digital-illustration-shaq

[digital-illustration-shaq]

Elektra is a young girl with the power to manipulate lightning. She never wanted to use this power she attained because she almost took someone's life by accident during her childhood.This has made her hide her powers from others and avoid being close to anyone.Her real name is Alice White and her goals were to live life normally and graduate high school but this changed when some random entities started to appear within her city and started to harm civilians. Will she hide in amongst the others? or will she decide to be the hero in this story?

Retrospective:

This overall course for character illustration was one of my favourite classes I’ve done during my polytechnic experience so far. Illustration is something I’ve been very passionate about since starting polytech and it was awesome to finally get to do some illustration work in this area. I loved the amount of materials that the course provided such as all the different concepts you need to be aware about like perspective,shading,values,composition etc. It was really cool to work on my own original character aswell and realising the amount of effort that goes into creating a character. You don’t just magically start drawing a character, you have to know everything about their backstory and personality to fully grasp the character you’re drawing. I gained alot of knowledge over this course, one of the main areas I hadn’t put much thought into for illustration was the importance of silhouette. I never fully used this concept in my own works, so this was an area I found quite interesting and from now on, I’m gonna be concious of keeping this concept in mind when making my own illustrations. My goal for this poster design was to make something that was appealing,dynamic and would catch the audiences eye when being displayed. I also wanted to make sure that the poster used a purple colour palette since that was my favourite colour and I really wanted to used that in a design. When I finished this project, I was very proud of what I created. I loved the foreshortened perspective I created on my own and I felt like this piece was a great display of where my knowledge is at without using any particular references. I felt like during my art journey so far, reference was a big crutch on the art pieces I made, so I decided that this piece would be from my own imagination and interpretation of the concepts I had learnt over the years and I was shocked to see that I made something that I could actually be proud of. It pushed me out of my comfort zone, since It took alot of trial and error to get it to a point that was near the vision I had for it, but luckily all of that  perseverance worked out. The course was great on developing your drawing skills aswell, going over some value exercises, silhouette exercises, designs off briefs etc, which really helped when it came to the final weeks where we had to begin making our own poster. It was really awesome to see everyone elses visions in my class aswell, and the amount of different avenues people went down for their characters and I can’t wait to see them all displayed on the walls.

Overall, this course was an amazing experience for me and I’m glad I took part in it. I was very proud of the final product I made and the journey to get to that product was just as fun. I look forward to taking this knowledge and experience with me moving forward, and I can’t wait to test out my skills I have again when the next  opportunity comes. :)

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on wednesday afternoon, I decided to work on the poster with the feedback I was given to try and make the white lightning  have more depth. This task was quite difficult to do since lightning is so bright that it doesn’t really have alot of plane shifts and dimension. I needed to somehow give the illusion that they weren’t all on the same level while also avoiding a shape that didn’t look like lightning. I decided to try and make the lightning in the background darker in values and the closer lightning to be brighter since the light source is coming from the same angle as the camera which is downwards on the character.

I think I managed to improve on the depth alot from what I originally had while still keeping the same essence of my original composition.

I also added a little shift in the expression,making it more of a smirk to give some personality into the illustration.

Some of my own tweaks I made was adding some halftone textures in areas to create some interest and I also made the face have a harsh shadow to make the scene alot more dramatic. I also played with some proportions using the liquify tool

When comparing to what I had yesterday, I think the changes I have made are alot better and its pretty much at its final stages already.

on thursday I might make a few more tweaks and fixes if I see something isn’t quite right but other than that, this piece is almost complete :)

[digital-illustration-shaq]

Feedback

some of the feedback I got which I’ll take into account for wednesday were:

-The white shapes were too flat, and lacked some depth to make the composition more readable and realistic.

- Expression seems to serious ( i fixed this by adding a little smirk instead)

Goals for wednesday: For wednesday, I’m going to try and make the white shapes feel like they have more depth and also fit the perspective I have created. I feel like some of my shapes could be transformed to read better on whether they are in the foreground,midground,background etc.

I also might try adding some shading,texture or transparency on the white shapes of lightning which might help with getting the depth correct.

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this is the stage I got to on tuesday, and I’m feeling pretty happy on how it’s progressing. I’m pretty stoked with how the electricity is looking. To get this look I used a lightning brush and played around with it on a glow layer. I wanted my piece to feel super dramatic with the glow so I added a lot of glowing affects to areas to really push the saturation and make it pop. I played around with alot of values aswell to make sure everything was readable when looking at the character and  the environments around her. On thursday Im gonna just keep adding little touches and refining it even more but so far Im pretty happy with how its looking.

