Seven Deadly Sins Research 6

Animal Caricatures

RICHARD GAINES

Richard Gaines caricature animals were very helpful when looking into how the proportions and contours of an animal should be exaggerated. I had finally though of using animals to represent the seven sins, and rather than drawing realist or cartoon like animals I thought I'd combine both together and use caricature animals. Although my caricature animals will be simple line drawings as I need to clearly demonstrate the use of photo montage, looking at Richard's shaded and detailed drawings helped to understand what a caricature animal would really look like.

Seven Deadly Sins Research 5

Wines: The Seven Deadly Sins

SIDECAR PUBLICIDAD

A series of wines produced by Spanish design firm Sidecar Publicidad that showcases the seven deadly sins. A unique label is devoted to each of the sins creating a set of dramatic individual pieces. Dark, moody colours with hints of red, gold and silver evoke a sinful presence.

The stand outs of the bunch are perhaps the most obvious and simple designs, yet maybe the most powerful. Lust is a red bottle with a black lace covering, while Envy is a solid, glossy gold with bold, black type.

Sidecar Publicidad’s interview:

Describe the brief from the client

The client contacted us to launch a new wine to market. They had no name and no idea about it. Only one premise: the packaging had to be different, modern and very impressive. They were open to suggestions from us.

Describe the challenges and key objectives

Main challenge was to convince the client that instead of taking a single bottle of wine, he had to market the collection of 7 bottles. Due to the enormous complexity the project had, when the client saw the idea and first sketches, he was fully convinced that the project was more ambitious he had expected. He left everything in our hands. The collection of wines is inspired by the 7 Deadly Sins.

Describe how you arrived at the final design

Lust, enveloped in a real woman's stocking, is evocative to the touch when you pick up the bottle. Envy covets everything around it; hence, its mirrored finish traps its surroundings. Laziness, emerged from a cemetery of bottles where it had been sleeping for some time, covered in dust, with its lettering tilted to the side, lying down just how it prefers to be. On another bottle, we find evidence of Anger in the form of a burnt label: it couldn't be avoided. Pride, always looking down on the rest, now stands out with glittering Swarovski crystals. Gluttony was too much even for the cutlery, leaving it completely misshapen from so much use and abuse. Finally, so that it lasts longer, not to be touched, a sturdy lock safeguards Greed.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

After a few months on the market, the product is selling very well. The client has made many contacts with almost no commercial work because the design has appeared in numerous blogs and publications. The product is currently sold in Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, UK, Germany, Italy and China and the client is making important contacts internationally, something that he had not even imagined.

Another idea I had on how to approach representing the sevens sins was to use objects such as jars and bottles. After looking at the wine bottles I realised I could use a whole object and layer the object with photo montage and contain a simple image hidden within the object.

Seven Deadly Sins Research 4

Deadly Sins

VALERIE MEIJER

The Seven Deadly Sins stem from the same beast. Pride wrapped in his own world of self admiration, Greed has his one track mind on owning what he can while Envy eyeballs his goods. Wrath is completely consumed in fiery blindness while Lust, Gluttony and Sloth live like parasites and feed upon this beastly serpent.

This is a great approach to portraying the seven sins and works as a continuous piece. Although my photo montaged seven sins pieces must be illustrated as individual outcomes, the work of  Valerie Meijer made me think that each outcome could eventually come together as a series of images to present one final illustration. Meijer's image is created through oil on paper which is another material I would consider including in my final pieces to add texture to my work.

Seven Deadly Sins Research 3

SE7N The Seven Deadly Sins

CHAMBLISS GIOBBI

Chambliss Giobbi aims to create images that describe psychological depth. Using an intricate and laborious collage technique, Giobbi’s works pursue an almost Cubist ambition of capturing their subject from multiple angles at once. But rather than the visual point of view, the subject’s ever-evolving psychological state is what fascinates Giobbi. He spends lengthy photo sessions with his models, printing dozens of photos of them and tearing them up to construct new figures that become exaggerated and distorted. Giobbi has a solo show titled “Se7n,” a series that explores the Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity.

An idea I had to portray each sin was to create characters through the use of found/collected images. Chambliss Giobbi's work relates to my idea as through the use of collage Giobbi has his own characters by using his own models. As photo montage must in incorporated in the method of portraying the sins, Giobbi's work has given me the idea of taking my own images as well as found images and also creating my own characters and scenarios to illustrate each sin. Although as Giobbi's pieces are rather abstract I think mine would be a bit more simplistic and would involve hand drawn elements and different use of media to make the image not only a little bit more obvious and understandable but also vibrant and colourful.

