Eye Series (Surrealism)
The Eye series is three drawings and animation that represent a theme. The theme of the drawings is in order: Blind, Trap, Fear, and the animation is a combination of all three. I believe that just looking into someone’s eyes is a path to their soul and personality, and that is why when we communicate, we always make eye contact. This idea was the primary influence on these three drawings and animations. This animation also won Sylvia Lepore Student Art Award for the 12th Annual Juried Student Exhibition at Millersville University.
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2D Animation, Illustration, frame-by-frame Animation
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Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Animate
Process
Inspiration
I wanted the drawings to have an ink style with a simple light color background. So, I created a mood board to support and flush out what I was thinking.
Sketches and Ideation
I researched some ink drawings, hands, and different types of eyes. I started with a few sketches of the eye and what could be in the eye. Then around this point, I knew that I wanted to do a series instead of just one drawing and that each illustration would represent its own theme but still follow the overall idea of the project.
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Blind
Blind was the first drawing that I started on. The whole idea is what it feels like to be blind or partially blind. Then I concluded that it’s like someone taking away your eyesight. So I decide to have a hand grab the eye’s pupil and start to crush it. When drawing this, I started with the eye, and then I made the hand second with the same type of ink style that I used on the eye.
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Trap
Trap idea is a response to how people conceal their true selves in public and are different; they trap themselves inside like wearing a mask. So, I decide to make the whole eyeball clear and have an abstract figure pushing against the eyeball like it is trying to escape or get out. That’s why it’s called Trap.
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Fear
Fear was probably the hardest one to draw because I had to figure out how to illustrate fear in an eye. After going through a few ideas, I decide to use my fear instead and illustrate that. My fear is the fear of death, and to represent death, I choose to use a skeleton hand that is forcefully trying to get out of the eye.
Rough StoryBoard
Before starting the animation, I decide to make a rough Storyboard of all the animations that will happen in the video. This helped flush out my ideas on animating each section of the animation. During this stage, I got the idea of doing one big animation instead of three small ones
StoryBoard
Before animating, I created storyboards of how each animation will turn out: this included animation of the eye, hands, skeleton, and abstract figure.