Drawn on coloured paper simply because it helped me to organise the story into process-able chapters (not evident in final but useful to me in the storyboarding process). I colour coordinated the pacing, using colours that didn't detract from the themes of the story.
I am so pleased with this rendition of the story . In all my research Rumpelstiltskin was such an ambiguous character. He saves the girl from death but for a price and he tries to take her baby. I had such trouble with the ending. I knew that my story had two plots.
1: The King's greed-both over the girl and her abilities, he wants her for her beauty and her supposed 'powers'. She has to be careful how she deals with the King as he could quite easily have her head cut off ( as he reminds her over and over again in the original story.) This relationship is skirted over in the original story but is actually the bit I found myself drawing on as the most 'sinister' part of the story. She has no choice bar to marry the King and have his child- even after he has threatened to kill her (if she wants to live).
2: Rumpelstiltskin and the girl, he comes to her rescue but he demands something of her. He is not your stereotypical hero, everything comes with a price! She trusts him in my version because she seeks help-or maybe a fatherly figure (her own gave her up to the evil King). In short she has no choice if she is to live.
The Ending:
I had to stick to my objectives. Exploiting the adult undertones of the story and ultimately making a decision based on that. The penultimate moment is when he comes to take the baby from her. I was going to make the baby yellow to imply it was in fact Rumpelstiltskin's baby. This changes the whole plot though, which is daring but not quite what I'm going for so I simply cut the ending short and left it with him taking the baby. The theories behind this are further explained in previous posts.
Whilst evaluating the success of my storyboards I have become aware a repetitiveness; I am also limited on time and feel that some panels may be condensed. This is made clear on the last but one page where I shown a need to draw a panel down and cover the original idea. However, there are some repetitive scenes that are important metaphors. The mirrored 'floor' panels where she begs for mercy and then for her baby; it shows how her life has turned around but she is back where she started. In addition, it is a direct link to a decision made in Beauty and the Beast; in which the Beast tries to seduce the Beauty (hands/close-up) and consequently at the end, we have the mirror image of her seducing him (hands close-up again). This is a theme I will continue if this project progresses.
The panels and layout now decided upon, I must re-draw everything neatly and carefully using the same system as my previous comic. Now that I have practice, I believe that everything will appear cleaner and more professional and the second attempt should be more successful than the first. I will not look upon this as a failure in the first comic; but am aware that thing have to progress and similarly if the project was continued this would hopefully be an ongoing improvement.
USING HANDS AND FEET/GESTURE AND EXPRESSION TO TELL THE STORY IN RUMPELSTILTSKIN:
The communication objectives for Rumpelstiltskin evolved from my image making methods and decisions in Beauty and the Beast. The use of gesture and facial expression, alongside the close-up views of hands and feet to communicate the story worked extremely successfully in my first comic. However, I believe there are things I can refine. The use of repetition for effect can be cut down to ensure the flow of the narrative; in addition, I can explore even more camera angles, compositions, high angle shots to show the impossible situation and the hierarchy of characters. In doing so, my work should take on another level of interest and become more dynamic in it's composition.
Below: I have included some extracts of the final Illustrations showing how I have utilised this concept of gesture/expression in this story and how it differs from the previous. below, a similar image to that at the beginning of Beauty.. the idea of taking control, this is where the situation begins-when they are taken to the 'setting' (put their by the ambiguous antagonist). I used feet,wide angle mid-shot, low to the floor to imply how abandoned the protagonist is; the feet are always turning away from her; except those of Rumpelstiltskin . Once again, there is the question of his stance in the story, is the hero or the villain, although he is open (as can be seen in the imagery) he does not turn away because there is a deal in it for him.
Below: Example of repetition to show the 'cause and effect' morality of Fairy Tales. I deliberately mirrored the image, to better suggest the idea of the circle. Despite her trials, she is back where she started. Evidently, the theme of the story, or the 'lesson ' is that greed (seven deadly sins) will come back to haunt you. The greed of the girls father, of the King and Rumpelstiltskin comes at a price, and she pays it.
Hands and gesture: moving the narrative forward. The image below is a perfect example of how I have used close-up (hands) to show how a character relationship has changed. The wedding ring is the middle focus of the panel; and was not drawn attention to before. Therefore, we see that a marriage has taken place and an important plot twist. Importantly, we see that the King still does not hold her hand (the only times we saw him be 'nice' previously was in her sleep). This is my subtle way of implying that there are probably ulterior motives here; that do not involve love. The composition of the panels here was important, ensuring that the focal point was central to the image an therefore, the first thing the audience is drawn to.
Making Deals: I used hands to show the 'exchange,' whenever a deal was made and (underneath that) the image of the feet at the wheel to show the work in progress. In these images (feet at the wheel) time lapse is shown with the build up of golden spindles an diminishing of straw. In addition, we see the girls feet move closer and closer towards Rumpelstiltskin; she is curious and is perhaps trying to judge his character. At the end of these scenes, she always falls asleep and wakes to to the King and then circle repeats itself.
Expression: The use of limited colours work to create mood, or an atmosphere for time of day. As well as hands, the face shows all sorts of emotions and I found I did not always have to show the whole face to communicate feelings. This is a example of how a lot can be said with just an image of the mouth; the tension in the first image and the way she crane's her neck away from the King shows she is displeased with the situation. The King wears a permanent sneer as he is altogether without conscience. I tried to use a hint of green to shadow and show depth, creating shadows was particularly difficult as green is quite a harsh colour, but used in moderation it worked to good effect.
The advantage of the colours in beauty and the Beast was that I could imply a 'blush' whilst I could not achieve this is Rumpelstiltskin. Smudging the pink into the red marker effectively 'suggested' a blush, which can be quite telling.
