PICTURE BOOK: IDEAS
H O W D O Y O U M A K E A S T O R Y B O A R D ?
It turns out I am very lacking in creative storyboard writing. All the attempted storylines I made were overcomplicated and ruined the theme I was trying to show. I considered collage as a way to incorporate my research in to the picture book, to use the documents to tell the important plot points. However considering the majority of my sketchbook work contained detailed line drawings it seemed like I was straying away from the style I had used throughout the project so far.
I thought the best way for me to create a simple narrative would to put all the elements necessary to the telling of the story in front of me and arrange them in a way that could work as an illustration. I gathered all my research and began to take away elements I thought weren't informative to the viewer. I chose to focus on the family photos I had brought back from home, I wanted to somehow visually represent the loss of Clara and how it impacted the family. Though somewhat hurtful to do, I used a Stanley knife to begin cutting Clara out of some photocopies of various family photographs. I thought it might represent the erasure of her from our family, and visually represent to the viewer that something of importance must have happened for this to be done to the photos.
Although I received many compliments on the effectiveness of this approach, there is something in the brutality of removing Clara from these photos that I really don't like. Though I was the one to do it, I have chosen to not take it further for this reason.
After returning Clara to the photographs I found myself inspired by a new idea, I thought I could create a new narrative, a false one of sorts, to inform the viewer from a new perspective. I know Clara jumped into a river holding a plastic bag full of rocks to weigh her down, but I could make more of this. The viewer may or may not interpret the sinister aspect of the bag of rocks, but it would be the floating photographs sinking alongside the bag that would draw their eyes. This would create a narrative, not the true one, but it would show them the history of Claras life, and they can analyse and figure out the end of the story from the clues that are in front of them if they choose to. Not everyone likes a sad ending.
