shayla-illustrations2

[shayla-illustrations2]

Reflection

I had a good time in this elective im glad I came back, It was so interesting to see how my work has changed and how much more confident I am with the tools, even though i havent done much drawing since the last time, but over the 2 years i have gotten more confident as a designer and am so happy with the work.

I cant tell if the class was rowdier than the first year or just because im now seeing it from a year 3 perspective

[shayla-illustrations2]

Final Poster - The Rat King

So after showing my 3 poster options to the class I got some good feedback, the middle tarot style poster seemed to be the most popular which i do like a lot but the composition of the last one was just so much more interesting and a lot of the feedback seemed to think it was a fun cartoony one and i really wanted to show my vision of a more dramatic and thriller like poster so I decided to go with that.

I started by getting a lot of images of rats and making it into a value study. I found this image online with provided a lot of inspiration for more dynamic poses for the rats.

I decided to go with a really rough sketch style for the rats so they show chaos, movement, and that they are more faceless then the main subject

I then did a lot of iterations of the king himself. I knew I wanted the pose to have him hunched over he needs to be on edge, nervous but not scared. so I want him to be looking over his shoulder hunched down but also posed to be tense like he could jump at any time.

the first one was real life accurate but i felt he looked to cute and round and he didnt have the tenseness i was going for. the second one was more of what i was going for and i tweaked it for the final one to turn around and look at the viewer and this image also shows the palette i had decided to use. I had a very helpful model to help me get the arm looking right (this is 1 of like 20 pictures)

I added some highlights to the border rats and settled on a colour for the king. I decided on a Wistar rat which is a breed of albino rats that are very popular in laboratories, this also made sense to his backstory and how hes collected more than just other lab rats. Also the white was a nice contrast and very eye catching.

I tried to do my own colouring and highlights but I could not get it to look right and how i wanted. plus im pretty bad at shadows and rendering fortunatly i know a very talented artist who quickly drew up her own version of my poster and took me through step by step how to colour, shade, highlight and render.

here we have plain colours, shades and highlights, and full render

and here is my final poster with that harsh backlight i finally managed to achieve

[shayla-illustrations2]

Highlight Exercise

I came in late today but its okay I was able to get a page done and then the much harder secondary light source ones. I love this exercise at it taught me lighting the first time I did it so I was pretty confident doing it again. I will say the i think i messed up the 6th one on the first page if i was to do it again i would make sure the top cone bit was straighter

[shayla-illustrations2]

Thumbnails

when decided the composition of my poster i had a few things in mind, the idea took a lot of inspiration from the secret of nimh, watership down, and animal farm, dark movies so i want my poster to portray that.

(ironic these were such an inspiration since i really hate these movies except nimh. however they do stick with you and the messages are good)

with the examples we were given in class i circled the ones i was really drawn to, im going to go with a simple maybe 3 colour palette with my character being the main focal point

in my first go with thumbnails i had a few more graphic ideas that were very watership down inspired. I decided to not go with them as i didnt want a scary poster but more of a dramatic thriller look

so on my second go I removed the violent ones and changed to some more outside alleyway and lab options to really put the character in a setting

the posters i chose to go with was the 1st alley and the first 2 on the final row but i ended up making some tweaks

i changed the heavenly rat to be more of a tarot card style where the rat is lying on a dissection table and the alley one i added an army of rats behind him

heres a cleaned up version that gets the idea across a bit more. i think its obvious where i put the most work

[shayla-illustrations2]

100 words

So guess who didn't write 100 words. me. I wrote 300. BUT that is because i wanted to flesh out all three of my character ideas before I chose 1. I also made word clouds for all of them. It was a real struggle to choose but ultimately I am going with the rat king as I feel I can get more interesting posters with him as the other 2 may need a bit more detail and work, and from what i learnt last time two much detail can really hinder you.

Rat king Leon or 11037, was an experiment rat in a lab. The experiments were to better humanity but gave Leon a higher intelligence and made him much bigger and stronger than the average rat. He manages to escape and kill a scientist before freeing the other rats in the lab. After they escape, Leon appointed himself king and has become very protective of his rat subjects, however, due to all the experiments he has started hearing voices telling him that another rat wants to take his place. He has now gone mad and paranoid part of him trying to find the usurper and another still trying to save his subjects.

