Illustration & Visual Narrative Project 1: Vormator Challenge

 25.09.2023 - 03.11.2023 | Week 1 - Week 7

Maisarah binti Mohd Sufian | 0358458

Illustration & Visual Narrative | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media

Project 1: Vormator Challenge

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LECTURES

Week 1 - Info

This week was just an introduction to the module and learning about what to expect for our future projects. As we did not have access to Adobe Illustrator yet, Mr. Hafiz asked us to practice using the pen tool using a website called The Bezier Game.

Fig. 1.1 My result for the car. 

The optimal result is 14 nodes, so I am quite proud of what I achieved. I continued until I reached the plane stage.

Fig.1.2 My result for the plane.

Week 2 - Vormator Shapes

Mr. Hafiz introduced us to the shapes we will be using for our first project, the Vormator Challenge. We were required to trace the shapes in illustrator using the pen tool and familiarize ourselves with them.

Fig. 2.1 My tracing of the vormator shapes (in orange).

Week 3 - Light and Shadows

We learned about chiaroscuro, and we traced an image of a pear, and added shadows using the pathfinder and shape builder tool. Then we used the knife tool to slice the pear into pieces.

Fig. 3.1 My traced pear and after I sliced it.

Our homework was to find an image of a skull and trace the shadows onto the original pear.

Fig. 3.2 The skull image I chose.

Fig. 3.3 The result.

Week 4 - Colours and Blending Mode

We learned how to use clipping masks and blending modes by applying clipping masks to shadows and using blending mode to darken textures.

Fig. 4.1 Traced silhouette of a man and applying clipping masks and blending mode.

Week 6/7 - Composition and Depth

This week Mr. Hafiz taught us about how we can tell stories in our artwork without having the need to say them outloud. Interesting compositions can help to tell about the characteristics and background behind our characters and showed us some examples like Ghibli movies. I kept this in mind for designing my vormator character's home. 

Mr. Hafiz also recommended us a book called 'Framed Ink' which I will definitely try to get my hands on.

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Project 1: Vormator Challenge.

Instructions

Figure 5.1 Module Information

1. Sketch & Research

I started off by using an online pokemon stat generator to get an idea to work with and sketched my character based on the stats I got.

Fig. 5.2 My initial sketch of my character. (5/10/23)

I shortlisted words that I think best described my pokemon and incorporated those elements into the design. I also searched other pokemons with similar stats and were the Steel type to get more inspiration.

Fig. 5.3 Scizor (left) and Metagross (right).

I was inspired a lot by Scizor and I liked how it resembled a bug, so I decided to make mine resemble a cat.

I wanted by character to live in a cave, since I associate that with metal and steel, but I wanted it to have gem elements as well to make my character look not too heavy. This is because I designed it with 'small, but packs a punch' in mind.

2. Shaping

I then proceeded to place my sketch into Adobe Illustrator as a template and used the vormator shapes to fill out the shapes of my character. At this stage I decided on the name 'Glorfur'.

Fig. 5.4 My character made using the vormator shapes. (7/10/23)

Fig. 5.5 The shapes used outlined. (7/10/23)

I chose to make his body similar shades of grey-ish blue because I wanted him to blend in and be able to camouflage in a cave. I made his hands red, to resemble rubies, which are known to be extremely strong.

3. Adding Highlights and Shadows

I wanted him to be a round character, like a rock, so I tried to make most of the highlights look round-ish. I first used Procreate and roughly placed where I wanted the shadows and highlights to be, and placed it in Illustrator. I used the pen tool to outline.

Fig. 5.6 Shadows and highlight sketch on Glorfur. (15/10/23)

Fig. 5.7 Shadows and highlights outlined in Illustrator. (15/10/23)

Fig. 5.8 Shapes outlined. (15/10/23)

4. Creating the Background

I didn't want to do anything too crazy, so I used the pencil tool to draw shapes and create a ruby cave.

Fig. 5.9 Glorgur's home. (30/10/23)

I added more rubies later on, and the floor is supposed to look rough and sharp.

5. Final Pokemon Card

Fig. 5.10 Glorfur's pokemon card. (02/10/23)

I created this with an online Pokemon Card maker.

Fig. 5.11 Final character placed in background. (02/10/23)