Utopia

UTOPIA

Theme and Origin 

The name Utopia is the greek translation for not Place, making it clear that a Utopia is an imagined place where everything is perfect especially in a society. Most countries especially in medieval times and BC times in particular, strived for creating a Utopia though this was practically impossible due to human corruption and dangers such as natural disasters that where impossible to prevent. e.g. the Soviet Union's attempt in a Utopia was equality, but due to corrupt government and many people ill minded about the idea is inevitably never worked out.

Good examples of popular Utopia's that arguably don't exist, Heaven, said to be where you go if you die, mainly when you have lived a pure life with no crimes or sins committed. Atlantis, an underwater city known in Greek Mythology it translates to Island of Atlas. The Garden of Eden, Known in the Bible as the garden of God, known to house no evil, just good.

I am going with a Sci-Fi / Futuristic theme with my Project so the type of environment would be bright, clean cities with the most advanced technology and Architecture.

Dystopia

A Dystopia or in Greek known as not a good place, is the opposite of a Utopia known to be an imaginary place that is undesirable or frightening. There are many places in the world that are close to a Dystopia, where corruption and crime rule and there are not many safe places, safe from crime and disease.

Good examples of popular Dystopias that exist in mythology. Hell, is probably the most well known as it is where you go when you die and have committed crimes such as murder and or have committed a Sin to your religion. Many games have been related to Dystopia too, such as Fallout, which is based in a post nuclear apocalypse where raiders and mutants roam free, and Bioshock which is an attempt at a Utopia, but corruption turned it into an under water city that is closest to hell you can get.

Plan

Here is a plan for the 8 weeks I have to complete my final major project.

Week 1: Start on the research for my final major project, and get some example images from the Internet.✓

I could have spent more time on the research as I finished my final piece a lot sooner than I thought.

Week 2: Begin to plan some initial ideas either digitally or in my sketchbook, continue with the research.✓

I should have done some work in my sketchbook as that would allow me to have examples of using different methods to complete my task.✓

Week 3: Finish the research and continue with the initial ideas/plan for final concept piece.✓

I could have done some more research into types of buildings, as that is what my final image consists of.✓

Week 4: Start my final concept piece, e.g line art/rough sketches, digitally.✓

I did not involve some of the ideas from the Initial ideas, that I drew up, this could have increased the quality twofold.

Week 5 - 6: finishing my final concept piece.✓

Could have used more of my initial ideas, and spent more time with the shading and colours.

Week 7 - 8: finalising all the research/initial ideas and finishing the Evaluation.✓

Here is a quick mind map of some of my ideas that I jotted down

Research

These are some artists that I have researched that are known for relating their work to Utopia.

David M. Bell: 

In his eyes, Utopia is not a Destination but a Direction meaning that it will take the human race some time to reach anything close to a Utopian society.

Here is some examples of his work.

He features, buildings and creations that show mankind's attempts at a Utopian Society, but he focuses on how far away we are from a perfect world.

I like this piece that he produced, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and shows that he has an interesting look on Utopia.

Robert McCall:
His take on a Utopian Society is more of a clean, beautiful scene.

This is a better take on a Utopian society, with bright colours and futuristic structures.

I feel that the two artists both have a different take on a Utopian Society.

One thinks of a perfect world where there are no problems, the other thinks of an impossible world where he would love to live.

These pieces of Utopian themed art are painted by Tristram Lansdowne, who is known for producing surreal sci-fi themed art, especially with a Utopian theme in mind, these images below are his idea of a perfect world. He paints these to take his mind off of a terrible future that he for sees.

This piece is called Ultra-High and in this Tristram shows that working with the eco-system instead of against it would lead to a cleaner better future, turns out he was right.

This image is called the weather station, in this image it shows that in the future, Tristram believes we will be able to control the weather, he mentions that the centre part of the image is a rainbow maker.

Clothing Styles in a Utopian/Dystopian society

These clothing designs really suit the idea of a futuristic Utopian themed society. the slick and clean design with the possible use of LED's make the whole thing shine and stand out.

In a Sci-Fi themed Utopian society, the types of clothing would be clean and simple, for example a drysuit or some form of overall that would be clean and suited for everyday life. this would be made out of comfortable materials and would consist of very simplistic and plain colours. 

Here are some designs for the type of clothing that people would wear in a Sci-Fi Utopian society, slick, clean and comfortable. These are the type of clothes that I want my character to wear in my final image. I would like to split the image with utopia as one half and the dystopia as the other, A rough leather jacket and torn trousers would look rather interesting and would fit the theme, maybe some armour would also work, indicating that there is some form of war that is taking place.

Rough designs and initial ideas

these are some drawings I did prior to the final piece that I did to get an idea of the terrain and landscape, buildings etc... I also have done some silhouettes of a male figure and a female figure, this is to determine the pose/sex of the character in the centre of the page.

These are the style of buildings I plan to use for the Utopian half in my final piece, I went for a clean/futuristic feel to them, and I thought that a light shade of gray went with a shade of purple, and they worked out rather well. I also have the male silhouette, notice that he is slouching on one side indicating which side is which, evil/good.

Here is a sketch that I worked on, this is the first attempt at drawing a female, character.

I personally prefer drawing male characters, so the character I will use for my final piece shall be male.

Here are some sketches that focus on the human, form/shapes, that I did to focus on the character on my final piece. I practiced hands using reference imaging, as well as drawing facial features and different head angles. Pretty much all the things that I would take into account when drawing a human character e.g the direction he/she is facing and what pose they are in, not to mention the different emotions.

I took all of this into account.

When I was drawing these ideas I realised that colour was going to be a strong factor of the drawing, so I experimented and found that these colours worked well with the appropriate theme Utopia and Dystopia.

Final Piece

This is the final illustration for my project, I used the combination of Utopia and Dystopia, to form a split image between the two. I felt that just a single character stood in front of a city wasn't enough, so I split the image to create two images in one, this makes it more interesting and more dynamic for the viewer.

EVALUATION

What I could have improved:

I could have spent more time on the research as I finished my final piece a lot sooner than I thought.

as well a having done some work in my sketchbook as that would allow me to have examples of using different methods to complete my task. I could have done some more research into types of buildings, as that is what my final image consists of. I did not involve some of the ideas from the Initial ideas, that I drew up, this could have increased the quality twofold.

What I did well: 

I feel that the initial ideas that I sketched up where really well related to the theme and style that i finished with, same with the research I managed to add in some more research about different artists that use the Utopian theme for inspiration for their art.

I feel that I looked at the right artists, so this allowed me to get a very good overview of the different views on a Utopia.

I completed more than I planned with my proposal, although I did not stick to my plan very well as I was absent for a number of sessions, but overall more than I expected.

If I was to do this project again, I would spend more time on the final piece and make it the best I can, doing it before the research with a limited knowledge on the theme Utopia was a bad idea, but it turned out well.