The Compatibility System

In an attempt to tell full stories in one graphic I created this system.Its not a system that could be used in all of my artwork but for telling stories like these, it seems to be working quite nicely.

In a nutshell, the system itself has 4 main elements per character. These elements are; Something to give, A space to receive, a description, and a situational status. Sounds complicating? Let me simplify it. Everyone has a shape in their hand (something to give) and everyone has a hole in them, which a shape of some description can fit into (a space to receive). The aim here is that every person needs to find a missing piece to complete themselves, and everyone has the ability to complete someone else. This works like pre school kids blocks. A circle shape wont fit into a square hole, but it will fit into the circle hole. Simple right? I've made the shapes less basic to show the diversity of it all. It will also show some other situations which will be shown later in the gallery. Now, to take this concept one step forward (this is the bit that seems to lose people) I've added another, deeper dimension. Imagine a block of wood and cut a square out of it. We now have 2 bits. A cube and a block of wood with a square hole. Now, the cube fits back in the hole that it came out of. This is simple and exactly what was described earlier (with the pre school kids blocks). Now lets paint the cube white, and the block black. The cube still fits in the hole... but it's not a perfect match (as they are different colours). Now if we paint block white (so both parts are white), then the cube still fits (as it always did), and they are both the same colour, so it will be a perfect match. Still with me? Excellent. 

The situational status is basically their body languages. See how they're facing, what they're wearing and what their facial expressions are.

The last part is the description. This is written under the image and relates to the character with the top, that's the same colour as the text. The description describes in one word the trate that the character is displaying with their actions.

So that's the system. With that explained (i'll pop a game on here soon to explain it better), i'll go ahead and guide you through what you should hopefully be able to notice in the image.

Overall picture, There is a couple. The girl in blue is chatting with the guy in brown and the guy in yellow is not happy about this. There is also a girl separated from the scene, in pink.

Possessiveness: His shape doesn't fit anyone in the picture, but his girl has got a shape that fits him, it's not a perfect match, but it fits enough for him to feel the feeling of jealousy or loss when she finds herself chatting to others. Mr possessive is in a position here where he fels he needs to get his girl away from this guy.

Deviousness: She knows what she's doing. She knows that her shape fits her man, but her man is not quite doing it for her, so when faced with a stranger who could potentially offer her a better deal, she's likely to welcome them. So right in front of her defiant man this girl is willing to flirt with the stranger.

Selfishness: This stranger has a shape which he knows the girl would prefer to have. He can see that her man is not able to complete her, and he has the power, but this selfish man has also clearly seen that the girls shape will not complete him. If he's not getting anything out of this deal, then he's not interested. He'll selfishly keep hold his shape.

Optimism: Miss Optimism is going to keep herself to herself, making sure that she's always looking nice just incase she comes across the person who has a shape that will complete her, and who she can complete. If Optimism met Selfishness in this case, there would be a perfect match, however they are currently separated (by language, by sea, be religion or by the fact that they may never have met) make up your own reasons.

Got the hang of it? Ok.. check out the next one and try to guess it before reading the description. Really read into the image. Look close, and look hard. Happy browsing :)