Being Human: Idea Development

As I am need to go from four to three characters to follow the freud Trio. I had already decided that Simon was going to be the character I dropped but Simon's arm concept is fear. One of my favourite concepts, but looking at the other emotions fear is odd one out. As ID and the Super Ego are opposites of each other. This is why I decided that Kevin(Joy) should be the ID and Steven(Sadness) should be the Super Ego. This is because of Joy being the opposite of sadness. When it came to deciding whom was going to be the Ego, my chooses were Fear and Anger. Opposites of each other, but as the Ego is meant to resolve the conflicts between two the ID and Super Ego. I have chosen Rob (Anger), as when your angry you can still function and if you think of fear, someone that is scared/ fearful it can make you unable to function. Fight or flight, Anger would fight and Fear would run away. As The Ego is the leader I needed to choose a emotion that could take on this role.

But the Fear's arm concept might still be used, for example a Tv report showing the first case of people having mutations. The person being chased down and loads of cameras on the person. This experience would make anyone scared, so for that person to have the Fear arm could work.

I am thinking to have the story not just told straight to the audience but for the audience to make out/ interpret the story for them selfs. I am wanting the characters having the mutations to be a secret to the audience at first with the maybe the Tv report being the first case the audience sees.

The mutation only effect those with a domermit Emotion. The reason for the mutations is due to a nuclear power plant having a meltdown and leaking into the water source. The way I'm going to tell the audience about how the mutation is spread is by having a Tv report saying " Scientists are still recommending the pubic to drink bottle water and to refrain from consuming water from the taps". The reason i want the report to include still is so that you can tell its been awhile.

I am thinking the film should be around 5 mins and be open ended. So that the film is like a Tv pilot, enough story to get you hocked but not too much so that it leaves you wanting more.

The film will be set in one room and will end when they decide to leave. But each character will have a different look due to the surrounding, lighting, effects and placement.  For example Kevin (joy) being sat by the window keeping the scene bright like his personality and having Steven being on the other side of the room were its darker. With the placement like this, I would think having Rob in the middle between them would be best. Preventing conflicts between Steven and Kevin, also to keep this Trio shown in a visual way.

Being Human: Digital Arm Concepts

I have farer developed my designs, I am yet to narrow the characters down to three but here are the arm concepts for them.
Joy's concept, a blade that resembles light. To note the mutations are all formed from a material harder then steel.

The arms have a passive state of a regular arm but can be triggered into to its weapon state by the user's emotions.

sadness' concept, The arm looks as it is flowing like water. As the arm can move like liquid metal.

Fear's concept, razor sharp claws with spikes running all the way along the arm as defences.

Being Human: Arm concepts

I have chosen the designs  I am wanting to farer develop, I have drawn up larger versions of the design like I have done before with anger.

For sadness I choose this design as i thought it looked free flowing like water and I think it could be used well as a defence. I think of sadness as failing so that i wanted to create a design that can protect those around them. 

For Joys design, I thought the other design was too basic and didn't think it could useful. So I went with the sword arm design as I think of knights fighting to fight to protect what they care about.















 For Fear the design I choose i felt it represented what fear is all about, being in a spiked shell. Trying to escape and aggressive if approached.

Being Human: First character Concepts

I have done rough concept drawing using my chosen arm concepts, but because I've done that i have four character. I will be narrowing down to three so that I can make the characters a Freud Trio. The designs are based roughly of myself.
The Main character is called Rob, he is represents anger and Ego. The leader of the group

Rob's Best friend Steven, he represents Sadness and Super Ego. despite being sadness the word of reason

The third wheel Simon, He represents Fear and most likely the character I shall be dropping as he doesn't fit into the Freud Trio. 

The friend you can always relay on Kevin, he represents Joy and ID. Kevin and Steven may not always get along (due to ID and Super Ego conflicting) but friends to the end.

Being Human: First Arm concepts

With the use of Plutchik's wheel of emotions, i have used the links of the colours to the emotion I am trying to materialise. For example Sadness is blue, Anger red and Fear is green.
These are my first concepts on what the arms could look like. I will narrow down the designs to one per emotion, to then farer its design, like I've done for anger already. There is a bigger concept drawing of anger which i did before my digital concept which shall be on the bottom of this post.
My next step is to draw up the digital versions.

Being Human- concept and exploration

With the use of using a piece of my own life drawing as a basic. I have drawn my first concept of the arm i am wanting to create. With the goal being to make it seem mutated and distorted in a way, using wheel of emotions to base colour on and how it shaped.

I started with anger and this is the result:-

I showed my concept drawing around and told people the meaning of why the hand is all distorted. From showing people I was told to look into the 1982 "The Thing"

The Thing is a horror film in which a American research base is listed by a alien that assimilate Anything it touches and has the ability to disguise its self as a human (wolf in sheep's clothing). The alien like my concept distorts its limbs to attack. I am yet to watch this film. I was automatic drawing, after I was done I then went back tiding up this was the result.

Being Human: Three levels of Consciousness and the three parts of the mind

The mind can be dived into three systems, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind and the unconscious mind.

The Consciousness mind is your awareness, being aware of your environment and some specific mental functions, for example your breathing.

The Subconscious mind consists of accessible information (memories that are readily brought into consciousness). You can become aware of information once you direct your attention to it. for example smelling sun cream might bring back memories of the beach. If for example you have retain of walking to school and back everyday. The conscious information becomes subconscious information, so that you can walk home without being aware of your surroundings.

The Unconscious  mind is a part of the mind we can't access but is the core of what makes us who we are. Durring our childhood we acquire countless and experiences that form us. The unconscious forces drive our behaviours. Its believed  that thoughts and feelings never leave and that they are stored here

The three levels of consciousness concept was made by Sigmund Freud, true lots of his work has been proven wrong but to this day is the most influential person in modern culture. His work is still inspirering people today, For example me.

