Illustration and Visual Narrative Project 1

26/8/2020 -? (Week 1-Week 3)
Chan Meiling 0337771 BDCM
Illustration & Visual Narrative // Ms Anis & Mr Faizal
Vormator Character Design & Vector Landscape Illustration

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EXERCISE 1

Vormator Character Design

For our first exercise given, we were required to come up with a character design and game card with the vormator shapes provided.

At the beginning of this exercise, I started to do some research and find some examples of this exercise. Then, I started brainstorming and come up with some sketches of facial expressions that could be made up out of the vormator shapes given.

Visual research picture that I like the most:

Idea sketches:

Then, I decided to explore more and tried to use Adobe illustration to come up with more ideas.

Self-exploration:

After deciding the character and it's personality, I decided to start to digitise my previous sketches. Here are some of the evidence that I only use the vormator shape without changing the proportions or using other shapes since the structure of my character actually requires using a lot of pathfinding and grouping tools. Here are some of the progress of my work:

Body shape of character

Wings structure details

Hands structure

Scarf

Crown structure

My workspace :D

AAANDDD FINALLY....

Meet my character, Twinklemoore!

Final Work in PDF:

After transferring Twinklemoore to the background, I've decided to add some shadows on the ground because I want to show that the direction of the light is on the top of my character. Then, I added some grain effect on the mountains and grass so that there will be a little texture since the concept of my character is smooth and doesn't have much texture on it, I didn't want the background to have too much texture. I've also added an effect on the path to show some texture as well. I have also used quite a lot of gradient tool to show the direction of light.

Lastly, I've added my character to my game card and this is the final work for Project 1!

EXERCISE 2 

Vector Landscape Illustration

For our second exercise, we require to create a landscape illustration out of vector shapes with

the application of background, midground and foreground. Ms Anis told us that we are allowed to use the sample sketches given on times or even coming out with our own idea of landscape illustration.

Before doing this exercise, I have decided to go on Pinterest to do visual research and get some ideas. Here are some of the visual research pictures that I like:

At the beginning, I was a bit lost and couldn't think of ideas that I really like. So I have decided to give myself a break and watch an anime movie instead. After scrolling through my to watch movie list, I decided to watch an anime movie called The Secret World of Arrietty.

This anime movie is about A girl named Arrietty who's a Borrower (human in an extremely tiny size), who lives with her parents in the recesses of a suburban home, unbeknown to the homeowner and housekeeper. Like others of her kind, Arrietty remains hidden from her human hosts but occasionally ventures forth from beneath the floorboards to borrow sugar cubes and other supplies. 

Since this movie is displayed in a way that involves perspectives of tiny human beings and perspectives of a human being looking at a 'borrower', some of the landscape perspectives are in worm's eye view and bird's eye view which I find really interesting. I also find the colours and the landscape of this anime movie very aesthetically pleasing.

Here are some of the landscapes in the movie scene that I really like:

In this exercise, we are also required to come up with 5 idea sketches. Here are some of the idea sketches that I have done:

After doing a few sketches, I have chosen my favourite idea out of all the idea sketches that I have done and I started to plan the layers that I'm going to do later on using Adobe Illustration.

Then, I started to go on Pinterest to find some pictures for my inspiration and to create my moodboard and deciding the colour pallette that I'm going for.

Then I started to look for some reference before starting to illustrate my sketches. Since the perspective of my landscape is in a worm's eye view, I started searching for pictures of flowers in worm's eye view, mountains and skies.

      

  

      

Then I started to illustrate my sketch layer by layer. Here are the layers of my landscape illustration:

Besides, I have also created guidelines according to the rules of third to make it easier for me to arrange the composition of my landscape illustration.

Final PDF of my Vector Landscape Illustration:

Narrative writing:

  Countless of hours walking under the scorching sun later, I can barely see it in front of my eyes. The Mountain of Souls, a place that looks ordinary but has magical powers that enable people to forget their problems and find peace, they say. My body is getting weaker from hours of travelling but thankfully the windy weather and the view makes it slightly bearable. Wiping off bullets of sweat on my forehead, I decided to take a break and enjoy the serene view before I continue my long journey. So near yet so far, I wonder when will I be able to arrive at the top of the mountain?

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REFLECTION

Exercise 1-Vormator Challenge

For this exercise, I find it quite challenging at the beginning. I didn't really want to make my character too complicated but I didn't want the vormator shapes to be obviously seen in my character either. After struggling for quite a long time, I decided to combine the shapes and use the pathfinder tools to turn the vormator shapes into shapes that I want. Overall, this exercise was actually pretty fun and I actually enjoyed doing it despite the struggles I have been through.

Exercise 2 - Vector Landscape Illustration

For exercise 2, this was actually my first time doing an actual illustration artwork like this and I'm actually pretty satisfied with it. Since I'm not that skilful at using Illustrator, I was a bit frustrated at the beginning. I hope that I will be able to improve more through all these practices and be able to try out different styles of illustration in the future.