Art Direction

As a topic for art direction I want to talk about character design and the ways in which it portrays the character of an individual. My example as you can probably guess by the picture is the comic book and film of Watchmen as the story has a diverse roster of characters who’s personalities are portrayed very well through their appearance.

For a bit of back story: It begins in the late 1930’s with a group called Minutemen. The Minutemen were formed because costumed heroes had become a harmless fad that people wanted to be a part of, the artist has used colours here to portray that everything was cheerful and fun. The colours are bold and eye catching, complimentary colours are used, most colours are primary and secondary, most of them are very saturated, and there are deep blacks that create contrast.

Then 40 years pass, the cold war begins among the passing of other wars, corruption, multiple hero deaths and the birth of a real super hero and we're left with a very different looking group of heroes with a grudgy and much less vibrant colour pallet, with the exception of the bright blue Doctor Manhattan but I’ll get to that later. This new and different colour pallet shows that very unfortunate events have occurred since the first set of costumed heroes.


This is silk spectre, her costume is an over sexualised tight latex suit that is coloured with the eye grabbing pairing of black and yellow. Her mother was a member of Minutemen who went by the same way; her mother loved the attention she received from her sexy pin up girl persona. Once her mother retired she wanted her daughter to follow suit by forcing her ambitions upon her.
 

Next up we have The Comedian, his costumes change a lot throughout the narrative as his career as a hero begins in the Minutemen, his later costumes consisted of the flashy stars and stripes. His costumes often consisted of comedic imagery, for example his costume he wore while he was in Minutemen was a bright jester outfit. He is also the barer of the famous smiley face badge. His whole persona is that of a tough guy who finds everything humours, he uses this persona of his as a mask to cover up lifelong regret of his unjust actions.





This is Ozymandias and his costume is much like a costume seen in minutemen in that it stands out with contrasting purple and yellow. This costume design reflects his great ego, he wants to stand out as a superior human as he claims to be able to catch a bullet. He strives to be seen as a modern day version of the Egyptian Pharaoh ‘Ramesses the Great’. His appreciation for Ramesses is not only portrayed through his name, but also the theme of ancient Egypt is seen in the architecture and interior decoration of the buildings he owns.









Probably the most extreme personality of the members of the watchmen is Rorschach. He can be briefly summed up as a severely ill human detective journal. His appearance reflects this as he dresses as a stereotypical noir detective with his face covered in a Rorschach test as if he's showing everyone that he's crazy.










And finally there's Doctor Manhattan, although he was once a human what he is now couldn't be much further from one. His body shape is that of a human, but that's as human his appearance goes. The piercing bright blue glow of his skin, the white out eyes and the neutral and un phased expression constantly on his face contribute to his appearance of being truly alien from everyone else

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I hope I have successfully been able to show how well Watchmen's diverse selection of character designs are used to visually describe the individuals of the story and how important the art direction of character design is.



Bibliography:

Watchmen Film (2009) Zack Snyder

Watchmen Comic Book (1987) Alan Moore