26.09.2024 - 10.11.2023 | Week 1 - Week 7
Maisarah binti Mohd Sufian | 0358458
Publishing Design | Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Task 2: Content Generation
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LECTURES
Please refer to lectures 1 - 7 here.
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Task 2 - Content Generation
Instructions
For this task, I began to start on the contents that would go into my book. I prepared a roughly 3000 word story and 16 illustrations.
Content Generation
For my story, I had 2 main ideas:
1. Burnout
A story about how often times I give myself too many responsibilities and work without break, and how I lost something I cherished because of it.
2. 10 lives
A story about lives of my 10 cats that I’ve lost during my teen years.
I debated a lot but I found that I could write more for story 1, so I decided to go for it. The story is a bit personal, which is what Mr Hijjaz asked for, a personal story, but as I was writing it felt a little bit too personal but I just decided to treat it like my diary because why not!
Originally, the story wasn't meant to be so heavy. I intended for it to be a motivational story, and at the time of writing it I felt great and inspired. But life isn't a straight curve and there are ups and downs, as time went on I started to struggle again both mentally and physically xD so I was actually going through it while writing this and was becoming demotivated, and I almost did not want to finish it but I felt like I was too in deep to write a new story so I decided to thug it out and do the best I could, and the most I could do at the time. Reading the words I wrote it all felt too real, the story isn't 100% true, I made the ending a little bit happier. The peace I reached in my story was real, but it was short-lived and life quickly came rushing at me like an unexpected wave once again. Despite my struggle with this it is the peace I will always hope to achieve.
Visualisation
Next we had to begin brainstorming the illustrations we would use in our story. I thought this was a bit funny, as we had to use AI as one of the first-steps for inspiration. I guess it is because of the rise of AI, and we need to learn how to use AI ethically. Mr Hijjaz guided us on how to use the AI generator tool.
I used keywords like:
- ink
- organic
- nostalgic
- abstract
I wanted the images to look hand-drawn, personal, raw, which is a bit ironic since I am asking an AI to do it. It was actually really hard for the AI to generate what I wanted. I used multiple different passages from my story but it could never really get it right. My entire though process during this was wow AI art really is as bad as it sounds! As lazy of a person I am I would rather not do art at all then rely on it to create it for me...
After some time (wasted) I did produce two results that I thought were alright, but I already had a specific vision, so I don't think it was of much use to me. What I did learn was the experience in generation visuals with AI, which is definitely harder than text.
Following this, I just created a moodboard for my vision.
In my story, I purposely used a lot of metaphors with the beach, sand and sea. I guess you could simply say it's because I like the ocean, and it would be an easier way to have more interesting illustrations. It was also partly because I feel like I can relate to the sea a lot and I've always thought it was so beautiful. I am in so much awe of it but yet the thought of swimming in the ocean is terrifying to me. It's comforting, but so foreign. I don't know what objects and creatures lurk in the depths I cannot see, and without me yapping and making this portfolio miles long I guess that roughly sums up how I view my life and how I face things.
I chose colours reminiscent of a beach at dusk, darker and not your typical bright beaches on a summer day. It's a nice palette and easier on the eyes in my opinion. I also kept it simple, and all the colouring in my illustration only uses those three colours, with the exception of white for highlights, smudging, and blending.
I used Procreate for all of my illustrations, and I used airbrushes and hard brushes to block out the shapes. I used dry brushed to add texture and that traditional feel. For the canvas size, I either used the size of the page in my book or the size of the full spread.
I think I drew a little bit more than 16 illustrations, but it fits just nicely in my book so it's okey.
I'll give a little bit of story and background for some of the illustrations, and this is not in the order of how it appears in the book because my workflow is messy...
My illustrations follow one character, a girl with blue skin which is supposed to be me!
This is me swimming in strong waves literally holding on to praise and validation so I don't drown from how tired of swimming I am. The meaning of this is quite literal... and it reflects how without validation I basically just (tend to) give up.
This appears at the end of the book, where I'm finally out of the sea! With a fresh change of clothes to symbolise me kind of shedding my skin, and looking back at the calm sea that was I was once battling for my life in :p
This is me just drifting in the ocean with really no purpose, and without a purpose I find myself unknowingly heading towards doom...
I would say this is the state my head is in most of the time, with the exception of me when I am using certain coping methods ^_^ the background is meant to look like shifting sand.
