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Final Poster

Progress Log

Thumbnail

After group critique, I decided this would be the thumbnail I would work from. When starting my process, I knew I would have to adjust the shadows and make room for the title

Sketch Process

To start, I knew I needed to get the characters looking right, so I used Magic Poser online to model their poses. After posed them, I played around with lighting and camera angle

I then roughly traced over the models.

After I had the characters roughly done, I began sketching the background.

However, it was at this point I realized I didn't like the direction I was going. It had changed from my thumbnail, the angle was different and it wasn't conveying the same emotion I had intended. I was also worried about how I would draw the curved background properly as I planned to have it full of intricate paintings. So, I scrapped this and went back to Magic Poser.

The new angle was more similar to my thumbnail, and I adjusted the poses to evoke more emotion. Specifically, I planned for the arm Mitra is holding out to reach for a painting of the Priestess. The hand Florence is resting on the ground is also important as it shows that even despite being more closed off, she still wishes to connect with Mitra. I then traced roughly over it like before.

With the characters done, I then began on the background again. For all the paintings, I decided I should draw them all from a straight on angle, and then transform it later. All of these paintings hold meaning to the characters and the story, and I had a lot of fun plotting them all out.

I'm a lot happier with this sketch. The emotions on the character's faces are a lot more clear, it's a more interesting perspective, and it's closer to me thumbnail.

Colouring Process

After sketching out all the paintings, I wanted to so something easier, so I started to line the characters. I used a thin brush, as I knew they were going to be small overall. I also didn't particularly use pen pressure as a part of the line art. This is something I like to do for illustrations, but I decided against doing it for this. Firstly, I thought at this scale, it might not even be that visible to begin with, but more importantly, it takes longer. When I was drawing the Prudence and Valencio illustrations I had more time to finish them, so I was able to put more care and effort into the lineart. However, with this poster, I had less time to work on it, and I wanted didn't want to waste it all on the characters and leave the background bare.

I did make a small mistake her. I forgot Florence's other hand that was supposed to be resting on her legs. I left it to the end because I figured it would be a pain to draw, but ended up just not drawing it at all.

After this, I just put in their base colours from their reference sheets.

I then started work on all the paintings.

The paintings on the left relate to Florence's story, and the paintings on the right relate to Mitra's story. My favourite paintings are the bug and bat ones, they were not only fun to draw but I liked having the animal symbolism. I copied all of the paintings into one layer, and began to transform it to match the perspective. With the base colours, I then began work on lighting.

Lighting

Going in, I was a bit nervous about lighting, as it's not something I'm used to. So to start with, I just applied a blue multiply layer to the whole piece. I also added a wood texture to the the floor, and copied the paintings to create a cast shadow.

The next thing I did was paint all the lighting on the characters. I played around with hard cell shading or blended out shading, but I landed on the blended out shading as I thought it matched the rest of the piece better.

Then finally, I did the lights. I rendered it the same way for the shadows, but using an Add layer instead of multiply.

At the end, I added some finishing touches such as coloured lineart, rim lighting on the characters, hue and contrast adjustments, and of course, the title.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. I've never done an illustration to this scale, and I'm really glad I was able to make it look like how it was in my head.

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Xianhe Design Developments

I started with her bird form silhouettes. I wanted to make her look very long and lanky, so I leaned more towards the options with longer legs. I ended up with a mix between 2 and 6, with a secretarybird head, a crane body, and peacock-esque feathers, all to emphasise her tallness. Due to her origins as a painting, I also wanted to include brush like texture, especially on her feathers.

For her human form, this is one she chooses to take, not the one that she was cursed to be, so she has more control over how she appears. She can take the form of a seemingly normal looking human, to blend in, but I imagine she can also adjust her form on the go to include more bird feathers, such as claws, a long neck, or wings. For clothing and accessories, I looked at Chinese opera, Chinese princesses, and Japanese shrine maidens. Elements I wanted to include and emphasize a form of intricate head wear, long flowing sleeves, and long skirt, and decorative tassels.

I ended up choosing 5 as the final silhouette, but I still really liked 9 and 10. I liked how the top half of 5 looked very normal, but the bottom half is where all her feathers and her claws are, and I liked the split between that.

I then started on some different options for her bangs. I wanted her to have very straight hair, with a symmetrical hairstyle. I ended up choosing top left.

