1700 Frames
My main focus from the start was to make my final pieces like an oil painting from the 1700s whether it was done traditionally or digitally. The reason for this was because my pirates were set in the 1700s and so I want it to feel as those these paintings was done during their time like in the Story of Dorian Grey as technically these paintings could be seen as connected to their souls as they show their scars and injuries just like Dorien Grey's painting. This means to display my pieces I want them to be in a frame that is styled how they were back in the 1700s. So I did some research online for 1700 frames and found some images shown below and as you can see a common theme they is firstly they are all golden and secondly they have a beautiful engraved pattern around the frames. The pattern isnt the same and is unique for each one but all of them are very floral like. also the Frames dont have a smooth rectangle edge but certain parts of the frame extend out especially on corners to fit in with the pattern. A lot of effort is put into these frames and they are almost an art piece in themselves unlike the ones commonly seen today. I decided to go on a search to buy frames similar to these and typed 'ornate frames' on amazon and these seemed to come up with a bunch similar to these design. To the very right is the frame I have chosen, luckily it isnt too expensive so I can afford four of them for my final pieces in A3 size.
Dorian Grey Reference
Flags & Accessories
Merging Process shots into video
Many of the pirates I analysed had own personal items and their own personal designed Flags. I thought it would be a really cool idea if say I were to create one of my pirates Flags such as Black Bart's and placed it behind the portraits so they wen'te just place on an emoty black wall. This would contribute to the pirate theme and really combine the pieces together. The flag could be torn and ripped or dipped in tea to make it look aged and battered.
Black Barts Flag
Presentation
My project was heavily inspired by the book 'A picture of Dorian Grey' I have explained before but to summarise the book is about a man who swaps souls with a portrait. The portrait then shows through his corrupt personality by changing Dorians appearance in the painting to something more evil and wounded and the overall painting begins to rot attracting flies and insects. This made me think I could probably paint over the frames and make them look more old, battered and damages but and as well as this add mud, dirt or mould to them to give them that rotten sense which references to Dorian Greys Painting. As well as this I wonder if I could go so far as to place fake insects on them, that would really be disgusting. I believe Acrylic paint would work well to darken the frames and it would be a very nice touch to add this idea.
Black Beards Flag
Example of a flag strung up on wall
Throughout making my final pieces I have taken constant screenshots of my process and have them all saved in a folder. I thought it would be a great idea to have them all combined in a video showing my process so people can understand how they were made and shows my techniques behind it. To do this I first compiled all the images into movie maker which is a really basic photo-editing software but it does everything I need for now and is really simple to use. So I added the images in, put them in correct progress order and added a cool fade in affect which makes it look like the images merge together instead of just simply cutting to the next one. With that done I saved the movie to an mp4 and then opened it up in after effects. Using after effects I added a background to it. I found awesome art of a pirate ship and I put a link below the image to the source. I then rendered it nd put it back in movie maker to dd pirate music to it.