A literal illustration of not knowing how much words weigh. What do they mean by that? Do they mean it in a good or bad way? Am I doing something right? I think about this often, and it's a little hard for me to interpret what someone actually means. Usually my mind goes "words are just words, why should it matter" but I find myself overthinking it anyway.
Me crying into the sea, which happens to be my own tears...? Up to reader interpretation!
A literal drawing of me running in circles.
This is one of my favourite illustrations in the book, and it is another literal depiction of me holding myself up. I do know deep down the most reliable person is yourself but sometimes I struggle to apply that to myself.
I have to admit I got lazy with this one :> I just drew it based off the line "it felt like sand slipping through my fingers". I originally wanted to replace the sand with something else but I was on a time crunch!
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FINAL SUBMISSION
3000 Words Formatted PDF
Visual 01: "...the future seemed like a distant shore..."
Visual 02: " ...like a footprint in the sand that vanishes as soon as it's made."
Visual 03: "...it felt like my entire future was tied to those grades."
Visual 04: "This mindset followed me into adulthood, a constant tide, always rising and pulling me into the ocean of self-doubt."
Visual 05: "...as if constantly pushing myself was the only way to stay afloat."
Visual 06: "Those comments felt good, but now I wonder how much weight they truly held."
Visual 07: "...my contributions felt like sand slipping through my fingers..."
Visual 08: "I was running in circles..."
Visual 09: "My mind spun like shifting sand..."
Visual 10: "The problem was that I clung yo validation like a lifeline..."
Visual 11: "Our dynamic began to shift..."
Visual 12: "...after another message that pushed me to my breaking point..."
Visual 13: "...the floodgates opened, and I couldn't stop myself."
Visual 14: "It was liberating, like stepping out of the waves and onto solid ground, where I could stand tall without the fear of being swept away."
Visual 15: "I spent a day with Jean...it was as if no time had passed at all."
Visual 16: "I will tread carefully, mindful of the tides, knowing when to swim and when to rest on the shore."
Visual Compilation PDF
Visual Compilation Thumbnails
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FEEDBACK
Week 1
No feedback given
Week 2
I should be as transparent as I can, spill the tea, it can make for an interesting read.
Week 3
No feedback given
Week 4
No feedback given
Week 5
No feedback given
Week 6
No class (Public holiday)
Week 7
My story should have more details about the character (me) to be more relatable.
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REFLECTION
Experience
I think the tutorials Mr Hijjaz gave in class were helpful enough to learn the basics of InDesign. I definitely had to do a lot of recalling from Typography while working InDesign and I became more familliar with it in this module. I can't say a lot for the feedback session, since I didn't really participate much in those... but for this assignment, I almost felt like giving up and just retake the module next sem. I don't feel like I can remember much about how I felt while doing this other than dread, fear and exhaustion. Regrettably, I was doing a lot of things during this time outside of school so I really didn't have the energy to do this but looking at the end product now, I am quite amazed at myself! Despite the process of my last-minute rushing this, I think the most important part was that I was still learning stuff about publishing and not completely half-assing it entirely.
Observation
Choosing what sentences to illustrate was a bit hard, because my mind can't come up with many ideas and I don't draw as much (actually, at all) as compared to when I had the teenage passion for it. Starting a new illustration was always hard, and I procrastinated but when you get the hang of it and see it come together it is definitely rewarding. Getting to use the AI generator tool was quite tedious and kind of felt like I was getting nowhere. I wouldn't be using the AI generated art anyway, and I can just use Pinterest or other websites to find exact references I want. I don't think AI is that great for visualising the types of illustrations I can do for certain sentences either, because it's hard to get the AI to understand it and you often have to be quite literal, which is basically coming up with the idea yourself anyway. Maybe it could work for other people but I think I'll just stick to AI doing my writing :p.
Findings
I think the use of generative AI when it comes to visuals is quite useless... I think it's better to just create something yourself rather than repeatedly inputting a bunch of words and prompts into a bot for the same amount of time. I see a lot of commercials and ads nowadays, even from well-reputable brands, use AI for their material and it is quite disappointing! Most artists don't get enough credit as it is and to have them be replaced with AI is disrespectful. Although nowhere during this module "AI is bad" was said, to me using the tool was enough affirmation that AI shouldn't be replacing artists at all. There is a time and place for AI to be used, but not in art.
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