Ëlowen A wife and mother of 3 children. She grew up in a war-torn world and got pregnant at age 16. Looking for a safe place to raise her child, she escaped and found Leraë, a living land with kind inhabitants. Her and her eldest daughter are the only humans. She learnt how to make medical herbs and natural pesticides to protect Leraë. She is stern and loving, but to others she often appears cold and unwelcoming. She taught her children the ways of nature and how important it is to maintain different parts of the Leraë. She is always trying to prove she belongs in Lerae and will do anything to protect it from the encroaching land that she escaped from.

Nui A large distant relative of a tui who lives in a bird sanctuary. After being around visitors for a while he has learnt to imitate speech very well and uses it for chaos. His goal is just to mess with the visitors as he could leave at any time. The park rangers are constantly monitoring Nui and making sure he doesn't get up to any mischief much to their chagrin. Because his species has never been seen before they don't want to throw him out but he's also a real pain.

[shayla-illustrations2]

Character backstories

Today we created 3 characters and gave them a rough outline of who they are and their motivations. I ended up making 4 because i kept getting ideas. I've also included quotes that inspired me in writing their stories and some similar characters

Méera: early 20s

Egotistical, perfect pretty girl character who believes she was born to be a hero. Since she was born everyone around her has believed she is perfect in every way, including her overbearing parents who have always pushed her to be such. Méera has never had a problem with this, fully accepting her role and behaving accordingly. She appears to be good at everything she tries, leading her to be the most accomplished human in the city. She relishes praise but comes across as humble and modest, internally she's vain conceited and manipulative, so the only person worth her time is Entomé as two perfect beings should be together.

Goal: to show her devotion to Entomé by any means necessary, including travelling the world and slaying mythic beasts. Classic knight winning the princess's affection.

Challenges internal – She hates losing when she loses, she can throw a tantrum showing people her real side. Doesn't believe others are worth her time but has to keep up her facade external – the monsters she keeps picking fights with. The people who she uses as stepping stones

Talent: no practical real world skills her fighting style is based on easy sparring so shes like a fencer in a world of boxers, elegant and skilled but unlikely to win

Quotes: "your corpse will be marked by the stars" "In the dark times, should the stars also go out?"

Inspired characters: Azula

Ëlowen: 50

A wife and mother of 3 children aged 34, 27, and 25. She grew up in a war-torn world and got prgnant at age 15. Looking for a safe place to raise her child she escaped across the sea and washed up on Leraë, a living island with kind inhabitants. Her and her eldest daughter are the only humans. She is particularly good at medical herbs and natural pesticides to protect Leraë. She is stern and loving, but to others she often appears cold and unwelcoming. She taught her children the ways of nature and how important it is to maintain different parts of the Leraë. She is well respected in the community but not many try to get to know her, preferring to leave her to work. She is passionate about plants and her family but internally fears she isn't doing enough for them so constantly pushes herself, giving her an exhausted and unwelcoming demeaner.

Setting: She lives on Leraë a giant living tree/country and spends her time creating elixirs out of the plants that grow in the area.

Goal: to protect her family and Leraë.

Inspired characters: Joel last of us. Hank dbh

Challenges internal – has been hardened by her experiences in her youth and having a child so young. Became protective and cold. Constantly works to and pushes herself external – anyone trying to hurt her family or Leraë

Talent: learnt herself how to care for plants and nature by seeing and observing and used her knowledge to start creating potions and elixirs that can help boost the flora.

