Discussed in a couple of posts on this blog, my work-based learning module is intended to stimulate the creation of a piece of commercial artwork in response to a live brief and competition entry. Originally, I intended to create an animation which I aspired to submit to the Adobe Design Achievement Awards but 3 weeks into this project and after a one to one session with my tutor we both agreed that my strength was in the creation of illustrations and concluded that I should focus on developing the style-frames for the proposed animated short film. In the past week I have finalised a final style-frame which I have submitted to the Cheltenham Illustration Awards due to it fitting into the criteria of their entry requirements and prompt. I wanted to share the process and creation of this illustration and the following is my executed practice of the creation process:
The process of my illustration began in the stages of my proposed animations development before I had concluded on creating just an illustration. The original concept of the animation sought to portray the concept of unity through shared experiences which I intended to communicate through the manifestation of memories against the theme's narrative. Each memory would portray a kind of relationship highlighting focus on the different kinds of unity, one of these themes was then chosen for the creation of the style-frame in the mid stages of the production once to decision to switch outcomes was decided. The chosen concept that I chose to illustrate was a toxic relationship depicted by a snake smothering a balloon, or in other words an abuser smothering their victim. The sketches I have drawn below depict the many poses and designs that I explored during this stage of my develop and is also where I began my process and draw influence from later in my development.
Once I had made the switch to creating an illustration, I took one of the poses that I believed showed a lot of potential in regards to the aims and goals of the project and sketched it up in Adobe Photoshop. I added some basic shading onto the design and implemented a concept that I had devised during the experimentation process of this design's development. This concept was the projection of negativity coned from the snake towards the balloon (Abuser to victim). The Digital sketch below is my first take on this concept:
The Illustration above is my first take on the negativity projection that I had come up with during my process. The design for this frontal projection of negativity was inspired by an illustration by Gabriel Silveira which portrays a projection of energy from the touch of a character foot down onto the ground. I aspired to incorporate what Gabriel had masterfully executed upon within my own work to see if the same success could be tied into my own goals and ambitions for my piece. I was not satisfied by this outcome but it was a great start for my developmental process and I was becoming confident in the direction I was working towards.
The cropped image above is a focused snapshot of the illustration by Gabriel Silveira where he demonstrates the effect that I was drawing influence from. Although I was not confident in the direction that I was going with this concept it is clear to see where I got my idea from when reviewing his creative works.
Swiftly pressing forward into another sketch, I lowered the intended quality and expectations of these quick tests to explore exactly what I needed too and then “fail quickly” should I conclude that this is not aligning with the intentions for my intended goals. In this illustration test I explored the pose and composition of illustration whilst simultaneously exploring another insight into the frontal projection symbolism that I had ideated in my previous sketch. I explored the idea that everywhere the projection overlapped with the colour would be de-saturated to portray the notion of “having the life being sucked from you”. I was still not satisfied that the aspects of this sketch appealed or aligned with my intentions for the illustration.
Moving onto the next pose and composition that I explored with visually, I experimented with an “over the shoulder” camera view and composition perspective with the snake looking towards the balloon for perspective. I decided that instead of having the snake visually projecting negativity I considered having the balloon (victim) project their despair outwards communicating symbolically deep trauma as a consequence of the implied actions and energy of the snake. I generated the notion that this despair could take the form of tears which universally has become symbolic of trauma and deep pain. The above digital sketch demonstrates how I perceived this impression as a visual representation of the concept. Unlike the previous sketches I felt satisfaction that this design format, the composition, and the symbolism aligned closely to my intended goals and aspirations for the final piece. Confident in this ideation of my concept I concluded that I would move forward with this rough sketch and refine it further to consolidate the idea into a finalised exploration of the proposed illustration.
I took the previous rough sketch and manipulated it into a refined variation of the design idea, I build upon the aspects I liked about the prior design and improved upon the aspects that I feel were limiting the vision I intended to portray. The changes that I made in contrast to the previous drawing included the exaggeration of the distance between the snake's head (Abuser) and the Balloons (Victim). I did this because I wanted to communicate that the balloon was feeling belittled by the snakes overpowering impression and I altered the visual to have the snakes head perceived as being much larger than the balloons to support this concept.
I perceived the tears as being a focal point for the communication of trauma in this negative relationship’s impression and as a result felt the need to accentuate this aspect of the illustration. I did this by informing the design with texture and tone steering the impression of the visual towards a “distressed” and “gritty” aesthetic. The way that I executed the visual for this impression is by combining several different layers of texture and overlaying them whilst changing the layer styles to blend in different ways, each layer itself was created by utilising a selection of customised photo-brushes which imitate a “Rake” brush, this is demonstrated above in the refined sketch snapshot. In reflection to this refined sketch I was confident that I had produced a strong blue-print which would inform the next stage of my development which I moved into executing on next.
I feel it is important to mention that the image above provided a deep level of influence for my final refined sketch. This illustration is a style-frame for the animation “Good books – Metamorphosis" created by Buck Animation studios. The way that this style-frame impacted the development of my own is due to the camera angle of the design drawing in and focusing perspective on the face of the character. I feel that this is mirrored within the experimentation of my own illustration where the focus is drawn in on the balloons face. I also draw influence from the “Rake” textures that were made use of in the creation of their illustration and was confident as a result in implementing these aspects for consideration within my own design.