This ended up being the final design. I gave her an ornate headpiece, that not only mirrors the Priestess' headpieces, but also looks like a bird in flight. Her sleeves have a brush like texture on them to emulate her wings. I gave her a very monochrome colour pallete, as she is a white crane, but the red serves a good purpose. It evokes imagery of cranes and shrine maidens, while also making her design more visually striking. The red in her design, the red robes specially, represent that she is still tied to the human world, unable to break free and have her own ascended form. Overall, I think the design I came up with is good, but I'm not really happy with her. I wanted to make a Chinese inspired character, but I wasn't familiar enough with Chinese fashion history or folklore. I ended up making her look more Japanese, and I feel like it's a bit offensive to give her a Chinese name, but have her obviously be Japanese. I feel like I could make her a lot more culturally accurate, and a lot more unique and inspired if I had spent more time researching.

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Xianhe Character Development

Xianhe (meaning white crane in Chinese) is a bird spirit, born from an ink painting. She was very prideful and saw herself, a white bird, superior to her sisters, whose colour had been muddied by humans. She refused her position as a spirit to bring good fortune to others, and instead saw herself as above all, even her mother. As punishment, she was turned human and made to work in a shrine. However, she folded 999 paper cranes, and disguised herself as the 1000th, to fly away from  her duties and her country. She found the Priestess, and controls her as a human host to ensure she can live forever, even if it means sucking the life force from other living beings. One day, she hopes she can find a way to ascend even higher, and make herself truly immortal…

Moodboards

Xianhe is considered a crane in story, but design wise, I would also like for her to have peacock and secretary bird elements to her to emphasize her vanity. I also wanted her bird form to have a very long neck, which can grow and stretch and twist in uncanny ways, so I looked at the online horror character, Long Horse, and the teacher from Little Nightmares 2. For her human form, I looked a Japanese shrine maidens, Chinese opera, and origami. I wanted her to still look ornate in a way, but ornate in a human way specifically. A specific character I took inspiration from is Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls, as he is a 2D character in a 3D world, and has an otherworldly-ness to him that I wanted to portray with Xianhe.

World Cloud

The main words I wanted to emphasize are most important to her character, her name, crane, spirit, immortal, and white.

Interrogate your Character and their World

 How old is your character? Immortal.

 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) Xianhe resents her mother for forcing her to do stuff she doesn’t want to do. She doesn’t want to live among the human world, she doesn’t want to crumble like humans do, she believes herself above them and above death. Xianhe’s mother has punished Xianhe for this in the past by turning her into a human, but Xianhe defied her and escaped the country.

Who raised them (ignore if listed in 2) Xianhe was a divine crane spirit, child to the mother dragon. She was born from a  ink painting, and lived on the canvases. Due to this, she is 2D and flies between paintings. However, she is very prideful and doesn’t wish to interact with humans at all or her crane siblings at all. She believes she is the most beautiful crane out of all of them, and deserves to ascend to a true spirit, not just one trapped to a painting.

 Do they have any siblings? - If so, describe them and their relationship(s) The other cranes in the painting are considered her siblings, but she doesn’t respect them.

 What is the main thing, or some things that challenge them? Xianhe is terrified of dying, and sees herself as above it. Her entire life has been her trying to reinforce that she is above all and deserves more than being stuck on a canvas that can burn up or disintegrate. Her pride is challenged by her mother, and she ends up fleeing the country and manipulating the priestess in order to stay alive.

 Describe two or more relationships with other characters – what characterizes those relationships? For the Priestess, Xianhe sees her primarily as a mere host for her to reside in, to stop Xianhe from dying. Xianhe still despises humans but sometimes the Priestess makes her almost believe otherwise. However, Xianhe will always prioritize herself in the end. The priestess could tell how she was being manipulated by Xianhe, and devised a plan which involved killing herself to kill Xianhe. It didn’t work in the end though, and Xianhe was clinging to life on the Priestess’s corpse, unable to find a new host. After some time, Mitra and Florence find the Priestess’s body, but Florence ends up mortally wounded. Xianhe sees this as a new host and infiltrates Florence’s body. However, Florence isn’t as willing as the Priestess once was. The two fight a lot, but eventually end up with a deal that benefits both of them.

 Does your character have children – if so, how does your character relate to them? No.

 Does your character have a mentor? No.

 How has your character’s upbringing shaped their view of the world? Xianhe was painted as a pure white crane, in comparison to her sisters that were painting with more vibrant colours. Instead of believing herself inferior, she believed herself better, as she was unstained by humans. This is how she developed her superiority complex, but as she separated from her sisters, hiding out in different paintings, she saw how their paintings became damaged over time, and she believed she was above death and withering.