Sigmund Freud believed within these three levels of conscious, the mind was made of three parts the Id, Ego, Super Ego and believed that the inner conflicts between them formed our personalities.

The Id is your instinctual desire for instant gratification of your wants and needs. This is the part of your mind that's impulsive, emotional, that seeks pleasure and gets aggressive when it doesn't get what it wants right away. The Id is the first part of your mind to be formed, that's young kids will for example throw tantrums if they don't get what they want. The Id makes decisions based off of the pleasure principle.

The Super Ego represents the conscience, dealing with one's sense of morality. It operates based on the idealised version of one's self and even self criticises, if  one fails to live up to those ideals. The Super Ego makes decisions based off of morality.

The Ego is the most conscious part of our minds and it's what mediates between the conflicting wants of the Id and Super Ego. The Ego is the part that deals with reality and understand that other people have thoughts, feeling and desires. The Ego will make decisions based of what people will think or the consequences of given action.


In story telling its become a trope (Freud Trio) to have three characters based on Freud's ID, Ego and Super Ego. one character thats emotional and instinctual. Another thats is rational and logical, and one that tries to reconcile between them. This method of story telling is used all the time for example: Star Trek (Ego:Jim, Id;Bones and Super Ego:Spock.) Lord of the rings (Ego;Frodo, ID:Gollum and Super Ego:Samwise.) Supernatural  (Ego:Dean, ID:Sam and Super Ego:Castiel.)

 For my being Human i am wanting to create three characters that follows Freud model of the mind, the Freud Trio. So the character work together and makes them more relatable if not also human.

Being Human- Human feelings

When it comes to being human, I believe that fact we feel makes us human. We have eight basic emotions Joy, Sadness, Trust, Disgust, Fear, Anger, Surprise and Anticipation. Combining this emotions gives us Human feeling. For example Joy+trust=Love. In 1980 Robert Plutchik Constructed a wheel of emotions, that combined two of the basic emotions like the example I gave. Here is the wheel of emotions:-

This quote is very powerful and what I want to bring to my being Human project.

Emotions are shown in more than one way, that what makes us human.

Being Human: Parasyte maxim

When thinking of what makes us human, it makes me think of the series Parasite Maxim as the main message in the series is what makes you Human, the story is about parasites taking over humans to kill humanity. As the series goes on the main character becomes less human and the parasites start to gain their own humanity.

The series shows us and makes of what really makes us human, emotions, laughing, being about to morn. The series has a shocking scene that makes you think that so nice then it just turns stone cold in human. The main character hears a accident , a puppy has been hit by a car. so the main character picks up the puppies and takes it some where quiet so that the puppy could died in peace. the main character says " its heart's stopped beating" and throws the puppy in the bin. After he is told off for doing this he says " its dead, it was a puppy but now its dead, its no longer a puppy just a puppy shaped lump of meat". This scene is a powerfully scene showing a person without humanity.

Being Human: Research Humans raised by animals

There are many cases of Humans raised by animals, you must of heard the phrase must of been raised by wolfs. In these cases the person would behaviour like a animal, for example there was a kid whom was raised by wolfs and would walk around on all fours, growl and work as part of a pact. Taking the Human accept out of a child's upbringing can cause de-humanization.  Does make those effected less than human? In these cases the children are reablitated into society. The problem sometime found in this cases is the child becoming depressed due to being taken away from their animal family. Capturing one of the animals could help the child but would slow down the process of rehabilitating the child.  I believe i found the source of the phrase raised by wolves, i well documented case of Kamals and Amala who was raised by wolfs, this case happened in 1920. With cases of animals raising humans as their own, they might not get their Humanity. If a child isn't exposed to Human language in the first three years of its life, it can cause the inability to learn how to speak.

Being Human: research into humanization of Animals

I read a paper entitled "We're a nation of pet lovers" By Ginger E. Blume, Ph.d. The paper focuses on Pets as they are the most effected. One of the interesting facts on the paper is dogs may be the ultimate social parasite, playing on human emotions and making us believe they have a range of emotions human feelings. Many people see their dogs as a in between species, half human half animal. Scientists say in the animal kingdom it is rare of one species to injects itself fully into another species life. 

Us Humanisation animals can cause many problems, such as the animals becoming dependent of humans. When animals are raised in captivity this problem can be devastating. When animals are raised in captivity to later be released in to the wild. if they become dependent of humans, they will died. Now a problem close to home, dogs are pact animals and Humanization can cause them to think they are in control. This has caused cases of master mutilation. 

25/9/15: life drawing session 2

This session was the time with had a model. It took me some time to find myself, as life drawing was new to me and I didn't like the concept of drawing someone nude. It took me acouple of drawing to get used to it. This reflexes with how my drawings turned out.

On my third drawing we were told to just focus on the model and not look at the paper. This made the drawing look terrible but at the  same time made me more at ease

As when we went back to drawing and looking at both, my drawings improved 

The drawing above is also the first drawing I had done with a 6b pencil. Changing to a 6b made my work look a lot better due to have lightly I draw. 

My last two drawings I liked the most due to size I did them and how making tone looked nicer.

The back of this one I liked the most but I  found I shouldn't start with the legs.

I wish I had more time on my final of the day but I did like how it turned out.

18/9/25: first session of life drawing

Spent 3 hours doing life drawing, at the moment we don't have a mods el. so we been drawing skeletons. I personally enjoy drawing  skeletons due to the shape and the shadows that form. I found thought out my work that I was improving but found that as I getting closer to the 3 hour mark my work was starting to lax. This was because I was tired and my legs were starting to buckle. During my I first session I felt learn some tips to help me.