OUIL402 End of Module Evaluation

Throughout PPP I have explored a number of things that influence my practice. It has taught me to take into consideration everyday activities that affect time management and how important it is to be disciplined with my planning.
To tackle my time management, I began using a diary. However that was quickly forgotten about and I found it much easier to have things written on a calender where I could clearly see all the impending deadlines. This module has also forced my to reflect on how life-changing experiences will affect my practice. For example, moving out and living independently for the first time, trying to juggle uni work with house work, alone time, socializing and necessary things such as eating and sleeping. This kind of reflection made me realise what an anxious person I am and that I too often feel guilty about not doing work during every free minute I have.

Looking at other practitioners work and staying informed on the creative industry is another important thing I've learnt to do. Sometimes I definitely neglected this which I regret, but now that the work load has been vastly offloaded, I feel more inclined to discover other illustrators' work or find inspiration elsewhere.
When I have been researching other practitioners, my work has visibly improved. It encouraged me to try different processes and I am now finding production methods that I am happy working with.

Another thing that has benefited my practice is making sure that there has been some kind of synthesis between all of the modules we have worked on. For example, I made sure I was taking note of things I learnt in Visual Language and employing them elsewhere. Likewise, I was making sure that the practitioners work that I was looking at for PPP tasks was helping me form opinions on different processes and helping me define my tone of voice.

I realise that my practice will continue evolving as long as I continue to produce work but I can say with confidence that I like the work I am producing now. This was an issue for me throughout the year - perhaps I was overly critical of my own work, but it pushed me to explore line, texture and try out colour palettes that I wasn't used to. From what I have researched and explored thus far, I want to continue exploring character design, repeat pattern and improving my digital skills.

Studio Brief 3 - Creative Strategy - Presentation

I found this presentation really useful because it forced me to really evaluate how far I have come this year. It was really useful to compare the work I have produced recently with the pieces I produced back in September. It was a nice shock to see just how far my practice has evolved. I have a much clearer idea of what areas I want to develop, what needs developing or refining and which areas of illustration I would like to explore over summer and into next year. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Evaluation 

Throughout this project I feel as though I have not only improved my digital skills/confidence but also investigated a matter that I am actually quite passionate about.

I think that my main downfall for this project was the planning of the final outcome. I worked through-out on the character designs and learnt how time consuming it is for me, but I neglected any further planning. As a result,  I think my poster lacks some kind of structure. I was planning on printing it in a book format too, but I ran out of time because I spent so long doing all the initial drawings. 

It was fun to work on a brief set by myself, however I also struggled with it because of the fact that it was so open. Initially I found myself a little lost, but looking at other practitioners work and then forcing myself to respond in some way really helped.  I think with such a flexible brief, it is easy to forget to research - when I did get round to trying to find some academic research, I think my project was improved because I was much more clear on my opinion and intent.

As I am able to improve this piece of work after the submission (for the end of year show), it gives me an opportunity to either try this out in a different format or to add some kind of structure to it. I think something as simple as a border could improve it or perhaps the text needs to be larger. I was happy with the scale (A2) because it meant all the detail and textures could be seen, so if I were to change the format, then I would keep to quite a large scale. 

Study Task 3 - What is illustration? Part 2

Function

Some examples of illustrations with a function could be book/magazine covers, editorial, advertising, fashion design illustrations or product packaging. 

Content

Usually the content is influenced by the illustrators tone of voice. Some illustrators work with narrative to communicate either a story or perhaps an experience. Other illustrator's tone of voice give their work a distinctive aesthetic which makes it suitable for communicating to a particular audience. 
Political illustration, such as the 'We Can Do It!' example can help change constructs in society and address the way we think about things such as gender roles. 

Process

I am interested in the combination of analogue techniques and digital. The examples I have chosen all resonate with tools I like to work with, such as fine liners and ink. Personally, I like to finish pieces off digitally but I'm also interested in illustration that exists off paper (Vic Lee example). 

Aesthetic 

Colour palette is important when considering what kind of aesthetic you want to achieve with an illustration. Different colours, (such as the pink monochrome example) can be used to target a specific audience - as generally women will identify with the colour pink. 
I'm interested in looking at very detailed artwork but sometimes this isn't appropriate for some briefs so it is important to be able to translate information and adjust line quality to tailor it to the audience/client. 

Context

Illustration can exist almost anywhere - from zines to packaging designs and posters. Currently I am interested in how illustration can exist elsewhere though, such as an installation at a gallery, a wall at a restaurant or even a shop window. I think what is appealing about this scale is that it is very hands on and it is satisfying to spend a lot of time crafting an image. 

