04/04/19 - 09/07/19 (Week 1-Week 16)
Piyaphon Inthavong (0337589)
Illustration and Visual Narrative
Lecture 1: The Vormator Challenge
April 4th, 2019
Lecture Notes
The Vormator challenge is a challenge spread all over the world several years ago. The Vormator contest challenges people to create visual art by using limited shapes with a given set of rules. The eight vector shapes are called the Elements. The challenge shows the importance of limitations of creativity.
Exercise
 |
| Figure 1.1. The eight Vormator shapes |
 |
| Figure 1.2. First draft for the exercise. The inspirations came from Pokemon characters and the Android logo (cute and simple was the initial idea). |
 |
| Figure 1.3. My final Vormator Character (in black and white) |
Lecture 2: Forms, Shapes and Shadow
April 11th, 2019
Lecture Notes
There is a big difference between design drawing and fine art. Designers and artists always start with "design drawing" to quickly draft a sketch or an image that will likely become their final idea, this serves as a functional way to draw and plan efficiently in a way that saves the most time. Smaller details will then be expressed using fine art techniques. This step is often time-consuming and requires a lot of skills.
"When doing design drawing, sketch quickly, they’re not for showcase."
Exercise
 |
| Figure 2.1. Practicing quick sketch |
 |
| Figure 2.2. Practice shadowing in 3 different values of black |
 |
| Figure 2.3. Shadows/lighting technique of rounded objects |
 |
| Figure 2.4. Exercise 2, shadowing. |
Lecture 3: Digital Light and Shadow
April 16th, 2019
Lecture Notes
Adobe Illustrator started off as a vector tracing software back in 1987. Learning its core tool is the most important rule, and that is the main objective of this class.
It is important to be independent of the usage of gradient and the small details which might not matter when looking at things in a bigger picture.
We learned to trace using the pen tool, apply shapes and shadows on objects using the pathfinder tool, and color the divided path individually.
Exercise
 |
| Figure 3.1a. Reference photo of a pear |
 |
| Figure 3.1b. Reference photo of a skull |
 |
| Figure 3.2. Pen tool tracing of the pear |
 |
| Figure 3.3. Cutting the traced pear using the knife tool in Illustrator, followed up by the path finder to divide intersecting vectors into different shapes. |
 |
| Figure 3.4. The final exercise of the class. The skull in figure 3.1b was traced with pen tool and the same techniques followed. |
Lecture 4: Analog Drawing
April 23rd, 2019
Lecture Notes
Today we practiced drawing various expressions on different characters with quick single lines using a lighter marker first to plan and finalized with a dark one.
Exercise
 |
| Figure 4.1. Exercise 1 for analog drawing on different expressions. |
 |
| Figure 4.2. Second exercise of analog drawing on a new character. |
 |
| Figure 4.3. Last exercise of analog drawing, one of the most challenging within the three exercises as the body and hair was also drawn not just the facial expressions. |
 |
| Figure 4.4. My own character for the exercise, Mr. Pancake. |
 |
| Figure 4.5. I always start with simple circle and guidelines for the basic structure of the face to get the idea of the right angle my character is facing and the right form and lighting. |
Lecture 5:
April 30th, 2019
Lecture Notes
Today we had our creations printed on a wooden surface with laser cut in Fab Space, Lot 10, Kl. The final vormator monster were also prepared in two different files, one for laser cutting, another for color printing.
Exercise
 |
| Figure 5.1. The first phase of coloring; Different color palettes were tried on this character. |
 |
| Figure 5.2. The light blue is finally chosen as the main color. The second phase was to add extra details to the character. The main inspiration for this additional design is from Two Face. |
|
 |
| Figure 5.3. The process of coloring the dark side of the monster. The dissection of complex vectors are joined using the path finder tool. The monster was drawn entirely out of the eight given vormator shapes, and colored accordingly to the intersecting paths without additional tools. |
 |
| Figure 5.4. Final touch of the Vormator Character. The hair was drawn with the scar on the eye and the little tint of purple fire to create a better look for a monster rather than just being cute. Additional layer of shadows were also added with the knife tool and path finder as a final touch. |
 |
| Final outcome |
Lecture 6:
May 7th, 2019
Exercise
Today we prepared our own brushes in Adobe Illustrator for the next exercise. The ink splatter image was found online and later converted into a custom brush by following the techniques learned in the classroom.
 |
| Figure 6.1. Ink splatter image used as a custom brush. |
Lecture 7:
May 14th, 2019
Lecture Notes
Narrative elements / Transitions
Moment to moment transition - uses the least amount of time; Gives a slow motion feel to a comic to make each second of the situation important.
Action to action transition - show a single subject progressing through a specific movement. (ex. 1: swings bat; 2: hits the ball)
Subject to subject transition - stays within a specific scene or idea and call for more reader involvement.
Scene to scene transition - takes place across significant distances within time and space. Allow the audiences to build the mood by themselves (Ex. tens years later).
