ILLUSTRATION & VISUAL NARRATIVE - FINAL PROJECT

6/6/19 - 20/6/19 (Week 10 - Week 12)

Neoh Kar Yan (0339338)
Illustration & Visual Narrative
Final Project - The Decisive Moment: Old Folks Home

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For our final project, we were to create an illustration based on a short story that is assigned to us individually. We had to dissect and break apart our given story, to create characters and the world that they live in. The story that I was assigned to is called "Essence".

The full story of "Essence":



After reading and understanding the story, I felt really excited about the making of this project. I started out doing some brainstorming and came out with 3 sketches on 3 different ideas. After investing some thought into it, I decided to work on my 3rd idea.

Fig.1.1: Initial ideas and sketches

Fig.1.2: Another sketch of idea chosen

We were to create our mood board and concept board using Google Slides.

Fig.1.3: Mood Board 

After sending Mr. Hafiz my google slides which consisted of my mood board and sketches, he approved of the idea and that I should continue to work on my concept board in the slides. Mr. Hafiz also suggested that the position of the brain should be adjusted to the left.

Fig.1.4: Concept Board 

In the process of exploring my idea, I felt super lost and I was pressured on the idea of illustrating because I had never done something like this before. I didn't know where to start and I was doubting myself because my drawing skills weren't that great. Thankfully, one friend was kind enough to help me with some suggestions and feedback on my ideas.

Finally, I felt better and had better clarity about what I wanted to do. I sketched out another concept of my initial idea and another 2 new ideas. After much consideration, I decided to stick with my first idea but following the new concept.

Fig.1.5: Second round of sketches and ideas

Fig.1.6: Final idea and concept chosen

Process of illustrating:

Fig.1.7: First attempt at illustration

Fig.1.8: Second attempt at illustration

Fig.1.9: Tracing out Brands bottle

Fig.1.10: Illustrating the subject

Fig.1.11: Different illustrations of Brands bottles

Fig.1.12: The First outcome

For my work in progress, I showed my first outcome to Mr. Hafiz and received his feedback. He mentioned that my wheelchair wheels looked weird as they looked like goggles. He also mentioned that my composition can be improved by applying the rule of thirds. Hence, I tried applying it and adjusted some of the colours into a gradient and changed the background colour into a darker green so it looks more contrasted and helps my subject pop more. I also changed the newspaper because it looked a little off with its position on the table. I changed the wheel colour to a lighter grey as well.

Fig.1.13: The Second Outcome

As my composition still looked flat, I added variations on the wheelchair wheels and shadows of elements in the composition. I adjusted my composition once again.

Fig.1.14: The Third Outcome

Upon my second feedback on my third outcome, Mr. Hafiz said that my composition is still not there yet. He told me to not be afraid at exploring different perspectives and possibilities in searching for the best composition. Thus, he guided me at adjusting the new composition. He suggested that the Brands bottle which is held by the subject can be switched to the left hand since the new composition would hide a portion of the right hand. He also said that my background looked a little empty and suggested that I could add in the faded brain I previously mentioned in my idea. I actually tried adding it initially, but I felt like it would be too many things in the composition. He taught me to use the distort tool to give the brain a perspective, therefore it doesn't look too flat on the composition, which I fully agree.

In the progress leading to my final outcome, I added the brain and distorted it according to the perspective and varied the opacities of the different parts of the brain. Next, I added more shadows to the composition and changed the light source to a gradient. Lastly, I switched the Brands bottle to the left hand and adjusted the position of the items on the table as well. 

Finally, here is my final outcome:

Fig.1.15: The Final Outcome

After completing the final composition, we were to finalize and update our Google slides to hand into the client. I extracted the excerpts I used for this composition and compiled my work in progress/ initial drafts and sketches. 

My final pitch:

For my limited animation, I wanted to animate the brain to look like it's fading away. Thus, I decreased the opacity of the brain in every artboard till it was about 30%. 

Here is my final limited animation:

Fig.1.16: The Final Outcome of the limited animation (GIF)