OUIL603 | Project Report

PROJECT REPORT OUIL603 EXTENDED PRACTICE GABRIELLA BRACHO

CONTENT Weekly Brief

Character Scenery

Infected by Art Fumetto Comix Spectrum 24 Final Major Project MODULE EVALUATION

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF What defines my practice? That’s been something I’ve been asking myself over and over the course of this module. At the beginning doing a character a day seemed like a lot of fun, it almost seemed easy, but gradually it unraveled itself to be quite a substantial brief that I invested a lot of time it. It showed me a lot of developing qualities of my practice on both a practical level and a contextual level.

The brief itself involved me creating a broad range of characters from a word or name alone, from that I would do some basic sketching and idea development then eventually creating a design that I am happy with. In the beginning I was fiddling around with what media I should use for the final outcome, at this point a was restricting myself to pure digital media but then I decided to blend some sketches and then scan them into Photoshop and make them ink drawings.

Hence why a lot of the line work can be classified as messy, it s because it is. These characters are answers to a word but they are also an end result of my imagination and creativity. I wanted to have some freedom and no restrict myself to neat line work. The fluidness of my sketches has always been something that defines me and I didn’t want to water that down in any way possible.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF

Another aspect of this brief was me playing around with shapes and expressions, but I also explored the thickness and firmness of my line work, as well as finding a way to incorporate textures into the final thing.

I believe this will be an interesting thing to set myself giving the pace and how far this brief will do, I'm actually considering keeping this practice going even after this course. Any media goes be it digital, traditional or a blend of both.

The “SWAN” and the “CROW” characters remain my favourites however.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF

Despite not achieving the level of quality I wanted I did manage to capture the expressiveness that I was aiming for and in the end I actually did create quite a plethora of very strange, very abstract characters. This is a brief that is going to be near continuous in the near future as it pushes me to draw every single day. I’m thankful that I pushed myself to do this brief overall, since in the end it was a really fun experience that caused me to understand the core components of my practice a lot more than I usually would. Surprisingingly I didn’t run out of steam during the end of this weekly brief so I’m thankful that I was able to see it through despite some minor setbacks due to other modules getting in the way and other deadlines being met.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | WEEKLY BRIEF

EXTENDED PRACTICE | SPECTRUM SPECTRUM 24 was another brief that I struggled with completing giving just how broad and strange it was at first. But now however, I feel a lot more confident and a lot more confident with my practical skills enough. Hence why I didn’t want to mess around with this brief, giving that I consider it to be a rather small brief in the grand scope of things.

The final resolution for this brief was inspired by SPECTRUM 24’s own themes of fantasy and freedom, especially when it came down to choosing a medium I was going to use. In the end I used a mix of traditional sketching and inking, together with the use of some Photoshop brushes that I purchased over Christmas. This brief was really small and I didn’t really want to spend a lot of time on it but at the same time I would still consider it a decently substantial brief because of how satisfied I am with the end result and the fact that I think I achieved the quality of work that I’ve been wanting to achieve for a long time now.

So all in all, SPECTRUM has been a lot more easier this time around compared to when I tackled in during Responsive last year mainly because this time I was prepared and I already had a basic theme in mind. It was a good experience and showed me that there is a lot more weight in expressive lines and textures rather that stale line-work that is restricted.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | INFECTED BY ART INFECTED BY ART has been a lot more kinder to me, mainly because this was the first year that I picked it up so I felt like a ha d a lot more experience in regards to attempting to submit something that would be relevant for their art-book. I have this habit of picking live briefs that are very open and vague with their themes, probably because I love to have a lot of freedom in the way I work but at the same time it really helps when there are specific limitations to a brief since they act as guidelines and rules.

Either way INFECTED BY ART was an interesting experience, at first I wanted to go for a classical gothic look, something akin to the DARK SOULS series by FROMSOFTWARE. In the end I went for something along those lines, but I actually found an alternative way of painting through this brief. Or at least I used a process that I’ve been experimenting with over the past few months when it comes down to my own personal work and continuous drawing that I do daily in order to improve overall. Through this brief I also learnt the importance of keeping a clear composition in mind. I did this through a use of shape and basic line-work that then moved onto more detailed drawings and acted as a basic lineout of what the final resolution was going to look like once I translated it into Photoshop and took it from there. This brief gave me a chance to experiment with my tone of voice and composition and for that I am very grateful.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | INFECTED BY ART

EXTENDED PRACTICE | INFECTED BY ART

EXTENDED PRACTICE | RWS Unlike last year I didn't want to spend too much time on this brief, I just wanted to go straight to the final stages since I felt as though it wouldn't really be appropriate giving how short and how simple the brief is.

