Publishing Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Task 2: Content Generation
LECTURES
All lectures have been completed in
Task 1: Exercises
INSTRUCTIONS
Based on the story of my book, I feel that I could take on a more abstract style for the visuals. As the story is about portraying emotions through lines, I have looked into artworks that play around with lines, shapes and colours. The key point that each of these references share is that they do not have a distinct rule or pattern to follow, which is what makes the artworks so free and imaginative. Since my book has 5 main characters, I settled for colours that look vibrant.
As I tried to take inspiration from my references, I began
sketching out my ideas that tell the story of my book. As it
is quite free and random, I tried out a few alternatives to
see which composition looks the best.
I also tried to make my visual less flat and attempted to show it on a 3D canvas with shadow and some marker pens.
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
FURTHER READING
TASKS
Week 1
We were tasked to begin working on our content which requires a minimum
of 3000 words and 3 chapters. In each chapter, there should be a pull
quote and also a few sub-texts. We are also required to think about
where we can include the visuals we will be creating in the later
stages.
First Draft Text Format- PDF, Week 2 (8/9/2023)
After feedback on Week 2:
In my first draft, I did not include sufficient sub-text for each
chapter as I thought it was 3-5 sub-texts in total. After hearing the
feedback in class, I then realised it was 3-5 sub-texts per chapter. I
also went home and reviewed my writing again to see if there are any
room for improvements.
Final Text Format- PDF, Week 3 (13/9/2023)
Week 2
Moving on to our next task, we are required to create 16
original visuals for our book. In class, we were asked
about our art direction and I have compiled a few visual
references that I think would suit the style of my
book.
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| Fig 1.1 Visual References- Pinterest, Week 2 (8/9/2023) |
Based on the story of my book, I feel that I could take on a more abstract style for the visuals. As the story is about portraying emotions through lines, I have looked into artworks that play around with lines, shapes and colours. The key point that each of these references share is that they do not have a distinct rule or pattern to follow, which is what makes the artworks so free and imaginative. Since my book has 5 main characters, I settled for colours that look vibrant.
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| Fig 1.2 Colour Palette, Week 3 (13/9/2023) |
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Fig 1.3 Visual Sketches, Week 3 (13/9/2023) |
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| Fig 1.4 First 3 Draft Visuals- Adobe Illustrator, Week 3 (14/9/2023) |
Once I picked a few compositions, I opened my Adobe
Illustrator and started drawing. To make the strokes more
real, I roughened the strokes and made them 88% opacity so
that they have the effect of a real marker. As for the
background, I also added a canvas texture so that it is not
just plain white paper.
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| Fig 1.5 Draft Visual- Adobe Illustrator, Week 3 (14/9/2023) |
I also tried to make my visual less flat and attempted to show it on a 3D canvas with shadow and some marker pens.
After feedback from Week 3, I went back to my Illustrator and
tried to refine my visuals. I tried to make the strokes more
bold and confident and roughened them more so it gave a more
drawn-on effect.
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| Fig 1.6 Wk 4 Draft Visuals Refined- Adobe Illustrator, Week 4 (21/9/2023) |
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| Fig 1.8 Wk 5 Draft Visuals New- Adobe Illustrator, Week 5 (28/9/2023) |
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| Fig 1.9 Wk 5 Draft Visuals New- Adobe Illustrator, Week 5 (28/9/2023) |
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| Fig 1.10 Wk 5 Draft Visuals New- Adobe Illustrator, Week 5 (28/9/2023) |
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| Fig 1.11 Wk 5 Draft Visuals New- Adobe Illustrator, Week 5 (28/9/2023) |
Once we were done with our visuals, we were told to lay them out
page by page on InDesign and export it as a thumbnail.
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| Fig. 2.1 Artwork Thumbnails, Week 5 (29/9/2023) |
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Fig. 2.2 Artwork Thumbnails 2, Week 5 (29/9/2023) |
FINAL OUTCOMES
Fig. 3.1 Final Visuals- PDF
Fig. 3.2 Final Visuals in Thumbnail- PDF
Fig. 3.3 Final Visuals in Thumbnail- JPEG
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Fig. 3.4 Final Visuals in Thumbnail- JPEG |
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Fig. 3.5 One Little Dot |
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Fig. 3.6 One Little Loop |
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Fig. 3.7 One Little Sharp Edge |
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Fig. 3.8 One Little Wave |
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Fig. 3.9 One Little Line of Zig Zags |
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| Fig. 3.10 One Big Spiral |
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Fig. 3.11 One Big Bob |
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Fig. 3.12 One Big Splatter |
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Fig. 3.13 One Big Loop |
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Fig. 3.14 One Big Cloud |
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Fig. 3.17 One Big Slash |
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Fig. 3.18 One Little Heart Loop |
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FEEDBACK
Week 3
The current artworks look flat at the moment. Look into the strokes and be more bold and confident with it. Create an effect that is more hand-drawn and less computer-looking.
Week 4
Currently looks fine, just keep working on the artwork and get a better hang of it.
REFLECTION
Experience
As I was working on my visuals, I actually had a lot of fun
drawing my artwork freely, while having each emotion in
mind. It was quite therapeutic I would say, besides the fact
that my Illustrator kept crashing and my added texture could
not be processed. At first, it was a challenge because there
was nothing that I could refer to for every artwork. It was
solely based on my own feelings and my interpretation of how
I would express each emotion through drawing. Nevertheless,
I am really glad that I got the chance to work on this
visual concept. I have always wanted to take on abstract art
where I am able to freely express myself.
Observation
I observe that adding textures, bolding and roughening the
strokes makes a lot of difference to the feel of my artwork.
When I first started, my drawings looked too digital and I
could not bring out the effect of being hand-drawn. After
many more tries and searching online tutorials on how to use
effects, I slowly started to get the hang of it and began
applying it to every artwork to keep consistency.
Findings
In the beginning, I thought that drawing illustrations such
as animal characters or humans would be a lot harder than my
direction. However, I realised that concept of the abstract
is not exactly easy either, even though it may look like
they are just lines. It took me a lot of 'ctrl + z' and
redrawing my line until I was satisfied with it. Imagine
doing about 15 redraws for just 1 line across the page.
Every attempt at that same line gives off a different feel.
Being the "I need to perfect this until I like it" type of
person, it sure took a lot of time to complete each artwork.
FURTHER READING
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Fig. 4.1 Tips to draw feelings https://www.thirstyforart.com/blog/how-to-draw-feelings |
In conjunction to my book content and art style, I went on
online to look for tips on how to draw out our feelings.
Art Prompt:
- What is the emotion you are feeling at the moment?
- Close your eyes and ask: if this feeling had a colour, shape, form, weight, temperature, texture, what would it be like?
- Draw that on paper using colours, shapes and lines.
Always go with your gut and intuition. We tend to think too
much in our head, but when we let loose and just use our
intuition, we get to access those feelings and easily express
them on paper.
"We can hear ourselves, we can see our feelings in front
of us and that is very validating... because we are
emphathising with out own self."
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