Illustration and Visual Narrative Exercises

 25.08.20 - (Week 1-4) 
Chan Meiling 0337771
Illustration and Visual Narrative // Bachelors of Design (Hons) in Creative Media // Exercises

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INSTRUCTIONS

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LECTURE

Week 1

Today, we began our class with Ms Anis, our lecturer for illustration class. At the beginning of class, she briefed us about the rubric and what we are expected to do for our exercises and upcoming modules. In her lecture, we learned about the principles of character design that makes it unique and memorable. Ms Anis also recommended us to use adobe colour to find the colour palette we like which I find much easier to choose the colours which look good to me.

The principles of character design are:

-shapes

-colours

-emphasis and contrast

-harmony

-expressions/ poses.

Character Research:

Before doing project 1, I have also done some character studies on some of my favourite cartoon characters with different personalities based on their body shapes and relate their shapes to the nature of their characters.

Figure1.0 Lumpy Space Princess from Adventure Time

The shapes of lumpy space princess are mostly made up of shapes like circles and ovals (lumps), which portrays the personality of a soft and bubbly character when she is not frowning. However, in this case, instead of having a bubbly personality, lumpy space princess's character appears to be a bratty, apathetic, sassy, attention-seeking and willfully ignorant teenager with a somewhat deep, nasal voice, which is totally unexpected by judging from its appearance. This character breaks the visual stereotype we normally perceive and this is the reason why I find it really interesting.

Figure 1.2 Grug Crood from The Croods

Grug Crood has a wide and rectangle-like body shape with huge, bulky, block-like limbs. He hulking appearance portrays him as a strong, built and responsible character which is true because he is the man in the house and he tries his best to protect his family members and was even ready to sacrifice himself for the family. 

Figure1.3 Patrick Star from Spongebob 

Patrick Star has a raindrop-like body shape which appears to be slightly obese which portrays his personality as a lazy, dimwitted and naive character. His body shape is originally a star which makes it appear to be a character that is cheerful and bright.

Week 2

On today's lecture, I've learned a new term, which is Chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is the use of light and dark effect (contrast) to create an illusion of a 3D effect on a flat surface.

The word chiaroscuro is Italian for light and shadow. It's one of the classic techniques used in the works of artists like Rembrandt, da Vinci, and Caravaggio. It refers to the use of light and shadow to create the illusion of light from a specific source shining on the figures and objects in the painting.

Visual research of Chiaroscuro art:

Girl with the Pearl Earring

Artist: Johannes Vermeer

Viewed as iconic in the Dutch Golden Age, this work exemplified Vermeer's reputation as the "Master of Light," due to his mastery of chiaroscuro. The soft shadow that bathes the left side of her body and her turned face is subtle with variation, as, here, chiaroscuro is modulated by sfumato (the technique of allowing tones and colours to shade gradually into one another, producing softened outlines or hazy forms)

''Self portrait''

Artist: Rembrandt

Rembrandt used lighting effects to achieve an impression of depth. He came up with the use of a spotlight in painting – a beam of light lightens face while leaving everything else in shadow. This creates a dramatic theatrical effect.

Ms Anis also explained that Chiaroscuro effect is not only used in paintings but also widely used in films, comics, drawings and posters etc.

 

Visual research images:

Besides that, we also had some discussions in class about the rules od third and the golden ratio in class.

The rule of thirds is the most well-known composition guideline. It helps draw the viewer's eye into the image and places more emphasis on the subject. Ideally, the empty space that's left should be in the direction the subject is looking or heading into.

The golden ratio is a mathematical ratio, found in many things both natural and designed, that dictates the most pleasing proportions of a shape or structure. The ratio has been used throughout history by philosophers, architects, and designers to create eye-catching, pleasing designs and structures.

Examples of the rules of third:

Examples of the golden ratio:

Week 3

On today's lecture, we learned about Composition. Ms Anis showed to us some examples of good compositions and explain to us about the importance of compositions and how it makes our work looks more interesting and eye-catching. She also told us that composition is the ''secret weapon'' of Instagram feed and photos that looks good. 

Scrolling Instagram feed is one of the things that I'd do every day because I really like how the pictures are together. I normally pay attention to the colours and the content while looking at an account's feed but I've never paid too much attention on how the compositions of these pictures make it more interesting which I find really amusing.

Some Instagram account's feed that I really like

@thankyou_ok

@brookedidonato

Important notes:

Composition:

- refers to how your image is put together, and there are tricks you can keep in mind that, if used in the right way, can take your art to the next level and make a piece really grab your audience’s attention.

-Rule No.1: A balanced distribution of positive and negative spaces

-Visual hierarchy (arrangement and presentation of design elements in order of their importance)

-Mood, Rhythm/ Movement, Visual elements

Week 5

On this week lecture, we learned about the topic, Perspective. Ms Anis said perspective is one of the most crucial things a designer must be good at it.

-Vanishing point

- Visual Hierarchy

Week 6

Rhythm and Movement Analysis

In this animated image, the direction of flow of the character is from the top right towards the bottom left in a downward movement and a twirling movement is also seen from the body of the character. Besides, onomatopoeia is also can be seen on the left side of the image.

Week 7 

Transition

On these week's lecture, Ms Anis showed us some examples of transitions so that we will be are able to have a better understanding and apply some of the transition ideas on for our Project 3 Assignment.

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Tutorial Exercises

For the first exercise, Mr Fauzi brief us about all the tools in adobe illustrator. He showed us how to use the pen tool and even taught us to use shape builder tool which I find really amusing and here is my attempt on tracing cartoon characters:

Tracing Exercise

Original Image 

Week 2 

On today's tutorial and practical class, we learned about how to create simple landscapes by using tools such as gradient and knife tool. This is actually my first time being exposed to these tools so I find it slightly confusing while trying at first but overall it was actually pretty fun to do. Here's my attempt on creating a landscape by using these tools:

Landscape Exercise

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REFLECTION

I personally enjoyed our IVN Class throughout these past few weeks. Besides, I also find the topics that were taught during lectures and the lecture notes that were provided very interesting and useful as well. At the beginning of this class, I find it a little intimidating when we were introduced to different tools in illustrator. However, I realised that there are actually so many ways to illustrate using different software and I can't wait to try out for the upcoming projects.