My Digital Media Project - Page of Paladins

So, first of all, I finished off the illustration of Donkeyskin, and I will make a post about those finishing touches later, but right now, I have a tone of screenshots from making the test page for the Paladin brief. (Small warning for language in the sketching stage)

First, I used the sketch tool in Manga Studio to roughly plan out each of the panels. I also, on the fly, changed the design of the shield, to make it a little easier to draw consistently.

Next, I used the pen tool to draw the final lineart.

I experimented some with the screentone tool, the feature which drew me to Mangastudio when I first purchased it. It was during my weeaboo phase, okay. I used two layers of the same tone on the jewel, to see if I could use that to shade the jewel. The experiment worked, but it might look a little weird, combined with the big shine I put on it in the lineart.

I've added all the dialogue using the character tools in Mangastudio. I find it really handy that they have hundreds of different speech bubbles to choose from, including ones that would be supremely difficult to just draw straight.

My Digital Media Project - Colours and Textures for Donkeyskin

Finally! With the dissertation out of the way, I can get back in the saddle on the practical work for my project.

This week, I dedicated to working on the Donkeyskin illustration, as that has a chance of taking the longest. I've got it mostly done, just shading to do. The original plan was to mimic watercolouring in Photoshop, however, I couldn't find a tutorial for it that I found satisfying for filling my vision. So, instead, I chose a flatter, brighter colouring style, mimicing a book of fairytales I once had in my own youth.

My Digital Media Project - A Minor Snag

My Laptop's had to be wiped. Pretty much all of my college work's safe, but...

Reinstalling all the software's going to be fun.

My Digital Media Project - What I've Been Up To

Well, first of all, I've been doing sketches of the Paladin character. I decided to use a heavier, rounder basis for the character, reminiscent of Amethyst from Steven Universe. As she is based around the Paladin archetype, her signature weapon could, logically, only be a sword or a shield. I decided on the latter, to make it more distinct.

[Amethyst, from Steven Universe, for reference]

After marathoning Sailor Moon a little more than might be recommended, I thought of possibly having the paladin character being a transforming hero, in the same vein. I sketched this costume idea before I came to the conclusion that the Sailor Moon inspired might be a little too much. However, I do like some of the armour pieces, inspired by a piece of art from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena. I also decided that I liked the idea of having a ludicrously large shield, with handles on the back so that the character can grab one handle and swing the shield as a weapon.

This led to me doing several designs of the shield. I briefly tried a few designs for a smaller shield design, but I found them less satisfying, and less striking, than the idea of the character swinging a shield around that was as large as her. However, the original design for the large shield, as you can probably tell, would be hellish to draw consistently, hence the simplified version beside it.

I also began to sketch the turnarounds I would use on Donkeyskin's character sheet, but I quickly remembered why I do not usually use my higher quality pens. My preferred drawing pads have very absorbant paper, and, when using a higher quality pen, it soaks up the ink in the line and makes the drawing blurry. This annoys me to no end. I also realised when I was inking that I found the drawing generally unsatisfying, it didn't have any energy, and Donkeyskin was starting to look an odd shape.

While watching some students from another course (Theatre, I presume, due to the fact that they were all doing speeches from plays (and one made a terrifying Hamlet)), I sketched and inked most of Donkeyskin's final illustration. It is of the climactic reveal, when Donkeyskin removes her fur coat to reveal the gown made of moonbeams, hidden underneath.

I based the frame around the drawing, and Donkeyskin's pose, on the art nouveau style, though simplified, in the case of the frame. I feel as though the prince and his servant look slightly out of place, timeline-wise, but I don't doubt that this is something that shouldn't be terribly hard to fix, should it bother me enough to do so. I've still not decided on what is going to fill the top right corner, probably more astonished courtiers or something similar. I outlined a box at the bottom of the linework, in which I intend to briefly describe what is drawn in the picture, a practice which I have observed to be common in Fairytale illustrations.

Lastly, I "attended" a livestream by a pair of fandom artists I admire. It was greatly informative, and I asked a great deal of questions about their workflows, which taught me some interesting tricks for digital colouring in Photoshop.

My Digital Media Project - Change of Plans

So I may have overestimated myself. I overstretched my abilities, planned out my project in a way that it's proven to be too much. However, doing so has helped me in a way, at least helped me have a better understanding of what I want to do.

Firstly, I set up, in my original plan, the five briefs, and each one had it's own deadline, and several pieces that would make up the finished product. However, I set that up before I really had to start worrying about keeping the deadlines in my plan and the actual hand-in deadlines for college straight. The simple act of remembering what my deadlines were verses remembering the college hand-in dates turned out to be more stressful than it was worth. I have little to no worries about the work, that I could do everything I set out, but the deadlines scuppered me and sent me into a bit of a panic. My understanding of what I was doing kind of fell apart in the face of the college hand-in deadlines, and I have a problem where if I don't understand what I'm supposed to do, I won't do anything.

I also set them up to cover a wide range of purposes and markets, because at the time, I hadn't been sure what I wanted to do or what my target market would be. However, since then, I've gained a stronger understanding of what I want my career to look like, started to really think of myself as an illustrator, first and foremost.

