Week Number & Date: Week 6: 30/03/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Refine all of my ideas for my 5 concept boards. Explore all areas of design: such as colour, style, and visual appearance.
- Ensure all primary and secondary research is added and annotated.
- Update work and development log.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
I began by removing the outlines and mistakes I made on the wolves fur coat, which made my work look unfinished. It was important that the edges remained quite dark, as I wanted the joints to still be visible, which would not be possible if I fully blended these colours. I then added some subtle darker areas around the lower torso and knees, as this is where you would see joint movement.
Moving on from this, during my study of Fenrir, and concept pieces done on him before, I realised that his pupils were usually coloured with some type of glow. For this reason, I wanted to implicate this fact within my work, so I chose a red that I thought would work well with the theme of anguish and wrath, and used this to create a glow affect around and on the pupils using the circular gradient tool. This was really effective, and worked well with the black coat on the fur. Once this was completed, I added some darker shades around the sides of the face, and along the middle, and some lighter tones around the eyes and top of the head.
Once I was happy with the wolf itself, I moved onto the details of the environment. As the trees were one of the main focuses on the environment, I decided to add some detail by creating rather dark highlights and low-lights to appear as a bark texture. This took a while as I kept having to tweak the colours, as some of the areas were either too light or too dark, which ruined its overall aesthetic. Once I was happy with the different shades of brown used on the trees, I began to add yellow glows again using the oval gradient tool, as I wanted these to appear as fireflies. This turned out really well, and gave my concept that mystical feel it needed.
Once both trees were fully developed, I moved onto the rocks, first I wanted to define the outlines, so that you could clearly see the edges of each individual rock, so that I knew where to put the darker and lighter sides, as well as the cracks along its surface. The main goal during these stages, is to make the rocks look clean with its line-work, and begin to add some lighter and darker areas that can be exaggerated in the future.
I realised an error that I created in my piece, where the moon was in-front of the mountain, not only is this factually wrong, but it made it appear to large, and almost take focus away from the wolf itself. For this reason, I created another mountain behind the previous, and fixed my piece so that it appeared behind this, which definitely made a massive difference to its quality and realism. I also then smoothed out the moon once again, as this adjustment ruined the outside exterior.
I then started to add some more depth to the mountains using darker browns to create the edge along the two sides. Once this was completed, I then added some lighter areas on different sides of the mountains, to give the impression its 3D dimensional. Small details such as the darker integrated lines were then placed, as I experimented with different shades of brown so that I could make look more like stone. I was happy with this style of my mountains, which proved to be quite a challenge as I’ve never created them overlapping one another like this in an art piece before, so I had to change a lot of areas to ensure my piece was looking as realistic as possible.
I moved onto the shadows on the floor, this was actually rather simple, as a layer behind my wolf meant I could draw in shadows that would automatically shape around the body to appear as a shadow. Although this wasn’t intentional, I liked that I could use this to my advantage to create its lighting much more quickly. I added darker areas around the trees and pebbles, to cast a shadow on the surrounding objects within my scene that would be affected by the moonlight. Additionally, I added some minor crack lines on the pebbles, just to give it some sense of damage that might occur in an open wide forest
I used this video as a source of inspiration, as it highlighted some of the main atmospheric qualities I wanted to similarly use within my own work, such as the mystified clouds over a moonlit water source. The video clearly showed me how to create a water base using simple gradient, outer-glows found in blending options, and lighter and darker tones for the affects shown in the water. I wanted to mimic this process similarly when developing the water for my river, although I would have to change a couple of elements such as the level of ripples shown in this water, as a river would be much steadier. This proved to be rather helpful, and I could use this within my later designs to adapt to its water sources as well.
I began to add some colourisation to the water, making it much darker than the original colour scheme that I had. The reason behind this, is I thought the lighter water made my scene look too light-hearted, as well as less realistic. I also took colour inspiration from the video above, as it presented exactly how I wanted to create the water source, maybe with fewer ripples, being as this is a river rather than an ocean. My artwork used much more softer colours similar to pastels, as it fit better with the overall style of my work so far, although was still lacking the level of detail I wanted within this piece. For this reason, I then began to add minor high-lights in the centre of the water, mixed with darker areas, to give the appearance of movement.
