Illustration & Visual Narrative // Lectures and Exercises

26/8/2020 - 21/9/20 // Week 1 - Week 5
Gan Shin Tung / 0346455
Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media 
Lectures and Exercises

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LECTURES 

Week 1 : Character
Today we met our lectures Ms. Noranis and Mr. Fizal. We learned about few key points of character design :

• Shapes
• Colour
• Emphasis & Contrast
• Harmony
• Expression/ Poses 

Shapes: 

Shapes are very important when it comes to creating characters as shapes can define the characteristic of a character. For villains normally use a triangle shape, for female character is used vase shape to create that high waist feature that represents feminine. As for comedian characters usually uses round shapes to create that fluffy appealing looks.

Colour: 

Color can use to determine a certain role of the character such as : hero or villain. Different choices of color can create different impressions. Colors can also cause certain emotions in people. 

Emphasis & Contrast :

Pick one visual element in a character and exaggerate it, making the character outstanding and memorable. Sometimes picking a cultural element and add it to your design can make it unique and authentic.

Harmony: 

Having to put shapes, lines, patterns and colors has to be put nicely together so that the character will look more presentable. There has to be a balance of each element to work with each other in your design.

Expression/Poses : 

The behaviors, posture, personalities of your character simply catches the eye of the audience. These element has to be visually shown so that audiences can interpret them even before you tell them about it!

Week 2 : Chiaroscuro
This week we learn about Visual Techniques : Chiaroscuro. It refers to the use of light and dark to create an illusion of three dimension volume on a flat surface. "Chiaro" = Bright ; "Scuro" = Dark. It is basically make use of the dark and brightness to create an effect. The image below is an example of Chiaroscuro. 

Figure 1.1 Chiaroscuro

Use of Chiaroscuro :

• Increase dramatic tension
• Create sensational effect
• Pull attention to a subject in an intense way 
• Create a tasteful composition of negative vs positive spaces
• Great study of Form and Value practice (shapes)

Week 3 : Composition (1)
Today's lecture we learn about composition. Following the principles of compositions can create awesome pictures like the ones we usually saw in instagram. 

Types of composition shots :

• Establishing
• Bird's Eyeview
• Framing
• Medium Shot
• Close-up
• Worm's Eyeview

Composition rules :

• A balanced distribution of positive vs negative spaces 
• Industry technique : find balance between positive & negative (visual hierarchy)
• mood, rhythm/movement, visual elements that tells a story

There is no right or wrong in composition only bad & tasteful composition. 

Week 4 : No-class

Week 5 : Composition (2) Perspectives 

Paintings before 14th century: 

Long long time ago.... paintings were rich and beautiful but low key 'dorky'. The art of the Byzantine, Medieval and Gothic periods was rich and beautiful, but the images made no attempt to create the illusion of depth and space. 

Until.. A Maverick came along (Fillipo the architect) 

• Form
• Volume
• Buildings recede into the distance
• Light & Shadows

The first known picture to make use of linear perspective was created by the Florentine architect Fillipo Brunelleshi (1377-1446). Painted in 1415, it depicted the Baptistery in Florence from the front gate of the gate of the unfinished cathedral. The linear perspective system projected the illusion of depth onto a two dimensional plane by use of 'vanishing points' 

Masaccio- The Tribute Money c. 1426-27 Fresco, The Brancacci Chapel, Florence

The Last Supper - Da Vinci

Leading all the way to the Renaissance period (14th -17th century)

What is 'PERSPECTIVE' in ART??

• To create DEPTH
• An Illusion
• A representation of object -> from a 2D surface to create a 3D optical illusion

Types of Perspectives

• 1 point 
• 2 point
• 3 point
• 4-5 point (Fisheye)

*Number of vanishing points

*As long as they mimic "3 dimensions" A sense of DEPTH is created!

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EXERCISES

Week 1 : Our very first task was to trace the shapes of 3 cartoon characters using Adobe Illustrator (Ai). We were allowed to choose any character by our own choice. Our lecturers went through with us on how to work on the illustrator and also demonstrated using the pen tool. It may look easy but once you get on your hands it becomes difficult. After certain struggles, I manage to get some outcomes.