In response to these problems, I took some advice I'd heard a few times, and reduced the number of briefs from five to three, specifically, Robo, Donkeyskin and the Paladin. I was upset over the fact that I hadn't completed any of my briefs to their original deadlines, but this way I should be able to finish them now, for the Realisation hand-in. Also, I'm just really fond of Robo, and still like drawing Donkeyskin. With this change of plans, the original deadline plans are kind of getting thrown out the window. Instead, I'm going to work on finishing off Robo and Donkeyskin while also doing the Paladin.

Which is currently involving some interesting Google Image searches for inspiration...

My Digital Media Project - Brief 2 - Some stuff I forgot to post about

I did some more sketches, and I feel confident that I have finalised Donkeyskin's design to my satisfaction.

These are sketches for Donkeyskin's dress before she ran away, along with sketches of how her appearance would change after she did so. I looked up stuff about regency fashion, including what regency era aprons looked like, though I decided not to add an apron to the rags. I liked the idea that, after she'd ran away, at first Donkeyskin's dress would be in tatters, but over the course of the story, it would be slowly mended. I felt it was a nice metaphor for her healing from the terror her father's madness would have caused her.

I actually drew the face sketches while waiting for a doctor's appointment. Again, I looked up some regency hairstyles, but in this case, I chose the bottom right, which was not pulled from research. I wanted Donkeyskin to look both practical and graceful, but I also wanted to give her a hairstyle that wouldn't be too hard to mess up, while still having her be recognisable.

Finally, Donkeyskin's ball gowns. In the fairytale, Donkeyskin goes to three balls held by the prince in three different dresses. One dress supposedly made of sunlight, one of starlight and the last of moonlight. Taking sun, moon and stars for the dress themes, I took some of the ideas from the initial sketches, and some research into regency era ball gowns. My personal favourite is the moon dress, which has a very appealing silhouette, and, once the phases were changed to a pattern along the hem, it's theme is very subtle, but noticeable when you know it's there. The first iteration of the starlight dress was based on a particular regency dress I found in my research, however I felt that the dress didn't work so well with my art style, and redesigned it. I liked the idea that there was an element of escalation through the balls, and therefore the dresses. The sunbeam dress is worn on the first night, and has a fairly simple design. The starlight dress is worn on the second night, and while more glamorous than the sunbeam dress, it's still somewhat less so than the beautiful moonlight dress, worn for the climactic reveal.

My Digital Media Project - All Briefs - More In-Depth Explanations and Thoughts Thus Far

Brief 1 - Brief 1 was a mascot for a professional event, like Pictoplasma. An event where professionals in the sector would meet with each other, give talks, etcetera. This character, whom I nicknamed Robo, was intended to be a pleasant, happy character, yet one who had a slight melancholy about him. I wanted him to look like he had a life behind him, plausibly quite a long one. The final products I want for the Realisation handin are a character sheet, a reusable vector image of Robo, and a banner made using said vector image. Through working on him, I gained some extra practice in using Illustrator and Photoshop, though I am already familiar with these.

Brief 2 - Brief 2 is the main character from a lesser known fairytale. I, personally, prefer to call the fairytale Donkeyskin, but it has several names. This character has a rather traumatic backstory in the fairytale. This character's final products are to be her character sheet, three designs for the three gowns in the story, and a completed illustration of a point in the story. I rearranged the order of the briefs almost specifically because I wanted to do this one within the development deadline. This is the one I really want to do well, because it is the one most heavily placed in my area of interest, and using techniques that I enjoy.

Brief 3 - Brief 3 is a comic book protagonist, based on the archetype of a Paladin. A Paladin is a common class in Roleplaying Games, especially those set in High Fantasy worlds. However, one iteration of the paladin archetype I have not seen is one in an Urban Fantasy setting, a person in a modern world who has the abilities associated with Paladins. This was the concept I wanted to play with. This character would follow a fairly formulaic Urban Fantasy plot, where an Everyman character would gain unexpected supernatural abilities. Usually, though, these abilities would be based around a different archetype, say a witch or a medium, I've never seen it done with a Paladin. The final product of this brief is to be a character sheet and a page of her story, made using Manga Studio, with the help of a tutorial site I found.

Brief 4 - Brief 4 is a merchant character for a video game aimed at children. Merchant and Smith characters in video games, in particular RPGs, tend not to look very different from each other. Sometimes, I'd swear the smith characters were all the same man. Because of this, I think it'd be interesting to find something different to try, another angle for the character. However, this character's final prototype would be their character sheet, and an at least basic 3D model of them. While I have used some of the software before, I am not extremely confident in it, and I understand that there are differences between what I've learned about the software and how it is supposed to be used in creating assets for video games. This is why I have gotten in contact with another student, James, who works in the video game industry. I've asked him for help, when I roll around to this brief.

Brief 5 - Brief 5 is a mascot for a family friendly chain of Italian restaurants. The final products would be a character sheet and a short animation using Flash or After Effects. Originally, this was the first brief, but after some thought, mainly on the fact that I don't actually have easy access to the software required to do it, I decided to make it the last instead. Due to this sequence of events, I have done a good deal of thinking and made some very basic sketches. Originally, I was going to use an Italian cook as a base for the mascot, but I felt that was too obvious, too cliche. Instead, I decided to use an Italian grandmother, because I felt that would be a more interesting choice. There are several Grandmother tropes that I felt would be more fun to play with, such as grandmothers who have surprising backstories, tales of adventure and romance that clash with the wholesome image connected to old women.