Oh snail
Climb Mt Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!
‘Little Samurai’ is a film poster which I created whilst summarising the idea of pacing oneself and being patient like the snail is told above in Kobayashi Issa’s Haiku to go achieve a great task at his own pace; being urged “slowly, slowly”. This poster was to be made using digital platforms and to take into consideration other elements such as text, font / font sizing, colour theory, and signifier and signified.
The image depicts a young boy wearing his father’s samurai helmet (which is much too big for him) looking up at the rest of the armour in adoration. The samurai costume along with the colouring of the background, the background imagery (Mt Fuji) and the style in which the background imagery was portrayed were signifiers to the poem itself and the history of its Japanese origin. The links being the watercolour technique used with ink in Japanese art, the location of Mt Fuji and the origins of the respected samurai warriors.
Considering this was my first time ever using any type of digital illustration tool I think the outcome was quite good, this is a work that I am very proud of and has gotten me hooked on digital illustration. However, also because this was my first ever time using this type of software I struggled a lot. I began on Adobe Photoshop because I know that is the go to for digital editing and from the discussions with my peers both on Zoom and in the discord I knew that’s what everyone else was using. Unfortunately after many many many(!) youtube tutorials later I gave up on photoshop and discovered Adobe Illustrator. This was so much more beginner friendly for making digital imagery from scratch in my opinion but I still made many mistakes - some which I found I couldn’t figure out how to undo and no one else was using Illustrator so no one on my discord could figure it out either and I ended up losing about 5 hours of rendering. I got it done in the end but I struggled with motivation and therefore time for a bit after that. I also managed to save the file incorrectly and compressed the layers so when I received great feedback on it, I couldn’t apply the changes to my poster.
If I was able to change it I would have done as my feedback suggested; to make the title text less angled, resize the focal imagery as it was crowding the poster and allow for more breathing room. It was also suggested that I take into consideration the importance of the mountains and if they are necessary or not but I would’ve kept it the same as it held strong reference to my poem and - I believed - helped set the context of the imagery.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
In making my poster I tried thoroughly to emphasise my focal points by using colour theory in that in the vast dark blues and greys of the poster, the eye would be drawn to the red and golds of the armour and more specifically the helmet on the boy’s head. Hoping that the contrast of colours as per a RGB colour wheel and the significance of sizing and font would create a hierarchy of elements in the poster, the imagery first then the title and back down to the credentials at the bottom. Which would in turn, also help develop a flow or direction of reading.
​
Lisa Yannucci. (2020). ‘Mama Lisa’s Blog’. Mama Lisa’s World: International Music and Culture. https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/japanese-haiku-a-snail-climbing-mt-fuji/
No Known Author. (2020). ‘Samurai’. Japan Guide. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html
​
Kris Decker, Peter Vukovic. (2017). 'The Fundementals of Understanding Colour Theory'. 99 Designs. https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-7-step-guide-to-understanding-color-theory/
