Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 01: Character Design

23/09/2025 - 14/10/2025 (Week 01 - Week 04)

PHANG QI YU / 0385732

Illustration and Visual Narrative / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media / Taylors University

Task 1: Character Design

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Table of Content 

1. Lecture

2. Instructions

3. Process Work

4. Reflections

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LECTURES

Week 1:

  

Mr. Fitri briefed us on our course module and upcoming assignments. After briefing in detail, we played a game named Bezier, which could help us get used to the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. It's quite challenging and complicated for me. Instead of finishing this game in class, I completed it at home after several attempts. 

The Bezier Game: https://bezier.method.ac/

Week 2:

In second week of class, Mr. Fitri explained to us task 1 guidelines and rules. Mr. Fitri illustrated to us how different shapes such as squares, circles and triangles can be used to design a character. Each shape presenting different emotional traits.

Figure 1 Shape Language Character Design

Week 3:

The topic of this week is Chiaroscuro. What is Chiaroscuro?

Chiaroscuro

• Chiaro: bright Oscuro: dark
• The use of light and dark to create the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a flat surface.
• In paintings the technique refers to clear tonal contrast to suggest three-dimensional volume and modeling of objects and figures.
• Purpose of chiaroscuro: to increase the scene's dramatic tension by exaggerating the subject's importance using color or light contrast.

Figure 2 The Calling of St Matthew (Caravaggio, 1559-1600)

(Predominantly cast in light)

• Chiaroscuro is also used for visual artworks such as comics, films, and digital works. This is an artistic lighting choice in which the focus point or subject of a scene is brightly colored.
• Chiaroscuro can be seen in screen lighting for movies where they use lights to create emotion.

Figure 3 The Godfather I (Coppola, 1972)

(Chiaroscuro for movies)

• Chiaroscuro is an excellent lighting choice to differentiate positive vs negative spaces in visual narrative.
• Positive space: subject matter or object of interest in a visual.
• Negative space: the filled space or background that surround subject matter or object of interest in visual.
• Chiaroscuro increases dramatic tension, create sensational effect, attract attention, and make tasteful composition.

Tenebrism

• a painting method which significant details such as faces and hands are brightened by highlights which are contrasted with a predominantly dark setting.

Figure 4 The Taking of Christ (Caravaggio, 1602)

Week 4:

This week's topic is Composition theory 2: Perspective. Perspective is the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.

Construct Perspectives (your visual should capture these rules on):

• One-point perspective
• Two-point perspective
• Three-point perspective
• Isometric Grid

Figure 5 Construct Perspectives

1. One-point perspective

• the simplest method of producing three-dimensional images entails drawing objects emerging from a single point on the horizon.
• Images get closer to the vanishing point the smaller they become, until they become so small they actually vanish completely. Images appear smaller the farther away they are.

Figure 6 One-point perspective 

(All objects recede toward one point)

Figure 7 Anime scene with one-point perspective 

(Anime: Attack on Titan) 

2. Two-point perspective 

• Vanishing points on either side of the horizon, and the objects and buildings within the scene are drawn to both of these vanishing points.
• Helps create a greater sense of space in the scene and helps give objects more of a sense of dimension and place.
• Two vanishing points on the horizon and establish two sets of overlapping perspective lines fanning out from them.
• The network of lines allows objects to recede toward two separate points, allowing more dynamic views than that one point alone.

Figure 8 Two-point perspective

Figure 9 Anime with two-point perspective 

(Anime: Attack on Titan)

3.Three-point perspective

• Usually consist of two vanishing points on opposite sides of a horizon (as in two-point perspective), but with the addition of another vanishing point high above or below the horizon.
• Most useful to achieve a sense of drama and scale, or to show more objects in a single scene.
• If the vanishing point (which is not connected to the horizon) is a great distance from the horizon, the intensity of the angle will be less than if it were placed chose to the horizon. (which creates a more extreme viewing angle.)