Quotes: "It's about not letting misery define you. It is about getting up and starting again" "Here's the hand you are dealt. What are you gonna do about it?" "We cannot control what happens to us but we can control how we react to it"

Large Tui with teeth:

A large Tui the size of a haast eagle is in an enclosure at a bird sanctuary. The park rangers have to continually warn visitors not to listen to the tui. The tui has learnt human speech but only tells lies. It keeps leading visitors the wrong way or saying absurd things

Goal: eat people which should make them leave the city and let the forest grow back

Challenge Internal – its a bird, cant tell the difference between prey and people

External – the park rangers foiling its plans

Talent: Mimicry, their evolution that happened quickly

Quotes: "put baby in pelican mouth"

Inspired characters: yogi bear, obelix

Rat king:

A lab tested rat who had lost its mind. Mad king esc. Wears the skulls of their fallen rats giving the iconic rat king look. Released all the rats and attacked the scientist

Goal: was to escape the lab. Now is to find the traitor amongst their subjects

Challenge: Internal: the voices in their head telling them there is a traitor External: the need to survive and protect their subjects

Talent: smarter than the average rat

Quotes: "This is a man with a lot of past, but little present. And almost no future." "No, Harry. You were just talking to yourself. That's all you ever do. Even in your dreams. And the act is wearing thin, the spots of the disco ball fade around you…"

Inspired characters: Harry dubois, Batty

[shayla-illustrations2]

Line of action pose study

I had this video from a jazz studio performing their choreography for the musical chicago song "when your good to mama" https://www.tiktok.com/@taylor__bridges/video/7350067723336043808?_r=1&_t=ZS-8xA6CrSX2rS

Because i actually missed this class i decided to do all the poses just from the one video as they women were so expressive in their actions

This is what I was left with after a super cool photoshop crash. and yes Toby i know i should of been saving but i am a fool and these are the consequences of a fool.

I chose this very dramatic floor pose for my character because it made me laugh thinking of it

and because i've been listening to the odyssey I decided to draw hermes in this pose as it felt like something he would do

[shayla-illustrations2]

Character Study

Ellie Williams

Interrogate your Character and their World

1 How old is your character?

14 in part 1, 19 in part 2

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)

Shes an orphan and was raised in Boston quarantine zone where she attended a military preparatory school. Her mother is mentioned only by name as Anna by Marlene who used to be close friends with her

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 What is the main thing, or some things that challenge them?

The zombie apocalypse. And being infected and immune to the Cordyceps brain infection, which makes zombies.

6 Describe two or more relationships with other characters – what characterizes those relationships?

Joel Miller – surrogate father – joel travelled with ellie in the spocalypse to deliver her to hospital so they hospital could make a cure using her. Along the way joel taught ellie about surviving outside of the city and the two bonded ellie never having a father figure and joel who lost his daughter 20 years ago around ellies age.

Riley Abel – Best friend – a girl the same age as ellie who went to the same military school. The two became best friends and later riley was bitten the same day as ellie; the two planned to die together and turn into zombies but ellie discovered she was immune while riley turned.

7 Does your character have children – if so, how does your character relate to them?

Yes, adopted son JJ

8 Does your character have a mentor?

Yes, Joel Miller

9 How has your character’s upbringing shaped their view of the world?

Because she was sheltered in the safety of the city her whole life she didnt really know how to survive outside. After travelling with joel and learning from him she becomes a hardened surviver losing her childlike innocence and growing up to be a capable adult

10 Does your character have chosen accessories / clothing / tools / weapons

Gun, tattoo by one of her girlfriends, switchblade, bow and arrow

11 Does your character have any notable enemies?

Zombies, Abby, the fireflies,

12 Describe your character’s world

Yikes. Apocalypse very bad

13 What are your character’s goals in life?

In part 1 to travel to the firefly hospital and help make the cure. In part 2 to avenge joels murder and hunt down abby

14 What stops your character getting towards their goals?

Mostly the apocalypse

15 What personality flaws does your character have and how do they manage them?

Rash, foul-mouther, impulsive, and temperamental. Its pretty normalised in the apocalypse to act this way

16 What special talents does your character have – were they innate or did they develop them, or discover them – if the latter, then how did this happen over time?

She immune and its assumed shes born with it only discovering it when she was bitten.