 Does your character have chosen accessories / clothing / tools / weapons? As a bird, Xianhe looks most similar to secretarybird and cranes, except being completely white. She has feathers on the top of her head, and has two long feathers that mimic a peacock’s coming from her tail. She then dresses for shrine and servant duties when she is cursed to be human. Later on, when she chooses to take a human form, it is an amalgam of human and bird features, and dressed extravagantly, like a princess.

 Does your character have any notable enemies? Florence is antagonistic towards Xianhe at first, as she didn’t exactly want to be resurrected. With the Priestess, Xianhe was able to mold her will to match what she wanted, but it’s not like that with Florence. Mitra also opposes Xianhe, as he sees the harm she is doing to Florence and wishes to

 Describe your character’s world 17-19th century, fictional countries based on Egypt, India, Spain, Russia, England, Japan, and South Korea.

 What are your character’s goals in life? To continue living, unrestrained by canvas or paper. Xianhe is trying to find a way to ascend from being stuck in a human host.

 What stops your character getting towards their goals? Both of Xianhe’s human hosts have been resistant to her trying to ascend, and Mitra is trying to kill Xianhe once and for all.

 What personality flaws does your character have and how do they manage them? Xianhe is very prideful, selfish, and disobedient. She hates being told what to do if she doesn’t want to do it. She doesn’t handle these flaws very well and gets angry and defensive when people point it out.

 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? Being a white crane spirit, Xianhe is able to use humans as hosts, just as she did with the paintings where she was born. However, she uses a special kind of magic stolen from her mother when she uses a human as a host. This allows the human to live forever, so long as they suck life force from other living things.

 Is your character a loner or gregarious – or something more complicated (if so, describe) Xianhe has no desire for companionship of any kind as she sees herself as above everyone.

Is your character more feminine or masculine, or something in between? Xianhe, despite being a sexless and genderless spirit, identifies more female, and presents female in her human form.

How does your character speak? Xianhe tends to speak in a more refined manner, not using slang at all. She speaks in strange ways sometimes, often similar to a poem or a riddle. She does not usually care to be fully understood.

Does your character have any hobbies? Xianhe has to (begrudgingly) respect some human creations, such as opera and poetry, but refuses to acknowledge painting and drawing. She doesn't like thinking about her origins. She is also a massive snob when it comes to these art forms, and if it is something she doesn’t like she doesn’t see it as art.

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Valencio Developments

Valencio is a part of Heavenly Resurgence, and serves as a side character. He is a character I have developed more recently as a companion and mirror to Mitra. He existed in my dame demo from 2024, albeit with a different name and design, but I retooled his role in the story to fit with current Valencio. After the time skip, when Mitra becomes more reserved and gloomy, I wanted to create a more energetic, almost annoying character to play off of him.

(April, 2025)

Backstory

Valencio is youngest son of a very wealthy family living in the north of Prakaash. With 3 older siblings, he was constantly overshadowed, and not being gifted enough to impress his parents, he lived in the shadows for many years. He was eventually shipped off to the Academy, for hope that he would do something of note there.

Personality

Unlike his siblings, Valencio has always felt thoroughly unmotivated his entire life. All the refined academics and extra-curriculum he tried at he failed immediately. Due to this, he gained a distaste for doing anything with his life, but he started to enjoy one thing: theatrical delinquency. He found it to be the only thing to get attention from his parents, and would do anything disruptive for it, even if it meant punishment.

Character Arc

After he is sent to the academy he soon learns about the revolutionary group. He first saw it as a way to cause more trouble, to escape the stuffy academy, but after accident, he is on the run. He ends up a matador in the west, performing for attention again, but after her encounters Mitra, he realizes that the importance of the revolution, and finds motivation to make his country better.

Design Moodboard

For design inspirations, I looked at matador clothing, as well as cowboys and pirates. I wanted to show that Valencio loves to peform, but also has a free spirit, not tied down to anything, reminiscence of cowboys and pirates on their long journeys in the desert or ocean. Characters I took inspiration from are Ifa (Genshin Impact), Boothill (Honkai: Star Rail), and Spike Spiegal (Cowboy Bebop).

Initial Sketches

Illustration Developments

Value Mock-ups

I made two different value mock-ups, one with a darker jacket, and one with a lighter one. I thought both had good contrast and potential. When doing the colour mock-ups, however, I found that the lighter jacket concepts turned the torso into something without much contrast, and made it hard to differentiate parts of the design.