Watercolour is a medium that I've always both loved and hated but at the same time it's something I always find myself coming back to when it comes to my sketchbook work and use of colour when it comes to my traditional work.

Last year I spent way too much time worrying about this brief and I didn't want to make the same mistakes so in the end I went for a simple idea, something that would relate to my own practice and the core elements of my practice.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the end result since it was mainly created out of a lot of random experimentation with various of washes and layers. It's something that kept my mind busy and refined one technique. I didn't want to drag this brief out for a ridiculous amount of time since I really didn't see the point to and I already have a lot of other briefs on the go at the moment so focusing so much on this brief seems really redundant overall. However, that does not mean I did not put a lot of thought and consideration in when the time came for it to be submitted in as a part of the competition.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | COLOURS MAY VARY

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL FANTASY XIV This competition and live brief was a good opportunity for me to brandish my character creation and design skills for the better. Giving how complicated and unique the gear/armour designs are in this game, and in the franchise overall it would be a good way to further explore that branch of design and challenge myself to actually design something competent and intricate, as well as something that can be placed in a world, especially in a world that is featured in a video game.

I finally figured out a good way to organised my colour palettes, it is organised in a way that shows the core parts of the colour from the top to the bottom. It works for me at least. I'm still playing around with what makes a character design layout, something that doesn't restrict but rather plays around with the idea of presenting a design to someone in a unique way. It still captures the essence of the character itself, giving my free use of line work and rather messy way of sketching, which I've honestly come to embrace over this module rather than shun, it feels good to have some freedom in the way I work and not bog myself down at every corner. It's breathing space. Digital painting has always been both my enemy and ally, I've been experimenting with various ways of applying colours and the fact that there are so many, many ways to do it through Photoshop, I wanted to try something different with this design so I got very loose with the colouring method and used a lot of opacity changes in order to get different shades and textures down.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL FANTASY XIV

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT My FMP was going to be a big culmination of all of the key skills that I’ve learned over the past few years. In the end it turned out to be a brief where I focused in on my skills and the skills that I need in order to move forward with my practice.

The brief itself was a project centered around world building, I tasked myself the challenge of creating even more interesting characters, even more appealing landscapes and overall improving my problem solving skills by giving myself a theme for this world and breathing life into it. My blog and my sketchbook have been lifelines for this brief and it’s very clear to see just why. Since I count myself as a visual development artist and character designer it made sense to create a brief that is all about those specialist areas.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

The development stages of my Final Major Project have definitely been a lot more important than the final resolutions. Not because I’m not happy with the final results, but because of what I learned during this process. I learned a lot of new techniques through this module, on this brief especially and in that way I feel as though I’ve achieved what I wanted in the end. I’ve grown a lot more competent about the specialist area that I want to break into and my work has seen an increase of competence overall.

My sketchbook has been crucial for this brief, and the module overall. But for my FMP, I used it in order to respond instantly to images and research that I’d been conducting, in the end that is how I go about solving my creative problems and how I will always solve problems.

Through this brief I also finally got over my fear of using different media and staying caged up in my sketchbook as well.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

The first steps of translating my sketches to Photoshop was purely through the sketches and the process that I used in my sketchbooks. But then I soon found out that you really need some basic background, foreground and mid-ground indicators. So I usually started with a basic line sketch then lay down the broad colours, from there I would figure out where the light source would be, the colour scheme at large and go into further detail. For example the one to the right shows that process at its simplest form, the fact that I didn’t want to go into too much detail with these two is because I wasn’t entirely satisfied with it. I wanted to take some time to experiment and get used to drawing landscapes and environments on a more competent level that would show a clear development from when I first tackled this style of illustration and art in Level 5.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT Working on both character design and environment art proved to be very difficult and sometimes it even felt hopeless. But thanks to my prior briefs where I got a chance to experiment with mediums and properly find a process that I am comfortable with, I felt a lot more at ease and just created work and experimented through various of roughs on both digital and traditional media.

