How I Construct an Image for Work

When I am designing a piece of art for work, such as for a university brief, I start with a pencil sketch. I feel that drawing in pencil gives me much more control over how I want the design to look and feel, as well as making me more engaged with the art.

For this example, I will use a design I came up with for the graffiti-style stickers brief in Applied Creativity.

The initial design is roughed out in pencil on paper. As previously mentioned, this allows me to be closer to the art work and gives me a better understanding of how the finished art will look and feel.

When I am happy with the design, I go over the outline of the sketch with bold line. This gives me a more solid and reliable base on which to build the rest of the image, but is also the most time-consuming part of the process due to the high level of accuracy I insist on.

After the outline is done, I work out the details of the image; in this case, the writing inside the outline. While this does not always take as long as the outline, it can still take a fair amount of time due to my perfectionism.

Finally, colour is added and the rest of the image is cleaned up. After deleting the base image, I have my finished piece of work.

How I Construct an Image

When drawing an illustration in my own time, I do not give it much thought. I simply imagine what I want the character to look like, then I build up the figure with basic shapes and then flesh it out with the details. If I am using colour in the image, I place colours down and alter them as I see fit until it looks right.

I will use one of my original characters as an example of this process (if you can call it a process). Please note that this is how I produce an image for personal amusement and development. I will detail my construction of a piece of work in a separate post.

First, I sketch out the rough shape of the figure, using simple shapes and then fleshing out the details.

Sketch

Then, I go over the sketch in bold lines to tie the drawing together. This also gives me the chance to correct any annoying mistakes I made with the sketch while still using the sketch as a reference.

Line Art

Finally, if I am using colour, I try different shades of whatever colours I decide to use until I get a result that looks right.

Final Coloured Drawing

I do not always work in colour, but I have been training myself to start using it more often. If I can get used to using colour, as well as improving my sense of anatomy, body language and posture as well as general character design, I will improve my art work drastically.

Final Billboard Concept

I have completed the design for my Red Bull advertising billboard. I have included it below, along with a breakdown of its composition and the thinking behind the design choices I made.

First of all, the billboard is presented in a triptych format which outlines the three stages that Hercules goes through in the advert: felling tired and rundown, having a drink of Red Bull and then flying away on his newly-grown wings while triumphantly holding a boulder aloft. This format was commonly used in adverts for Heineken beer, and it also works well for a Red Bull advert.

Because the average buyer of the Red Bull drink tends to be feeling tired and in need of a boost, the first image of Hercules on the left shows him having apparently been trying to lift a boulder but has not had the strength to do it, so he is feeling worn out and defeated. The background of the middle image was deliberately left blank to further emphasise the image of Hercules pouring the can of Red Bull into his open mouth. The right image directly ties in with the brand's slogan "Red Bull Gives You Wings", and Hercules' posture has been designed to present the fact that he has triumphed over his former weakness thanks to Red Bull; the metaphor of wings is meant to suggest that drinking Red Bull will give you a burst of energy as if you were flying.

I designed the composition like a film poster in order to present the product to a potential consumer as in a way that is dramatic and dynamic. However, I focused too much on the character and not enough on the actual product, which is Red Bull. If the image of Red Bull was more obvious then this billboard might have been more successful. It is better than my first effort, in which the can of Red Bull was barely noticeable. Overall, it may not have been as successful as I would have liked, but I feel like I managed to do a good job despite the shortcomings.

Updated Character Turnaround Sheet

After refining my design for the Hercules character, I produced a turnaround sheet for him. The turnaround was drawn entirely in Photoshop.

In the turnaround, I included a front view, a 3 1/4 view and a side view, as well as three different expressions. This allows the viewer to get a good idea of how the character looks from all angles; this is why turnarounds are used in the production of illustrations and animation. It is especially important in animation, as the character will more often than not be shown from various different angles. The three expressions on the side also give an impression of the character's personality, and how he would look if he were happy, sad or angry.

After deciding that my first idea did not put enough emphasis on Hercules' powerful upper body, I redesigned the character with a larger chest and arms and added a headband to give the design just a little bit more detail. This character underwent a large amount of revision, a lot more than I usually do, and I am very happy with the final design.

Side Research: How Perspective Conveys Meaning

In illustration, the perspective an image uses can convey a lot of meaning beyond what the image depicts. There are four distinct types of perspective; Aerial Perspective (or 'bird's eye view'), Perspective of receding planes, Perspective of scale and Linear Perspective (or 'worm's eye view'). To understand how perspective can convey meaning, one has to look at the contexts in which each kind of perspective is used.

Aerial Perspective:

Aerial Perspective refers to a viewpoint from above, seeming to look down on the illustration. Also called a 'bird's eye view' or 'high angle shot', it can be employed to detach the viewer from what the illustration is depicting. A good way to think of this is to imagine yourself as a spider clinging to the ceiling, looking down on the people in the room below. An aerial perspective view also makes the elements in the illustration seem smaller, and gives them a sense of insignificance. Aerial perspective can also be used to help establish that an illustration is being viewed from a high-up place, such as the top of a tall building.