Figure1.2 My Baymax Illustration

Baymax is a cartoon character from the movie BigHero6, this is one of my top favorite movies. In the story, Baymax was created by Hiro's brother Tadashi Hamada. The purpose of creating Baymax is to solve people's health problems. Therefore, the shape of this character is round and wide, it creates a warm and soft image so that it represents its healing purpose. As shown in figure1.1, Baymax was created using shapes of circle and rectangle, this represents that it is a stable and kind character. Baymax is white in color, the color white represents innocent, pure, kind, bright ect. Normally, white would be used for protagonist. However, the design of this character emphasized its stomach, it has a wide area on the stomach. This creates a huggable feel and also an adorable image. Baymax has a simple yet memorable design, whenever you see him it simply reminds you about the movie. I never forget what Baymax always said :"On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?". 

Figure 1.3 My Ice Bear Illustartion

Ice Bear is a character from the cartoon We Bare Bears. He does not talk much and does not smile often, in other words, he is as cold as ice. However, he is not a bad character, the color white gives him a pure and kind appearance. Also, having a fat body shape creates a cute and appealing image. As shown in figure1.2, you can find out that mostly round shapes were used to make ice bear, and also some additional lines used. It creates a simple look yet daring and lovely to audience. I can see ice bear merchandise everywhere, but the stores always run out of stock when I visit them!

Figure 1.4 My SnoopyPeanuts Illustration

Snoopy is a famous cartoon character in the old days. Although it is an old cartoon character, most people still recognize it. I started finding snoopy adorable was when I went into a clothing store and it was selling snoopy t-shirts. Snoopy was created mostly using round shapes and a lot of lines. This shows Snoopy is a friendly character, it not only attracts children but also adults. Snoopy uses the color of black and white but mostly white in color and black outlines. White defines pure, kind, innocent and ect. Therefore it suits the characteristic of Snoopy as he is a happy character. The design of Snoopy emphasized on the head, since he was the only main character in the show this design can simply catches the eye of audience. The lines may seem randomly drawn but overall of the design does not look complicated and messy. Also, Snoopy's wide feet represents a stable characteristic. This simple designs of Snoopy gives a comfortable feel, it just makes your day. It always work for me!

Week 2 : Voltmeter Challenge (Exercise 1)

Miss Anis gave us a challenge by using few specific given shapes and create a monster of our own. She gave us 8 shapes to use, we could duplicate them rotate them or even combine them but we cannot change the shape of the elements given. After creating our character, we have to give it a name and a story background. 

Figure 1.5 Voltmeter shapes

After finish creating my character I wrapping it up by using a game card template.  

Figure 1.6 My Final Voltmeter Design

I really work hard on this challenge as I like creating characters. I really wanted to do well in this exercise therefore I put plenty effort. This is an extreme rare phoenix, it produces blue flames instead of red flames which increases the damage. This makes my character much cooler and shows a stronger charisma. So, what do you think about Violet?

Week 3 : Vector Landscapes

This week we were given a task using Adobe Illustrator to create any landscape. We could make our own landscapes using our imagination or we could follow some landscape sketches from Disney Mulan provided by Miss Anis. I chose to create my own ideas of landscapes. I fancy fiction stories therefore I wanted to create an enchanted forest. 

Figure 1.7 Final Vector Landscape Illustration

This is an enchanted forest where is hidden behind the magic meadow. This magical land is filled with trees that glow like lanterns and stars that shines upon the hidden path of the forest that leads to a secret treasure. 

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REFLECTION

Week 1 : 

Initially what I had in mind about illustration class was difficult and boring. However, after my first lecture, I find out that I was totally wrong. It's interesting and requires tons of imagination. I personally love and enjoyed reading comic books, coincidentally Illustration class is about creating characters and telling stories. Moving on to creating my illustration by tracing 3 characters, I started off by using the pen tool to trace my characters, but before that I lower the opacity of the image. I choose the stoke of the pen tool black in color so that I can see my tracing. The tracing process took some time but overall it was fine, I did not face any problems. As for coloring, I did find some difficulties. I could not color the part that I wanted, therefore I use pen tool to draw the shape again to color it. However, after that I discovered that I could select the part that I wanted by using shift button to connect 2 lines together in order to fill in color. (shown in figure1.4)