Seven Deadly Sins Research 2

JASON LEVESQUE

Jason Levesque a well known illustrator, mainly for his impressive vector art illustrations. Rothick Art Haus, Anaheim was proud to present Jason's Gluttony piece (above image) at the Seven Deadly Sins show, along with work from other artists.

When considering the use of one facial feature as a way to represent the seven sins, I was heavily inspired by Jason Levesque's variety of lips. I thought the easiest and most understandable way of portraying the sins would be through the mouth area. Jason's lips all seen to have the similar theme of a liquid like substance dripping from the lips and although the images look like strong pieces with the liquid substance involved. With my 'seven sins' thinking cap on, I felt like the liquid approach would only really work for Gluttony (with the involvement of food and drink) and Sloth (perhaps a tired drooling mouth). Therefore I kept this in mind whilst designing and developing the mouths for each sin.

Seven Deadly Sins Research 1

Different descriptions of the seven deadly sins:

1. Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
2. Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
3. Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
4. Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
5. Wrath is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
6. Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
7. Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

1. Greed - Wanting too much of something.

2. Gluttony - Similar to greed, but gluttony is the action of taking too much of something in. 
3. Lust - The need to fulfil non-spiritual desires (not just sexual desires, but this is usually what lust is associated with.) 
4. Envy - Jealousy; wanting to have what someone has. 
5. Sloth - Being too slow or lazy at doing something. 
6. Wrath - Vindictive anger; angry revenge. 
7. Pride - Being too self-satisfied 

Grimm & Strange Stories Research 4

Gothic Fantasy and Faerie Artwork

DIANA LEVIN

Gothic Fantasy Illustration features a variety of paintings in both digital and traditional mediums. Steampunk, Fairies, mermaids, fairy tales, Alice in Wonderland, Wizard of Oz, mythology, creatures, princesses, zombies, monsters and more. Diana's creation shows whimsical Alice in Wonderland Characters to the more sinister but humorous zombies and dark fairies.

Diana Levin's illustrations work shows the main fairytale characters as well as a background to suit the story however the sense of a narrative is slightly lacking which will be the main focus of my version of the Grimm's fairytales. What mainly caught my eye when looking at Diana's illustration was the use of mystical backgrounds and relative elements such as the playing cards. This is something I'd like to consider and introduce into my designs so that my illustrations don't come across as just a narrative but as a narrative with merchandise/poster like approach.

Grimm & Strange Stories Research 3

Dark Fairytale T shirts

KEN WONG

These three illustrations are part of a series designed for printing on white t shirts. The brief requested illustrations of dark treatments of well known fairytales, aimed at the punk/goth market.

Red Riding Hood (2003)

This is a dark, warrior like overhaul of the fairytale character Little Red Riding Hood. The premise is that Red has now become a hunter of wolves. She still bears the scars of the first time she was swallowed. This was actually done for Grimm, back when it was a very different game.

Ken Wong's work shows mainly drawn and digitally manipulated elements and lacks background imaging. Although there is no background in his pieces a sense of atmosphere and narrative is still present. My idea to portray my own version of a Grimm's fairytale is to create a narrative only through realistic drawn images. Whilst looking at Ken Wong's work I realised I don't have to just draw realistically but can also try many different themes like Ken's images.

Grimm & Strange Stories Research 2

Zombie Princesses

JP (JEFF) HUNT

Snow White and the Evil Dead Apple

In this version of the classic tale the Evil Queen’s apple, which was intended to make Snow White “sleep” like the dead, had very adverse affects. Though her spirit slept like the dead her body went on a body munching rampage. The dwarfs, being simple minded little guys who couldn’t bare to pick-ax her in the head (as would have been the dwarfish way of dispatching zombies) were easily over taken by Snow Zombie. Thus, with her army of dwarf zombies, Snow shambled to the castle to have her revenge on the Queen. Prince Charming was then called into action to protect the Queen and all the people of the land! Unfortunately Charming had fallen in love with Snow after seeing her picture in a magazine and though he made quick work of the dwarfs he couldn’t bare to drive his sword into poor re-animated Snow’s head. Instead he just watched as she crunched and slurped her way through the Queen’s skull (it is the Queen’s brain we see in Snow’s hand). Still unable to get the vision of the beautiful Snow on the page out of his head, Prince Charming used his superior living intellect to trap Snow White. To this day he still has her chained in the castle dungeon and often visits her with a tasty troll, goblin, or dwarf (her favorite) in the hopes she will someday return his advances without trying to eat him. In the sequel Prince Charming seeks help from Rumpelstiltskin who has unspeakable demands in trade.

