Illustration and Visual Narrative - Exercise 1 & Exercise 2

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April 2nd, 2021 - July 2nd, 2021 (Week 1-Week 14)
Rusydina Fazlin Athirah (0344000)
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Multimedia
Week 1 - Week 4(-5)
Weekly Journal

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Class Sessions/ Lecture

Week 1 

[Introduction Brief to Illustration and Visual Narrative class]

April 2nd, 2021

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In the first of Illustration and Visual Narrative's class, Ms. Anis introduced the class to the course module and guided the class in downloading the necessities in starting out the course with reference guidance from the Time's e-learning site to look back upon from time to time. After that, we started looking into the first exercise of the subject. The class was introduced to the 'Vormator Challenge' a.k.a exercise 1, Ms. Anis explained all the respective points in starting out the activity.

Figure 1.1 - Instructions regarding Excercise 1

Starting out the exercise we had our freedom in designing anything we want but still had rules to be grounded with, in the exercise the class was designated to design one character and write a narrative behind it. Ms. Anis also assigned us 8 different elements of shape to be used to help design a character.

Figure 1.2 - Shapes to be used in Exercise 1 

With the assigned shapes and brainstorming combined, the design starts to commence. 

Week 2 

[Character Design Basics]

April 9th, 2021

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In the second week of Illustration and Visual Narrative class, the class indulged in further understanding in assisting us when in the process of carrying out Exercise 1. Ms. Anis went through a lecture slide emphasizing 'introductions to character designs'. 

Part of the lecture was that the class started off by sharing each other's favorite cartoon characters on a website called 'Padlet', the class was given 5 minutes to implement our fav characters into the site where it was accessible to viewing everyone's favored cartoon character and there were a variety of many different characters. 

Figure 1.3 - Padlet to share favorite characters

After time was up, Ms. Anis happened to choose me first in explaining why I favored my character very much. Which was a picture of 'Lion' from a cartoon titled 'Steven Universe'. Of course, I answered her question and explained why. I favor 'Lion' because even as a character with a lack of dialogue in the show, he's very likable because of the actions he portrays that can be interpreted by the viewer, in short, I said that "he was a vibe."

Ms. Anis took my answer and evaluated it into explaining why it's important to have a character that can express their personality. Which lead the class to more information and tips into the lecture!

Week 1 Lecture Slides - Introduction to Character Design

During the lecture, the contents given and prepared were to help the class in seeing a wider range of stylizing their characters. 

Figure 1.4 - Stylized designed characters 

Many interesting and common tips on starting out when designing characters. Which was very fun to stick around in. We were also introduced to principles when it comes to designing characters!

Figure 1.5 - Shapes in character design

Ms. Anis mentioned all about shapes in a character that can portray their personality, I personally didn't think deep that aspect when designing a character. Though it made so much sense when it was brought up in the picture. For example, the stability of a heroic character would always have a stable shape and figure to it and a villainous character would always have a sense of 'pointiness' to them to make them seem sharp and dominating and a slick way, in my opinion. 

Figure 1.6 - Colours and Emphasis & Contrast in characters

Providing colors and emphasis & contrast to a character is always important to add to them, it'll be much easier for a viewer to understand those designed characters and could start a whole other interpreted narrative to the character. 

Figure 1.7 - Harmony and Expressions/Poses in a character

The last few principles in designing a character were harmony and providing expressions/poses to the characters. Just as important as the other principles, though adding in expressions to the characters adds a completion of who and what the character has to display and offer as a stylized character. In a sense, it also adds comfort to know deeper about the character with the kind of visual elements and poses they'd always display! 

Figure 1.8 - Color Study

Lastly, we finished off the lecture with a little study about 'color study', knowing the different kinds of color study can help find color palettes for when coloring a designed character comes in.

Week 3

[Composition I]

April 16th, 2021

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In the third week of IVN, Ms. Anis started the class off by mentioning information regarding our first exercise, which is exercise 1 and the progress of our characters being designed, and how it's all going so far. Later, we dove into the lecture slides for this week, which were about 'Composition'. 

Week 3 Lecture Slides - Composition I

Another thing we also did in class this week was that Ms. Anis assigned the class to sketch 3 - 5 types of composition backgrounds, we had a few examples of types of composition backgrounds that the class desire to sketch out.

Figure 1.9 - Composition background examples

The class had about 30 minutes to sketch out our desired composition backgrounds and this was what I came up with;

Figure 1.1.1 - Sketch C. Background PI

Figure 1.1.2 - Sketch C. Background PII

After Time was up, everyone showed what they sketched out, some were chosen and volunteered and presenting what they came up with including me! I even got a few feedbacks and encouraging remarks from Ms. Anis and applying these sketches to the second Exercise that was initiated with this activity.

Week 4

[Composition II]

April 23rd, 2021

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Week 4 in IVN class, Ms. Anis guided us through in a following up the topic of last week's (week 3) lecture about 'composition', except this week we indulged into the topic of perspectives! 

Week 4 Lecture Slides - Composition II

During we did the same as we did last week in week 3 and partake in sketching for 30 minutes based on what we went through in the lecture slides with Ms. Anis. It's a way to help progress and improve the exercises that were assigned, especially in exercise 2. 

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Practical -

Chiaroscuro Excercise

April 9th, 2021 (Week 2)

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For Practical, Mr. Kannan assisted the class in a brief tour of whats Adobe Illustrator has to offer. He showed us the basics of functioning the program and assigned us to try out a practical exercise called the 'Chiarosco Pear'.

Practical exercise example: 

Figure 1.2.1 - Chiaroscuro Pear Lighting

Figure 1.2.2- Chiaroscuro practical exercise example

My tryouts: 

Figure 1.2.3- first color

Figure 1.2.4- Second color

Figure 1.2.5 - two of the colors merged

Attempting this practice in illustrator was quite hard to do, for as I've never had a lot of experience in most of the adobe programs, but it had heavy practice on the 'pen tool' which I hope I'll be able to get better at it sooner or later!

Chiaroscuro Excercise II

April 16th, 2021 (Week 3)

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For Mr. Kannan's practical session for week 2 on the other hand, he thought us more about Adobe Illustrator to help the class with improving our 'Vormator Character'! 

He taught the class all sorts of tricks and showed us tutorials on how to work with, gradients, apply clipping masks, make swatches to save a certain color or have a set color palette, and all about applying patterns. The practical correlates to the last practical in week 2, except with more experimentation on applying gradients on the Chiaroscuro Pear we directed as practice and finalizing the practice with a Chiarusco portrait of us(me). 

Gradient dissected pear tryout:

Figure 1.2.6 - Dissected Pear Practice

The next practice that Mr.Kannan assigned the class to try out in Adobe Illustrator regarding Chiaruscuro was to take a self-portrait of ourselves and turn it into a dark and light piece. 

Example's of practical: 

Figure 1.2.7 - Chiaroscuro being portrayed in a movie into dark and light illustration

Figure 1.2.8- Chiarusscuro being progressed in an illustration program

Figure 1.2.9 - Final outcome of Chiaroscuro practice (example)

My Chiaruscruso (light and dark) portrait practice:

Figure 1.2.10 - Chiascuro Self-Portrait

Chiaroscuro (Landscapes) Excercise III

April 23rd, 2021 (Week 4)

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In this week's session with Mr. Kannan, he thought us how to navigate a little more in-depth with the pen and brush tool. With those following tools, he gave insight on how using them can create really pretty landscapes, even if they were just random shapes. He guided us through the steps and gave us ideas for trying out the following practice. 

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Exercise 1 -

Vormator Challange!

April 9th, 2021 (Week 2)

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Starting out my sketches took a while within the week, I didn't quite understand whether the shapes given were to use entirely or we could implement them in other forms of shapes. I was too scared and abided by the rules a little until I got some feedback from Ms. Anis.

First tryout sketch: 

Figure 1.3.1 - Character Design Sketch #1, April 9th, 2021

Although I manage to get some acknowledging words from Ms. Anis from my designs, it may not seem much. Ms. Anis mentioned that I started a little too early in their poses as in from the middle character's body shape but it was nice to know that she saw potential in the character of the bottom left corner. Although, I was encouraged to keep sketching with one shape first and from there directing it with the shapes that are meant to be used into hopefully a completed designed character to heed feedback from Ms. Anis in the next class session. 

Improvised sketches: 

Figure 1.3.2 - Improvised and Simplified sketches, April 14th, 2021

I decided on attempting to sketch out 3 characters and improvised some of the designs, as you can see some still had similar features from the first sketch. Since we are only assigned to create one character, I decided on progressing with the character on the far right. 

Coloring Progression: 

Lazarus, The Mythical Gem Horned Serpent

Figure 1.3.3 - Colorized design, April 15th, 2021

After receiving a few feedback from Ms. Anis, she mentioned that my character could be improved when it came to the body. She suggested having the character appear more stable and balance, a form of it looking as if it was more coiled up.

Final Outcome: 

Figure 1.3.4 - Refined character design, April 23rd, 2021

After a few tweaks and rearranging, Ms. Anis's feedback definitely improved the stance of the character and I was very satisfied with how it turned out! 

PDF Version: 

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 Exercise 2 -

Vector Landscape Illustration

April 9th - April 16th, 2021 (Week 2-3)

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In exercise 2, after creating our vormator character, the next step in the progression is illustrating a background for them (the character) is a must! Ms. Anis assigned us to work on a sketch during the lecture as a kickstart to our second exercise. 

Figure 1.3.5 - Background sketches, April 16th, 2021

Since part of the idea of sketching out the background was already been sketched out during class, I decided on working further into the sketch on the left and working with a few rough sketches before putting it through Adobe Illustrator. 

Rough Sketches:

Figure 1.3.6 - Sketch idea #1

I attempted in having further sketches playing around with the position of where my character would be, that either being foreground, mid-ground, or the background. In this sketch, he looks as if he is a part of the foreground looking through a stack of books, and then a pile of books as the mid, and lastly the background being a bunch of bookshelves.

Figure 1.3.7 - Sketch idea #2

The second sketch idea I had was placing my character on the mid-ground, it had a similar look to the first sketch I did during the lecture, although I did a few tweaks to it. Instead of a table in front of my character I made it appear as if the books are floating around him, portraying that he has telepathic powers.

Final Outcome:

Figure 1.3.8 - Mythical Library Background (w/o Character)

Figure 1.3.9 - Mythical Library Background (w/ Character)

The final outcome for the background is a more simplified piece from the sketches since it was put through illustrator and I wanted it to have the same style as the character. As you can see the books floating that is being carried out by the character is a part of the mid-ground along with the serpent character and the bookshelves being in the background with a pile of books in the foreground, framing the whole landscape together.

I even had one without the character, to allow the details to be seen in the landscape and one with of course the character as the final finalization.

PDF Version:

PLAYER/TRADING CARD IMPLEMENTATION: 

With the character created and the background that fits them in their environment, the last step is to implement them into a player card! 

I chose a template called 'Gabriola' that was prepared by Ms. Anis and I wrote a narrative for my character to complete the whole idea of it being a player/trading card.

Final Outcome:

Figure 1.4.1 - Trading card with Lazarus implemented in it

Narrative on the card:

Lazarus, a retired mythical Gem Horned Serpent used to be in combat alongside his comrades in big battles, always meeting victory. Though, after facing many defeats from bigger and stronger foes, he now withers his life away in an enchanted library with nothing but magical books to entertain him. His years may not be filled with brawns but he grew wiser and developed some sort of telekinesis powers, when the time comes, he could meet his future as a powerful wise fighter serpent that partakes battles

with his mind-controlling capabilities!

PDF Version:

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Reflection (Exercise 1):

April 16th, 2021

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During this exercise, I was able to reflect upon the importance of design elements and how as simple as they are, they're still able to create one of the most memorable or just simply looking characters that is fun to look at!

I was also able to learn a lot about Adobe Illustrator in the process of exercise 1. It was frustrating yet fun at the same time, with the help of both Ms. Anis and Mr. Kannan, I was able to discover a new way of 'designing characters' since there are many ways of doing them. 

I was definitely impressed with myself when I created a character out of limited shapes and maybe to me it still hasn't reached a high skilled level to it but that only means more practice to be able to develop 'masterpieces' (to me) in the near future or upcoming exercises.

Reflection (Exercise 2):

April 25th, 2021

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For exercise 2, what I learned when working on the following I managed to familiarize myself more with Adobe Illustrator and learn a lot about planning and ideating backgrounds with a more simplified look to it. I even got to learn a lot about perspectives in landscapes when the main subject has associations with the piece. 

Other than that, I was also able to experiment and play around with how I decide to come up with landscapes and what kinds of elements would fit into it best. It's a fun way to really get the brain working. 

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