Beauty or beast?

Appearances can sometimes be deceiving: Lucinda Merriman meets conceptual Illustrator Eleanor Marriott, one of the new wave video game designers, to find out how the horror genre can be an empowering, feminist force.

Meeting Eleanor May Marriott for the first time is certainly a very interesting experience as she fills the room with her off beat vivacious personality. At 21, she’s a cross between Scarlet Johannsson and Sarah Millican – stunningly attractive, with a curious dress sense and a witty self-effacing sense of humour.

Recently graduated in Graphic Communication and Illustration from Loughborough University, you could quickly dismiss her as being like many middle class design graduates – privileged, predictable, blond and dipsey; but appearances can be deceiving, as Ellie is far from what you would expect, having a fascination with the darker side of life.

Adopted as a baby by a farming family in Leicestershire, Ellie was brought up knowing about her biological parents and their reasons for giving her up. "Being adopted doesn’t have much to do with who I am but growing up on a farm has helped me put nature vs nurture in some sort of prospective, as I do believe that rearing an animal or child is the most important and difficult part of the process."

And Ellie suggests that it was this early exposure to the realities of raising livestock that gave her an upbeat and realistic outlook that embraces the horror film and game genres that she so loves.

"I think I'm desensitised to scary things because of watching it for real from an early age, seeing a calf born, sending animals to market - there's no sugar coating on a farm."

Ellie started gaming early having her first XBOX 360 and Halo (science fiction shooter game) at only 7 years old. "I’ve always loved to escape through games and I definitely have a wanderlust and rebellious streak. "I’m fascinated by the idea of inter-dimensional travel, other worlds and paranormal experiences."

It might seem that Ellie wants to escape reality but she refutes this: "I am perfectly happy with who I am now. Everyone from an early age is always asking - who do you want to be, what are you going to do? There’s a lot of pressure to conform and be a success - I have always been a little alternative and want to do it my way; I’m at that age where the future is a big mystery."

Ellie is looking for work as a conceptual 2-D Designer and Illustrator and showed her potential for illustration at her university’s end of year Arts Degree Show where she exhibited a mixture of monsters and a video game concept called 'Presence' about demonic possession.

One disgustingly, disturbing monster featured in her portfolio, Ellie explains: "This grotesque, multi-limbed monster is a combination of  'popular' phobias - spiders, deformity, death and decay - this apparition creates a tension with the viewer which the monster mirrors back through the tension in its skin,  It looks uncomfortable, incomplete - in some ways I think it's a metaphor for being a woman."

This seems a pretty bleak interpretation of womanhood but Ellie seems unconcerned - as it she doesn't really take herself or her creations too seriously, cultivating a dark sense of humour, yet thoughtfulness in her work which aims to shock: "I want to subtly wrong-foot people, to create a brooding atmosphere that knocks you off balance - you know when you are walking and suddenly take an invisible step down - it's unnerving."

Ellie explains her creative process: "I draw constantly, sometimes for 5 hours at a time, where spur of the moment ideas pop out of my head straight onto the page.  I often listen to video game sound tracks to help focus my mind, (interestingly they have been shown to help concentration) and become fully immersed to the extent that I must be on autopilot."

Talking about who influences her work, she says: "My mother bought me a book of architectural sketches by John Ruskin which I found very inspirational.  I love his use of line and the detail to his drawings.  There's a great atmosphere of Victorian Gothic melodrama, which I find especially appealing." 

Ellie also takes inspiration from video game artists such as Joe Madureira who created 'Darksiders', an action role playing, hack 'n' slash video game developed by Vigil Games and published by THQ.

Ellie enthuses: "I love the amazing monsters and demons Joe creates and the pacy story line, he has a great eye for composition and form and his environments are just gorgeous." 

So where will this take Ellie in the future and what does she think she can bring to this very masculine genre?  "I hope being female in an industry where the key influencers are men but where increasingly more women are playing and enjoying these type of games will help me create a more accurate representation of what today's women aspires to be.  We need more strong, non-sexualised female leads that will help enforce the idea that women are not victims but can kick butt too!"  

Ellie is certainly of this mould - she's a contradiction - appealing, thought provoking and often quite disturbing but nobody's fool - beauty and beast combined!