ILLUSTRATION AND VISUAL NARRATIVE/TASK 2: DECISIVE MOMENT

01.11.2023 - 22.11.2023 / Week 5 - Week 8

Marsya Arisa Binti Mahmud / 0359684

Illustration and Visual Narrative  / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University

Task 2: Decisive Moment

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INSTRUCTIONS

Create a minimalist editorial illustration based on an urban legend of your choice using Adobe Illustrator. Your illustration will be designed for a digital media publication and should include minor animations to enhance engagement.

• Choose an urban legend that interests you and aligns with the editorial theme.
• Research the chosen legend thoroughly and gather visual references.
• Create a concept mood board to explore the style, color scheme, and overall visual direction.
• Write a brief description of your chosen urban legend and how you plan to interpret it in a minimalist style.
• Begin sketching your editorial illustration. Focus on creating a clear and compelling composition.
• Develop your illustration in Adobe Illustrator. Pay attention to clean lines, simple shapes, and minimalism.
• Experiment with the use of color and typography, keeping the editorial context in mind.
• Start planning the minor animations you intend to incorporate.
• Refine your illustration, paying close attention to details, balance, and visual impact.
• Add animations to your design using Adobe Illustrator or other animation software.
• Test the animations to ensure they enhance the overall narrative without being distracting.
• Write a short artist statement explaining your design choices, including how your illustration reflects the chosen urban legend and the editorial context.
• Submit your completed editorial illustration as a high-resolution digital file (preferably vector format).
• Include a link to a presentation or video demonstrating the animations.
• Submit your artist statement and any process documentation.

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/13LU7RXM1HoS8p1C3cgbbNw-uZd8rjdYN/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

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PROCESS WORK 

1. Planning

I carried out my research on urban local legends and the Tale of Bujang Senang caught my interest. The story highlights a magical crocodile who used to be an Iban warrior, I then went through Pinterest to come up with ideas. This is board I came up with for the planning process:

Figure 1.1: Mood Board

2. Digitisation

I began digitising my sketch on Adobe Illustrator. I started off with partitioning the sky and the water. I then traced out the crocodile and the warrior so I had an idea on how to make my design proportionate.

Figure 2.1: Base Illustration

I experimented with different colour palettes to determine which ones to use in my design. I then coloured the main parts of the design in using my colour references. I also included trees and mountains to highlight the middle ground layer. 

Figure 2.2: Main Colours

I added clouds and more trees to emphasise the idea that the warrior is floating in the sky and the trees are to highlight the scenery in Sarawak.

Figure 2.3: Additional Layers

I used the brush tool to add a few textures to the water, surface, mountains and sky. I also added the glow effect to the crocodile and the warrior to emphasise the main subjects for this design.

Figure 2.4: Brush Tool

The last thing to add to my design was the logo. In this case I used Minion Variable Concept Semibold because I felt like it suits the design's aesthetic, with the intention of being traditional. I also added a black outline to the text because it reminds me of fonts they would use in old local movies.

Figure 2.5: Text

3. Animation

For the animation process, I used Adobe Illustrator to create my frames. Mr. Hafiz mentioned using secondary animations during class, my idea is to add animations to the warrior, water effects and a wind effect to the environment. 

Figure 3.1: Frames

The next step was to create the GIF. I used Adobe Photoshop and imported each frame onto the Timeline. To achieve the flow I want, I added a 0.2s delay to each frame so that it looks like the elements are moving naturally.

Figure 3.2: Animation Process

4. FINAL SUBMISSION

Download the AI file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1glOCTHXdmQFFWKnt3R_0rQtKlr9MEH2q/view?usp=sharing

Figure 4.1: Final Poster (PNG)

Figure 4.2: Final Poster (PDF)

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AwAUJCqsd_9gR_ybyLAfP3oCTkGeKeg0/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

Figure 4.3: Final GIF

Artist Statement

During my research process, Bujang Senang stood out to me the most because I am Sarawakian myself. Though, I was not born and raised in Sarawak and lacked the knowledge when it comes to Sarawakian culture. I took this as an opportunity to read more about it, especially about the famous warrior who was said to posses the body of Bujang Senang. He was killed at the Senang River, a tributary of the Batang Lupar in Sri Aman. Live pictures of Bujang Senang showed lots of greenery, hence the forest at Senang River being the middle ground for this poster. I chose to go with a dark tone colour scheme to emphasise the glowing scales of the crocodile and the spirit of Simalungun.