Finally, for the finishing touches to my work, I added a faded moonlight surrounding both the moon, and touching upon the edges of the mountainsides, as well as one side of the wolves shadow. This created the impression of a light that I needed within my work, contrasting with the darker tones of the shadows; it was really important to me that I emphasise this during my production, as the subject of lighting is something I am heavily trying to work on in terms of improvement during my time here.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
I actually found creating the mountain-sides the most challenging, as I really wanted to give it as much realism and life as possible, which was hard to see due to the all of the cracked lines I used for rough sketching, in the future I will try to keep this separate so I can always see what i’m working with.
What I found easy:
The minor details such as the cracks on the pebbles, fireflies and moonlight were some of the easiest and most fun aspects of this week, I wasn’t sure on there direction, so it meant I could just experiment with different tools and brushes until I found the best results for my work. I liked that I was able to add these details, and it really brought my concept piece to life.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
Ensure that I make steady progression and move onto the finishing details of my basilisk environment and character design, as well as the quality of the overall board.
Week Number & Date: Week 7: 07/04/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Set up my development log format and begin defining my wolf character.
- Start laying out the background style and final appearance. (continue working on the production of my wolf and basilisk board)
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
Starting off the new week, I decided to add some thorn bushes with some small red flowers attached, I wanted something to shape the overall piece the same way the trees shaped the sides of the environment. I was really happy with this outcome, as the leaves were visible, and the perspective of the thorns themselves were correct. I took this thorn-bush, and added another on the other-side across the second tree, and positioned this standing up. I chose to use a royal red colour, as this is the most traditional colour used on thorn-bushes (such as red roses), as well as symbolise an essence of death with the symbolic implications of blood and gore.
Currently, this is the position of my works development put together. I liked how this was coming together, although I wasn’t completely certain on the colour tones, which is why I took this design as a whole, and began experimenting with different hues, colour balance and vibrancy to gain a wide selection of ideas as to what fits best for my scene, and really compliments its design style.
Changing around with the colours, I always like to look at different variations that are less traditional and might surprise you. First, I went for a rather purple-like pigment throughout, which I quite liked as it really worked nicely with the colour of the sky blending in with the stars, making it look almost enchanting. The thing I dislike about this the most, is how many different colours are used, as there needs to be some consistency with my work, especially as i’m trying to make this look like an actual open forest scenery. Additionally, the vibrancy of the shadow was too high, making this appear a dark red, which didn’t compliment the other colours well.
Moving on, this colour scheme was much more dark and gave away much more of a sinister vibe than my previous. The greens worked really nicely in the fireflies, and especially the eyes, as green and black work tremendously together. Moreover from this, again I specifically liked the colours in the sky, the red glow made my scene look much more intimidating, as well as complimenting the silver stars well. Again my main problems are with how overly done this is, so I would have to tone down the colours of the mountain and especially the water if I was going to use a colour palette similar to this.
Finally, I looked at a purple and green combination, which I actually rather liked, As the colours weren’t as overpowering as the previous colour ideas. The light blue eyes combined with the violet fireflies worked nicely together, and the ocean colour could be toned down to give the impression of pollution and disaster nearby, which would work nicely depicting the aura of the scene. I wasn’t over-keen on the colour of the sky this time, as it didn’t look as mystical as the others, so this would be something I would have to change.
Finally, I decided to adjust the colours I originally used, increasing its vibrancy so that the colours were much more saturated and visible, and the light of the moon and stars stood out more drastically. I really liked how this was coming together, particularly with the thorn bushes and skies. My only problem with this, is I did not like how saturated the water was, as it made it look quite unrealistic compared to the rest of the environment.
I took the sky only, and adjusted its colours once more, de-saturating some of the purple tones from this, so it wasn’t so extreme to look at. Once this was completed, the water blended in much nicer than before, and looked more realistic to a waters actual colour. Once this was finished, my entire wolf piece was completed, as I finished adjusting its shadows, light sources, and fine detailing that it needed.
Moving onto the production of my basilisk, as I was starting this early, I decided to get one of the most tedious aspects out the way, and begin to add bark details to the wood, so that it didn’t appear so bare. I used the same method as the previous concept board, using highlights and low-lights next to each-other to give the appearance of integrations into the wood. I discovered the most effective method of this is to not overshadow it with to many lines, and rather focus on the minimal lines you have and adding to it from there. Additionally. I also began to straighten up the background lines, so that they were finished and much cleaner for my presentation.
