Deathbed

For my second coursework assignment we have to develop 2D work associated with a story that has no visuals tied to it already. For mine I chose the song "Deathbed" by Relient K. It's nine minutes long and tells the story of an oldman on his deathbed seeking redemption and reliving his memories as he lies dying.

To create a starting point for myself I created a moodboard of various photos that I associate wth the story. Overall, there is a theme of contrasting happiness and depression. There are elements of typical "good" things in the story such as marriage and giving birth, but they are marred; "the union was far from harmonious". Furthermore, that face that the story is set in the 1940s means that a lot of the photos are black and white. The absence of colour serves to strengthen the bleak tone of the story.

Exploring this scene further I researched some of the 1940's clothing styles and loss of morals in my sketchpad to aid with getting the atmosphere of my two digitally generated pieces correct.

 

I then moved on to digitally painting one of my first ideas for my scene. I was originally going to have the old man lying on his deathbed, surrounded by the clinical colours of hospitals and experiencing ethereal visualisations of his past wife and kids in the ward room. However, after a while I decided that perhaps the scene would be far too literal and proceded to explore down a different aspect of the lyrics so these two remain unfinished mock-ups.

One of the lines in the song; "The bottle of beam kept the memories at bay" struck up a particulary striking image in my head. Whenever I heard it, I always picture a defeated looking man sat at a grubby dock-side harbour bar with working class clothes and slumped shoulders. I sketched up a quick concept image in my sketchbook before experimenting in photoshop.

 

And the finished piece...

I wanted the piece to look kind of "rough", quite like how concept art for games is done quickly with dry brush effects and colours that aren't totally blended. I think this kind of effect creats a hazy atmosphere which you would expect in a grimey, harbour side inn of the late 1800's/early 1900's.