Cinderella’s Re-animated Love Story

A true love lost, love gained fairy tale, Cinderella’s story is constantly being retold throughout the ages with a new and interesting twist. Most recently Paco Plaza loosely based “[REC]3 Genesis” on the timelessness of the love between the Prince and Cinderella, as you will soon see. As it goes, when Cinderella was told bad things would happen if she didn’t have the mice and the pumpkin coach home by midnight there was no way of knowing that would mean everyone at the party would turn into zombies. Beginning of course with the Evil Stepmother getting sick in the great bowl of punch which was unknowingly drank up by the Evil Stepsisters. So while Cinderella tries to make her get away, a love struck Prince wades through the zombie hoard in search of the foot that once wore the glass slipper he found. Also it made a great weapon, having a stiletto heel and being very sharp. After killing the multitude of family members and royal guests that were happily eating anything that moved, the Prince finally found poor Cinderella hiding in her family home with the Evil Steps clawing and biting at the door. He, of course, quickly dispatches them to set his future bride free only to discover she had been bitten. According to legend they are still wandering the enchanted forest looking for tasty living morsels, forever in love, even in re-animated death. Recently it was reported that a prequel was in the works in which we learn the Fairy Godmother was really a Satan worshiping witch doctor that created zombies to do her evil bidding.

 The Elusive Little Mermaid and her Heart Collection

Disney really adapted this tale, as they are prone to do, to their own needs. After all, look at the story of “Pocahontas,” everyone knows that since she is a descendant of the same zombie tribe that ate the Jamestown settlers the story with John Smith wasn’t going to turn well. Anyway, truth be told Ariel always was a little on the strange side. Before her time with legs she was known as the mermaid that “ate her friends.” Sebastian with garlic butter sauce, Flounder was Cajun blackened, and Ursula was turned into delightful calamari, even though that may have not been a bad thing. The point is she was already sort of into cannibalism by the time her story got interesting. It was upon seeing a human man, that she saved from drowning though she was wondering what he tasted like in sea weed soup, that she realized she might actually love someone half like her. So she went to the Sea Witch to see if she could get legs and live amongst us for awhile in order to trap her perfect mate. The Sea Witch agreed only under the condition that she be able to take her tongue so she couldn’t speak. Ariel agreed not realizing the witch was very sick from eating too many moray eels which, as I’m sure you know, carry the zombie virus. So instead of just making it so Ariel couldn’t talk she bit out her tongue and ravenously ate it. Ariel, not inclined to look a gift sea horse in the mouth, walked away on her new legs to find Mr. Right anyway. Unfortunately, he was in the process of marrying someone he thought was the one who saved him. Having begun to succumb to the same zombie virus as the Sea Witch, after it was transferred to her via her tongue bite, undauntedly she began to eat all the wedding guests out of retaliation. Interestingly enough, when she finally got the Prince is when he realized she was the one who had kept him from drowning and they shared a moment of knowing eye contact… before she ripped his heart out and ate his liver. The heart she decided to keep, either out of knowing it was what she wanted all along, or something stranger. She also collected up the hearts that she hadn’t eaten yet and put them into a backpack she found in the church wardrobe closet. In the fashion usually attributed to the gods, Poseidon knew there was little he could do to reverse the affects of the moray eel zombie virus but at least wanted to spare more humans from being eaten by his poor begotten daughter. So he quickly took away her legs and forever banished her to the sea, which suited her just fine, there was plenty of living creatures to feast upon there and she’d had her fill of human by then.

Now as the sea fairing veterans tell the story, there are many a sailors tale that can be attributed to poor sea wandering Ariel. Such as on late, still, silent, ocean voyages one can hear the crunching of a poor creature caught in her ravenous hunger. Look quickly enough and you may even be able to see the silhouette of a half rotten pretty mermaid tearing into a whale. Though, like the hunt for Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and Nessie, any photographic evidence of such is either too blurry or faked. That is most likely because any adventurous creature seekers who have gotten close enough to know if it really is her are usually found half eaten and missing their heart. Which, the oldest of the sea fairing would tell you, can be found in an old tattered backpack in the farthest, deepest, depths of the sea.