For the water, I needed my basilisk to reflect a shadow on top of its surface; for this I copied the basilisk as a whole, and set the colour to grey and opacity to 30% so that it appeared transparent. I then used the ‘skew’ tool to position it diagonally across the water, so it was an accurate portrayal of a shadow reflecting on the waters surface. I like this technique, as it allows you to create shadows that are the perfect shape of your characters, keeping them looking realistic.
After this was completed, I moved onto adding some ripples in the water using a variety of different air brushes (using arrays of light and dark blues). Additionally, I then used this same brush to create moonlight hitting the water in the entrance to the cavern, and also on this side of the waterfall. This ended up working out really well, and gave the water that transparent feel I was looking for, specifically on this design as the water is one of the focus points. I then re-added the whitewater back splashes to create the motion of the water hitting the bottom surfaces of the lake.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
I didn’t have much trouble with this design, besides finding the best position for my basilisk to be, which is why I decided to add an extra slim rock surface that my creature could perch on. Besides this, this design was rather time consuming, as I had to individually ensure all areas of the rocks that were sketches were covered and shaded.
What I found easy:
The easiest part of this was detailing the trees with the bark texture, as I already had experience on this from my last concept board, meaning I knew where I was going with the design beforehand.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
I plan on swiftly completing my basilisk details next week, so I can move onto my owl’s finishing touches to ensure i’m keeping on track.
Week Number & Date: Week 8: 15/04/20/22
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Finalise wolf and finish background for the final board.
- Add titles and final aspects to my wolf board.
- Begin finalising my basilisk creature design concept.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
Following along my proposal time-table, I am quite ahead in terms of production, as I’ve completely finished the adaptations to my wolf concept board, and almost finished adding the final touches to my basilisk and its environment. As I discovered during the progression of the water last week, I managed to create an almost transparent look; from this, I decided it would be a good idea to add some grass under the water, to make it look more alive, and also present the illusion that this area is rather shallow. I really liked this affect, as it also makes my water look more realistic, as you’re able to see through it rather than it appearing as a solid surface.
From this point on-wards I was happy with the overall appearance of this board, as not much development was needed as I created a lot of the dine details during the ideas generation stages. This was because I knew filling in all of the rocks so that they had clean outlines would take awhile, so I wanted to complete that early on so it wouldn’t take much of my time up while I experimented with the details. Looking into different variations of colour, I changed the colour balance and hues to first create a gloomy warm colour scheme. I liked this, as the green reflection of the water was rather interesting, and I liked that the rocks around the edges give off a warm feeling. The problems with this, for one is the colours do not blend properly in some areas such as the spikes, and the water saturation would have to be lowered so it wouldn’t draw as much focus as it currently does.
Once again, manipulating the colour schemes, I decided to use a much more neutral colours using a blue colour balance. This really gave much more of a cove essence than the previous, and is much more visually pleasing to look at. Problems arise with this though, as it saturates some of the colours, and minimises the details that I worked on throughout the concept. As I want as much to be shown as possible, I will most likely use a more natural scheme like the others, just so the colours are not taken away from by the colour tones used over the top of the image.
I finally attempted a red glow, this time using a much higher vibrancy, as I wanted to see what my scene looked like with a high intensity glow before moving back to using natural colours. I actually quite liked this, as both the light and dark areas have been increased, meaning the detail hasn’t been taken away from. My main problems here would be the colours of the basilisk itself, as this doesn’t fit the scene well, and uses a whole different array of colours that don’t work with the oranges used within the environment. Although I like the feeling this scene gives off, I still think natural colours would be better to use, as each individual object is then able to stand out, and as i’m using a semi-realistic theme, it would only be appropriate to use a set of colours more common.
Reverting back to more natural tones, I took my first attempts and only increased its brightness and contrast, so instead of changing the colours, I simple made them much brighter so they stood out more. I was specifically aiming to add this affect to the water, as its something I want people to draw focus too, being as it gives of a nice reflective glow that adds to the quiet and serene qualities I anticipated for within my work. Another thing that benefited me with this hue contrast, is the darker areas are much more visible then they were before, which I think it really needed as the rocks were considerably light all around.
I then moved onto the basilisk, although changing the colours, vibrancy and other small adjustments, I realised this either made my basilisk too light or too dark, due to its quite gloomy colours used already. Because of this, I decided to keep the colours the same, and rather just change the it to be very slightly lighter so that the scales were more visible (which is something that took a considerably large amount of time). Something I noticed was I didn’t give my basilisk a tongue, and although my creature doesn’t necessarily need one; this aspect is rather vital to meet my history and relation to its serpent relations. For the last steps of my board, I will be adding this so its completely correct to my themes.
