CopyCat: Journey of making.

So i started by just drawing two of the people I had been researching and discussing in my first dissertation write through; Brenda Ann Spencer and Marilyn Monroe. Both of which were suspected to cause copy cats. I was playing around with writing silly adoring poems to them, I thought this best demonstrated the thoughts of someone effected by Copycat theory. 

Brenda:

Brenda Ann Spencer,

you shot at a crowd

school children screamed

but your voice was heard loud

'i don't like mondays'

thats what you said

so lets liven it up

and shoot people dead

Marilyn:

Marilyn Monroe died quite young

most of her song, yet to be sung

young forever, never grow old

memory growing with movies sold

i shall die young and join you in glory

my death on tv alongside your story

The first drawings were quite terrible as I'm not as used with drawing characters to look attractive, i have got too used to making them ugly and gross. But this little face went quite well and informed me of how to tackle the attractive images. I put less texture into them and only really added it on hair and clothing rather than my usual blotchy lumpy skin. I liked the idea of displaying Monroe in her moment of death, just because it further ridiculed the aspect of idolising her death. 

I redrew Brenda as the first one was un-proportional and didn't look as clearly pin up as I wanted. So i tried again this time finding reference first of different pin up poses. The waist is made quite ridiculously small in this one, but it was in my reference, the pin up style exaggerates all the sexual parts of the woman, big knockers, small waist, long legs, dainty feet. The overall look of pin ups seemed to be in need of help or cheeky, which is rather demeaning but it gets my point across.

This is my Marilyn. I really love how she turned out, I think starting with an image that was done by a photographer helped because the best composition was already found. Then I just added puke all around her, this is a big one and I want it to be centre spread. This piece did popularly on my social media's too, because it is instantly recognisable and has a bit of dark humour. I like the lines i did around the puuke, I avoided joining them up and just made them roughly out line the liquid with swirling lines. I think this made it look more fluid and added a sense of movement to the piece. If I had time this would make a great gif, with Monroe puking , it swirls around her and he dress blows in the wind. Although I think the dress blowing is something outside of my understanding and skill of movement. So i'd definitely need video reference for that.

I was just playing with writing nicely here. Adding the lines around that I had just done for Marilyn's puke.

This one just looked particularly nice, which is contrasting because it says liver, which is not nice. I liked the contrast between aesthetic and definition. So this is how I will do my titles as it is visually apealing and fits with my line work inside.

Drawing out some of the titles. I tried the lines flowing around the shape of the word but that made each title too different and I wanted to achieve continuity across the board on covers. So they work as a set. The circular titles were much more uniform and the curves lent themselves well the the flowing lines.

My first attempt at a pin up man. Men are harder to make into pin up because the things to exaggerate with women seems obvious, maybe this is because there are more examples of women being shown in this sexual manner. I chose to do a bomber because it is a current issue and that made it a little bit risky but I think it gets the point across clearer of the delusional nature of copycat theory. But I wanted to change the pose because this one was too static and awkward and I don't know how I would space the poetry around him.

Starte final drawings. I re-did Brenda Ann once again because after completed Marilyn I realised she was of a much higher quality, compositionally and proportionally. I wanted to fix the stomach as well into something slightly more realistic. I used the same pose because I felt it worked but I had her hold her rifle instead. I looked up the gun she used for reference so that it was an accurate depiction, as someone suffering copycat delusions would want. 

The columbine kids were a bit of a challenge, they were men so it was already awkward to make ridiculously sexy, but secondly they were teenaged so I couldn't go down the obvious route of making them gruff and manly. I used reference of a men modelling suits, I feel a well tailored suit is almost a parallel to women scantily clad. I think the most important part of this drawing was just getting the trench coats in, although that kind of made the colour scheme not as bright and complimentary because they are mostly in black. I chose lots of shades of grey to attempt to link them to the other complimentary colures images.

I used reference for both of these images. For the bomber I decided, to make it clear that this was a mockery, make him ridiculously sexy. I used another male model for reference as there doesn't seem to be many art references of pin up men. But contemporary magazines were helpful to show me how to make a man look overly sexy. For the 27 club I specifically picked out Amy Winehouse and Jimmi Hendrix because they are easily recognisable and have aspects that I can draw to make it clear, so even if the faces don't look enough like them the other parts will; winehouse beehive and eye flicks, Hendrix's big hair and jazzy jackets. I drew them quite small together because I wanted to leave enough room for the poem, which I hadn't wrote yet so I was unsure of size.

Finally poems are written! the Columbine one was one I struggled with the most because there is not many options for rhymes with Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold or Columbine. But i got around it eventually. 

POEMS:

Brenda Ann Spencer

Window open, curtain drawn

Children stood on school yard lawn

You shot them down, they screamed and ran

Oh Brenda im your biggest fan

I’ve practiced my aim, prepared my speech

I wonder how many my story will reach

‘I don’t like Mondays’ that’s what you said

So lets liven it up, and shoot people dead

Marilyn

Marilyn, the icon of beauty

Took her pills, now off duty

Immortalised in her prime

Oh how I wish that fate be mine

I shall die young and join you in glory

My death on tv, alongside your story

Columbine

Columbine highschool 1999

Eric and Dylan crossed a line

Trenchcoats donned they opened fire

Was it me you were trying to inspire?

The Bomber

Bravely you take your life

So others will be ‘saved’

Then you can take your path to bliss

That with virgins, will be paved

I will follow you in suit

My body will be blown

So all across the world wide web

My name will be known

27 Club

27, Golden age

Take me to the centre stage

Forever young and oh so tragic

Death in glory looks like magic