Grimm & Strange Stories Research 1

Top 10 Gruesome Fairy Tale Origins

JAMIE FRATER

CINDERELLA

In the modern Cinderella fairy tale we have the beautiful Cinderella swept off her feet by the prince and her wicked step sisters marrying two lords – with everyone living happily ever after. The fairy tale has its origins way back in the 1st century BC where Strabo’s heroine was actually called Rhodopis, not Cinderella. The story was very similar to the modern one with the exception of the glass slippers and pumpkin coach. But, lurking behind the pretty tale is a more sinister variation by the Grimm brothers: in this version, the nasty step-sisters cut off parts of their own feet in order to fit them into the glass slipper – hoping to fool the prince. The prince is alerted to the trickery by two pigeons who peck out the step sister’s eyes. They end up spending the rest of their lives as blind beggars while Cinderella gets to lounge about in luxury at the prince’s castle.

HANSEL AND GRETEL

In the widely known version of Hansel and Gretel, we hear of two little children who become lost in the forest, eventually finding their way to a gingerbread house which belongs to a wicked witch. The children end up enslaved for a time as the witch prepares them for eating. They figure their way out and throw the witch in a fire and escape. In an earlier French version of this tale (called The Lost Children), instead of a witch we have a devil. Now the wicked old devil is tricked by the children (in much the same way as Hansel and Gretel) but he works it out and puts together a sawhorse to put one of the children on to bleed (that isn't an error – he really does). The children pretend not to know how to get on the sawhorse so the devil’s wife demonstrates. While she is lying down the kids slash her throat and escape.

PIED PIPER

In the tale of the Pied Piper, we have a village overrun with rats. A man arrives dressed in clothes of pied (a patchwork of colours) and offers to rid the town of the vermin. The villagers agree to pay a vast sum of money if the piper can do it – and he does. He plays music on his pipe which draws all the rats out of the town. When he returns for payment – the villagers won’t cough up so the Pied Piper decides to rid the town of children too! In most modern variants, the piper draws the children to a cave out of the town and when the townsfolk finally agree to pay up, he sends them back. In the darker original, the piper leads the children to a river where they all drown (except a lame boy who couldn’t keep up). Some modern scholars say that there are connotations of paedophilia in this fairy tale.

RED RIDING HOOD

The version of this tale that most of us are familiar with ends with Riding Hood being saved by the woodsman who kills the wicked wolf. But in fact, the original French version (by Charles Perrault) of the tale was not quite so nice. In this version, the little girl is a well bred young lady who is given false instructions by the wolf when she asks the way to her grandmothers. Foolishly riding hood takes the advice of the wolf and ends up being eaten. And here the story ends. There is no woodsman – no grandmother – just a fat wolf and a dead Red Riding Hood. The moral to this story is to not take advice from strangers.

LITTLE MERMAID

The 1989 version of the Little Mermaid might be better known as “The big whopper!” In the Disney version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople. But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to stab the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and dies by turning to froth. Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven – so, frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.

SNOW WHITE

In the tale of snow white that we are all familiar with, the Queen asks a huntsman to kill her and bring her heart back as proof. Instead, the huntsman can’t bring himself to do it and returns with the heart of a boar. Now, fortunately Disney hasn’t done too much damage to this tale, but they did leave out one important original element: in the original tale, the Queen actually asks for Snow White’s liver and lungs – which are to be served for dinner that night! Also in the original, Snow White wakes up when she is jostled by the prince’s horse as he carries her back to his castle – not from a magical kiss. What the prince wanted to do with a dead girl’s body I will leave to your imagination. Oh – in the Grimm version, the tale ends with the Queen being forced to dance to death in red hot iron shoes!

SLEEPING BEAUTY

In the original sleeping beauty, the lovely princess is put to sleep when she pricks her finger on a spindle. She sleeps for one hundred years when a prince finally arrives, kisses her, and awakens her. They fall in love, marry, and (surprise surprise) live happily ever after. But alas, the original tale is not so sweet (in fact, you have to read this to believe it.) In the original, the young woman is put to sleep because of a prophesy, rather than a curse. And it isn't the kiss of a prince which wakes her up: the king seeing her asleep, and rather fancying having a bit, rapes her. After nine months she gives birth to two children (while she is still asleep). One of the children sucks her finger which removes the piece of flax which was keeping her asleep. She wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two kids.