Design Principles - Task 3: Design

06.03.2024-25.03.2024/Week 5- Week 7

Kelly Lau Jie Ning/ 0354839

Design Principles/ Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media

Task 3- Design

INSTRUCTION

Task 3: Design

In this task, we must create our own artwork after doing the task 2 visual analysis. We need to apply the design principle knowledge that we have learned before. The AI generator is not allowed in this task.

Visual References

Firstly, I looked through what art style I wanted to create on each website. Then, I choose a flat coating style to do my artwork. The flat coating style often aligns with minimalist principles, focusing on essential elements and removing unnecessary details. This minimalist approach can result in clean and uncluttered compositions that draw attention to the main subject. Furthermore, the flat coating style can be adapted to various subjects and themes, making it suitable for artistic expression. Whether depicting characters, landscapes, or abstract concepts, the flat coating technique offers flexibility and adaptability.

Fig 1.1 Flat coating style artwork references

After that, I saw a comic related to SDG 14: life below water. The comic is "The Little Trashmaid". The comic is about a mermaid who is living in the ocean which is full of trash. However, she still lives happily and positively. She makes the plastic bags become her clothes. She has tried to make the trash become her toy. There is another mermaid in the sea, Tidy's father and Tidy's friend Neat. Tidy's father's tail caught in the net. This led to the necrosis and amputation of his tail. Besides that, Neat, Tidy's friend, got a hose clamp around his neck. This comic shows us that rubbish in the ocean is really causing a lot of problems for marine life.

Fig 1.2 The Little Trashmaid

Fig 1.3 The Little Trashmaid- Tidy

After being inspired by this comic, I decided to design a character. I decided to design a women superhero character. In the comic, Tidy is a human-friendly character. She doesn't blame the humans who are destroying the marine ecosystem and throwing rubbish into the sea. So, I want to create a character who hates the people who litter. She'll guard the oceans like a sea guardian. She'll use her powers to punish humans who destroy the oceans.

Firstly, I tried to find the superhero poses as the references.

Fig 1.4 poses as references

Then, I tried to find some marine life because I wanted my character to look like it was created by marine life. Just as sea creatures had to evolve to defend their own oceans.

Fig 1.5 references about marine life

After I looked at the different kinds of marine life. I decided to use jellyfish as the main element to design my character. So, I tried to look for different kinds of jellyfish.

Fig 1.6 Jellyfish references

I also tried to look for the character props because I wanted my character to look more powerful and able to fight.

Fig 1.7 Props references

Sketches

I draw the sketches using Adobe Photoshop and hand-painted board

Sketch 01

This is a girl who wears Arabian Princess Clothes which is a short top and puffy transparent trousers. Her surroundings have some marine life which is being created by her. Then, marine life is created by the rubbish. The magic ball is her prop for making the rubbish become marine life. The girl also wearing a jellyfish hat. It's implied that she could have been transformed from a jellyfish.

Fig 2.1 Sketch 01

Sketch 02

This is a girl who wears a short top and a long skirt. The skirt is inspired by the jellyfish so it looks like layering. The girl's surroundings have little marine life which is being created by her by rubbish. The big manta ray is also her mount.

Fig 2.2 Sketch 02 without colour

Fig 2.3 Sketch 02 with colour

Sketch 03

You can see there is a girl who wears a fancy dress standing at the centre of the artwork with her umbrella have jellyfish whiskers. The umbrella is her prop to attack the enemy which is the humans who litter rubbish into the ocean. The girl looks harmless but she hates littering humans, and the human bones on the ground imply that she kills litterers. She also has the power can create marine life by rubbish.

Fig 2.4 Sketch 03 without colour

Fig 2.5 Sketch 03 with colour

I will choose Sketch 01 to become my final artwork.

Progress

I tried to change some positions of the artwork to make the artwork better using Adobe Photoshop.

Fig 3.1 Progress 01

I move the turtle in front of the girl and the manta ray and the jellyfish behind become more big. One of the fish is removed. The ribbon of the magic ball also becomes longer. Those changes make the artwork better.

Then, I tried to put some basic colour onto the artwork.

Fig 3.2 Progress 02

After putting the colour I tried to refine it with line drawings.

Fig 3.3 Progress 03

I tried to redesign the top of the character to make it look more like the Arabian Princess Clothes style.

Fig 3.4 Progress 04

I also add more designs for her pants.

Fig 3.5 Final line drawing (progress 05)

Excluding the character added more details. The marine life around her also added more detail that makes it more straightforward to understand they are created by rubbish. I also added some bubbles to make the artwork don't look too empty.

After done the line drawing, I started to fill it with colour.

Fig 3.6 Progress 06

For the final artwork, I add some texture to make the picture look richer. For example, some shadows, some highlights, and the fold. I also added some work to let people clearly know what is that stuff.

Final artwork

Fig 4.1 Final artwork-Nerida

This artwork is a character design artwork. The girl in the artwork is named Nerida. The name is from the Greek, meaning "daughter of the sea". She was created to punish humans for destroying the oceans. She hated humans because she thought they were destroying their home. So she used the rubbish that humans threw into the ocean to punish them. The rubbish was transformed into a variety of sea creatures with her magic. They were controlled by Nerida to attack the humans who were destroying the oceans. Plastic bags become manta rays, discarded batteries and water pipes become sea turtles, and plastic bottles become jellyfish. Their reason for existence is to punish humans for destroying the oceans. So, we as humans need to protect the ocean which is like SDG 14:Life Below Water mentioned to avoid marine life's home being destroyed.

The first design principle that we can see from the artwork is asymmetrical balance. The character is more on the right side of the artwork and both sides of the artwork are totally different. The second design principle is movement. We can see the movement from the ribbon, the girl's hair and also the jellyfish whiskers at the hat. Then, we also can see harmony and unity in the artwork. The artwork has different kinds of marine life but it is still harmonious. The last design principle is contrast. We can see the contrast in the character. The character looks kind and her clothes look like a prince of the ocean. However, she hates humans. She stands out for herself by fighting to protect the ocean which is her home.

Resource link:

Fig 1.1

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/36802921954223102/

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/6755468182831052/

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/844493667441594/

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/272538214944387896/

Fig 1.2

https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-little-trashmaid/list?title_no=300138

Fig 1.3

https://mediachomp.com/the-little-trashmaid-fan-art/

Fig 1.4

https://ru.pinterest.com/pin/45669383715361008/