Illustration and Visual Narrative - Assignment 1 - Editorial Illustration (Decisive Moment)

Lecture: Since we missed our previous week's class, Sir advised us that we should see him every Tuesday 6-9pm at D7.04 (Computer Lab 19) for one-to-one sessions about our exercises/assignments. We were given our exercise deadline; Friday, November 3rd.

We were provided resources to help with our current exercise which included info about the Rule of Thirds; a crucial design element that determines the quality of the composition.

Fig. 1.6.1 Example of the Rule of Thirds (not applied)

Fig 1.1.1 Example of the Rule of Thirds (nicely applied)

Tutorial & Practical: Feedback session.

1.2 Week 07

Lecture: We had our Week 6 and 7 lectures put together to make up for Week 5's absent class. So, we were introduced to our first proper assignment: The Decisive Moment. Some info about the assignment:

Editorial drawings are created to give written content a visual element for use on websites, magazines, and newspapers.
This accomplishes two key goals: it draws the reader in and helps provide the piece a fresh viewpoint while they browse the printed material.
You have to locate a relevant story or article that discusses urban legends for this project. The legends could be worldwide or regional.
The Art Deco style must form the basis for the artwork.

To help with our composition, Sir gave a lecture about basic visual composition rules. Said rules being:

Visual Narrative : the scene's visuals enhance every element of the story.
Visual Flow : the scene's visual flow guides the viewer's gaze in the right direction.
Visual Balance : the visuals are arranged to harmonize with the scene's composition.
Visual Hierachy : the images are arranged so that the viewer's attention is drawn to particular details first.

Fig 1.2.1 Example of Visual Narrative (Violet Evergarden, 2020)

Fig 1.2.2 Example of Visual Flow (Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, 2020)

Fig 1.2.3 Example of Visual Balance (Parasite, 2019)

Fig 1.2.4 Example of Visual Hierachy (Anne of Cleeves, 1539)

After that, we were taught about the different types of shots a scene could have:

Establishing : wide views were frequently employed to depict spectacle and offer viewers the opportunity to fully appreciate the beauty and glory of a place while also providing them with enough information to comprehend what was happening.
Bird's eye view : when the point of view is positioned exactly above the subject, it's referred to as an overhead shot/bird's eye view. It is positioned above the action at about a ninety-degree angle.
Frame within frame : in cinematic compositions, a well-composed frame within a frame can offer depth, fracture screen space, and visual appeal.
Medium shot : one of the common camera angles for framing a character. This shot falls somewhere between a close-up and a wide shot.
Close-up : these kinds of shots highlight feelings and thoughts in a grander context..
Worm's eye view : opposite of bird's eye view. It can be used to make something appear tall, powerful, and magnificent while making viewers feel helpless or childlike by making them gaze up to the subject.

Fig 1.2.5 Example of Frame within Frame (Mulan, 1998)

Fig 1.2.6 Example of Close-up (Get Out, 2017)

Tutorial & Practical: Feedback session.

1.3 Week 08

This was ILW (Individual Learning Week) so we had no classes.

Lecture: -

Tutorial & Practical: -

1.4 Week 09

Lecture: We got to try create textures using grain and a template Sir gave to us. This was for us to practice Art Deco texture.

Fig 1.2.7 Art Deco Template

I tried the grain textures out with the first guy from the left and made this:

Fig 1.2.8 My version of textures.

A simple shading style I did by having the yellow on his coat to create a believable light source. Then I added warm shadows throughout the segments of his neck and clothing.

Tutorial & Practical: Feedback session.

1.5 Week 10

Lecture: Finalised the work and briefed on Assignment 2.

Tutorial & Practical: Feedback session.

2. PROGRESS WORK FOR EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION

2.1 Research

When picking my urban legend, I really enthusiastic about making an illustration about Selkies, a creature that could shapeshift into a seal and a human. Mostly because I'd recently watched 'Song of the Sea' a beautifully animated film about Irish folklore. The film revolves around the tale of a Selkie girl, daughter to a mostly human family (her mother was a Selkie).

Fig 2.1.1 Song of the Sea (Cartoon Saloon, 2014)

Video 2.1.1 Song of the Sea Trailer (Go watch the movie! It's REALLY good)

Unfortunately though, after a bit of digging, Selkies are more mythological creatures than urban legends. Meaning, its stories came from long ago rather than recent years. So after searching for a bit, I found an actual urban legend I could illustrate; that urban legend being Kuchisake Onna! I remember when I was younger, I'd watch scary videos on YouTube about ghosts or folklore and Kuchisake Onna happened to come up in my feed. Specifically this video:

Video 2.1.2 Kuchisake Onna video by Snarled.

