Betty Yang-24022187

Betty Yang’s Blog

Production arts for screen year 1

Unit 1

What’s behid the door

  • Digital Life Drawing in Theatre 10.1
  • Original Ideas & Planning
  • Researching
  • Performance of Zens and Zero 10.3
  • Reference
  • Collage
  • Chimera mini project 10.8-10.16
  • Practice
  • Experiment
  • Character redraw practice 10.17
  • Formative 4 sides drawing
  • Formative 10 emotions drawing
  • Formative 5 actions drawing
  • Reflection
  • Bibliography

Digital Life Drawing in Theare 10.1

In digital life drawing, I observed the muscle structure of humans and the rhythm of the body in different bodily forms, those sketches helped me know the proportions and dynamic state in character design better.

Richard’s feedback: When you do life drawing you need to pay more attention to the overall shape than to the details.

Original Ideas & Planning

In this parts I will show my thinking process, why I chose that character, how I planed my working time and some draft ideas about that character.

My thinking process & Why I want to design this character

When I started this project, I saw in that image the overall color was dark, had low saturation and many shadows, the atmosphere was oppressive and scary, I think I can design a contrasting character or a total horror character that is most suitable for this topic.

I had some draft ideas and wrote and drew them down, but after I finished the background story, I got a new idea and then I abandoned all previous ideas to work on the new one. 

Draft Ideas & Time management

I chose two main elements in this character and drew them down first, then I based on this character to decide what should I do in this project and how to make this character more complete.

Tutor’s feedback: Considering how to design the neck part, the connection between catfish’s head and body.

Researching

After I got my original ideas of my character, I went to find some resourses about character design

BEASTARS

This animation features a unique setting compared to typical animations. The main characters are all animals, yet they possess human-like body structures and behaviors.

This inspired me, I observed the connection between an animal’s head and a human’s body, and how to express human emotions on an animal’s face, this is very helpful to me when I draw the emotion drawings and three dimentional drawing.

Rusty Lake

This game it’s about many elements about animal heads human, the overall atomosphere is eerily curious, I also want to make a horror character, so then I obeserved the character form in this game, I found im this game the most character’s eyes are black hole, This is a high light in the character design, so then when I designed my characyer I also make its eyes be special, I design it be a empty hole.

Performance of Zens and Zeros 10.3

I watched this performance in 10.3, this performance has very professional color light and dancing. I took some pictures when the actress danced and did life drawing. In this activity, I learned some skills about how to use color, font, and space to express a character’s emotions.

Reference

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Fat Man Concept

My draft idea is to design a middle-aged fat man character, so I found some images about differet style fat man design, I chose one to copy, I learnt how to express the fat body from those drawing, this practice is very helpful for my later character design.

Catfish Concept

I did not know the catfish’s structure and how to make my character more like a human, so I went to find some images of a catfish man, the face and emotional design were very different, I saw different shapes of the head and five senses can express characters’ different personality, so then I plan to do some experiments to combine the different shape of the head and different directions of five senses.

Collage

After I found my reference images I went to use those images to make collage. There are three different style characters, I through these collages I can be more sure what I want my character be like. This is a experiments satge to help me do later more completed experiments a lot.

Chimera mini project 10.8-10.16

In this project, the goal is to create a chimera using images taken from The Natural History Museum, which are displayed in a small exhibition.

The sketch of differents sides dolphin.

The sketch of narwhal’s and sea cow’s head skull.

The sketch of Rendeer’s and Thinhorn sheep’s horn.

The sketch of Griffon vulture’s, Abyssinian roller’s and Steller’s sea eagle’s wings.

Reflection of Chimera mini project:

The Chimera mini project deeply impressed me and changed my perspective. We visited the Natural History Museum to research animals, during which I made several sketches and took pictures. I later met with Richard, who provided valuable feedback on my sketches and offered useful suggestions, such as advising me to conduct some experiments. After completing my sketches and receiving feedback, I felt that I had achieved my goal. I decided to create my chimera in the easiest and quickest way possible, believing that the main project for Unit 1, which runs concurrently with this mini project, was more important.

 However, during the exhibition, I saw many amazing artworks created by other students. They had invested a great deal of effort and time into their projects, which made me reflect on my own work. Although I had done sufficient preparation and received good suggestions from Richard, I undervalued this mini project in comparison to the main project. As a result, I didn’t put as much effort into it. Seeing the work of my peers made me realize that this was a valuable opportunity for personal growth—a chance I missed. In the future, I will cherish every opportunity and strive to make each piece of work my best.

(Copy from my essay)

Richard’s feedback:

U can use software to edit your pictures, then print it off and cut it, to make it combine with your sketchs to make a 3D, 2D mixed artwork.