Figure 1.7 My Baymax color filling using eye drop tool

This saves a lot of time and effort for me, and it simply improves the quality of my illustration. I also manage to use the eye drop tool by filling up my character with the original color. It is a very useful tool to me. Besides that, another amazing tool to use is the pencil tool, I use this tool to fix my tracing whenever there's disorder lines I will use pencil tool to make it more smooth and in order. Thanks to Mr. Fizal I manage to create shadows for my ice bear illustration! (shown in figure 1.5)

Figure 1.8 My Ice Bear shadow creating

Furthermore, I also make use of pencil tool to draw & eclipse tool. I use the pencil tool to draw the ears of Snoopy. I use the eclipse tool to make Snoopy's necklace. It is very useful especially for eyes, nose or mouth, I use this for every character. (shown in figure1.6)

Figure1.9 Snoopy creation using pencil tool

Overall it was fun and interesting, although it takes a lot of concentration and hard work but having to see the results I was grateful and think that it was worth it.

 

Week 2 : 

Firstly I sketch the character that I wanted to create on a piece of paper. 

Figure 2.0 Sketches of my character

After that I started to create my character by using as much shapes as I can. I try and error to merge, stack rotate the limited shapes to get the shape that I want in order to make my character. 

Figure 2.1 Making the shapes

For the head of my character I use the badge. The tails I used the tentacles. The neck I use the wurst merge with tentacle. I used two tentacles to create the fur on its head. The wings was created using double tentacles by enlarging the scale of the shape. The body was created by the drop merged with the wings and the badge being rotated from up to down merging with four tentacles. I used the drop and the tentacle to create the shape of its feather and the eye as well. For the two wings I used 20 drops merged with tentacles to make the back and forth image of feathers. It took me quite some time to figure out the shapes.

Figure 2.2 Color Testing

After finishing the shape it's time for coloring. Since the character I wanted to create is a Phoenix, normally it would be red in color to represent the color of flame. However on a second thought, since I wanted to make it as a powerful character I will need a strong flame.

Figure 2.3 Research on Flames

https://www.elgas.com.au/blog/1585-why-does-a-gas-flame-burn-blue-lpg-gas-natural-propane-methane

After a little research, blue flame has a higher temperature than red flame. The reason being blue flame is complete combustion that could reaches the temperature of 1,980°C , whereas red flame is incomplete combustion it can only reach the temperature of 1000°C (elgas.com.au). Therefore, I decided to choose blue flame color. 

Week 3 : 

For this exercise I took a long time brainstorming as I have no idea of what to create. I did some research online and found incredible works done by others. I was planning to make one of those, but I was thinking I should create something of my own instead. Then I think of cherry blossom as my dream is to travel and see the cherry blossoms in Korea. Having to make a cherry blossom is a very ordinary idea, therefore I wanted to use this idea and improvise it. I was thinking what if I make it into a magic forest instead? It would be much cooler to have a glowing tree instead of an ordinary. So far I have not seen enchanted forest vector landscape illustration. Therefore, I decided to create one using my own ideas. 

Figure 2.4 Vector Trees

Firstly, I draw the trees using shapes and pen tool to make my forest. 

Figure 2.5 Adding Animals and Coloring

After that I decided to add deers as the typical animals for enchanted forest is deers. I colored the trees pink to portray that they are cherry blossom trees. I also made flowers falling down from the trees to make it seems like there are flower breeze in that scenario. 

Figure 2.6 Background Making

Lastly, for the background I chose night view as this can show that the trees actually glow. However the color cannot be too strong as it will look unrealistic, therefore I used blending mode Color Dodge to make the colors of the trees less bright and fit well into the background. For the ground I also use mask and layers to make that glowing look and also different brightness of colors to show the stars shines on them. For the stars, I also used blending mode Overlay make the stars blend nicely with the color of the sky. The sky color I used a slightly purple-ish blue as I think this color is not too dark and not too bright, just nice to set as my background color. 

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FEEDBACK

Week 1: Miss Anis went through my blog and commented that I did a good analysis and that she look forward for more of my writing on Illustrations.