I added a small serpent tongue so my basilisk resembled that of a large snake; this was the last stage of my working for this concept piece, as I had finished adding details to the rocks, water and trees, as well as moonlight and shadows around the water areas. Like the previous concepts, I used black strokes to create cracks along the edges of some of the rocks, making them appear for 3D dimensional, and aged. My next task would be to move onto fixing up my owl concept, something I will develop on next week.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
Overall the most difficult aspect was trying to find the right shades for the light, and overall appearance for this board, as I wanted the colours to give it something more interesting, as a large open space may appear un-interesting.
What I found easy:
The easiest parts of this was implementing the finer details such as I already had an idea of what brushes would be most effective for water as I used it for my wolf concept. Additionally, this week I focused mostly on colours and tones, so this wasn’t an issue.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
I’m currently on track, now that I’ve finished my basilisk creations, I can move onto polishing both my heavenly virtue boards for my owl and stoat.
Week Number & Date: Week 9: 20/04/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Finish and polish background for stoat creature and board piece.
- Finish and polish my owl concept board and character.
- Begin working on defining the sketches for my unicorn centrepiece.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
For my second to last board, the first steps for me was to again make sure that the areas that take the most time were completed first. For this piece, this would be the trees and the details I added to make their texture look much more like bark wood. By this point, I was quite good at knowing how the wood was suppose to look, as I’ve had to draw trees and this texture for all my two previous, giving me enough experience to complete this task quicker than expected. I was especially happy with these trees, as I believed they looked the most realistic out of all my boards currently, and considering my owl environment is mostly built up of trees; this was important.
The next stages of my work was putting in a moonlight source again, as all of my boards were set at night; so they all had a consistency. I didn’t feature the moon in this scene, as I wanted it to be interpreted as being hidden behind the trees, so instead I just added in some shadows around the bottom of the trees, and plants such as the mushrooms. These blurred colours made my grass look more realistic, and lightened it up so that the texture didn’t look too dark.
Moving onto the water pond, I used the same process for the lake in my basilisk concept board, and began to add lighter and darker shades of blue, followed by thinner highlights and low-lights for the ripple details. Once the main surface was completed, I then added a shade of moonlight along the centre of the pond, to make it look as if it was shining down onto the water. Once this was completed, I took a basic airbrush, and went over some of the areas that were not blended correctly, leaving me with this finished result. I quite liked what I used here, as I was able to use this project as a whole to work on my water building techniques for a range of water sources such as rivers, lakes and small ponds such as this.
I continued its development by adding in some simple lily-pads above the water. As mentioned in my previous tutor feedback, I realised some of their previous perspectives for the initial drawing of these were incorrect, so I took a closer look at its positioning, and redid this aspect so there were more realistic in terms of size and angle. Additionally to this, I then proceeded to add some simple grass below the surface of the water, in the same way as my previous boards, as this gives my water some more interesting additions to look at in the concept as a whole.
Finally, I created a particle with an outer-glow, and used the pattern tool to print it multiple times to create this pixie particle effect. Once this was finished, I then took a soft brush and filled in the surrounding areas a couple of times to look more like the dust, I then repeated this what a white colour around some of the edges, to give this some colour variation, and make it look slightly lighter in areas. I removed the blue wisps around the sides, as I thought the colours didn’t match well with the rest of the scene, and my owl itself, which is why I went on using this as a different approach; which I believed turned out really well and made my work look much more magical.
Now that I was happy with the overall scene and the details that I added, I began by experimenting with colour once again, to see if I preferred using a different pigment now that my concept piece was virtually finished. I went for a blue overall colour balance, which made this piece look misty and enchanted. I really liked the way it changed the pixie dust behind to be a light green, as this worked really well with the colours used on the trees and the grass. Additionally, this added a purple and blue shade to the water; which worked really nicely with how dark the sky was in the background.
The next colour scheme was made to give off a hollowed and shadow atmosphere using the purple and cyan colours together. Making the environment colours dimmer, and the owl a much lighter shade of grey, made this much brighter to see, and draw focus into. The problems with this, is even though I liked this scheme, it looked too eerie for the nature I was trying to portray in these boards being magical, vibrant and happy. Further to this, the colours on the owl drained the details I put into its fur colour, one of the aspects that I particularly liked in this piece.
