Saturday, September 18, 2010

In search of aesthetics, and the fantasy form - Frank Frazetta

I have spent this week contemplating the different aesthetic choices of games and other fantasy related media. And after seeing my game in a new light with the recent re-contextualization of the thesis, certain aspects of the game are becoming incredibly more important.
The game builds on narratives, so in order to fuel these narratives I will need to strike a close balance between visuals which fuel the game universe I lay out, and visuals that allow for different interpretations.

The First place I went was to the work of Frank Frazetta, a very talented artist who had a hand in changing the image of fantasy from the 60's to the 90's through his stunning works. He is responsible for the revival of Conan the barbarian, a series which was in the gutter until he created the cover for the last effort issue of the series. His work had the ability to pop right out of the canvas, it is very real, very sexual, and graphic. What it succeeds in doing is draw the viewer into the world, to evoke several emotions off of a very clear and apparent scene.
Sadly he passed away in May, 2010.

I think that Franks work spoke to what is usually classified as "High Fantasy". I would personally call it masculine fantasy because its themes are based around warfare and epic events. What makes the warfare masculine specifically is that the warfare is imaged off of medieval warfare, so our history has a prevalent stamp on the warfare of these "High Fantasy" (God I hate that term) realms. "High Fantasy" (ughh) also has the distinction of existing in a parallel world to our own, these aspects are prevalent in Franks works from the insanely large astrological bodies.

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