It can be challenging to boil down an entire film into a single image, so instead of illustrating any particular scene I try find the major themes or overall concept of the film as I feel that will generate something much more powerful. With Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I saw a film that underneath everything else in the story was about two people trying to make their relationship work despite themselves.
I especially liked how the characters of Joel and Clementine were opposites. Using different colors to express mood and emotion rather than natural skin tone is something I?ve been playing with for a while. The complementary colors blue and orange create a natural contrast within a composition and seemed fitting for Joel’s moody personality and Clementine’s extroverted nature. I also wanted their body language to reflect their states of mind, with their bodies turned away but their faces attempting to look at one another, hinting that these two have some hope in working things out.
The crumbling house is a fantastic visual metaphor for Joel and Clementine’s relationship. Compositionally I wanted the house positioned between the two characters, as if their failing relationship were a barrier preventing them from finding happiness with one another.
I have also been experimenting with how I render elements within a painting. With this one I utilized a greater degree of blending with the characters but left the background colors flat, in an attempt to establish a greater sense of depth. All the components of the painting such as color choices and painting techniques were used to heighten the juxtaposition between Joel and Clementine.
Amazing movie and wonderful art, I fell in love with this movie and it changed my perception of the world, the poem which the title came from helped me develop myself as a writer. I’ve been trying to think of a tattoo that incorporates the movie somehow.
All time favorite movie.
I had thought that the only image that comes close to summing up the movie in one frame was the main one they used for posters/the dvd/and everything else where they were laying on the cracked ice. I thought that was a good metaphor… their relationship is on ice, it had cracked once before and re-covered in snow and ice, but they’re still on top of it trying again.
Your image proves me wrong, though, and you’ve shown that there is yet another great way to capture the feel of the movie in one frame.
I like how you put Joel doing that hand-in-pocket-shoulder-shrug deal, I think that pose and his expression does well representing his character.
Very awesome image.