Assignment 1 for NM1202: Introduction to Digital Imaging - Processing

Surrealism

Overall Mark: Distinction
[University marking scale: Fail, Pass, Credit, Distinction, High Distinction]

Time Taken: 1 hour

ACCOMPANYING WRITTEN REVIEW

The Dark Brotherhood. A faction hidden in the shadow of their lord Sithis and cradled by their Night Mother. In the continent of Tamriel (a world of Bethesda’s video game series ‘The Elder Scrolls’) the Dark Brotherhood, a guild of assassins, partakes in illegal acts such as bribery, blackmail, coercion and murder. Though these acts are against the law they are, for the most part, tolerated out of intimidation not respect. To obtain a contract with this dark guild, the contracture must perform a self mutilative ritual to the leader, the Night Mother. To join, it is said that once one has committed murder they will visit you in your sleep and offer a place in their exclusive family. An immediate entry to this family is if one is born under the birth sign of the Shadow, usually species specific to the lizard-like people the Argonians.
In my artwork my homo-feline character, Alealia, has been forced to her knees by poverty and desperation within which she committed murder. Alealia is of the beast species the Kahjiit who hail from the country of Elsweyr. The extended white hand is that of the Night Mother, offering her a place within the protection of her family.
The empty plains that Alealia is knelt in represents what little her life before the Brotherhood held. The some of the various figures dotted around the image represent the various status’ that one can attain within the Dark Brotherhood. Those being the following;

Murderer
(Depicted behind Alealia)
Slayer
(Depicted at the bottom-left of the image)
Eliminator
(Depicted to the right of the “Slayer”)
Assassin
(Depicted below the two moons)
Executioner
(Depicted below the “Murdered”)
Silencer
(Depicted in the face of the farthest mountain)
Speaker
(Depicted in the sky above Alealia)
Listener
(Depicted in the pool of blood below the “Eliminator”)

The moons that hang in the sky are that of the Tamriel sky, blue and gold in colour. The many tombstones fading back into the distance represent Alealia’s future victims and their fate six feet under. Also depicted is a wheel which in Buddhist belief represents reincarnation, in this image it symbolises Alealia’s revitalisation and new life that she is about to begin. Before the moons floats a Banshee, another symbol of death. She waits hungrily, mouth open wide in an eternal scream. One of the four horseman, Death, is also depicted riding his skeletal stead through the sky towards this scene, leaving only death and loss in his wake. Whether this be the loss that Alealia has already experienced in her life or her future victim’s lives has been left to interpretation.

I took artistic inspiration from Salvador Dali, opting to go for a more traditional-looking illustration piece rather than a photo-collage. Dali’s mess of symbols attracted me to his style and I tried to reiterate this in my piece with the many randomly placed images and symbols depicted.
I like that this piece is something very different and new to what I am used to producing and that it required much research into the Dark Brotherhood and symbols of death.

To create this piece I embraced the use of my Wacom Intuos 4 digital tablet on my own personal computer as I do not feel comfortable using Macs to any degree. I began with a variety of blue initial sketches and used Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 to adjust the positioning of the various images depicted. I then proceeded to complete the black line art to create defined forms of which I could later colour. When the basic colours were complete I created highlight and shadow layers for each of the sets of symbols in my piece to further define light, shade and positioning in my piece.
I used layering, opacity, brush filters and artistic filters to complete my surrealistic artwork to a standard of which I am content.

Word Count: 586

© Jak010891