~ "It's Like A Dream..." ~
Exhibition Text:
My newest piece "It's Like A Dream..." combines the artistic cooperation of the Colorful Palette and Crypton Future Media, while also combining the illustration of the song "Ai Nandesu" by the artist Omu. The piece illustrates a calm, pleasing environment around a sad looking figure, as clouds surround what looks and feels like a dream they don't want to end.
Artist Inspiration :
The first portion of my inspiration is based on something I have brought up within all of my other projects so far this semester. A month ago, these special illustrations were created by the team of artists behind the game "Colorful Stage : Project Sekai" for one of their vocal groups. Immediately I loved everything about the cards from the start, as everything about them was so unique. The theme of picture frames around the characters were so nice as they blended with the main character in focus which is on the card towards the right featuring Ena Shinonome. My main inspiration was the colors, the mix of light and dark pinks, purples, and blues made the cards so much more diverse than in the past. Another reason is aesthetic, these cards fit in with the gothic theme, mixed with this cutesy palette made the mood of the illustrations so much more exotic. This brought more into the idea I was believing in creating a room similarly aesthetically pleasing as this.
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This card is part of the same set as Ena, featuring one of the other characters of the group, Mafuyu Asahina. What makes this card so different was the striking perspective. I absolutely adored the side view of this card and how it fits within the dark themes around the character, but still plays towards the bright colors. When looking for inspiration, I was deeply moved by the surrounding room around the character, as I wasn't making the character my main focus within the piece. The walls carrying things that consisted within the set's themes such as big boxes and displays towards changing your appearance. Everything about the card still looked so unreal as well, as picture frames hang above the ceiling down below, which insinuated the dream idea towards my piece. I wanted to include that creatively colored background into my main piece, while creating a softer mood.
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Though it held less importance towards my main inspiration, as the music video majorly focuses on character appearances, it still played a part in background design. The constant floating of hearts around the background and the constant appearance of pictures within the music video were things I wanted to include within my piece. Though the piece was not based by the music itself, Omu's illustration of background affects were things I took into question while planning the piece.
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Planning :
When originally thinking of what to do towards my final project of the art semester, I thought of how to be different from all my other works. I wanted something that connected within my main interests and towards myself. These next two planning pages were something I did fairly often within my sketchbook, but never included within an actual project. The idea of a background filled with so many different details surrounds the character in the picture that you almost have to take in-depth looks at the different references within each character. I already knew I wanted to include the game i play as it's been what's honestly pushing me to keep growing in my art skills. As for the picture, each character gets their own moment and the surrounding background gives off hints while also creative structures around the character in the picture. I wanted to experiment within creating backgrounds more, as a second thought, but still wanted to create something diverse.
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I already had the idea that I was moving towards a character in picture while the surrounding area would have various different details about the character. This planning page is also used for experimenting with my inspiration as it comes from one of the cards from the same game, but from a different set. I tried my best to stick with the characters design while also taking my own points into play with the scenery, so it almost depicts as a new card entirely. The thing about how this idea differed is that things were getting too complex with the ability I had left towards finishing the project. As I never tried out this much detail within coloring, I gave up on the huge complexity and focused more on something a bit toned down, but not entirely. Still perhaps in the future I would work with doing this in another style. |
Looks quite familiar towards my final piece correct? This was my take on a simpler design of a room filled with various details and stacks of objects. My perspective was still a bit off, but my original idea towards the final piece was combining an aesthetically pleasing room combined with my ongoing theme of deception. The idea I wanted to explore was a large tree house, with it's roots eventually becoming parts of the building, but that idea switched towards clouds while I was working within my process. Still, my main goal was placing a character within an environment without them being the main point of focus, I needed to grow my background skills and a bedroom fit the most with me cause that's where I seem to be most of the time. I still wanted to fill the room with various details considering a room is a special place towards exploring someone's personality, that still happened but changed eventually within how much is actually there. Also, the reason why the background was flipped was because I thought of doing it that way, many people say to flip your art so it doesn't look weird, so I thought why not. |
: Process :
As with every other digital art piece, I always start off with taking my original sketch and converting it into line art. This time I did really big line art just for more simplicity, and eventually made various tweaks towards creating the actual background of the piece, contrasting from the big details from before. After that, I of course started off with taking similar colors towards my inspiration and putting them in place. Eventually it will seem like everything is being all flat colors and that is what I lead into, but that will differ soon in a later function. For now it was taking the colors and placing them in the correct spot within the future. I also turned the ceiling into some sort of skylight and that lead into my idea with the sky.
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The rest of the piece so far was finding what colors combined with others to fit well into the scenery. I wasn't worried about things looking off as I would eventually find a way to make things look more detailed and fit well with the background using a blue tint. I would finish the objects on the wall including the photos, signs, and more. Coloring in bows that I included to make the piece look more cutesy within my inspiration. Coloring the bed was quite similar, and the same thing with the windows. After i had all that finished I started working on creating the background and putting them in a function that completes the test together.
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Now that most of the main coloring of tedious things was finished, it was time to work in the background. I wanted a darker tone of the blue I was using towards the ceiling and would eventually cover the whole piece with it. Soon after that I would erase the parts that were accidentally covered by this, such as the figure of the character, and such. The next thing was to add the clouds around the entire outside of the piece leading more into the room, but not fully in it. The clouds were placed on a lower layer below everything and eventually would be placed above the ceiling and by the top-right and bottom-left corners. This would add the more dreamy feeling towards the piece and also connect towards my theme of deception. Next it was to work on the texture and shading.