I then tried to create a much more subtle colour variation that was a little bit more natural compared to the other schemes. I made the wood on the trees here slightly more pink/purple, with a warm orange colour balance. In my opinion this scheme was quite fairy like, as I used colours such as bright pink, purple and greens. The only aspect I dislike about this scheme is the tone of purple used on the mushrooms, as it is way too saturated for this concept.
The final change was again the most standard when using traditional colours, but also the most effective in my designs as I’m using a semi-realistic theme. I took the traditional colours and again just adapted its brightness, contrast and vibrancy, so that the colours and the shadows were more visible. The natural tones used for this piece is especially one of my favourites, as it presents a very happy and light-hearted scenery with an essence of fairy-tale magic’s. Additionally, the shadow that I added on the reflection of the water is most visible here when it is a clear blue colour, rather than some of the darker versions used in my experimentation.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
The area I found most difficult with this was the plants surrounding the pool of water, I tried to make this interesting without over-doing this, and struggled in the process with the perspective on how the lily-pads fall on the water. Although, with enough time I managed to get it to a correct level that looked accurate.
What I found easy:
The easiest parts of this were adding the log details to my wood, as again I had much practise from the previous tree details. This part of my project was mostly time consuming rather than difficult.
Planning for next week(s) –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
Again I am on task, currently I’m ahead and as I’m cutting my fifth board out, some of the tasks from here on will need to be changed to match that of my current progression.
Week Number & Date: Week 10: 27/04/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Go back and ensure all details are complete and fit my semi-realism style.
- Document progress through development log.
- Finish and polish Stoat concept board.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
Lastly, I moved onto the production of my final stoat environment board, once again adding details to the wood on the trees, as all my concept pieces are set in a forest-covered area. I was extremely happy with the level of detail I was able to put on my wood, due to all he practise from my previous pieces as well as my art study lessons in texture design. I had to keep changing the colours of these highlights and low-lights, as the trees were different shades of colour, but this worked out quite nicely even though it was rather time consuming.
Moving on, this piece especially needed a lot of tweaking with lighting, being as it was a large open area that would create a lot of shadows. For this, I added dark areas around the trees, as well as beside the river, as these crevices would be more shaded than the rest of the space surrounding it. Additionally, adding darker lines around the edges, makes the river look less flat on the ground, and more like it has some 3D dimensions.
I then adapted this water adding some ripple effects using the same method as my previous water sources. This made the water look more alive, and worked considerably well with the shadows that I had put in place beforehand. Once this stage was completed, I then lowered the opacity of the base colour below, so that it would create a transparent effect under the water, and the illusion there are things reflecting underneath. The final aspect of this, was to take the stoat, and once again duplicate this and skew it perspective along the water, to create a shadow underneath the log.
The final touches of my work was to add some cracks along the sides of the stones, which I thought was a nice finishing touch for my scene. Overall, I was really happy with the simplicity of this, as it worked nicely with the character creation of my stoat. As I mentioned before, I didn’t want this scene to have a lot of assets, as this would take away attention from the stoat, as its quite a smaller creature compared to my other animals. Because of this, I was able to put more attention into the water and the trees, which I was really happy with, as it gave it the quaint and happy atmosphere I wanted.
Now I was able to play around with colour, I again changed the hues to a more un-natural vibrancy to see if it looked better with a more fairy-tale scheme. The water was a much bolder shade of yellow than I originally wanted, but the saturation of this actually worked really nicely, giving it a warm and vibrant glow. The colours of both the bark and the grass was again quite unrealistic, but gave a different and visually pleasing style to my work that the other pieces had. If I wasn’t aiming for a semi-realistic theme, I would consider using these colours, but for this project it may not fit well with my other boards.
This next one was more aimed towards a nature-type feel, being as it had an overall green and blue colour balance. This really brought out the light shades of the grass, and made the water look enchanted as it now had an almost moon grey pigment that looked really nice with this piece. The colours of the trees could be adjusted more so that it was a natural colour, as the light green conflicts wit the grass slightly. The good thing about this scheme, is the colours do make the stoat itself stand out, as they are predominantly darker than the stoat itself.