Practitioners

A great way to discover other practitioners is to simply Google search illustration agencies. I selected the top few and came loads of illustrators I was interested in looking at and I think it is a really good way to stay informed on the industry. 

Audience

The audience for an illustration can vary from small children to your peers in a sub culture. The content has to be appealing for the audience as well as engaging. For example, children's book illustrations need to be fairly simple and narrate the story. Editorial illustrations however, are usually aimed at adults and so the content and complexity of the image can be different depending on the seriousness of the article it accompanies. Similarly, product illustration needs to appeal to/resonate  with the target audience/market because nobody wants to spend money on a product they don't like the look of. 

Roy Lichtenstien

What I like most about Lichtenstein's work are the bold lines, and the use of pattern/dots that add a bit of texture to the otherwise flat colour. 

The aesthetic of Lichtenstein's work was influenced by comic strips and a lot of his content was quite tongue in cheek. This aesthetic is very different to the one I have been developing in my own practice but of late, I feel as though I have neglected my sketchbook and traded it in for digital methods. 

In response to Lichtenstein's work I wanted to explore methods to create similar linework. I began using a brush and ink which I then scanned and coloured using photoshop. 

I wasn't really happy with the quality of my lines using a brush. I need to practice controlling the line thickness more and in some places I think I put down too much detail.

Later, I decided to try the image trace function in Illustrator. The results aren't that different from a distance, but overall the line-work is much cleaner and consistent. 

As I have been experimenting with line work in Illustrator a lot recently, I'm really pleased I've found a method I'm very comfortable with and isn't too time consuming. I think I can improve my line quality by experimenting with different tools and I'm especially keen to try this out using a brush pen. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

 Captain Falcon

When I was sketching out Captain Falcon, I noticed how muscular the character was. I thought that I should try and replicate this on a female body, so I did some quick sketches using references to familiarize myself with the different muscle groups.

This character was the easiest to do so far. I'm not sure whether it was because the male version had a slightly younger/almost girly body, or whether it's because I am simply becoming more practiced at this. I have noticed I am getting much better at drawing foreshortening limbs just from having to draw them so much recently. 

I think my character designs could be improved if I had more time to spend on each one - I dedicated the better part of a day to each one. There are areas I'd like to tweak, such as hands and possibly angled facial features.

I am still unsure whether or not to present the characters as a poster or in a small booklet/zine. I feel as though the poster needs more structure but I'm not sure how to go about this. I am tempted to print both and see which I prefer when it's in front of me. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Research

I have come to a part in my project where I feel as though I should educate myself more on the topic of female gender roles in video games. 

The first article I came across was called, 'Shirts vs. Skins: Clothing as an Indicator of GenderRole Stereotyping in Video Games' - however I wasn't able to access the main article because I didn't have a subscription to the site. I was however, able to read the abstract. I picked out some quotes I thought were relevant:

1. "We suggest that video games, similar to other media forms, are sources of information that children and young adults may use to determine what behaviors and attitudes are considered appropriately masculine and feminine"
2. "This analysis revealed a significant sex bias in the number of male versus female characters found in the games and among the way in which the male and female characters were dressed."
3. "Of the 597 characters coded, only 82 (13.74%) were women. The Nintendo 64 games had the fewest number of female characters, and the majority of the female characters wore clothing that exposed more skin than the male characters."

I'm really glad I came across these points because they all support my project in a way.  I am particularly interested in the last quote because I was focusing on Nintendo characters to begin and this was a good confirmation that I was on point. 

Another article I was really interested in reading but couldn't because of expensive subscriptions was, 'The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games'. Once again I could read the abstract, so I picked out these quotes:

1. "A large-scale content analysis of characters in video games was employed to answer questions about their representations of gender, race and age in comparison to the US population."
2. "The results show a systematic over-representation of males, white and adults and a systematic under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the elderly."
3. "Overall, the results are similar to those found in television research. The implications for identity, cognitive models, cultivation and game research are discussed."