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Within the texture of the piece I placed above all the layers a piece of paper found towards searching online and used one of the programs functions to insert it into the piece. The function is called multiply in which is self explanatory as it basically multiplies the photo into the piece granting the surroundings a nice texture. This worked well, other than the fact that the background seemed too yellow because of the paper used, I changed to a whiter color and put a blue over the entire layer to combine with a calm mood. Then I would finish up the background by adding lighter lines and doing a similar thing with the character. The reason she isn't fully colored is to leave her out of the main focus, while not ignoring her completely. All that was left was to add the vines and then finished.
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Experimentation :
A pretty obvious choice of experimentation was my plan in general. As I was creating the background I was experimenting with various things I've usually seen within others rooms as in things that relate to them, photos on the wall, and all the string lights and plant streams along their ceiling. I also wanted to make it into a big tree house like function, but that eventually changed like I said earlier within the process. The stairs would also align towards downstairs with vines and such rising towards the top. Still, that all seemed a bit too complicated and that's when I decided I was building up too high of a tower to be knocked down. Still, it did lead into my final piece and design. |
One thing to add a layer of texture into the piece was basically searching up a type of paper that I would layer into the piece to make a more scratchy texture. What made this part of my experimenting is that even though it looks so simple, the colors of the different types of paper made the entire piece a yellow-ish tone, in which happened after multiplying it using one of ProCreate's functions. I chose the lighter tone because it was easier to work with, and they mostly had the same affect.
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: Critique :
Similarities :
Differences :
- Color Choice - My Work and the illustration of the cards connect within similar light and dark pink, blue, and purple colors. It both adds a mystical feel towards the pieces.
- Both Include Similar Choices - Similar design choices I shared with the illustration is the use of the bear face which is used constantly through the card and music video, within that the appearances of boxes and containers along he wall rest, as well as the constant appearances of hearts.
- Cuteness vs Mood - Both pieces contain a scenery that depicts a positive mood, while the character in placement holds a different expression signaling a deeper theme.
Differences :
- Perspective - My piece uses a different perspective away from the character within the piece and shifts more into exploring their surroundings, compared towards the cards and Omu's video in which puts the character more into focus.
- Lighter Mood vs Darker Mood - A big contrast between my piece and the cards illustrated is that they are a lot brighter than my piece, in which was used to make a smoother, calmer mood, compared to the striking cards.
- Placement - The characters in the cards almost look as if their in a phtoshoot, while the character in my piece is placed within a natural setting of a room .
Reflection :
It really shocks me how far I have grown in the past year, my skills aren't perfect of course, but based on where I was when I first started, the growth is almost insane to take in. I do feel every accomplished by this final piece because it was taking a first step into doing something different, as I always had trouble with inserting and creating backgrounds because i usually focus on creating the characters within the piece. Still I am glad this semester I was fully able to grow more into expressing myself instead of what someone expects for me, that is something I still need to work on however. Other than that, my skills within creating digital art have improved since I first grasped the application, and it won;t just end because the art projects are over. I am very thankful for how this has expanded not only my creative skills, but myself as a person. I have a greater opinion into what I want to see and will continue to grow from that. Now that I know many more abilities I can continue to work towards my goals for the future. The piece itself looks very soft and calm and that's something I really need to see within the contrasting hardships as the semester ends.
Looking at the piece itself compared to my inspiration I can fairly see the similarities while also seeing how different the ideas worked together towards the end. As I did use similar artistic colors within my inspiration, it becomes quite simple when looking at them both together, but also it feels very different. Still, my piece doesn't exactly seem like it fits with the set itself, not just for the size, but the warmer tone towards the piece. I believe that works more with my own theme and want, but I need to leap out my boundaries into trying something different over my free time. The piece makes me feel very nice though, as I believe it puts a very calm end towards all the art and emotions I've had over this semester. Things I need to work on more in overall shading, combining background forces to better play a role into a natural force, and working with line art. These problems I fairly see often within creating my art, and it just takes more practice into bringing out what I want to see, but for now, I feel confident about my skills within this piece. As this is something I would have never been able to do before, like at all, it brightens up my motivation into bringing out something better for the world to see, and even expanding my confidence in that.
Looking at the piece itself compared to my inspiration I can fairly see the similarities while also seeing how different the ideas worked together towards the end. As I did use similar artistic colors within my inspiration, it becomes quite simple when looking at them both together, but also it feels very different. Still, my piece doesn't exactly seem like it fits with the set itself, not just for the size, but the warmer tone towards the piece. I believe that works more with my own theme and want, but I need to leap out my boundaries into trying something different over my free time. The piece makes me feel very nice though, as I believe it puts a very calm end towards all the art and emotions I've had over this semester. Things I need to work on more in overall shading, combining background forces to better play a role into a natural force, and working with line art. These problems I fairly see often within creating my art, and it just takes more practice into bringing out what I want to see, but for now, I feel confident about my skills within this piece. As this is something I would have never been able to do before, like at all, it brightens up my motivation into bringing out something better for the world to see, and even expanding my confidence in that.
: Connecting to the ACT :
- Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
The first appearance of the cards when introduced in the game was almost breathtaking, they all just looked so good within the set, I knew I had to do something with it.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My inspiration isn't exactly one person but combined as a team making creative decisions towards their characters and into what perspective their placing them in around the setting of the song and story they are writing.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The idea of creating a balanced mood between two different ideas was a nice idea within creating my piece. Having that cutesy aesthetic combined with a darker expression looked so nice and pleasing towards the eyes.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research revolved around looking into different backgrounds and taking into what makes a basic room so nice and comfortable, while also combining that with the specific inspiration's colors and mood.
5. What kind of inferences ( conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning ) did you make while reading your research?
I found it very surprising that one team can work together into creating so many illustrations of characters, as it takes so much effort into creating such ideas, it was nice into looking more into what I want to do in the future at some point.
: Citations in MLA Format :
“Project Sekai Wiki.” Fandom, https://projectsekai.fandom.com/.