Aspect to aspect transition (a.k.a. “Wandering eye”) - stops time to provide multiple viewpoints of the same scene in order to establish a specific mood, feeling or emotion.
Comparison of culture (examples)
Japanese- can spend several minutes just to show characters waiting for rain at the bus stop
Western- goes fast, usually action, scene to scene.
Exercise
 |
| Figure 7.1. Warm up hatching |
 |
| Figure 7.2. Lines drawn quickly with freedom |
 |
| Figure 7.3. Cross hatching drawn slowly with even pressure |
 |
| Figure 7.4. Vertical strokes and strokes in perspective (sixteen different treatments). |
Week 9:
May 21st, 2019
Exercise
 |
| Figure 8.1. Reference photo |
 |
| Figure 8.2. Texture |
 |
| Figure 8.3. Pen Tool tracing with clipping mask for adding texture. |
Project 1: Decisive Moment
May 28th, 2019
Instructions
First Outcome
Interpret a passage of text (story); illustrate the decisive moment (any of the turning points).
You Must use Adobe Illustrator to create the assets.
The outcome must be portrait.
Second Outcome
The end product must be animated (limited animation).
You Must use Adobe Illustrator to create the assets and you may animate it in Adobe Photoshop.
The outcome must be portrait.
Project
 |
| All the resources that was used during this project. These was used on my story board (concept, mood, color boards). |
 |
| Adobe Illustrator drafts. All progressions were recorded with screenshots during the process of creating this outcome. These are variations of different perspective and color palettes. |
"Maybe a 5th bottle will improve my memory again."
 |
| Final outcome of Essence (JPG); The idea behind this work is to complement a sense of mystery on the “undetailed” ending of the story. It is the main decisive moment where the person is about the drink the 5th bottle of the brand chicken essence, while hoping that things would get better even though we all know that miracle is not going to happen in the world of reality. |
Embedded PDF version of Essence
 |
| Final outcome of Essence (GIF) |
Project 2: Just The Way You Look Tonight
June 25th, 2019
Instruction
You are to choose one song from the list below, appreciate the song, hear it through and understand the lyrics. You are then required to sketch initial ideas , figure out storyline, illustrate and animate a ‘moment’ base of your understanding from the chosen song. Then songs list are as below:
- Fly me to the moon
- The way you look tonight
- Come fly with me
- Girl from Ipanema
- New York, New York
Project
I have chosen the song "Just the way you look tonight" by Frank Sinatra to work on for project 2. After studying the song, I've made the decision to base the starting point of my illustration on the introduction of the lyric:
"Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you
And the way you look tonight."
 |
| Color board for project 2 |
 |
| Introduction scene progression; I started tracing the shapes manually with the Pen Tool on Adobe Illustrator. After completing the basic shape, I slowly add the details starting from the mobile phone, the background, the hands, etc. I then incorporated the techniques I learned for digital light and shadow to the rest of the complex paths using the pathfinder and mostly, the shape builder tool. |
 |
| Introduction scene (Final JPG) |
 |
| Progression on the second scene illustration. The tracing of this is based on a sketch of a real photo reference taken in this dynamic angle. Again, I used the Pen Tool for tracing and follow up by the pathfinder tool to connect the shapes together; The same pillow drawn in the first scene was reused here. Once all was finalized, I added an "Outer glow" effect to the phone screen layer to enhance the mood of the atmosphere in this artwork. |
 |
| Scene 2 (Final JPG) |
 |
Initial digital drafts on Adobe Illustrator. The idea was to show two figures meeting up at a rendezvous, in this case, an opposite side of a street both staring at each other.
It was a huge challenge for me to express all the fantastic ideas on my mind onto the computer screen, or even sketching, so I started off with simple shapes to help myself build up ideas and possibilities. This was at the point where I'm dissatisfied about my own digital sketch and began feeling lost, it was the most difficult part of this project. |
 |
| Progressions on the final scene. Everything was grayscale when I started off drawing few shapes for the composition; I then decided to put a label of the place for meeting up because I'd thought it would be obvious for 2 people to meet up at certain with a name. My initial idea has always been for these 2 to meet up in a busy city setting and went for the colored the design accordingly to the color palette that was planned since the beginning. The aesthetic look of the art was inspired by Japan night street and Lofi art. |
 |
| Applying the rule of the third to the design; Most of the times were spent onto the planning process for the composition; I placed the man accordingly to the bottom-left of the grid as the main focus of the design and the woman to the bottom-right to direct the eye flow directly from the man. The design is worked around the two main characters of the story but more into the woman as she is standing in the center of attention for the composition. The shadows are mainly added to the edges of the design to further emphasize viewers attention to the main subject. Also notice the cinema sign located right on the top-left of the grid, it helps to tell the story for the setting. |
 |
| Scene 3 (Final JPG) |
 |
| Triptych sequence of the 3 scenes |
 |
| Scene 1 (Animated) |
Scene 2 (Animated)
Scene 3 (Animated)