This Wiki article on gender representation was also quite informative. I found some interesting quotes from various sections about female roles:

1. "The vast majority of female characters have been found to be non-playable, meaning they cannot be played by the gamer. This suggests a female secondary status in video games"
2. "According to data gathered by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR), few video games have exclusively female heroes. This is in part because, according to EEDAR, "there's a sense in the industry that games with female heroes won’t sell", whichPenny Arcade attributed in part to these games receiving much smaller marketing budgets than games with male heroes"
3. "a sample of 669 action, shooter, and role-playing games selected by EEDAR in 2012, only 24 (4%) had an exclusively female protagonist, and 300 (45%) provided the option of selecting one"
4. "female player characters remain something of an exception. In 2013, for instance, Epic Games was lauded for the inclusion and portrayal of Anya and Samantha Byrne in Gears of War 3, the series' first playable female characters.^[12] Despite the positive response from female players who found her empowering, Epic Games believes that the video game market would not support a Gears of War title with women as the central protagonists"
5. "A number of games feature a female character as an ally or sidekick to the male hero. "
6. "female characters are often cast in the role of the damsel in distress, with their rescue being the objective of the game."

After reading about this subject, it really confirmed to me that I wanted to portray females as the heroes - especially in games where there was no option but to play as a male character. I am going to continue swapping the gender of popular game heroes and disregard what is considered feminine by society or the gaming industry because I believe women can be the hero without being scantily clad. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

I used the character sheets/designs to further develop female versions of video game characters.

When I was doing the initial sketches I wasn't sure whether or not to include the villains from the games. I decided not to because I wanted to focus on how the 'Hero' is most often portrayed as male, whereas females take the assumed role of a damsel in distress.  

Currently I plan to put all these character designs onto a poster. I still have at least five more to draw, which is proving tough because each one is taking longer than I expected. 

I'm also going to change the title of the poster - I want to encourage the viewer to question the roles of gender in media - especially media that is directed at children. 

'What if the heroes were girls?'

- Would this be  more effective as a zine?

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Fox McCloud

Again, drawing a non-human face was difficult. I haven't grasped the different angles yet and how the different planes look from different perspectives. The body was easier to draw because it was human proportions although I am still having trouble with hands and foreshortening. Must practice, practice, practice. 

I am also in dire need of a break. Usually my workload means I have to flit between different projects so I don't spend too long working on one thing. This is the only project I have at the moment and I've been dedicating a lot of time to it so far, which is starting to make it unappealing. Tomorrow I will try a new approach to designing characters rather than doing more of these pages of heads and a pose. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Bowser

This is the first character I've attempted that isn't a human, so I had to really concentrate on the different proportions. I still think this needs work - she doesn't look animated enough. This could be because of the flat colours or just because I need to practice drawing the figure more.

 Ness

Surprisingly I found this the easiest figure to draw - although I still need to alter the size of some limbs. The hardest part of this process is trying to get the characters to look like they have some movement. I'm also struggling with foreshortening on limbs. I can see myself improving as I gradually start to understand how it affects the limbs but I still need more practice. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Since I have become focused on drawing Nintendo characters with a gender swap, I thought it would be a good idea to see how other people have gone about drawing these characters.

By [x]

By [x]

I wouldn't say that either example is really illustration, but fanart. In a way they have drawn their own interpretation of these characters, which is similar to what I am doing. However, I think that my work will be opening the audience up to questioning how different these games' characters might have been if the main protagonist were the opposite sex. 

For my final outcome I am thinking of producing a similar kind thing to the above examples. However it could also work as a poster laid out in rows/columns - but first I've got to continue creating the work. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Female Link development

Although I feel like my process is currently getting a bit repetitive, it needs to be and I am noticing that I am already getting better at drawing face profiles.

My favorite part if this process is drawing the character in an action pose - it allows me to figure out how the clothes would fall on a female body rather than male. Once I have finished the majority of my early character developments, I'll be more rigorous with the poses. 

What I dislike about what I have produced so far are the colours. I really like using monochrome palettes but in this instance it wouldn't really work. I want to tone the colours down a little and add areas of shading and highlights. 

When I am drawing the characters in action poses, I will need to employ a lot of rigor to make it look like there's movement and work out which parts of the body to emphasize. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Luigi development

I spent more time tweaking the face of this character because I didn't want it to look too similar to my Mario design. I compared the two original characters and noted that Luigi is not only taller, but slimmer. I had to tweak my designs face and features to slim them down and work out other simple things such as the size of the hat. 

I still need to be rigorous when I re-draw these characters to try and perfect them but the purpose of this exercise is for me to start exploring how I can draw different characters, so I'm currently concerned with the quantity of work I need to produce. 

Kristyna Baczynski

http://www.kristyna.co.uk/

A few months ago we had a talk with Kristyna and I think it was at that point that I re-discovered how much I enjoy character and pattern design. At the time, I was really struggling to find a voice with my illustration and as we were just starting CoP Studio Brief 2, her work kind of inspired me to relax a bit more with my drawing and I also started to use more simple colour palettes because I liked how they looked in her work. 