With the blue-print of my final illustration finalised and refined I was now confident that I could begin the first stages of my final illustration. Upon reflection of my refined blue-print I identified that and aspect of my design that was limiting the intended impression of my style-frame was the naivety of the shapes, they felt basic and unrefined compared to the rest of the illustration. Therefore, I began my illustrative process by addressing this weakness in my design, I did this by creating blocked out vector components to my final illustration allowing me complete accuracy in the construction, manipulation, and editing of the intended silhouettes I desired for my finalised illustration.
The tools I utilised in the creation of these vector silhouettes was the pen tool, pencil tool, and the scissors tool, I choose these tools as I find them the best to work with for a comfortable workflow and due to this confidence I was able to construct the shapes quickly the best of my ability. The pen tool allows me to draw precise accurate lines, whereas the pencil tool enables more gestural approach when utilising hard-ware such as a drawing tablet. And the scissors tool offers me the ability to quickly cut out objects within a selection or area when seeking to utilise shortcuts. The above vector illustration highlights the current state of my ambitions for the style frame. I am confident that the silhouette now portrayed features an increased quality that supports and aligns with my intentions for the final piece.
I find it important to mention again that this illustration above, a style-frame from the animation “Good books – Metamorphosis" by Buck Animation Studios, offered me influence and guidance regarding the tears silhouette within the vector aspect of my development. I found it engaging the way that the wat curled and curved in a “floaty” kind of fashion and sought to implement it within my own illustration.
When I was confident in the refinement of my silhouettes, I imported the vector assets into Adobe Photoshop and began applying colours onto my design. In the original proposal for my project I defined that I desired to assign each manifested memory an emotion portrayed by a colour to further push the symbolism of the piece. I chose to utilise a green colour for this memory due to the association that green has with poison. I felt that this portrayal of the colour would align with my intended goals for the piece and I am confident that it has succeeded at this effect so far.
Another aspect of the illustration that I began to refine is the incorporation of grain and a defined and clear style into the tears of the illustration. I knew that the tears were likely going to be a prime focal point of the piece as they draw in the attention towards the main focal point of the expression as well as having stretched across the screen in its entirety. I chose to utilise patches of blue within the tears design to provoke the impression of having glowing celestial qualities. I decided to pursue this avenue as the snake and the balloon were originally intended to be symbolic of a person's soul and the tears are meant to be emitted energy from the victim's soul but in a symbolic form.
Moving ahead in this design practice, I rendered sections of the snake's upper torso with a textured skin to continue the realism when portraying the snake, I knew from the beginning that I desired to utilise distressed grainy textures as well as a dark patched shading across the style-frame as a whole. The snap-shot above highlights this effect in motion as well as showing how I applied a gradient background to further direct focus of the illustration towards the expression of the balloon character. I layered up a brush utilising the ‘dissolve’ brush style to implement the shading into the design, I utilised a black onto a layer using this effect and adjusted the layer style to blend in the green. I wanted to use black for the shading as this altered the aesthetic appeal regarding the perceived light and dark value of the overall design. I knew from tried and tested experience leading up to this module that this draws and maintained attention due to the subtle complexity hidden within the design. I was becoming confident that the final design outcome was coming together and I felt satisfied that the style was aligning with my intentions for the style-frame.
On top of the graining shaded texture that I implemented into my design I also blended in a custom patterned brush that was designed to imitate a stippling effect. I blended the layer style of the pattern to ensure the value effect was not lost when the pattern was applied over the top of the shading. I utilised this pattern as I feel it was reminiscent of the scales that would be found on snakes within reality and therefore would suggest such a notion to my viewer when responding to my final illustration.
As I progressed forward with the illustration I shaded out and finalised the colouring process of the snake's body wrapped around the balloons. I made sure during this process to accentuate the lighting and in install a degree of consistency amongst the design as a whole. I also went back to the design of the tears to continue the layering and refinement of the “rake” brush textures across the form of the tear silhouette and I felt this aligned with my intentions to invoke a sense of celestial and traumatic qualities. The previous background that I was testing out to view the invoked impression did not align with the intention I was striving for so as a result I explored a new option of implementing a texture in the background to achieve the same goal of directing focus. I am confident with the resulting texture as I feel unlike the prior one that this supports the result of the illustration impactfully.
This is the Bitmap Texture that I applied to the background of my illustration. I feel that it complimented the wavy and curved lines within my illustration and I positioned it in a direction that subtly persuaded focus towards the focal point of my image.
Making refinements to the final steps of my illustration's development, I was confident that I had reached an aesthetic quality that I would consider my style-frame complete in regards to the goals and aspirations I had for the piece. The final aspects of the illustration that I had altered was the inclusion of shading to the balloon character as well as altering the colour of the background texture from pastel blue to a pale brown. I feel that this resulting colour both contrasted with the other colours within the illustration and supported the pallet. I am satisfied that my design outcome embodies the style, aesthetic, and narrative that I set out to portray at the beginning of my module and I am confident in suggesting that this illustration provides me with a solid foundation should I desire to move forward in my proposed animation development.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
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