And so it begins. In each series of panels, I actively varied the composition of each frame such that there is a fair amount of variety in wideness of the shots – cropped, wide, wider and long shots – to engage the viewer and to create a sense of dynamism in each story.
Choice of colour palette:
Primarily neutral greys and minty blue – naturalistic colours used to depict ‘city life’, convey the idea of a concrete jungle.
Pops of red and yellow for emphasis and visual interest. There is an attempt to subtly include triadic red, yellow and blue.
‘Tis me trying to find Mount Fuji in the city.
Centrally composed with a somewhat symmetrical composition to bring emphasis on the main character – me. Although there is quite a crowd in the composition, the attention is clearly on the central character as all the other faces are blank, and their bodies face away from the viewer.
The composition of figures is intentionally kept to the bottom third to emphasise the mass of tall buildings in the background – tall, foreboding, looming, like a maze.
‘Tis me travelling.
Colours here are kept to the object’s natural colours – the grey of the MRT, the blue of the character’s clothing, and the yellow caution lines between the gaps which add a nice contrasting pop of colour to the otherwise dull colour palette.
‘Tis me very lost.
Colour choices are on the neutral side here, to bring emphasis to the Google Map pin which is in a striking red.
Going for a long shot – which shows the character interacting with the larger environment. Here, I am hopelessly lost and ended up walking towards the maze even though my intended destination is right behind me.
Compositionally, the maze is kept to the bottom third and more space is given to the empty space in order to emphasise how easy it is to get the red-marked destination, yet I am carelessly walking in the opposite direction towards the maze.
Choice of colour palette:
I began with yellow and expanded from there to get analogous hues of red and maroon – naturalistic colours for the bee and beehive. As the narrative is centered upon a late-night environment, the instinctive colour choice would be navy or dark blue to depict a darker environment. However, I wanted to take the opportunity to experiment with a colour palette that I was uncomfortable with – and so chose purple as it was the complementary colour of yellow, which fits well too in depicting the dark environment.
(Purple is such a difficult colour to work with)
‘Tis me, in a bee costume.
Compositionally, I illustrated the room such that the corner of the room is positioned where the right-third and bottom-third of the frame meets, in order to create an asymmetry in the composition, according to the rule of thirds. The character, me, is also positioned near this convergence of lines in order for the lines to draw the viewer’s eye to the central character.
I also created a shelf out of the hexagonal beehive structure. Much efforts very prouds.
‘Tis me working under the moonlight with my 8 cups of coffee
Bringing back the hexagonal frame to draw attention to the centre of the composition, this time, to the moon and me in the bee costume. There is some indication of depth via the use of one point perspective (table, chair and window frame receding to the vanishing point).
My skin starts turning green – a sleep deprived induced pallour.
‘Tis me, a beautiful creature of the night
Green swollen face, food and coffee stains, intense acne and 5 o’clock shadow. Get some sleep kids. Or just don’t come to ADM.
Choice of colour palette:
I went for a palette that indicated contrasts in temperature in the environment, and I found that the contrast between earthy warm colours, and a lighter blue allowed me to do that. The environment, here, is warm and sunny, and so I actively employed the use of earth tones such as oranges, browns and greens to convey this idea. As I wanted to contrast warm with cold (literal temperature), I went for a soft blue, which is the popularized colour for ice, water and snow.
‘Tis me shivering on a hot sunny day
Colour-wise, there is a conscious decision to contrast warm and cold (refer to above). Even the smaller details like the shadow help to bring across the idea of cold – my shadow made blue.
Compositionally, I referenced Tania Yakunova’s Ecopark illustrations (see previous post) to create depth in composition. This was achieved through sizing and strategic placement of elements in the composition to make things seem closer and/or further away from us.
‘Tis the wind doing what wind does
A contrast again of blue against warm yellow. This time, the blue is rendered with a gradient that is parallel to the axis of the lines indicating wind (rather than a solid block of colour). I did this to imply a sense of movement and speed of the wind.
‘Tis me, frozen into an iceberg, a tourist attraction
Again, the rule of thirds is used consciously here and the main focus (me, the iceberg) is placed at the top right third of the composition. More figures are also densely placed around the ice block to draw more attention to it.
Isometric people resource pack by Gleb Tagirov: [click!]
Choice of colour palette:
There is not too much intent in the choice of colour here, mostly naturalistic colours are used. The main character’s clothing follows the last few panels – mint blue. And the secondary character is clothed in blue as well to create a sense of harmony between the two characters.
Other than that, the food and everything else is kept to reddish and mustard tones as these are the natural colours of the food depicted. The only purposeful choice of colour here, really, is the background. As the central theme of this story is food, I used red to tie each frame together as red is scientifically proven to induce hunger and increase appetite (which is why many fast food chains use red in their branding).
‘Tis me, eating very little compared to other people
Contrast between what is on their plates – a whole mountain of food + a small anchovy. Compositionally, the table is kept to the bottom third and the two figures divide the vertical space into thirds.
‘Tis the anchovy on my plate
There is an intentional contrast between the size of the plate and what is on the food. A lot of white space is left around the small anchovy to emphasise its small size.
‘Tis me and another with full bellies
A somewhat symmetrical composition of both characters with bloated bellies. Though one is full from a large amount of food, and the other with just a small anchovy.
I don’t really have any big takeaways from this project. Just a small feeling of happiness with how everything turned out and that I got the chance to illustrate like this again (not been illustrating like this for a long time).
3 more days till a final breather. Almost there.