17 Is your character a loner or gregarious – or something more complicated (if so, describe)

She is very social in the first game still having innocence and trust in peoples she meets. She also is known to have monophobia which is the fear of being alone. In the second game she is more distrustful after the events of the first game but still is afraid of being alone

Mood board

Word cloud

[shayla-illustrations2]

Character brief and swap

This is the brief we were given of detective sable, a victorian era raven who works as a detective wanting to investigate the murder of their spouse. We each decided on a illustration style out of animation, childrens book, or mobile game. I chose to do mobile game as I did childrens book last time and animation is kind of my standard so i wanted to challenge myself a bit.

the group started sending ideas for art styles they liked and could be useful

I took the relevant images to me and created a mood board writing some notes. I also created a colour palette with in put from my team mates on what kind of accents they wanted

I started with a rough sketch (right) until I got a look I was happy with. I took inspiration from an animal diner mobile game as i liked the big head with the small yet simple body. I then went over my sketch with the pen tool to get a really smooth cohesive line.

on a seperate layer i sketched the lines of a coat and filled it in but I didnt feel it translated to a trenchcoat so on the left and in green I drew a more classic closed trenchcoat.

also drew a deerstalker cap. not much to say. solid first attempt and i stayed with it

because of all the time i spent on the coat and making it look good i sped some shading but here is how it could have looked with some more time

Heres our final 3 handed to our client awaiting feedback.

I got some personal feedback on shading and highlights and decided to try the final design that was suggested

Heres the feedback that was provided I will edit the line art to have more colour cohesion and im discussing with my team how to make our out match better

taking the feedback into account i changed all the lines to be coloured and swapped the light blue for more of dark gray like a real raven and my teams drawings. I also fixed the shadows on the face and colour of the coat. finally i added a white outline which i have seen in a few mobile games so that the characters stand out on the small screen.

heres the new line up with our feedback

[shayla-illustrations2]

Colour tests

I really liked the values of lighter character with dark cape colour. The white and brown I chose were based on these rats. After talking with toby he pointed out the cape is actually more of a problem silhouette wise so I may redo his design without the camp and with a more dynamic pose. Because of time i did not do that and i instead changed the colours to keep the red but give him more of a regal brown. I feel i went to cliche and safe with this design and if i was to do it again i would try to go a bit zanier and experimental

[shayla-illustrations2]

Mood board and illustrator Don Bluth

For my project, and because i was drawing so many rats I decided to use old animated movies as my inspiration. I was particularly drawn to the secret of nimh.

For the project im thinking of making either a movie poster look where they are more detailed or a "capture" of the character in action

while doing all these famous cartoon rodent research i noticed disney had a softer approach at drawing them. don bluth also draws softer mice/rats for nicer characters but they still have more angular features like a real rodent where as disney goes for a rounder humanoid approach even in their more villainess characters.

[shayla-illustrations2]

Value Study

I was having a few issues with my photoshop during the value study but I was kinda able to work around it. I actually took my glasses off to see the image without the details so i could focus on blocking out the values and I felt it helped a lot. up until i put my glasses back on. I would like to come back to this and try again

[shayla-illustrations2]

Day 2 line work and values

decided to play around with some values for my rat and then i got very sick and had to step away

but when i came back we were drawing the duck

Last time I drew him like this which was very different to the orginal drawing, this time round I wanted more confident lines and less of a sketchy look

I decided to use the over shot technique and erase the extra to get these more confident lines. Also after a suggestion from Toby I changed to a thicker brush to stop the whispy tapered look

I forgot to screenshot my original whispy guy but here is what I was left with using the overshot technique and thicker pen

and unlike last time im going for a lighter colour with darker accents

[shayla-illustrations2]

First day back

Back again in digi character illustration. I'm taking this class again because I enjoyed it so much the first time and wanted to give it a go again. My goal for this time round is to create my poster with a subtler background, I felt that 2 years ago I just did way to much and this time want to reel it back in. I also want to do some characters that I wrote about last year in designing stories, as I wasn't able to portray them visually.

During brush practive I drew many rats, I tried to draw each one with a different emotion that could relate back to the brush techniques we were talking about. Then during a line art talk I did a deatailed sketch and attempted a line art. Tomorrow I will use this character for values and silhouettes. Or i'll do something different as I used this character in year one UI design