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Final Week

for the tuesday, my goal is to get the basic lineart done and start to bring colour into the piece since thursday will be the touch ups such as lighting and special effects. Some of the challenges I might have to overcome is the rendering of the lightning since I haven’t done it before and its a main part of the poster so I really want to get that element down with the composition.

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in the afternoon, I wanted to work on some character expressions since this is something I’ll be working on from my character feedback. It’s a lot of fun practising with some exaggerated facial expressions, since you can get some interesting shapes and overlaps. I think that when it comes to my character design expression, I will try and find a reference or use my own to help with the basic expression, before altering it to my liking.

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Reflection on feedback

Once we finished all of our feedback in our groups, we were allowed to grab the feedback we were given to help aid with our decisions for our final poster. I was quite happy with the feedback given, and I agreed with every piece of feedback as well. Some of the feedback I am going to use moving forward is the expression that my first poster had. I knew that she looked like she was a bit crazy so I think I might try going for more of a serious expression but not to the point where she looks like a psychopath/villain :D

I also might consider using a fisheye lens grid when I move into the final poster design to help make sure I have an accurate perspective which was recommended in the feedback.

The first poster is the design I think I will use moving forward. Even though the others were great, I think a-lot of people liked the perspective and how dynamic the first one was.

Some things I thought about adding to my composition to make it fit the narrative a little more was having these shadowy hands grasping onto her maybe since there is some areas of emptiness. My vision for the drawing is to be a dark atmosphere with the lightning elements being the main source of light. My colour palette I vision using is purple, blue, black and white with maybe some hints of yellow aswell.

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This morning we put up some of our thumb-nailing ideas for our posters for critique. Here is some of the feedback I was given for each poster.

Poster 1 - 

character looks a little evil in this composition, maybe try switching up the expression a little to portray a hero or someone shy.

we like how you have used a different view point but you could make this more like a fisheye lens to make it pop more.

we really like the poster on the left because the focal point is in the centre and the angle is really different!

Poster 2 - 

maybe make the character slightly bigger, as it’s hard to see them but love the background.

the composition of this poster would make it hard to show detail on the character although it does work with the 100 words.

could make the character bigger because it’s quite small and can’t see it.

Poster 3 - 

the pose of this character in the 3rd poster is very dynamic and it shows the characters determination.

really awesome pose. works well with the character and it draws you in a-lot.

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practiced some shading techniques this morning to help prepare for our posters. Really enjoyed practicing with different light source directions and I also tried out different styles like cel shade vs soft realistic rendering. This exercise is great to get you thinking about the dimensions of an object which will help a lot later on when we start to render out our characters in an environment. I think that for my poster I’ll keep to a cel shaded look since a realistic approach to the poster design would take some time and I wanted my character elektra to be catered towards an animated series style, which most of the time is simplistic in shading.

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did some thumbnail poster drafts on tuesday. Trying to find some unique compositions that show off elektras powers and personality traits. I like how a few of them are looking even if they are a bit rough at the moment but the clarity will come later on in the process.

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started doing some value tests along with figuring out the design of the character of elektra. At the moment it is quite simplistic in design and I was also trying to play around with hairstyles. the first option with short spiky hair does work, but he looks too much like a boy, so if I would move forward with this option I would need to make the face alot more feminine. The second style with long hair could be an interesting choice since it could create alot of dynamic shots for the poster to make it more dramatic. the second version is something I might consider developing on. the third option tested more of a proportional look instead of a baggy hoodie. It works alright but the exaggeration of the first two is more interesting to look at.

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after some practice with silhouettes. I did the shape exercise on my character elektra, trying to find some unique shapes while also trying to find a pose to fit her personality

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this morning we started to prepare for designing our own characters so we started off with a quick silhouette practice, focusing on using specific shape designs to give some personality to the character.

[digital-illustration-shaq]

Name - Samdoesart

Published - 10th June 2021

- stylised proportions (big eyes, smaller nose and mouth)

- stylised in rendering process (uses a mix of soft and hard edges to create a good contrast and appeal)

-Strong colour choices (uses more saturated colours and likes to exaggerate the pink within the skin because of subsurface scattering)

- stylised eyes (makes them proportionally bigger and replicates a disney type of proportion)

- good contrast of having simplified areas and more detailed areas ( likes to create the illusion of detail with only a few strokes)

-stylises the lips by making it have a softer edge compared to having a hard one. makes it feel smooth.