Again, I started experimenting with more standard colours as I progressed, like I have done with previous work, as this way I could cover all areas before deciding on a more habitual and standard theme. This time I simply added a pink colour shade over the top, changing the pigment of the trees, this was my least favourite, as I didn’t like the colours of the river, and thought that it dimmed the overall colours too much. I do like the changes made on the grass and flowers, as this does look extremely nice; but gives more a sun rising rather than sun-setting feel.
For my last board, I decided against using extreme colours, similarly to the ones before, as the natural tones work best with increased brightness, rather than being changed completely. The colour experimentation wasn’t a waste of time considering, because it meant I could rule out the colours that I really did not like for this, and check whether i’m choosing the tones that fit best with my overall project. I increased the brightness, and much of the contrast, so that the shadows really stood out, and it lit up my scene well. This was much lighter than my previous designs, as the time of day is set earlier than the previous concepts.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
The most difficult part of this, was finding a place where the stoat could reside while still being the centre focus on this piece. This reason gave me the idea to use a falling log that the stoat could be seen running across, as it would be the centrepiece, as well as stand out from the colours of the river.
What I found easy:
The easiest parts were again creating the bark details, I felt comfortable in my skill to be able to do this successfully, and worked out really nicely within this scene especially, being as its a large part of the concept itself.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
I am caught up on all my practical work now, meaning all I have left to complete is the presentation planning for my exhibition, and the write up for my final evaluation.
Week Number & Date: Week 11: 04/05/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Plan exhibition boards and presentations. (looking at layout and extra
- Make sure the planning and production of my work is fully completed and annotated.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
Now that all four of my exhibition boards were completed, now I had to focus on the presentation of my work, and how I can make it unique and interesting. To generate ideas, I first gathered research of a selection of different presentation layouts; such as wire-frames, concepts, photographs and notes. The first thing I noticed, is how many of these use colour to show that they are apart of a matching set; for example the black and white photographs, and blue and white ocean hanging pictures. Other examples have creative and different ways of presenting such as a colour chart with different points, pictures that are put together to create an image overall, and even messier collage styles. These selection of ideas will allow me to take the aspects that work well, and apply them to my exhibition process.
Now that I looked at examples, the first part of my planning is to determine how I am laying out my work overall. I created a set of layouts using black and white copies of my boards, and wire-frames mapping out my title and nameplate position. The positioning was rather difficult here, as one of my boards is portrait, while the other are landscape, meaning their was no equal way to position the boards together. For this reason, I experimented to see what worked the best, and in my opinion; the best layouts would have to be the first and third, as they leave the most negative space, and look the most structured.
Because I still wasn’t happy with the overall layout, and found is rather unimaginative; I decided to create some circular symbols that would reflect the meaning behind each creature and concept board. I took a selection of images just to use as a template and reference for ideas, and created these which reflect the deadly sins and heavenly virtues that the animals symbolise within my boards. For example, the clock represents patience due to the changing of time and its gradual process, whereas the green eye represents ‘envy’ from the saying ‘the green eyes monster’ that ultimately means jealousy.
Once these were completed, I managed to find a position that would make my boards appear finished and structured. The symbols finished of my piece for me, as it meant I could present my exhibition equally, as well as represent the meaning behind my concepts, which I thought was an interesting idea. In addition to this, the circular patterns changed up my work, so it wasn’t all squares, and including something unique and different, which is what I wanted for my last project.
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
As mentioned, the hardest part was trying to find an exhibition layout for my boards, as there was an unequal selection of portrait to landscape images. Although this was rectified by the use of symbols to use up negative space.
What I found easy:
The easiest parts was creating my symbols, as I new exactly what could represent each board, as this is something I thought about during the research period of my project.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
As I cut out a board, I had to use this remaining time on something else to enhance my project production; which is why next week I will be creating my exhibition symbols rather than another concept board.
Week Number & Date: Week 12: 11/05/20 – Deadline
List of Tasks planned for this week:
- Prepare for exhibition and exhibition presentation.
- Work on exhibition format and layout.
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
Looking at my images and basic symbol designs, I wanted to use this as a guide for what I draw when completely designing them for my exhibition. For my clock design, this remained quite simple like the image, although I made the clock slightly more realistic, so it fit my overall project better and didn’t look quite as cartoon-like. For my second fire symbol, I made the background a light orange the same way I did when using an image, and then outlines a more realistic flame, adding in both lighter and darker flame specs to make it look more real. I then took the design as a whole, and added a yellow outer-glow, to make this stand out more.
