Illustration and Visual Narrative : Task 1 & 2

Illustration & Visual Narrative //Tasks 1 & 2

9/24/2024 - 10/22/2020 (Week 1-Week 5)

Katherine Alexandra Sutanto

Illustration & Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

Task 1// Vormator Challenge 

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1. Introduction & Lectures

2. Task 1 - Vormator Challenge

3. Task 2 - Composition

3. Reflection 

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Introduction of The Module

 

Week 1:

We were introduced briefly regarding the uses of Adobe illustration and impacts of composition in character design. Though, in the first week, we weren't receiving any lectures and were concluded through video tutorials.

Week 2:

We're asked and taught to be understood the efficiencies of having Adobe Illustrator software while basics knowledge is needed! We had a practice alongside an exercise game with the pen tool as in the picture below:

Figure 1.1 Pen tool practice

Week 3:

We were introduced to one of the many useful tools, Pathfinder. It is to join one shape to another which we have experimented with the eclipse shape tool as a reference to the Adidas Logo below:

Figure 1.2 Adidas Logo Reference

Week 4:

We were taught one of the many techniques in coloring by using the gradient tool and meshing. And to conclude more of the ways, we're also introduced to one of the features in Adobe Illustrator as in making use of the color palettes by accessing to the Adobe Color website. 

Figure 1.3 Gradient and Meshing colors with palette

Week 5:

There's no physical class for this week. However, we were asked to have a consultation with Mr. Hafiz via Whatsapp regarding our Task 2 assignment, merely about the sketches we did and his feedback and suggestions play a huge role in the requirements of our assignment, which was about composition and the crucial factor of matching the background with the character.

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Task 1 - Vormator Challenge

We're assigned to design and illustrate a character of our own creativity and fantasies but with one big twist, the vormator challenge, that is. We were simply asked to build and draw our characters in Adobe Illustrator with these shapes provided only, which I've pleasantly taken the challenge:

Figure 2.1 The Vormator Shapes

 

I'm an artist with a keen interest in robots or mecha characters, which I've openly thought of using a reference of it. One of the most memorable mecha designs would be from the   Evangelion anime, which was Unit-01 that I had my eye on.      

Figure 2.2 Evangelion Unit-01

On the other hand, since we were assigned to put our final draft into a pokemon card, maybe I thought it would be interesting to make it as a robot hybrid, it's a snake that I've chosen. In which I've taken an immediate action to search up a reference that would fit into a mecha base design.

 

 

Figure 2.3 Snake Character from DevianArt

•  Drafts:

At first, I thought I would still be going with a full body robot until I've finally changed my mind to finally turn my character into a hybrid mecha snake as I was turning in my first vormator assignment, the silhouette.

Figure 2.4 Sketch and Silhouette

Figure 2.5 Outline and Colored Draft

• Shapes Explained:

At first, I was worried as I thought that I'd probably experiment too much with the shapes as in being too extra by grouping numerous shapes into one but thankfully, Mr. Hafiz was approved of it and liked the idea!   I had fun playing around with these shapes as I was building my character as a process. With the pictures below, you can see that I've used numbers of shapes to create a line or even curved ones just so I can go flexible with the details of the design. 

Figure 2.6 Close Ups of the Vormator Shapes 

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Task 2 - Composition

To start with, we're assigned to draw background to demonstrate the characteristics of our character visually. In which we're also provided references and explanations by Mr. Hafiz of the major requirement, composition, that is. As a final result, we're also asked to put our illustration in pokemon template card, which appears to be optional because the star is our own and only illustration.

• Just like every trusted source, we value the process of our work:
  
  REFERENCES:
  
  

Figure 3.1 References

As an artist, I have always had a keen interest in backgrounds that involve buildings, I feel like it doesn't matter in what aspect of a story, a single building or a house can tell a story of a man. Speaking of backgrounds that involve buildings, I always have a preference in mind where we'd imagine the perspective from the character's angle is from above.

PROCESS:

Figure 3.2 Sketch

Figure 3.3 Color Test (Sketch)

Figure 3.4 Digitized with Adobe Illustrator

Figure 3.5 Coloring process (Adobe Illustrator)

Figure 3.6 Background

Figure 3.7 Midground

Figure 3.8 Foreground

Figure 3.6 Rendered Illustration

Figure 3.7 Card 

BACKSTORY:

PS before reading: The character's gender is female. If you spotted the wrong pronoun which is 'he', it's Blogger autocorrect system, I couldn't control it. Feel free to proceed!

'NGRAH' aka Nelson Beausejóur, alongside illegal immigrants, gangsters, criminals crowding on the rooftops of abandoned or scrapped buildings, in which they called Koenji Rooftops, hell on earth. Nelson had a neglected childhood where he had to constantly run away from any kind of evil deeds from strangers since he's raising himself alone as a child, his passport was taken and hidden which was an evil intention that his father sought to keep him from running away . She has nowhere appropriate to live, she has no real home. She was named by her father who wanted a son instead of a daughter, who she always had a boyish impression just so she hoped not to disappoint her father day by day.

 

Until one day, just when she was turning 18, her friend introduced her to a place somewhere far in the same town as hers, which was 'Koenji Rooftops'. Nelson never liked the idea of ​​staying in such a dangerous place, so he didn't agree to even step foot on that place. However, something happened in her home which forcefully made her finally leave the place. Freedom at last, yet she has nowhere to stay. That's when she gave in the infamous rooftops a shot, it should be worth the risk, she has nothing to lose, she thought. After entering, she realized that the people who lived there were no different than her, the majority of them were homeless people, or illegal immigrants who were forced to leave their hometown. She managed to fit in but the place's reputation is as it is. It's never a safe place, gangsters and criminals would roam around. Nelson then learned how to do self defense, and it's his nature to fake his personality so people wouldn't think of him as a weak person. Due to her neglected background, she would appear to have an odd side of her, which is the liking into risking her life such as hanging on the edge of the rooftop. Weeks to months to years, she developed a love hate relationship to this place, one side where she felt better without her toxic childhood environment, while the other she had to manage to survive for another day.

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REFLECTION

As I've understood from this module so far, we're needed to understand the imaginative concept of composition, starting from the characters to the world they belong to as it is crucial to describe and show these illustrations that we are taught and assigned to do. However, in order to achieve such goals, we shall start from the base and slowly creating progress. Therefore, I learned that even the messiest sketches would be the best basis for creating such imaginations for life.