never on this scale which has had its ups and downs. I can say I have learned a lot about the process throughout the making of this book. The process has become more streamlined which helps keep a cohesive look throughout the entire book with every location that will appear having a place of occurrence in the landscape itself. It has definitely been a fun process to plan out each and every location for all illustrations that will appear in the book once completed.
Thesis committee members:
- Professor Ben Harvey, Chair
- Professor Ming Hong
- Professor Jacob Crook
This book is currently still in development. If interested in updates on when the book is completed or would like more information email at the address below.
This book is currently still in development. If interested in updates on when the book is completed or would like more information email at the address below: