Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 1/Exercise

4/4/2023 - 19/5/2023 / Week 1 - Week 7
Janice Marie Eng Chia Hui  / 0361521
Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylors University 
Task 1 Exercises

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Table of Content:

1. Lectures
2. Instructions
3. Task 
4. Reflection 

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Lectures

Week 1

The first week, Mr Hafiz briefed us on our assignment breakdown. Since most of us did not have access to the Adobe apps yet, we were not taught how to use it yet. However Mr. Hafiz did let us play the Bezier Game, which could help us get used to the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. 

Figure 1.1 Bezier Game Score

Week 2

This week most of us had access to our Adobe account so we could start using them. Mr. Hafiz briefed us on how to use the pen tool, shape builder tool, pathfinder and blob brush. We were also asked to trace the vormator shapes and to do some of the tutorials in Adobe. We were also briefed on character design by Ms Anis. (Don't ask why the picture is not center align I will fix it ltr not now pls let me be)

Figure 1.2 Week 2 Exercise

Week 3

This week Mr. Hafiz briefed us on how to use the gradient tool, the blob brush to make shadows and the recolour option in Illustrator. We did some exercises along with the lecture.

Figure 1.3 Blob Brush work

Week 4

Week 4 we learnt how to manipulate type with the pencil tool, shaper too, width tool and all the other previous tool that we have learnt. Also before the tutorial section Ms Anis came in to brief us on the illustrated type and MyTIGER poster challenge. 

Figure 1.4 One of week 4 practice

Week 5

This week we learnt about how to make things 3D and how to intertwine shapes.

Figure 1.5 Week 5 3D

Week 6

This week was dedicated to getting feedback from Ms Anis for our Illustrated Type and MyTiger poster progress. 

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Instructions 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M6G9GT3Tgedo-986Eo6a6qK5PwiD-J6F/view?usp=sharing

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Task 1 : Exercise

1. Inspiration 

For the first part of this exercise we were asked to come up with a character silhouette. Mr. Hafiz said our character design should have a noticeable silhouette and a memorable design. As we already had some practice with building shapes with the vormator shapes, I did a (failed)study of Hello Kitty before starting the exercise. 

I decided to do Hello Kitty because it looked simple(it is not). Does it look like Hello Kitty? Well I will let the reader decide that :D.

Figure 2.1 Hello Kitty made with vomator(20/4/23)

Figure 2.2 Character Outline(20/4/23)

Sky: The children of Light

Figure 2.3 Sky Children 

Sky children are characters from the game Sky children of light. They are made to be cute creature to fit the chill vibes of the game. The character has a triangular cape. This cape is a staple throughout the character no matter which outfit you out on them. The faces are simple with little details, same goes for the eyes and legs. This makes the character cuter. Other than the cape, this character also has no sharp edges, which helps play into their cuteness. 

"Sky Children are humanoids with white hair and mitten-like hands. Their eyes always appear to be shut when their face is exposed, but seem to glow when wearing most masks. They have no nose, although some mask, like the masks from Season of Performance showcase a small raised lump that looks like a nose.

Their skin color depends on the outfit they are wearing; it can either be black, dark indigo, brown and light beige. Their skin appears to fade into a lighter color from their lower legs to the tips of their feet. There is a light gemstone in their chests; if they pull out a candle, the gemstone disappears. Their feet have no toes however they appear bare foot when wearing most pants." - taken from the Wiki page for the Sky Children 

The goose from the game Untitled Goose Game 

Figure 2.4 Goose 

Yes the iconic peace was never an option meme. Goose and ducks in general have a very recognizable silhouette, long necks and 2 tiny, thin feet. Because of their short feet, round body and long neck, they are very cute(in my opinion at least). I do not own this game so I Googled the synopsis of the game and found that it's about a nice quaint village that gets terrorized by this goose. So for my character design based on this, I wanted to make an absolute menace of a character. Maybe one day I will buy this game. Source

Sea Angel 

Figure 2.5 Sea Angel 

A sea angel. They are tiny and cute. Their bodies are almost sperm shaped or tadpole shaped, depending on how you look at them. They have 2 horns on their head and their fins or is it wings?? spreads out like and angel hence the name.  Sea angels are carnivorous and can secrete a secretion that prevents predators from eating them. They are also hermaphrodites (have both male and female parts).  The orange thing in the middle of the sea angel are it's organs and because of it's translucent gelatinous body. Source

Katz From Courage the Cowardly Dog

Figure 2.6 Katz

Katz, from the oddly terrifying show Courage the Cowardly Dog. I remember watching this show as a kid and whenever I see this guy I would get uneasy cause of how creepy his design is. Also because he always bullied Courage. Katz has very sharp features, unlike the sky children he is all straight and sharp lines. This obviously helps make him seem more like a villain. His stick arms are also unlike the goose thin legs his are purely sticks. The over exaggeration of the thinness of his arms and legs makes him look like a conniving little cat. 

 2. Design Exploration 

I had 3 design drafted, a goose, a demon and a sea angel. The goose was called Duck and they worked at the palace as a chef. The little demon was suppose to be 20 cm tall and was to be call Naz. The sea angel has a third eye that vibrates really fast to scare predators away from it.

Figure 2.7 Character Design Exploration

In the end I decided to go with the sea angel design. Why I really do not know, I like my goose design the most I really do not know why I picked the sea angel one. Anyway after I found the design I wanted I played around with some different colour combinations. I used the recoulour option in Illustrator and the Adobe colour website to find some colour palate. I decided to add some gradient to the sea angel. In the end, I decided to go for the colour combination that I colour picked from Kokomi, a game character from Genshin Impact. 

Figure 2.8 Colour Exploration 

Figure 2.9 Colour Combination I choose

Figure 2.10 character outline

Final Design 

Figure 2.11 Lil Angel(Final Design 26/4/23)

This is Lil Angel. Their design is based of a sea angel(I couldn't tell), Katz from Courage the Cowardly Dog. Lil Angel has a third eye that can vibrate at high speeds to scare away predators from Lil Angel. If willed, the third eye can vibrate fast enough to create vibrations so fast that it can shatter rocks. However this can only happen once because Lil Angel overexerts their lil body trying to vibrate that fast. If not because of that, Lil Angel will die due to the vibrations produced by the third eye. What happens to Lil Angel after they die, well their bodies explodes leaving behind the third eye that can be used for decorations(woo fun). Lil Angel will only trigger this state when they are under extreme high stress. 

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Illustrated Type

1. Inspiration 

I went hunting for inspo on Pinterest, yes hunting because my brain is fired up and I can't think anymore.

Figure 2.12 Guided by voices

 

Figure 2.13 Ouroboros 

2. Design process

I had initially wanted to put both words together, but that did not work out well so I changed it, taking away half my life span with it. So I separated them and decided to just illustrate them individually. The money illustration is just a pile of money, pretty self-explanatory. The dragon(no it's not a snake it's a dragon a DRAGON). It's design is based on an ouroboros and then some. (there goes my plan of putting a dragon protecting it's pile of money) Below is the processes. 

Figure 2.14 Pile of Coins Process 

Figure 2.15 Dragon Development 

Figure 2.16 Unused work for money

I got some feedback from Ms Anis for my money illustrated type so I decided to change it accordingly. Ms Anis mentioned that my type illustration had a limited colour pallate so she rec that I added some other elements into it. 

I decided to change my money design entirely because I did not like it. 

3. Final Illustrated Type 

Figure 2.16 Final Design for Dragon

Figure 2.17 Final Design for money(MONEH)

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Reflection

My experience during this project was generally ok. When I was learning how to use Illustrator I got a bit confused at times because some of the tools were hidden behind one icon, like u had to long click an icon to see other icon. But after finding out where things were, it was smooth sailing. When coming up with the character design, I was struggling to come up with one that I though was good. I mentioned before that I had like the goose design the most but did not choose it, so yes. For the type illustration, my brain exploded doing it. Yes. The 3D made my laptop kill itself. 

My observation is that Illustrator is hard to use. Yes I hate that Illustrator has so many layers to it. It is very technical, and over this project I had to Google 'How to XXX' so many times ;-;. I observe that my friends also struggles with Illustrator, so this is a collective hatred. 

My findings is that creating a character design from scratch is hard. It take a lot of time and research to come up with something. During the illustrated type, my findings is that working with 3D is hard. Wow who knew. But I did take away a lot of technical skills on how to use Illustrator so a win? I have learnt that if you feel like crap just gaslight yourself into doing your work.