Illustration & Visual Narrative / Task 2 : Composition

 17/09/2024 - 31/10/2024 (Week 4 - Week 6)

Rachel Ng Jie Ting/ 0378902

Bachelors of  design (Honours) in creative media

Illustration & Visual Narrative / Task 2: Composition (20%)

---

Table of content 

Instructions

- Task 2

Reflections

---

Lecture

Lecture post

---

Instruction 

Task 2 - Composition

Objective: Place your Vormator character into a Pokemon card composition, incorporating foreground, midground, and background elements. You may also create a new shape not bound by the vormator rules or shapes. You may also come up with a new character that does is not bound by the vormator shapes.

Tools to Use: Pathfinder, Shape Builder tool, Knife tool. You may also use other warping tools that will be introduced in the following weeks.

Steps:
1. Apply color and shadow to your Vormator character to enhance its visual appeal.

2. Design a composition that effectively uses foreground, midground, and background to tell a soft narrative about your character.

3. Create a Pokemon card layout featuring your character, including its name, powers, and ability ratings.

4. Write a brief description of your Pokemon, explaining its abilities and characteristics.

Submission Requirements
Artwork: A completed Pokemon card featuring your Vormator character, showcasing the use of composition rules (landscape) or your new character in it's environment as a stand alone illustration. (A4 size PNG)
Write-Up: A short description of your Pokemon, including its powers and abilities, formatted like a traditional Pokemon card.

Week 4 :

Research, reference and sketches

First, I gathered references for my work to build my research board. I referenced the book "Framed Ink"  and went online to find pictures.

Fig 1.1 - Screenshots of pages from the 'Framed Ink' book.

Fig 1.2 - Reference art from the internet.

Fig 1.3 - Rational.

Fig 1.4 - Sketch work and chosen colour palate.

After building my reference board, I sent it to Mr. Hafiz for feedbacks and checking. He said it was Ok, and I continued with my work

Week 5 and 6 :

Screenshot of progress

With the freedom to use any shape we want, I gave my character a minor redesign to fit better with the background I will be building later. 

Fig 1.5 - Using shapebuilder to build new tails.

With some minor tweaks, my character feels more dynamic and closer to the version I drew in the sketch

Fig 1.6 - Character redesign.

After that, I started building the background. I started first with the bamboo. Using the pen tool and knife tool, I individually created each bamboo in the scene.

Fig 1.7 - Using knife tool.

Fig 1.8 - Tracing bamboo with pen tool.

Fig 1.9 - Bamboo forest.

After that, I gave some shading to some of the larger bamboos, and moved the middle bamboo layer a little further to the back.

Fig 1.10 - Shading.

In another artboard, I create several types of bamboo leaves and flowers to be used in the artwork, using the vormator shape 'the drop' and pen tool. For the flower, I pieced together 4 circles and using shapebuilder, made a flower shape.

Fig 1.11 - Custom bamboo leaves and flower.

And placed then in my art work

Fig 1.12 - Applying bamboo leaves and flowers.

Then, using the gradient tool, I applied gradient to a rectangle shape that I placed at the very back to create a 'sunlight shinning through the forest' effect.

Fig 1.13 - Gradient ver 1.

Though I did change the gradient colour and position a bit later

Fig 1.14 - Gradient ver 2.

Then I started to colour my character and apply shading to it.

Fig 1.15 - Colouring character.

For the ghost fire surrounding my character, I just lower the opacity for a more ghostly feel.

Fig 1.16 - Making ghost fire.

Same effect was also applied for the butterfly.

Fig 1.17 - Making butterfly.

Then with some minor adjustments, the work is completed.

Final Composition:

Fig 1.18 - Final Composition

Final pokemon card :

Fig 1.19 - Final Pokemon card

---

Reflection

While completing this task, I felt like my eyes were going to pop, as I sometimes spend too much time trying to fix stuff I accidently drew wrongly or deleted. 

But I did feel that I'm getting more skilled in using Illustrator and its tools, need more practice though.

I have also learned more about composition building and how to make a background that tell a story of my character.