Moving onto my design for chastity, I chose a halo image, as angels represent purity; to begin this, I created a basic yellow loop, similarly to the reference, I outlined the bottom top lip of the hoop with a lighter yellow, to create the outlines and highlight this area. The last step to this process was adding in the dark layer at the very bottom of both sides, as this makes my object look 3D dimensional. The background used a simple beige and yellow ring to keep it light-hearted. The final was the most appropriate and most self-explanatory, as this refers to the ‘green eyes monster’ saying, which depicts someone who is jealous, fitting well with my theme on envy. I took the base colour of this, I recreated the eye pigments to look more painted, I finally added some very faint lines around the side, to show the specs on different colours of green.
Now that I had completed all the elements of my artwork, I again experimented with positioning to see what fitted best with my designs. This first pose was good, as it kept everything enclose in a neat format. The only problem with this, is the title would leave a lot of open space, so I decided to experiment again to see if I could get a better position that would be structured but also compact.
Once again, I changed the images around so that the basilisk was now next to the wolf, which I thought worked better as all the boards were now together. I moved the title to the top of the page, in the centre, to keep things symmetrical. The only issue with this structure, is the nameplate would be left on the side with a lot of space from below, although this is less of a noticeable issue than the first space, as is off to the centre and not in the middle of my artwork. For this reason, I decided this would be a much better presentation for my concept boards.
Now that my layout was decided, I began to think about how I would create the title, and what font I would use for this. One of the most effective and stylish titles in my opinion, is the Celtic and Norse mythology knots, as they look quaint and add a really nice border to your titles. Additionally, as my work is based upon Greek and Norse Mythology, this works rather nicely, as some of the symbols they use match up nicely. I wanted something surrounding the title, being as my plan is to have it separately at the top, I wanted it to have something interesting so it didn’t look too plain.
I then looked for fonts that would be nice and clear to read, as well as work well with the theme of my work. One that stood out to me first was CAESAR found in the Greek mythology section, which again fit well; it worked perfectly for the type of design I was going for; and once this was added in the middle of the borders I realised I was definitely happy with this as my final title. Once this had been decided, now I could put all of my finished pieces together, to make sure they’re ready for exhibition and hand in.
This was the final result of my work, I was very happy with this layout once I could see all of my pieces come together; it may need tweaking in certain places for the exhibition, but all together this is my plan that I am going to use for its final presentation. Overall, I am happy with the design choices I made, but in the future I will try to think about the final appearance earlier on; so I know what type of boards I am going to use for its layout (such as two landscape and two portrait pieces).
What did I find difficult or easy?
What I found difficult:
The hardest part of this week; was organising the boards so that they fit together and had a good layout. As stated in my production log, I didn’t think about this carefully beforehand, which made it a lot harder for me to find a positioning I liked.
What I found easy:
The easiest part of this week was generating the symbols, as I already made myself some photo-bashed versions which told me exactly what I was going to create’ and considering this had to be kept simple, it also didn’t take too much time.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
I have finished all my project work for my development log and exhibition, the last step is to document this process within my final evaluation.
Week Number & Date: Week 13: 18/05/20
List of Tasks planned for this week:
Final evaluation. (Make sure to include images).
Current Position –
What did I do this week and why did I do it? (Screenshots/Videos/Photos)
During this week, my main focus was to finish off my final evaluation, but after asking for some feedback on my work, my tutor recommended that I offset my exhibition boards as currently they were looking too square. Although I wasn’t completely set on this for my work, I thought it was a good step in the direction that I needed to take in order for it to look presented better. When I return back to college, I plan on discussing this further with my tutors, so that I can present my work on the walls so it works and looks the best it can.
Once this was completed, I then moved onto typing up my final evaluation, explaining and summing up the progression of my unit 13 final project. Here I explained the progression I’ve made and how my time-table action plan helped me keep on track with time-management. Additionally, I mentioned the skills I have learnt, such as painting water, logs, and manipulating brushes to create elements like stars. Overall, I am rather pleased with my work, and will continue to better this development throughout this year and the rest of my continued career progression.
Planning for next week –
How do I plan to catch up? Do I need to change anything about my work or planning?
I have finished all my tasks including my final evaluation, uploaded all my documents, and am now ready for the final exhibition.
Morgan Clark: Games Development L3 Year 2 