Illustration & Visual Narrative | Exercises

26/8/2020 - 23/09/2020 (Week 1 - Week 5)
Naim Zuki, (0346615) | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration and Visual Narrative 
Exercises

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LECTURES

Lecture 1 | Introduction to Character Design

    Think for a second about some animated characters that you remember from your childhood. Now imagine them in the simplest form that you can. What can you see? Do you see a vertical rectangle and a circle (represented as Sully and Mike Wazowski)? Or perhaps do you see just random curves, squares, triangles, and so on and so forth?

    What you see here is exactly what character design is about: taking a comprehensible shape and finessing it into life with unique characteristics! All of which lies within the Principles of Character Design.

    To put it simply, Principles of Character Design are comprised of five core elements: Shapes, Colour, Emphasis & Contrast, Harmony, and Expressions & Poses. Generally, these elements are used to insinuate the characteristics of characters in order to portray their personality appropriate to their role in the story.

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Lecture 2 | Chiaroscuro

    Chiaroscuro, Italian for light and shadow; chiro for bright, scuro for dark; a glorified contrast between light and dark, the technique that prevails across hundreds of years of humanity that seeps into the modern world through fine and digital arts. A technique that attracts legends such as Rembrandt, da Vinci, and Caravaggio.

    In its formal terms, chiaroscuro refers to the use of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a flat surface. Think the illusion of space that is created by well-painted shadows such as the one shown in figure 1.2.

Fig. 1.0, Saint Jerome Painting (Image Courtesy Caravaggio)

    The main principle of chiaroscuro is that solidity of form is best achieved through the value of gradation of colour and analytical division of bright and shadowed space from the main source of light within an art piece. Proper execution of this technique would result in a piece with an elevated dramatic sense that contributes to the story behind the art piece, pulling the attention to the subject in an intense way, and evoke certain emotions from the audience.

    In composition, chiaroscuro goes hand-in-hand with the rule of thirds and the golden ratio of framing. The combination of negative and positive space along with appropriate use of the ratio could be utilised to guide the audience's perspective into understanding what is happening within a certain art piece, be it in photography, fine arts, or digital art.

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Lecture 3 | Compositions

    As mentioned last week, an artwork goes hand in hand with the Rules of Composition. Separate these two and the outcome will appear confusing, unpleasant, and ultimately not noteworthy. Thus, as visual artists, we have to know how and when to apply proper composition rules that would help improve our artwork by adding a sense of visual narrative, harmony, and composure.

Rules of Composition can be put into three stages: Focal Element, Structure, and Balance.

Fig. 1.01, 3 Stages of Composition, (Image courtesy of Andrew Price)

    

    Within these three stages, there are a number of elements that contributes to what the human eye perceives to be visually pleasing. Those elements are stated below:

Focal Element: 

    Natural Focal Elements: High contrast, saturation, camera focus, motion, faces or figures.

    Focal Element Influencers: Guiding Lines, Framing.

Structure:

    Common Structure Examples: Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio, Pyramid, Symmetry, Full Frame.

Balance:

    Visual Weights: Size, High contrast, Saturation, Faces, Figures.

    To give a quick example of practical uses of these rules, take a look at these two images that I've taken.

Fig. 1.02, Stall in Pasar Seni, 01/06/2020

Fig. 1.03, Woman in Chew Jetty, 07/08/2020

    There's an important difference between how these two pictures were taken that I'd like to address to show why composition matters when visualising a scene. 

    In the first picture, I took the shot thinking that the stall with the variety of products scattered all around would be an interesting subject. However, the light that came from the flash made the focal point of the shot completely fall apart. Double that with the lack of structure within the picture, it made the shot feel like it's in complete disarray. Aside from keeping it as a timestamp of how the world looked like in June of 2019, the picture has so far served no aesthetic purpose.

    Now, look at the second picture. There are multiple elements here at play, can you spot them? If you're thinking about the focal elements that I've incorporated as well as the added structure within the framing, then you're absolutely right. 