The Parkour Master (from www.actiontrip.com, 2010, artist unknown)

Perspective of Receding Planes:

Perspective of receding planes refers to a sense of depth achieved by layering elements of the illustration one on top of the other. Commonly employed in Japanese wood block prints and landscape paintings, this is a straightforward method of establishing a sense of distance in an illustration, as the layered elements in the illustration appear to go further and further away and disappear into the distance.

Evening Snow at Kanbara (Ando Hiroshige, 1834)

Perspective of Scale:

Perspective of scale refers to the way in which elements of an illustration appear to get bigger or smaller depending on their position in the illustration. This method gives the illusion of three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional image, which can involve the viewer more closely with the illustration. In photography, the perspective of scale can be distorted to make people or objects in a photograph appear smaller than they actually are.



Linear Perspective:

Linear perspective refers to a viewpoint looking straight at the elements in the illustration. Foreshortening is employed in linear perspective, which gives the impression that elements closer to the viewer appear larger and elements further away appear smaller. This is anchored by at least one vanishing point on a horizon line. It is the most neutral viewpoint, and so is used for stable situations in which nothing too major is happening.

Example of linear perspective (from www.netplaces.com, artist unknown)

Billboard Concepts

These are two preliminary concepts I produced when thinking about how my billboard design will look.

The first one, pictured above, was done very rough because I was trying to nail down the basic idea of my design while the second one, pictured below, is a more fleshed out version of the same idea.

Character Sheet: Hercules

This is my character turnaround sheet, depicting my version of the Hercules character. After showing this sheet to my colleagues, I altered the design to make it even more clear to the average consumer.

Altered design can be seen on the right hand side

Side Research: Character Semiotics

Semiotics, or 'the study of signs', is an important thing to practise when designing a character, especially a mascot or the main character of a television show. The way a character looks and behaves can say a considerable amount about that character and what they represent, as well as defining the effect said character has on a viewer. To further explore semiotics, I will analyse the character Himura Kenshin from the manga and anime series Rurouni Kenshin, created by Japanese manga artist Nobuhiro Watsuki.

Book Cover Illustration of Himura Kenshin, by Nobuhiro Watsuki

While the design of Kenshin is pretty straightforward, it is the underlying meanings and denotations behind the choices Watsuki-san made in Kenshin's look that define his style. On a basic level, Kenshin is always dressed in clothing most likely worn by poor people in 19th century Japan, which is where Rurouni Kenshin takes place; a baggy red shirt with wide sleeves (I don't know the exact name of it), baggy white trousers tied at the waist, red tabi socks and straw sandals, with bandages wrapped around his waist and the lower half of his ribs. He has long red hair, tied back in a ponytail, blue eyes and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek.

Despite the relatively simple design, many aspects of his personality can be seen in Kenshin's appearance. While his clothes are similar to those worn by samurai warriors, giving him a similar silhouette, they appear shabby and threadbare, which suggests that he is poor. This is backed up by the title of the series; 'Rurouni' means 'wandering swordsman', so the literal title of the series is 'Wandering Swordsman Kenshin'. Kenshin is a drifter, with no obvious form of income, so he would have nothing but the clothes on his back, so to speak. His simple clothing suggests that he leads a humble way of life.

Promotional Illustration of Kenshin for the Rurouni Kenshin anime

The colouring of his clothes carries a lot of weight in identifying him as a character as well. Red and white are both striking colours, so he stands out against the greenery and wooden buildings of Meiji-era Japan. His red hair is also unique among the almost exclusively black-haired characters in the series, allowing him to stand out even more. A more subtle connotation in his design comes from the contradiction between his eyes and the symbolic scar on his face. The scar remains as evidence of past conflicts and hardships, while his blue eyes suggest a gentle, sensitive nature. Throughout the years, character designers have given sensitive characters blue eyes for this very reason; evidence of this practise can be seen in Disney characters such as Cinderella and Pinocchio.

Besides his scar, the final defining feature of Kenshin's design is his sword. Kenshin wields a 'sakabato', or 'reverse-edged sword'. The sword is identical to a Japanese katana, except that the cutting edge is on the inside of the curve of the blade. In the story, Kenshin used to be an assassin known as Hitokiri Battosai. He operated during the final years of the Bakumatsu (the period in which the Edo era ended and the Meiji era began), but resolved never to kill again after the death of his beloved. As is constantly mentioned in the series, the reverse-edged sword represents Kenshin's vow to never take another life, since the blunt edge is used when wielding it like a normal katana.

There are some nuances in Kenshin's behaviour that carry subliminal meaning about his personality. After resolving never to kill again, Kenshin's personality essentially split between the assassin he used to be and the peaceful man he is trying to become. His eyes and speech manner act as the differentiating factors that allow the reader or viewer to tell the difference between his two personalities. When he is calm, Kenshin's eyes are wide and naïve, and he speaks gently and humbly as well as referring to himself in the third person (e.g. "This one is but a rurouni"). When he is enraged, or when engaged in combat, his eyes narrow and become sharp as knives, and his speech becomes much more direct and aggressive.

