Adriana Crow FINAL PRESENTATION- Research & Proposal

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Memories of a Murder Cover (2023)

    My most recent project Memories of a Murder is a Graphic Memoir that depicts recent life events personified through American Crows. While this project was primarily based on my own life, a fair amount of research went into it. The crows, for example. Needing reference to draw these birds was a given. I wanted them to have a fair amount of stylization, yet I didn’t want them overly cartoonish due to the story being more grounded in our reality. To keep that balance I needed a fair amount of photo reference, as well as seeing how other artists have drawn crows. I also needed to do a fair amount of research in crow behavior. The story’s narrative is aided with a handful of crow tidbits. Such as them hatching in groups of 3-6, or them being a partially migrating species. These are very surface level facts that many people may just know, nothing that needs a degree to prove. However I still didn’t want to be talking out of my ass. Even if this knowledge had already come with this being my favorite animal, I still wanted to fact check everything I already knew with multiple studies and articles.


    A good amount of research also went into the production of the book itself . In order to keep the colors as vibrant as I possibly could, I needed to figure out my CMYK alternatives. I also needed to know how to prevent things like gradient banding, and lightening pages that may turn out too dark. These are all things I learned while creating the piece.

 

Memories of a Murder interior spread (2023)

    Something that’s always fascinated me is the design that goes into creating posters. Especially older posters that require some form of illustration and dramatic typography. Since I have experience making covers in this similar vein with my recent BFA project, I wanted to lean more into making covers and posters, even if what I’m making it for doesn’t actually exist. An idea I’ve tossed around in my head many times has involved remaking already existing movie posters. A lot of the time I’ll notice movie posters will involve a big photoshopped group shot with the title and cast, and while it’s not bad design it doesn’t captivate me like some of the other posters that really lean into simplicity and creativity. While I would still like to revamp movie posters as a fun little project on the side, I want to take that idea a bit further. Like my recent Graphic Memoir, I want my work to be a reflection of myself and the experiences that have gotten me here. I, like many others, have struggled with mental issues for as long as I could remember, and many of which I’ve learned to cope with on my own. With that, I decided that my next project will be a collection of fake movie posters that depict symptoms of mental struggle. Such as the restlessness of anxiety induced panic, the weight and bleakness of executive dysfunction, or the dread that comes with insomnia that going to bed early can’t fix. These posters would be made to depict the feeling of these things, rather than a by-the-book medical definition of what they are. The purpose is to create a sense of empathy, a chance to visualize the feelings they create.