Illustration and Visual Narrative / Project 3: Digital Triptych

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4.4.2023 - 4.7.2023
Johnny Lam Wee Zhe / 0363436 / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Illustration and Visual Narrative
 

LECTURE

Week 10 - Ornaments
For the tenth week illustration and visual narrative class, we learn to create patterns in adobe illustrator. We did a simple exercise of creating a snake out of a single stroke. We get to learn how to use the width tool; a tool that controls the width of a stroke and how to use the pattern menu that can be found in the objects tab. What I really found most interesting is the three tiny options below the color and stroke, one of which is a paint inside tab where shapes or brush strokes can be painted within the selected shape without using any masking.


PROJECT 3

Research
For the third project of illustration and visual narrative, we are tasked with creating something called a digital triptych, a triptych is an artwork often an altarpiece consist of three painted canvas or carved panel hinged together. Unlike the actual artwork, we'll be doing the work on the computer in it's digital form. In addition to that, we are to select one of the stories written by the late Edgar Allen Poe and split them into three parts; introduction, conflict and resolution.

Naturally we have to read the story to determine that. The story I picked for my digital triptych is called The Pit and The Pendulum. Here is the link to the story: https://poestories.com/read/pit


Introduction
 Conflict
 Resolution

The unnamed man is sentenced  to death in Toledo by the Spanish Inquisition and is sent to a dark dungeon.

The man discovers a circular pit in his dungeon that he almost fell into and that is when the protagonist realize that the Spanish Inquisition decide to kill him slowly and ‘indirectly’. The man notice how the room has gotten smaller. Then, man gets drugged by food and water before waking up again, but is tied to a wooden board. Above him a pendulum with a blade very slowly descends upon him day after day. He then gets the idea of luring rats to bite off the constraints on him and free himself.

Right after he freed himself, his dungeon gets heat up and the walls around start to close in. He went to the pit and look down to see something too terrible to be mentioned. He is forced into the pit an fell. Then he heard the French army coming in and General Lasselle catch his by the arm.


After splitting the story into three parts. I begin to look up for inspiration for my digital triptych and here is what I have collected:

 
Fig 1.1 Inspiration 1
 
Fig 1.2 Inspiration 2

I decide to go for a black and white look or at least a grayscale look as I find that this would be quite fitting for the story's atmosphere.

 

Sketches

After collecting my reference materials. I start to sketch out my digital triptych.

Fig 2 Sketches (6/06/2023 Week 11)

 
Digitization
After that, I put the sketch into adobe illustrator and start to digitalize it. I start by giving it a (very) rough and colorful digitization. Here is the rough, digitization:


Fig 3.1 A rough (and mediocre) Digital Triptych (6/06/2023 Week 11)

I wanted to test out some things and see how I can work out the digital triptych and explore a few design possibilities to see what works and what doesn't. Of course, my original plan of making the triptych grayscale has not been abandoned and I keep that in mind as I proceed with further digitization. By the time the first consultation came, in a form of Microsoft Team submission, this is what I have got.

Fig 3.2 Progress 2 (7/06/2023 Week 11)

Definitely better than the previous work but still require further adjustment and the third panel need to be completed. With the help of some posture reference image and here is my next progress.

 Fig 3.3 Progress 3 (7/06/2023 Week 11)
 
All three panel are now completed. There will be further refinement but for now, I want to try to create a frame for the triptych to cover up the weird transition between panels.

 
Fig 3.4 Framed Triptych (7/06/2023 Week 11)
 
After adding the frame, I decide to start refining the work for a bit more; adjusting court table shadows, replacing the mice, adjusting the fingers, create a more detail frame and this is the design I got.


 
Fig 3.5 End Result (7/06/2023 Week 11)

Refinement

Even though I have decided the end result as the final result. I receive a feed from Mr. Hafiz about how flat the design look and suggest that I add more texture or detail and add more depth to the design. So, I return to adobe illustrator and attempt to add depth into my design.

First I create a pattern using my knowledge gain from week 10's lectures and create a brick wall pattern in the background. I made two variants of the wall; one is the a rounded rectangular shape brick and the other is medium size square.

Fig 4.1 Creating rectangular brick patterns (23/06/2023 Week 13)

Fig 4.2 Creating square brick pattern (23/06/2023 Week 13)

I pick the pattern with the square brick as the final design for the background wall as I don't want the design to look too busy and irregular. Next, I added highlight to every object and determine the source of light that came from the left. The third panel is the exception as I want all the light source focus on the fire instead. I resize some of the mice to make it seem like it's much further away or closer from the viewer. I also add gradients into almost every object into the design to give an dimensional illusion. After that, I'm done with the design.

Fig 4.3 Adding highlights to the object in the design (23/06/2023 Week 13)

Fig 4.4 Adding highlights to the rest of the design (23/06/2023 Week 13)

Fig 4.5 Cut object in half and turn one half into a shadow (23/06/2023 Week 13)

Fig 4.6 Adding glow to the fire (23/06/2023 Week 13)
 
Final Result
 
Fig 5.1 Final Digital Triptych (24/06/2023 Week 13)

Fig 5.2 Final Digital Triptych Outline (24/06/2023 Week 13)

 

REFLECTION

In this project, I find that the research part of the portion to be the most challenging aspect of this project. Especially when reading the story written by Edgar Allan Poe. Not because he is not a bad writer but it's more so that English back then is still quite different and I struggle to make out what is happening without resorting to reading story summary. I also struggle to split the story into three acts especially the introduction. The introduction requires a glimpse of the character's everyday life before facing a conflict. However, some of the stories start off with the conflict including this tale. If I were given a chance to start over, I would have likely pick a different story that suits the story structure the lecturers have in mind. Nonetheless, this project is an interesting one and I have learn aplenty from my mistake made doing this project.

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