Fig. 1.03, Highlighted composition rules used

    The main focal points that I've added within this shot are camera focus, contrast, and figures. The structure I've used on this image is the Golden Ratio. For a quick run down, take a look at the man walking away in the background. His presence in the light adds a heavy visual weight on the right side of the picture, thus the lady on the left side of the frame acts as a counter weight to make the shot look more balanced. If you take a look closely, the lines of the golden ration circulates from the floor, to the walking man, running around the walls and circulating where the lady sits, adding a sense of structure within this picture.

    That was a short example and there are many more ways that the rules of composition can be incorporated within an artwork and the freedom to use them can be an artist's greatest asset. Though it can be confusing at first, in due time these rules will come by quite intuitively to anyone who practises them.

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INSTRUCTIONS

Module Information Booklet: Illustration and Visual Narrative
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Task 1 | Analysing Animated Characters

Subsequent to learning about Principles of Character Design and how certain elements provoke certain emotions within the audience, we were tasked to deconstruct 3 fictional animated characters and study the implications of said principles.

    CL4P-TP

Fig. 2.0, CL4P-TP (Image Courtesy of Keith Schaffer)

Fig. 2.01, Claptrap (Image Courtesy of Gefloung)

CL4P-TP or more well known as Claptrap from the Borderlands franchise has a base shape of a box; or more accurately, a trapezoidal prism. This shape represents the character's flat persona which serves as the ultimate goal to satirically annoy all characters within the series including, yes you guessed it, the players themselves. Claptrap's colours embody his (very limited) range of emotions that are synonymous with happiness. Though I suppose that is appropriate considering programming the complex range of the opposed emotion: misery, would only call for the most skilled and amazing individual. In which, Claptrap is not.

    

    Appa

Fig. 2.02, Avatar: The Last Airbender (Image Courtesy of John Staub)

Fig. 2.03 Avatar: The Last Airbender - Appa Concept (Image Courtesy of Bryan Konietzko)

Appa the flying bison from Avatar: The Last Airbender possesses the base shape of a rectangle. Flip the triangle horizontally and you have a representation of a stable character. This representation contributes to Appa being the relief character that provides a sense of comfort (the home-base per se of the Gaang) for the audience as opposed to the ever-changing and sometimes unstable personalities of all the other characters.

    Gwen Stacy

Fig. 2.04, Gwen Stacy Doodle Page (Image Courtesy Bethany Stapleton)

Fig. 2.05, The art of Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse (Image Courtesy Shiyoon Kim)

Diverging from the principles of shapes, the character Gwen Stacy from the movie Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse puts some focus on the representation of colours. Her black and white clean-cut silhouette represents gracefulness and purity which is contrasted with her eccentricity and dark past. The accent of gold and pink in her character design allows for the character to be seen as passionate, compassionate, and loving. 

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Task 2 | Chiaroscuro

For this week's topic exercise, I'll be editing a picture I took of my friend (refer to fig. 2.6) on Photoshop according to the chiaroscuro principles of light and dark.

Fig. 2.06, Azira

This 3/4 profile of my great friend Azira here already introduces a clear contrast between the lights and the shadows, from her well-lit face to the shadows of her black hijab. From there, in order to bring out her presence more in this picture, I must remove the guy to her left.

Fig. 2.07 using the lasso tool to fill a selected path

Fig. 2.08 using content-aware for photoshop to calculate the fill

Fig. 2.09 output

From here, I'll apply the Black & White module in Photoshop's photo adjustment window. I focused the saturation more on Azira's skin tone, hence the red value is elevated compared to any other colours present in the picture.

Fig. 2.10 applying the black & white module

Fig. 2.11, increasing the red value

Fig. 2.12 experimenting with tints to create a more vintage/aged film look

The outcome from my edits in photoshop are as is. However, I feel as if it's unsatisfactory as the highlights are not complimentary, the shadows are crushed, and it feels overall underexposed. Therefore I'll be transporting the edits into darktable for further editing and experimenting.