- great understanding of lighting ( main light source, bounce light, secondary light sources, highlights, shadows)

[digital-illustration-shaq]

for thursday we had to create a moodboard,word cloud and answer some questions based on our character we started to develop which for me is elektra.

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Elektra Questions

1 How old is your character? 16 2 What's their relationship with their parents? (if their parents are dead then detail the story and their past relationship if you can find it) (if they have a different back story again, then enter that here) Her parents are both alive and get along very well with elektra, but they are very protective of her since they both know about her powers. 3 Who raised them (ignore if listed in 2) Answer 4 Do they have any siblings? - If so, describe them and their relationship(s) no 5 Are there any significant social interactions or events in the past that influence their character? - if more than one then list them here. early on when she was young, she was on a holiday trip in paris and her family went to the top of the eiffel tower. Both of her parents went to the toilet for 1 minute while elektra was watching the view when suddenly lightning struck, striking elektra but luckily she was able to survive. This event was the start of her journey to learning that she had the ability to manipulate lightning from body. 6 Is your character married, or have they been married? no 7 Does your character have relationships – (if not romantic, then friends) - describe them, and how they view their friends and how their friends view them they have one sort of friend that keeps trying to socialise with elektra even though elektra doesn't want to be near him. His name is Adam, and he is socially awkward and an outcast which is why he tries to get close with elektra since she wants to be alone. 8 If a social class exists in their world, to which one do they belong? middle-class 9 Does your character have children? no 10 Is your character religious, or do they have a mentor, someone they put on a pedstal, or do they take advice from someone (examples) no 11 How has your character’s upbringing shaped their view of the world? Elektra was brought up in a pretty standard setting, trying to focus on finishing school and going to college to please her parents but her powers has shaped how she sees others as being fragile compared to her, meaning she is alot more careful around others. 12 Does your character have chosen accessories / clothing / tools / weapons Elektra likes to wear alot of purple clothing and baggy hoodies / pants. 13 Does your character have preferred other things, food, vehicle, place? - list and describe no 14 Does your character have any notable enemies? no 15 What does your character struggle with? socialising with her peers, avoiding using her powers 16 Describe your character’s world Cliche Modern world focusing primarily on High school life with some magical elements. 17 Has your character ever crossed anyone? no 18 What are your character’s goals in life? to finish high school and go to college for  software engineering 19 Does your character have a dark memory from childhood or the past? she almost killed her childhood friends accidently by joyfully clapping her hands when they were playing which made lightning strike near her friend. She didn't know she had this power at the time. 20 How would a perfect world look to your character? graduating high school and moving to college to begin her career 21 What does your character fear losing the most? her family but shes also afraid of hurting anyone in general. 22 Is your character afraid to be alone? yes and no. She accepts that being alone with her peers in the meantime is the safest option but when she moves away from her family, she wouldn't want to be alone.

23 What would we first notice about your character if we met them? keeps to herself,unsocial and quite striking with her clothing since most people don't wear purple. 24 Is your character a loner or gregarious – or something more complicated (if so, describe)  a loner

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Early development of character descriptions

Elektra is a young girl with the power to manipulate lightning. She has never wanted to use this power she attained because she almost took someone's life by accident during her childhood. This has made her hide her powers from others and avoid being close to anyone. Her real name is Wendy Greenwood and her goals were to live life normally and graduate high school but this changed when some random entities started to appear within her city and started to harm civilians. Will she hide in amongst the others? or will she decide to be the hero in this story?

Washing Machine Man is the hero when it comes to solving people's dirty clothes, but sometimes when people's clothes haven't been washed in a while, they can become evil and threatening. Although the Washing Machine man can clean these evil clothes, he is afraid to get close to them on his own and requires extra assistance from the Drying Machine man to fight them off. This Duo has been compatible for a while but that all changes when an army of dirty socks starts to surface in their city and attack, overwhelming the duo and causing the Drying Machine man to break down.  Will Washing Machine Man step up on his own? or will he let these dirty socks run the city?

Isaac (name might change), is a young boy with the ability to summon dead spirits to fight for him. This all started when he was in a fatal accident with both his parents near a cemetery. both of his parents died during a car crash and Isaac had a fatal injury, with one of the injuries being the loss of an eye. Since then he lives with his creepy grandmother at a gift shop who gave him a cursed stone to replace his lost eye which is when he started to notice the realm of the dead. Isaac hides this eye from others at school, leaving a patch to cover it up. Isaac wants to learn how to manipulate the dead to the point where he hopes he can bring his parents back since he's still in denial about the loss of his parents, especially since he doesn't get along well with his grandmother.