Both talks with Kristyna Baczynksi and more recently, Emily Hughes have taught me to draw however it comes naturally to me. I always thought that I was bad at creating humorous illustration or making something that has my personal touch on it but in reality I think I just had to get to know my own process and stop being so uptight/worried about it. 

Big Heads - Emily Hughes

I think that out of all the Big Heads talks we've had, I have taken the most from this one. It was really interesting to see how rigorous she was when designing characters and how she draws them repetitively to try out different line qualities and shapes until she is satisfied. This has definitely informed the way I am starting to tackle my own character design in Studio Brief 2.

Hughes also mentioned that it's important to draw things in a way that is natural to you so that you don't end up just copying things from textbooks. This felt extremely relevant to my practice at the moment because I feel as though I am only just figuring out how I draw things and translate information into an illustration. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

 I decided not to continue with my digital painting of the female Mario character because I felt like I was in danger of just replicating somebody else's style. I thought back to previous work where my illustrations had been more successful and realised that they were only successful because they were drawn in my tone of voice/style. 

I started to re-sketch Mario as a female, working out the shapes that came naturally to me.

 I used ink on the bottom right to try and increase my line confidence - I was getting to a point where I was happy and sometimes I find it easier to take away the option of erasing mistakes to force myself into controlling the lines better.

Once I was happy with this initial design, I had a go at drawing female Mario in a typical Mario pose & refined further. 

Although I still want to make some alterations/get used to drawing this character,  I feel happy with the outcomes of this exercise because I am drawing the way I naturally draw and the results are much better than previous attempts. I think by repetitively drawing this character, the lines and shapes will naturally become more refined with practice. 

For a final outcome to this project I am thinking of producing an A1 poster - not unlike some of the original ideas I had - with female versions of popular characters (possibly exclusively video game characters). I could take this further and create a piece of artwork with them all interacting with each other or in a scene similar to their original games. 

My next step is to continue to refine more characters - I am aiming for 15 or more, depending on how quickly I work. 

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

To develop this idea further I have chosen to alter this character's body type. I've kept the same idea for the clothes/colour palette and used female comic book characters for the inspiration for the body type. An over-sexualised body type is the opposite of what the original Mario looks like - will this character still be recognisable by the time I am finished?

 Work in progress:

I am trying to make the artwork look something like Sakimichan's work. Digital painting is a very time consuming process but once I am finished I would like to try a different approach to make it look more like the comic book artstyle. 

I am enjoying experimenting with ideas for this project but I am still unsure of what kind of final outcome I could produce - is this an issue at this stage?

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Idea development - 'Genderbending'

I decided to choose Mario because he is a really popular character and the franchise's audience is mostly families/children.

This is my rough idea of what Mario could look like as a woman. I tried to keep the body type similar, selected colours from the original image and used relatively thick lines to make it look cartoon-esque/suitable for the same audience.

I deconstructed the image to see which was the most reminiscent of the original Mario. I definitely think the version with just the colour is much more recognisable as Mario. This suggests that colour is probably one of the most prominent things we associate with characters. I want to test this and alter other things about this character such as body-type and the aesthetic/drawing style.

Studio Brief 2 - The Illustrated Self

Initial ideas:

My first ideas were to look at different types of skulls or crystals. Since I've always found skulls fascinating, I thought looking at different species' skulls would be interesting to illustrate.

For a final outcome I visualise something similar to Kristyna Baczynski's work below:

 My second idea was to look at Crystals. Initially I was just interested in their aesthetic, but after some initial research I'd like to learn/illustrate the different healing properties associated with specific types of crystals. 

This piece of work by Elise Hannebicque is what inspired me to look at the aesthetic of crystals. I like the use of line and collage in some areas to create some kind of shadow/depth/texture. So far I have only experimented using free-hand line and loose watercolour but I want to try using a ruler to get sharper edges and then see what I can create digitally. 

So far I am going ahead with the crystal research & development but I am also leaning towards my third option, looking at 'gender-bent' characters. 

This idea was inspired by Sakimichan's genderbent series.

This reminded me of the Superman theory I learnt about in context of practice which was about how we recognise characters to be a specific character regardless of slight changes in story or perhaps gender. I am interested in which characteristics are important in identifying well known-characters. My only concern is that this is well-trodden ground and I don't want to just replicate Sakimichan's work.  

However, I could also use ideas from the Hawkeye Initiative and consider how female versions of male characters would often be sexualised or perhaps how male versions of female characters would me made to look very masculine/macho?

My question to myself is do I want to create something that is pretty or explore the medias constructs of gender?