Texture and line work has been one of my strong suits, but my problem has always been keeping up a professional standard of quality with all of my work.

This has been something I've been doing since last year, I feel like that is where it all begun and it seems fitting that that would be where it ends eventually. I've also been researching into this aspect of visual development and concept art, thanks to my contextual research in COP, I know a lot of what goes into making these kinds of images and how they are seen in a contextual environment.

Again, my method of working has always been problem solving through my sketchbook, my sketchbook can talk for itself and it has been the purest way I can communicate and develop ideas through drawing and creativity.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

Creating the landscape and scenery images was a bit more difficult mainly because it can take a while to learn these skills and I have only had a few months to work into this brief. In the grand scope of things that's a very short amount of time and I had to keep in mind that I have all these other briefs going on at the same time. So putting two and two together can create a rather hectic work ethic. Going from sketchbook to Photoshop was a challenging task but I made sure to experiment as much as I possibly could and the end result was a lot more than I expected it to be if I am going to be brutally honest.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT The world of my Final Major Project is one of mystery, it is also indistinctly tied to folklore and reality. The Slavic folklore that I looked through and researched, as well as looking at relevant practitioners really helped scope my world, but I feel as though I should also give credit to my own imagination in that regard. All of the characters are either inspired by or reincarnations of figures seen in various mythologies and stories. It’s been no secret that I have had a long loving relationship with the idea of folklore and storytelling. I’ve always had a weakness for when it comes to classical fairytale and fantasy tropes.

My Final Brief was a way for me to portray that love, but also test the skills that I will be needing in order to become a professional visual development artist, let alone an illustrator who cites creativity, conceptual development, storytelling and character design as her most strongest traits.

By the end of this brief I felt a bit dazed, mainly because I realised that this module was going to be the final module I would do on this course, but also because it really gave me a realisation that I adore doing what I’m going and I want to get better at it. My practice has evolved slowly but I have always felt that rushing things can lead to mistakes, whilst some mistakes can be for the better, other mistakes can lead to a lot of blunders.

Either way I’m glad that I took a risk with writing out this brief the way I did.

EXTENDED PRACTICE | FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

EXTENDED PRACTICE | MODULE EVALUATION At the beginning of the module I was very excited and I’ve grown a lot more comfortable using digital art and nervous, mainly because I knew that this was going to be digital painting overall, it’s something that I want to carry the big final module by the end of the year so I knew on with and develop even further. I’ve always strived to that I had to do something to really make it all worth it. still maintain a flow and fluidity with my work, no matter By the end of this module I feel as though I’ve grown a what medium it is and I feel that this module has given lot, both as a practitioner and as a person. Though I think me a chance to do that as well. My drawing has become the later can be said for the entire course, but this a lot freer, I told myself to unwind a bit and not be so module has really helped mold my practice from nothing controlled with my line-work which took a load off my into something. I’ve actually been devoting this entire shoulders. I still have yet to fully master Photoshop to the year into pinning down a process and medium, so best of its ability, but these things take time and thanks throughout this entire module in particular I’ve been to the weekly brief that I took on, I have learnt the both experimenting and refining my techniques. This is importance of drawing and experimenting every single something that will naturally grow beyond university and day. There has always been this fear in the back of my I honestly look forward to where that road may take me head that my love and passion for drawing and art may in the future. get sucked dry, but thankfully that didn’t happen despite some doubts along the way. That was a real turning point The highlight of this module has definitely been the for me, despite how chaotic the module may have been. development stages and experimentation. The sessions My blog has always been a lifeline for me in regards to definitely did help, in particular the peer reviews in which the way I document my experience, development and I got a lot of helpful feedback in regards to what briefs I overall thoughts of my practice and certain projects. Both should pick up. For a majority of the research part of my my sketchbook and my blog have really helped me when projects, in particular my Final Project, I actually did a lot I was stuck at certain points, or when my passion for a of observational drawing and landscapes, which was a brief was dried up, hence why it affected by work so part of one of my personal briefs. Although I’m not much. entirely satisfied with a majority of the final outcomesthen again, I rarely am satisfied with my work, but that is a more of a personal quip of mine.