Graphic Novelist - Shuan Tan's "The Arrival" (Anxiety)

Visual imagery of Shaun Tan’s world from the wordless graphic novel, “The Arrival” (2006).

I had looked into one of Shaun Tan’s graphic novel, “The Arrival”, in particular due to its visual language that communicates within his illustrations the emotions of one’s journey.

The visual language from the graphic novel explores the themes of solitude, alienation and hope, a story of immigration where one enters a world or place we are not familiar with in a distant land of opportunity. The visual context of this semi-realistic world depicting these themes uses dream-like characters/creatures to convey the sense of being alone, as well as the alienation of the world that communicates the feel of hopeless and the insecurity of individuality in reality and society.

(1a) 

The visual connotations of these illustrations feels as if they are aged photos, with the colour scheme ranging between greyscale and gold, to exaggerate the sense of reminiscing old memories from personal or emotional moments in our lifetime. This is something I do feel strongly about from the graphic novel’s visual language, where memories of old, particularly in old photographs, can bring certain emotions, mostly happiness, joy or sadness, as reflecting on past experiences can be viewed as stories of personal struggle, as Shaun Tan spoken in an interview (1) "I think stories that represent the world as hopeless or dark are valid and some of them I really enjoy but the truth is that there is hopefulness in every situation." 

(1b) 

(1c) 

From what I have looked into in this graphic novel, one of the key things that Shaun Tan uses as metaphors are the subject matters that he uses as visual language. Alien-like creatures (mostly the dragon-like tails) are depicted to convey the sense of emotional dread or anxiety in an unfamiliar setting. 

Initial experiment before looking into the key elements Shaun Tan uses to covey the themes of loneliness. The twisted road supposed to represent our emotions tumbling and twisting as we continue through our lives, as if it is a roller-coaster. 

After identifying some of the key elements in his visual language, I had made several experiments based on his usage of unusual or alien like creatures to convey the sense of lingering dread in society or insecurity that is following us.

Next I will attempt to manipulate the colour scheme in some of his existing images from his graphic novel, to see if we still feel the same way with the original greyscale gold colours, as colours do contribute towards the mood or atmosphere of the world to inform certain emotions. 

Knowing that the creatures are the key elements in expressing emotional dread in his works, I will attempt to expand these into photography and incorporate drawings of creatures/aliens in photographs I had taken during my time of anxiety to see if I can replicate the visual expression of alienation, loneliness and fear. 

After playing around with the idea of placing drawings of creatures into the scenes of familiar places I have been to during the time I had anxiety, some had worked (in terms of giving the sense of dread) and some didn’t work (the combination between the imagery and the drawing of the creature doesn’t match well). The one I believe that stands out the most from these new experiments is the first image with the church during the night. The atmosphere of the cold night, combined with the warm orange colours of the street lights feels relaxing and soothing, yet in exchange for that comfort lurks the unexpected dread of anxious thoughts, with the dragon tail lurking in the distance representing it as a visual metaphor, in a place outside of home. 

The other 3 experiments following the first one doesn’t seem to be as great, in terms of building a atmosphere through colour and lighting and the drawings feels as if they are not interacting with the scene seamlessly. I feel that, by working on the right image/photo for the atmospheric feel and do a drawing that will fit in well for interaction, would bring out the best expression of depicting the emotion. 

This last experiment is my response and conclusion to my investigation in Shaun Tan’s visual language in conveying the themes of solitude and alienation in an unfamiliar environment. The combination of photography and illustration from my previous experiments has lead me to an outcome similar to Shaun Tan’s colour scheme of greyscale and gold to represent the reminiscence of the past or moment where I had personally gone through an emotional state of anxiety and depression. The photo was manipulated to exaggerate the ‘aged’ quality to it and the illustration of the ‘spider’ creature in the background, similarly to Shaun Tan’s work (bottom image), is to reflect that lingering emotion of uncertainty and anxious thoughts. 

(1d) 

References

(1a) Tan, 2006

(1b) Tan, 2006

(1c) Tan, 2006

(1d) Tan, 2006

(2) Pauli, 2009

Bibliography

Tan, S. (2006). The Arrival. London, United Kingdom. Hodder Children’s Books.

The Guardian, 2009, Shaun Tan’s Unexpected Details [Accessed: 17^th Nov 2016] [Online] Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/27/shaun-tan-unexpected-details

Introduction and Question for Research Module

Question: Using context and the creation of worlds to communicate feelings and emotions.

For the research module the question I will be exploring is how artists or creators uses context or the creation of their worlds to communicate emotions and feelings, through various methods such as colours, composition, cinematography, photography, setting and characters (including subject matters). I will be analysing the methodologies that these artists/creators use to generate visual imagery that conveys the sense of one or multiple emotions in their imaginary or semi-realistic worlds.

Throughout this module I will try to tie in various emotions and feelings that I have personally been through as I will have a much better understanding (as the creator) of my experiments. Films, Photography and Animation is where I will also be looking into to explore how those worlds uses settings or subject matters affect what emotions the audience perceive and its representations through visual language.

Areas I will be looking into in terms of artists/creators:

Graphic novel

Photographer

Film Maker/Director

Poetry/Literature

Painter

I will conduct several experiments (under each artist/creator) and exploring how they approach or produce their visual imagery and I would then expand on them by creating a new set of experiments, using different methods or approaches, to see if it have a different impact in terms of how we perceiving emotions. Then I will conclude with a final piece that will inform my experiments as a whole that will communicate an emotion that I have personally been through (as I will have a full understanding of that emotion).