The way Kenshin's clothes look when he is sat down also acts as a very good visual indicator of his feelings. When he is, for example, sat at the dinner table or resting against a tree, his clothes drape as if they might be a blanket and show that he is at ease. When he is depressed, however, he sits in a slumped, brooding manner and his clothes look like the rags they are, giving the impression that he has been cast off from life and has been thrown away like yesterday's rubbish.

The flexibility of Kenshin's design is remarkable too. Throughout the series, Kenshin regularly changes between warrior and wanderer in a heartbeat. His clothes, being neither too warrior-like or too peasant-like, manage to look perfect for him no matter what situation he is in.

Illustration from the original Rurouni Kenshin manga

There is a part of the story of Rurouni Kenshin that carries great semiotic significance. In the scene shown above, Kenshin has bound his sword in chains. This happens during a story arc in which Kenshin is led to believe that his best friend has been murdered. Feeling that he has failed to protect his friends, he decides to never even take up the sword, let alone use it to kill. The return of his resolve is shown in an inspiring scene in which, after being begged to come back and help his friends in a battle, he draws his sword and shatters the chains (sadly, I couldn't find a picture of it).

Himura Kenshin is one of my favourite characters in any work of fiction because of his depth. He is constantly torn between the past and present, haunted by past crimes and old foes while trying to keep the people he loves safe and build a better future for himself and others. I believe that his design and behaviour do an exceptional job of describing his personality (or rather, his two personalities). I would go so far as to say that Kenshin is an under-appreciated masterpiece of character design, even if Watsuki-san did not intend to create so much visual meaning with his swordsman hero.

Alternate Styles for my Red Bull Hercules Character

Since I feel like I pretty much got the design of my character right, I thought it would be a good idea to try out the design with different styles. I redrew the character using two of my other drawing styles (I have about three different styles) and the two images below are what I came out with.

The version of Hercules shown above is drawn in a cartoony, square-headed style reminiscent of the videogame Minecraft. This style would be good for advertising because the style is easily relate-able, even for people who have never even heard of Minecraft (all three of them). This is because the straightforward nature of the line art allows for a wide range of comical exaggeration and expressions, and communicates the point I am trying to make with the illustration very clearly.

This version of Hercules is drawn in my own unique, free-hand style. While I am told that my sense of anatomy is serviceable, I don't think that this style is suited to advertising, because it lacks the obscure, iconic nature of my square-head style.

After discussing these points with my tutor, I have decided to go with my square-head style to use in the work on this brief. We agreed on the points I previously wrote about the square-head style, and I now have an opportunity to further develop a style that I randomly came up with one day at college.

Side Research: Iconic Product Mascots

From as early as the interwar years, food and drink companies have used mascots to promote their products. These mascots are designed from the ground up to appeal to kids; they are most often fun, exciting and directly address any children watching an advert they feature in.

One mascot I remember fondly from my childhood is Quicky, an anthropomorphic cartoon rabbit who is the mascot of Nesquik cereal and milkshake mix.

Early packaging for Nestle's 'Quik' instant milkshake mix

The early version of the Nestle's Quik bunny, pictured above, was a cute, smiling character who appeals to children by appearing friendly and approachable. His pink colouring not only represents the flavour of the milkshake mix, strawberry, but pink is also a pleasant colour that denotes a friendly personality.

Previous design for Quicky the rabbit

The version of Quicky I am most familiar with appeared in the 90s and early 2000s. The modernised design, similar in appearance to the Looney Tunes character Bugs Bunny, is designed to appear energetic and full of life. Several television adverts were produced in which Quicky interacted with children, aiding them in everyday tasks with the help of Nesquick cereal or milkshakes. The vision of Quicky acting as a friend to children and helping them out reinforces his image as a personality whom kids can relate to.

The modern version of Quicky

More recently, Quicky has appeared on packaging and in adverts dressed like a skateboarder and adopting a 'cool dude' attitude, keeping with the trendy, hip-hop influenced youth of today. His personality is largely unchanged, but his new design makes him all the more relate-able to post-2000s children.

While his design has changed throughout his time as a cereal and milkshake mascot, Quicky's personality and role has remained the same. Breaking down his character, one can find the aspects of his personality that make him appealing to children. For example, Quicky is:

- Happy
- Energetic
- Lively
- Friendly
- Outgoing
- Funky

One of the reasons I liked Quicky as a child was because he became as familiar to me as a real live celebrity. Watching Nesquik adverts on television or seeing them in The Beano and seeing Quicky was reassuring in a subliminal way, and when I looked at a box of Nesquik cereal or milkshake mix, I knew what to expect. As well as selling a product, mascots can almost become friends to children, letting them know "This is what I like, and you will like it too."