Figure 10 Three-point perspective 

(Two vanishing points on opposite sides, and one point below horizon)

• A third vanishing point on the vertical axis gives you a far broader range of angles and allows viewers to 'look down' into your city.
  

Figure 11 Vanishing point on the vertical axis 

('look down' into city)

Figure 12 Anime with three-point perspective

(Anime: Attack on Titan)

4. Isometric View

• For creating detailed concepts of individual buildings. More beneficial to use a simple isometric view, since it allows you to clearly present three sides of you design without distorting perspective or hidden details.

Figure 13 Isometric view drawing

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INSTRUCTIONS

COM61304 Illustration & Narrative 2025.pdf

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PROCESS WORK

Task 1: Character Design

Step 1: Generating Idea with Prompt Matrix (Who, Where, Trait, Twist). Combine all the parts by rolling a die. Roll a die once every part. Generate five (5) different prompts using this method. 

Roll a die link: Roll A D10 Die 

Figure 14 Who Where Trait Twist

Step 2: Gathering Resources. Choose one prompt from the previous exercise and gather some resources/reference images that can help you draw your character.

Step 3: Create Thumbnail. Start building the silhouette of your character by using the shapes circle, rectangle and triangle. Draw at least three thumbnails for the character, based on your prompt. Then, add details in the three thumbnails you have created earlier.

My three thumbnails:

Figure 15 Thumbnails

Step 4: Refine your sketches using AI (optional) but add more details on your own until your character is fully developed. Make sure that you include a detailed explanation of your sketch when you feed your drawing into AI.

Figure 16 Detailed explanation of my sketch 

Figure 17 Sketches using AI

Step 5: Import your artwork into Adobe Illustrator. (Creating A3 artboard, importing images, and creating a template layer.) Follow every page's instruction that Mr. Fitri posted in the week 3 class material. Setting the Pen Tool's Fill and Stroke. Then, draw with the pen tool.

Figure 18 Artwork draw with pen tool

Step 6: Then, start coloring artwork with the Live Pen Tool. But before coloring artwork, we need to convert the document from landscape orientation into portrait. 

Checklist before we start:

• Group all the paths together.
• Separate the Color and Line Art Layer. Line Art on top, Color below.
• Lines are properly closed or close enough to each other.
• Remove the stroke for the color layer.

Step 7: After you are done, converting the live paint group into shapes. 

Step 8: Adding shadow and highlight, creating shadow and highlight on individual layers.

Step 9: Export our artwork to PNG files. And... we are done!

My Final Character Designs: 

Figure 19 First Character (Liziana)

Figure 20 Second Character (Mr. One)

Figure 21 Third Character (Iris)

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REFLECTIONS

Experience

My experience during this character design project was generally positive. I had learned some Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop a few years ago, back when I was in primary school, but I had forgotten most of it. Now, I am relearning everything from the beginning and still getting familiar with the tools. At first, I was a bit confused at times because some tools were hidden and working with layers felt complicated. However, after a few practices, I slowly started getting used to it! I am lacking confidence in my creativity for the character design. Seeing my classmates' artworks made me feel a little unsure, but I gave it my best effort. In my opinion, this class was much calmer and more chill compared to other modules. Mr. Fitri gave us enough time to work and explained every detail clearly.

Observations

My observation is that Adobe Illustrator is quite challenging to use, especially because of the many layers involved (T_T).  However, I have learned how to draw using Adobe Illustrator especially with the Pen tool. Although I am still not very good at it, I plan to keep practicing during the weekend and semester break. 

Findings

My findings through this project are that creating a character from scratch is not easy. It took a lot of time and effort to do research and complete it. Despite the challenges, I managed to achieve everything before the due date! Our next task will be to design a collatable card and work on composition design; I am looking forward to it. In conclusion, thank you, Mr. Fitri, for all the advice you have given throughout this project!