Fig. 2.13, applying darktable's monochrome module

Fig. 2.14, applying a mask using the colour balance module 
to reduce the background's brightness

Fig. 2.15, applying the rule of thirds 

After applying the denoise, lens correction, sharpening, and vignetting modules as well as increasing the exposure, the end result is as shown below (fig. 2.16).

Fig. 2.16, final edit, 9/2/2020

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Task 3 | Designing Landscapes

As an introduction to the upcoming Vector Landscape Illustration exercise, Mr. Faizal has tasked us to design a simple vector landscape art using Adobe Illustrator.

Now I love vector art as much as the other guy, but I am an almost complete stranger when it comes to creating vector art in Adobe Illustrator. So I referenced the tutorial video attached within the Times page and made a simple design of a mountain.

Fig. 2.12, Vector Landscape Exercise, 10/9/2020

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Task 4 | Visual Study; Rhythm and Movement

For week six's lecture, we're tasked to conduct a personal study on visual materials that utilises motion lines and onomatopoeias. 

Call me a closeted weeb, but I find that a medium that best utilises these techniques is Manga. As an example, I'm going to use certain panels from the manga series Tokyo Ghoul.

Fig. 2.13, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1

Using this page from Tokyo Ghoul's first chapter, we can see some motion lines that Ishida Sui has utilises to portray action and movement. I've drawn the obvious guiding lines within the panels.

Fig. 2.14, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1; Visual Analysis

In these panels, Ishida Sui distorts the shape of the kagune to suggest movement and rhythm in the panels. We can see that the lines that he uses made Kaneki's movement more urgent and free-flowing rather than blocky and unconvincing. Below are more quick visual analysis of certain scenes from Tokyo Ghoul.

Fig. 2.15, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1

Fig. 2.16, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1; Analysis

Fig. 2.17, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1

Fig. 2.18, Tokyo Ghoul Chapter 1; Analysis

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Exercise 1 | Vermator Challenge!

For my very first exercise of the new and exciting school year, my lecturers have instructed me to engage in a playful character design challenge titled 'The Vermator Challenge'. Upon briefing, I am to create a unique character by using a set of shapes named adequately by their unparalleled characteristics such as but not limited to; The Zerk, The Wurst, and The Tentacle. As Plato worded it, "The mother of invention is necessity," hence the limitations set in this exercise aim to challenge my own technical skills and conceptual development throughout the entire period of the assignment.

Original Vermator Elements

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To start off, I've visualised my character to have the minimalist look. The reason behind this in its entirety is because it contrasts with the character's personality. I visualise him to be the warrior of Nusantara, one that rides dragons of the East and protects villages from the ever-increasing attacks of the demon king Raksa. I haven't had the chance to sketch this character out, hence I'm only able to provide the final outcome. I present to you: Satria -

Fig. 3.0, Satria (Originally named The Prod), 8/9/2020

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I'm just kidding, I hope you enjoyed that. Jokes are acceptable here, right?

Real talk now. Although this challenge is very exciting, it is still undoubtedly intimidating for me. I've barely had prior experience in character design nor illustration in my life so it took me some time to visualise how I want my character to look. Although the shapes were limiting, it was fun to arrange and rearrange the shapes into different outlooks. The following are a couple of my early experiments.

 
Fig. 3.01, Fire Worm, 9/9/2020

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Fig. 3.02, Tim, 9/9/2020
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Upon completing these two beautiful, quirky, and unique characters, I felt a little bit experimental and tried something else.

Fig. 3.03, Joe, 9/9/2020
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I imagined the above to be a basic NPC in a mobile game. Maybe the kinds that move from side to side and having the basic actions of swinging its arms at the main player with full determination in its movement to murder the mc.

Now for a more serious approach to this challenge, I started taking some inspiration from the character designs of Dark Souls 2. 