And with that, I started my research and came up with a concept board.

Fig 2.1.2 Concept Board

2.2 Ideation

As I said in the concept board, I plan on making the decisive moment be when Kuchisake Onna ask the little girl "Am I beautiful?" as she takes off her mask, revealing her grotesque slit-mouth. I decided to go with Sketch #2 where Kuchisake Onna overshadows the little girl. With that, I started with digitising on my iPad since I felt more comfortable with it than my laptop.

Fig 2.2.1 Decisive Moment Progress #1

I started by blocking out the general shapes of the two characters so that I could achieve the sharp art deco style.

Fig. 2.2.2 Decisive Moment Progress #2

Then I started to separate Kuchisake Onna's head into different layers (Hair-Back, Mask, Face, Hair-Front) for my own advantage in the future steps. I decide to try keep curves to a minimum for her since I was to capture how sinister she is with sharper edges. *Note that for now, I made Hair-Front into a different colour just so that you'd to be able to differentiate the layers :)

Fig. 2.2.3 Decisive Moment Progress #3

Then, I made Kuchisake's body. I simplified it to just this shape because I felt like adding coat details would make it too busy so I just made it into a bold, sharp shape.

Fig. 2.2.4 Decisive Moment Progress #4

Next, I made the shapes and layers of the little girl, making her red to give emphasis on the difference between her and Kuchisake. Additionally, I added Kuchisake Onna's signature slit-mouth smile. I decided to keep her eyeless since I noticed it most Art Deco artworks, the characters appear to be eyeless/faceless.

Fig. 2.2.5 Decisive Moment Progress #5

I created the background using simple perspective and I added a bit of detail to the little girl's hat using a rotational reflection tool.. (It looks wonky now but it'll look fine in later steps).

Fig. 2.2.6 Decisive Moment Progress #6

From here, I start using my laptop to add like textures since Photoshop on iPad doesn't have that feature yet.

So, I started adding gradients to the background and also onto Kuchisake Onna. This is basically me just blocking out where light or shadow would generally fall using her as a basis.

Note: I blocked out the sleeve of her coat so it would be visible late when I shade it with textures.

Fig. 2.2.7 Decisive Moment Progress #7

I then added the Sprinkle grain texture to the placed gradients.

Fig. 2.2.8 Decisive Moment Progress #8 - Before and After

This was when my laptop started glitching out because of the amount of grain texture that was presnt in the file so please ignore the white lines!!

I added grain texture on the little girl and added a more contrasting shadow on her back so that the silhouette of the hat would be clear.

Unfortunately I didn't capture the finishing touches of the illustration put the thing I added were:

Shading on the backpack
"Am I... Beautiful?" text
Overall cleaning up some messes here and there.

With that, I was finished with my illustration. Next, I moved on to my limited animation. I started off my sketching out the parts of the illustration that would move. (I animated this in Procreate)

Fig. 2.2.9 Decisive Moment Progress #9

I figured I could animate the hair and mask swaying slightly in the wind and of course have Kuchisake Onna reveal her sinister smile. After consultation with Sir Hafiz though, I decided to keep only the mask swaying and the mouth smiling to properly capture a limited animation feel.

Fig. 2.2.10 Decisive Moment Progress #10

Then, I separated each part of the illustration to better organise my animation workspace.

Fig. 2.2.11 Decisive Moment Progress #11

I started animating the mouth opening. This took about 5 frames of animation.

Fig. 2.2.12 Decisive Moment Progress #12

Then I animated the mask swaying in the wind. I had to rotate it slightly to mask believable movement but since procreate is more of a raster program, the rotated frames were slightly blurry. Not to worry, though, the blurriness helped add to the movement :D This took about 8 frames of animation.

Lastly, I added a small fade in animation to the text.

3. FINAL OUTCOME

Fig 3.1 Decisive Moment Final

Fig 3.2 Decisive Moment Limited Animation Final

4. REFLECTION

This assignment was slightly out of my comfort zone because I had to try and replicate an already existing artstyle rather than using my own. So, the difficulty came when I had to make sure what I was doing matched with the overall vibe of Art Deco. I hope that I managed to portray it properly. Other than that, I had fun with this project! Even though my laptop was definitely on its last straw whenever I added the grain texture to anything, I got to give out an piece that I think is satisfactory!

🐚

Qistina Nuralya Maria Binti Azly (0354180)

Search This Blog

Illustration and Visual Narrative - Assignment 1 - Editorial Illustration (Decisive Moment)

Table of Contents

1. CLASSES

Comments

Post a Comment