Colour Mock-ups

When doing my colour mock-ups, I made sure to have a little visual of Mitra's colours to make sure Valencio's colours wouldn't clash or look too similar. I didn't need to do this for Prudence and Florence, as they both have much more muted colours, Prudence especially. I liked some of the warmed palettes, 4 and 6 specifically, but I felt the red of the jacket would merge with Mitra's tunic. Due to this, I settled on a combination of 1 and 2, having complementary colours, but still standing out.

Process

I'm quite happy with how he turned out. I think just by his colours you can tell a lot about him. I am also happy with the rendering specifically on the sash and hair and think they make for interesting textures.

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Character Investigation

For this task we were given Bojji from Ranking of Kings for our character investigation. No one in my team knew about this character prior, so we all did research into him and the story. I was tasked with creating the moodboard. I started with different images of Bojji in different outfits, ages, styles, etc. I then moved on to people he knows and his family, namely his best friend, Kage. After this, I found things that reminded me of him and his story, so cartoon princes, old Disney movies, old Japanese comics, and a frog as I thought his mouth was very frog-like. Overall, a fun experience to find out about a character I had never heard of before.

My team mates work:

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Scurngle

After putting together our character brief, we received the character brief we'd be designing. Scrungle.

We didn't really know where to start at first as there was only a bit of physical description, but based on the description we started brainstorming a plush toy. Based on his personality and backstory, we wanted to make him look like a torn apart and put back together stuffed toy. This involved mismatched parts, stitching, and stuffing everywhere. We really thought this plays well as he was designed to be a witch's friend, but was cursed along the way.

This was the moodboard we created. A mixture of cute but ugly plush creatures, a droopy silhouette, and retro stars and grawlix.

Concept Sketches

Final Design + Colours

For his personality, we thought evoking a black cat might be good imagery. Black cats are not only associated with witches, but are seen as symbols of bad luck. For his backstory, we looked for a more retro style, and was particularly drawn to CYMK printing, like in comics. And finally, for his star motif, we were inspired to give him a dizzy air about him, to have cartoon starts always flying around his head and dizzy starry eyes. Mixed in with the stars are grawlix, emphasizing the retro style even more.

My Illustration.

I tried to use more texture and sketchy lines to fit with a children's book style. I also used halftones to emphasize the retro style.

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Prudence Developments

Prudence is apart of Heavenly Resurgence, and serves as a side character. When creating Prudence, I wanted to take inspiration from my last original story, which was surrounding aspects of the Catholic church. I also wanted to, like with many of my other characters, play around with gender expression and identity. From first conception, Prudence has been non-binary, and I have since shifting her to being gender-queer, using he/him and she/her pronouns.

(July, 2024)

Backstory

Prudence lives in fictional country inspired by 1800's Britain and Northern France. He has grown up in an impoverished cult, with the abusive leader as his caregiver. Prudence also has an interest in medicine and medical procedures, and throughout the story, becomes something akin to a mad scientist.

Personality

Prudence has always been creative and bubbly as a child, but to others outside his cult, he is seen as crazed and manic. Due to this, he now heavily craves attention and praise from within the cult, and specifically his caregiver. Prudence is a rule-breaker on the outside, cutting his own hair, altering his clothes, performing strange medical procedures, but deep down it is all to stay in line in his cult.

Character Arc

At the beginning of the story, Prudence acts as an antagonist to Mitra and Florence, along with the rest of his cult. However, when Florence is mortally wounded and then resurrected, she is kidnapped by the cult and groomed to be their new leader. For validation, he experiments on Florence and her new magical form, but after some time he sees the harm it does to her, and chooses to follow her instead of the cult.

Design Moodboard

For my design inspirations, I wanted to look at Victorian fashion, specifically nun's habit, scientist coats, and nurse uniforms. Alongside this, I wanted to include elements of modern alternative fashion. Characters I took inspiration from include Rosaria (Genshin Impact), Mikan Tsumiki (Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair), Jinx (Arcane), and Crone (Soul Eater).

Initial Sketches

Illustration Developments

The final design looks very much like religious garb at first, which is how Prudence comes off at first, but looking at closer details you can see how he has modified it to fit his liking and to see how poverty has affected him. Nurse and scientist elements are also seen in the nurse hat, and the double breasted white part of the top. Overall, I think I did a good job at reflecting his personality and backstory, while making it visually interesting, but if I were to redesign it, I would try incorporate more "Mad Scientist" elements.