Fig. 3.04, Dark Souls 2 All Bosses (Image Courtesy of MenasLG)

From Software's developing team has always caught my eye when it comes to designing anything within the fantasy-horror genre and I thought it would be fun to experiment a little with this in mind.

Fig. 3.05, first draft, 9/9/2020
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Fig. 3.06, Further development, 10/9/2020
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Feeling satisfied with the development of this character, I began to explore some possible colour schemes on Google and found an interesting colour palette. 

Fig. 3.07, Creating a colour scheme

Fig. 3.08, applying colours and depth into armor, body, and helmet
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Now all that matters is putting this yet-to-be-named armoured boy on top of a dramatic background to really add depth to the character and provide a sense of completion to the exercise.

Admittedly, arranging a background for this character was more fun than making the character himself. Mainly due to the reason that I get a bigger canvas to work on and I get to really think of the story I'd like to associate with this piece. 

I've tried applying the Chiaroscuro technique within the background through applying a grainy vignetting as well as keeping the dark colours very much present within the whole composition. The part I'm most happy about the background is that all the elements, including the river and the trees, are according to the shapes given at the start of the exercise. Although the river is a distorted combination of The Tentacle and The Cobra, the rest are true to their original shapes.

Fig. 3.09, Added background, 10/9/2020
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Now comes my favourite part! Applying our character into a card game. Of course, when I've taken my inspiration from Dark Souls 2, used a dark-toned colour scheme, and gave my character horns, I knew I had to fit in this bad boy into a Yu-Gi-Oh! card and give him the tastiest of backstories. Upon letting my thoughts go wild (and admittedly, my friend's too), comes Ferron, the Curse-Kissed, my final creation from The Vermator Challenge. I hope you've appreciated my work so far and that you have gained something new from reading my process. Or at least, I hope that my blog has made you chuckle even if it's just a tiny bit. Thanks for reading, have a pleasant day.

Fig. 3.10, Ferron The Curse-Kissed, 10/9/2020

Inscription:

Ferron the Curse-Kissed

Few know that the Mother-Gorgon Medusa nursed a human child in her years prior to her curse. That child grew to become one of the greatest Alchemothurges in the land. While she kept her distance to keep him safe, the curse was retroactively hereditary. Her son, upon her death, assumed the form of a demigorgon within the confines of his metallic Theurgic Armor, and his flesh warped and expanded within his former magnum opus.

Miraculously for him, his body survived, stronger than ever, bolstered by the strength of a Demigorgon and augmented by the peak of human achievement. Unfortunately for the rest of us, his mind did not.

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Exercise 2 | Vector Landscape Challenge

Now that we've gotten character creation out of the way, here on out we'll start with designing landscapes.

Just as the Vermator Challenge, this exercise will predominantly be made within Adobe Illustrator, and also like the previous challenge, this will be another part of Design that I am wholeheartedly unfamiliar with. So bear with me while I explore the nuances of landscape art.

For the first part of the exercise, we are given the freedom to sketch our ideas within our own physical sketchbooks or within Photoshop. My main source of inspiration to start off would be various concept arts from Pinterest. Below are some that have caught my attention. 

Fig. 3.20, concept art inspo, (Image Courtesy of Андрей Островерхий)

Fig. 3.21, composition study #1, (Image Courtesy of Taehoon Kang)

Using these as referenced, I started digitally painting using monochrome values to study 3-dimensional space and came up with these two rough sketches.

Fig. 3.22, Castle sketch, 17/9/2020

Fig. 3.23, Landscape sketch, 16/9/2020

It's noteworthy that these two sketches were done with identical ideas from the inspirations. The main objective of studying and sketching these ideas were to fully test out the brushes that are appropriate within Photoshop that could represent accents and highlights well enough to convince that a landscape has been put down onto the artboard.

With that, I spent some time trying out sketches with more details in the shadows and highlights.

