Seloface.

I have continued to do narrative, graphic image making, but wanted to experiment with adding more text to the images, and laying them out in the style of pages from a graphic novel.

To create a narrative, I thought a good first step would be to create a character, so I photographed myself with my face covered in sellotape like a mask, and edited the photos so they looked even more like another person.

This is the image I chose to further edit and work with. Because the face is partly shrouded in darkness I thought it created an air of horror and mystery.

To create an idea of setting I decided to merge other images over this one, and place them around the face, which I decided looked more effective as half a face.

I had thought up a setting, which was a factory, and wanted the character to wear red lipstick and be sitting in front of a full ashtray, smoking a cigarette. These are some of the images I incorporated to illustrate these ideas:

A photographs I took of an old oven parts-to give the idea of machinery.
Photograph of my sellotape mask, to overlay the image as it overlays the face.

A photograph I took of a cup full of ash and cigarette buds- for the ashtray.

A photograph I took of my own lips-for the character's lipstick.

I proceeded to add text to the image, choosing colours that were visible, but didn't draw too much attention away from the image behind the text. At the top, I added a shaded but slightly transparent shape under the text to make it clearer while still showing the image underneath.

I also added additional imagery to illustrate some of the text-keeping it simple, using white silhouettes which were almost a literal demonstration of what was communicated through the text. I liked this because it reminded me of children's comic books.

I made the silhouettes my editing these images:

Image of hair clips from the Internet.

Photograph I took of a padlock box.
Bingo card image from Internet.

I continued to make a second page, this type experimenting more with layout and the positioning of text. I decided to slit the page in order give the feel of different shots, like in a film.
I used the same images I had used in the first pages to give more congruency and make the narrative more fluent. However, I did incorporate two extra photos I had taken in order to illustrate the text better.

Photo I took of smoke.

When making these images I was again influenced by the work of graphic artists Dave Mckean, David Mack and Vaughan Oliver.

After making these I decided I wanted to continue on this path but would rather illustrate a different story, possibly a children's one.