LAUAN401-visual journal 10

Peer reviews

As all my research was based on what I thought about this subject I decided to ask my peers within the university. I decided to ask people that were not on my course as I wanted opinions of people who have not learned about characters and stereotypes in detail.  I asked them two questions each:

1.  ‘what do you think a stereotype is?’

2. ‘If you were a cartoon character what stereotype would you consider yourself to be?’

The answers I believe were truthful and based on what information I had given them on what stereotypes there was and what traits they have. This was important for me to ask as I wanted to see if stereotypes were based on the outside world. My results were that each person I asked could compare themselves to at least one stereotype or archetype. 

LAUAN401-visual journal 9

Last thoughts

For my last few pages in my book, I started to look at what type of clothing actually represented a stereotype. For example, for a nerdy character they will typically be wearing a turtle-necked jumper, big geeky glasses and socks up to their knees. I think this is a big characteristic for stereotypes as you need an object or something in particular to identify the stereotype with. I think these identifications still go on today with certain characters. It is also important in the relationship between characters and stereotypes as this a common well known identity and people can easily pick out what personality the characters are going to have with certain icons like this.

LAUAN401-visual journal 8

My own designs

In my studio practice lessons we got set some tasks of creating our own characters and environments. Creating the characters was challenging for me as there are so many things you have to consider when building your own characters. They have to start with a storyline as you need to know what type personality traits your character lives with. As well as this, I had to think about what colours I would use to represent these character and what thoughts these will cause the audience to have about the personality of the person or thing. 

Towards the end I mostly enjoyed creating my backgrounds, as I think I've strongly shown where my character enjoys to be and where she wishes she wasn't. From this investigation I have learned that taken certain stereotypes into consideration when creating my character is important as you want your character to appeal as they are meant to within the story.

LAUAN401-visual journal 7

Exquisite Corpse 

Moving on from looking at the colour wheel and the well-known stereotypes I decided to research more on the characters that did not have any particular characteristics that stick to the typical stereotype of a character. By researching the characters, it was clear that their expressions, the way they dressed, or the environment that surrounds is what could be seen as a stereotypical attribute. However, their personality traits are the reason as to why they do not fit into any of the archetypes. 

Furthermore, exploring the reason as to why they still physically fit into these groups is what interested me. From thinking about these characters I started to draw characters that do not fit the stereotypes. However, I found myself going back to those well-known features on the archetypes. To fix this problem I search for tools that could help me and came across Exquisite Corpses. 

'Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver (from the original French term cadavre exquis), is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule'

Image found: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/381117187191664113/

LAUAN401-visual journal 6

Colour Wheel 

After looking at the meaning of colours and what certain colours could suggest to the audience, I started mixing colours and putting my practices of this into my visual journal.  By mixing and then painting many different colours with different meanings such as, skin tones, random mixed colours, what people could see as good colours, and the suggested colours for bad. For example these are a few of the symbolism for colours:

'Red: Power, energy, passion, desire, speed, strength, power, heat, love, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence, intensity, celebration, luck, stop or danger.' 

Yellow: Joy, optimism, happiness, danger, sunshine, idealism, imagination, hope, summer, gold, deceit, philosophy, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, disease and warning. 

Green: Nature, environment, health, good luck, renewal, youth, vigor, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune, start signal, 

This was important for me to explore as my main focus was on the relationship between characters and stereotypes. If colours express emotions toward individuals then what the character wears or the environment they are placed in are an important factor as the storyline plays on how the audience feels.

LAUAN401- visual journal 5

Body forms 

This section of my visual journal was based on how characters are drawn and how their body forms play an important role as the way the character is built depend on the characteriscs they have been given. I started by looking at basic cartoon body shapes of a female and male character. Moving on to looking at all the different shapes that could be or have been use for characters that may not have that normal human form.

This is important for my research as the shape of the body gives the character life and their personality traits. For example, if you was drawing a geek I would picture them to be reasonable small as their personality traits are mainly based around them being shy. whereas, a hero I would expect to have a very built up body shape as you would not want your hero to look small and delicate.

Image found: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/ASuWqXA42yiAV-DlO2SBddPcQBX9wwS9jbKNr6Uqxpm1vlv6s7OjScM/

LAUAN401-visual journal 4

The Environment 

After looking at the colours in the costumes it then lead me on to think about the environment in which the characters would be living in. To narrow down my search I found three environments from three different animated movies. The movies I chose were 'Shrek', 'WALL-E', and 'Tarzan'.

The environment in which these have all been placed in plays an important role within the stereotypes in the film. For example, WALL-E lives in a small metal bunker that is slowly rusty. This makes the audience feel upset for WALL-E as he is alone and isolated, left by himself with only rubbish that surrounds him as his friend. The environment plays a powerful role in the stereotypes as you would not place a kind-hearted character in a dark and creepy place or a villain in a peaceful atmosphere as this would not help guide the archetypes across to the audience.

Image found: http://www.collegehumor.com/post/7043069/12-things-that-still-bother-me-about-tarzan

LAUAN401- visual journal 3

Costumes and Colour association 

My next research was based around the costumes and the colour scheme on each different stereotypical character. I started by looking at the standard hero archetype. 'The incredibles', 'Coraline', and 'Ariel' were my chosen characters as these to me were the stereotypical costumes and colours for a 'Hero' or the character that would be seen as the 'most liked' within the animated movie.

For example, 'The Incredibles' are wearing the typical 'hero' costume that is coloured with bright and fiery colours such as, red, yellow, orange, and black for the boots and gloves. These colours are associated with emotions as people associate red as the strong and powerful colour which suggests that these characters would protect you.

This was important to look at for my research because how the character represent themselves is important for a stereotypical character as they want the audience to feel a certain way towards the person.

Image found: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/555279829032852359/

LAUAN401-visual journal 2

Stereotypes in Animated Movies.

Moving on from the facial expressions, I decided to explore how stereotypes work within animated movies. researching about archetypes in movies it was made apparent that archetypes mainly existed in children's entertainment. To show what characters fit what archetypes I got pictures of heroes, villains, jesters, the characters that fight against the typical stereotypes and the characters that do not fit into any archetypes at all.

The decision to use characters that do not fit into any archetypes or that were fighting against certain stereotypes was because I wanted to show how animation has changed throughout the years and how history may have had a part in this discovery. This made me question whether we find stereotypes within people and use them in our characters for a more realistic and reliable story.


Image found: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/374361787751785065/

LAUAN401-visual journal

Mouths, Noses, and Facial Expressions.

For my second essay I decided that my topic was going to be on practically and visually responding to characters and their relationship towards stereotypes. To start of my visual journal I looked at all the different types of facial expressions. This included the mouth, eyes, nose, and a full face to show the entire emotion. Looking at these specific charactertics was important because how the character expresses their emotion determines what archetype the character will fit into. For example, if the character is sneering or their eyebrows are raised this could mean that they are being mischievous, giving the effect that the character may be a villain. I started by finding photos on Pinterest of different types of eyes, noses, mouths and facial expressions. Then drawing and painting a few based on different archetypes.  

Pictures used:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/AR2VTtdBf1js0AfHYlN5II2rH1djJ6BT-x1BNhZyPG1AOzOc1LZcm_Q/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/168673948520308863/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/498632989979039404/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/507921664214826016/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/437482551298116769/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/823244006858360400/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/302444931201760503/