Practice

Before I start different experiments design, I did some practices about my confused parts, such as hand, catfish head. This make my later designs be more correct.

Catfish’s head

Firstly, I went to find a real catfish’s picture as my reference, then I copy it and try to make it be more cartoon.

Mikey hand

I sketched Mikey’s hand, because mikey’s hand it’s very suitable for my characters, I want to try how to draw the stylised hand for character.

Fat man

This is the sketch of fat man to help myself understand the structure of fat man’s body.

Experiement

I did many exoeriements about my character, this stage help me chose the most suitbale design then to develop it in next stage.

Body type

I analysis three reference iamges to use simple shape to conclude different body type of fat man to see which effect is I want.

Appearence & Weapon

I designed two different appearence for my character, then I asked my classmates their peer review, they all gave suggestion to choose the first one, so I chose it as the final appearence design. Next, I tried different weapon design to see which one it’s the most suitable one.

    Character redraw practice 10.17

    In this activity, I copied my character design and exchanged it with a classmate. After that, I redrew his character with different emotions and actions (The right image). During this process, I discovered several questions about his design and wrote down some suggestions for him. Additionally, while redrawing his character, I noticed many skills he used in his drawings. I learned some new character design techniques from his work. Since my character is also a monster, his strong body structure helped me understand how to draw monster characters more effectively.

    In addition, because of this activity I communicate more with classmate and make a new friend, this activity also promote my social skill.

    Formative 4 sides drawing

    In the 4 sides drawing process, I found I was not good at folds drawing and the shape of body structure it s not accurate, but after Paul have seen my drawings he showed me how to make it more natural.

    Front

    Because this character it’s a vallian and killer, so I add some blood.

    (Peer review from Jolene: “This character feels quite flat, and the folds and structure do not effectively convey the volume of the character. However, I find this character very interesting. I can see many three-dimensional structures in the design. When I first saw the character, I was able to guess their job, and when I learned about the setting, my guess was accurate. This indicates that your design is successful. Additionally, the setting is very appealing to me; a boss character with blood and weapons is intriguing. I believe you just need to practice your drawing skills more.”)

    Back & Side & 45Angle

    In these drawings I found many problems, but Paul show me more correct body sreucture of fat man (The above image), I think I can draw it better next time. :>

    Formative 10 emotions drawing

    I imagined 10 different type emotions which this character will have, then I drew them down.

    Emotion Express

    Because my character is a monster, emotional expression is harder than humans, so I thought that I could change the head shape to express different emotions. For example, when this character is angry, the head will be a triangle. In addition, I found the squeezing and stretching of his five senses to be a good way of expressing emotion.

    Formative 5 actions drawing

    I showed these 5 drawings to Rihana, her feedback is there are some actions’ gravity it’s incorrect, when I draw actions I need to focus on the connection between structure and gravity.

    Reflection

    In this unit, when I did the main charcter design project, I found there are many problems of my drawing skills. For example, in the peer review, my classmate told me my drawings are too flat, because folds don’t show the structure, and comparing with Paul’s drawing and my drawing, the body structure is more natural and suitable for my character, so then my plan is to do more sketch of human’s body and folds to improve my drawing skills. But the advantage is I have created a creative character, I think the setting of him it’s interesting and accurate of his introduction, and he it’s very suitable of the topic of this unit. I think due to the completed preparinging stage, I done planning and researching well, then I can design this character very smooth.

    In addtion, this unit it’s a welcome unit, I made many friends and have communications with them and tutors through those activity. In the Chimera mini project I went to The Natural History Musum, I did some sketch then I showed them to Richard, he gave my some feedback and I shared my ideas about my Chimera, he commmunicated with me about it and also shared his ideas to me, his suggestion is useful and interesting. By the way, when I chatted with my classmates, I found more useful skills in character design which I never heared before, chating help me improve my drawing skills and I made many new friends.

    All in all, In the unit 1 I found many problems in my artworks, but I improve my social skills and found my creative skills.

    Bibliography

    Website

    (No date) Pinterest. Available at: https://au.pinterest.com/ (Accessed: 15 October 2024)

    (No date) Wikipedia. Available at: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:首页 (Accessed: 15 October 2024)

    Anime & Game

    (2020) BEASTARS [Preprint]. Japan, Ending: 週刊少年チャンピオン.

    (2015) Rusty Lake. Netherland, Ending: Rusty Lake Studio.

    Place

    (1881) The Natural History Museum. London, Kensington and Chelsea. ( Accessed: 8 October 2024).

    Image

    Li, G. (2024) The research of fish. London SW7 5BD.