Fig. 3.24, Landscape Sketch, 23/09/2020

Fig. 3.25, Landscape Sketch, 23/09/2020

I was pretty happy with my sketches at this point and I decided to choose the final sketch (fig. 3.25) to be developed for my final submission. Here are some more reference photos I used to try and get the details right.

Inspo

Exporting these sketches and tracing them in vectors was truly a challenge. Trying to understand how lights and shadows work and creating paths to match the physics was the most challenging part of the whole exercise. I tried experimenting using the colour scheme shown below (Fig. 3.26).

Fig. 3.26, Extracting colour scheme for experimenting

Fig. 3.27, Vector tracing & colour experimentation

At this point, I spent the most time trying to get the gradients, styles, and colours just right to make it a convincing landscape artwork. The current lighting scene doesn't sit right with me so I experimented a lot with the shapes and shadows, the following are some of my work process.

Fig. 3.28, recolouring

Fig. 3.29, adding highlights

Fig. 3.30, adding little details

Fig. 3.31, reworking background

Fig. 3.32, adding a gradient colour on lake and details to the sky, reflection, and windows to the castle

Fig. 3.33, recolouring and reworking foreground

Fig. 3.34, Adding colours

Fig. 3.35, adding grass as visual stimulation of depth

Fig. 3.36, Reworking with the Torii gate, with added highlights and shadows with details on the stones and woodwork

Fig. 3.37, Adding more shadows and highlights

Fig. 3.38, adding misty clouds for added depth and atmosphere

Could you tell I got a groove going when I started recolouring? I expanded my reference board and sought out feedback while in the process of colouring and detailing to enhance my work. Otherwise, the rigorous experimentation and light study, as well as research, was truly gruelling but by the end of it all, I was over thrilled and happy with the results, to say the least.  

Fig. 3.39, Final Landscape Exercise, 23/09/2020

Fig. 3.40, Final Stylised Landscape Exercise, 23/09/2020

Fig. 3.41, Final Landscape Exercise PDF, 23/09/2020

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FEEDBACK

Week 2

For the Vermator challenge, Ms Anis said that my work was good for a beginner, with no further comments needed.

Week 5

For the vector landscape exercise, Ms Anis said that my skills in Adobe Lightroom have increased and she complimented the composition I made. Mr Faizal said I should add more details in the background and add more details in the reflected shadows.

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REFLECTION

Week 1

For my first-ever class at Taylor's University, I felt a bit overwhelmed at the expected outcomes of the exercises and projects. What made me especially scared was walking into the classroom seeing some of my classmates using drawing tablets and iPads fluently and coming up with such good compositions. I'm just hoping that I'll catch up to them as the weeks progresses.

Week 2

Doing the Vermator challenge was fun! I'm glad that it was enjoyable cause it's a good distraction from the fact that I felt like my character was lacking in some creativity :') But I did enjoy writing the backstory to the character about as much as the designing process.

Week 3

The experimentation for the Vector Landscape blew my mind. I never really had the confidence in coming up with anything vector-art because I am severely inexperienced. But the help from Mr Faizal and that tutorial from Youtube excited me and showed me the potential vector art has that I can explore for this exercise.

Week 4

This week I tried my hand in doing digital concept art and it was way harder than I thought. I used this tutorial as my main introduction to anything concept art. I find that studying light reflection and shadows are the hardest part of the entire experiment. 

Week 5

I think I'm having a severe case of being late for assignments. Things are getting a bit overwhelming and I'm definitely having a hard time catching up to all the exercises and projects right now. But the outcome of the Landscape Exercise was definitely something I'm happy with. I posted it on my social media and a lot of people liked it too so it felt really validating. 

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FURTHER READING

Week 1

Understanding Colors by Andrew Price

https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/understanding-colors

Week 3

Understanding Composition by Andrew Price

https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/understanding-composition

Week 7

The Perfect Musical Symmetry of Avatar the Last Airbender by Sideways 

https://youtu.be/Rzf_sTuDcX8