Name: Amanda Bruce
P Number: P13210344
Email: p13210344@myemail.dmu.ac.uk
Project Title: Final Major Project (The Folklore Journey)
Overview: Georgia and I wanted to make a concept art book containing characters from three different cultures; Japanese, Inuit and Greek. We chose the subject to be folklore's as we both find mythical creatures and characters interesting and there was also a lot of scope in terms of work. We chose to make a concept art book to showcase our 2D skills, development and narrative.
As a stretch goal we had decided to return to some of the work we had done and improve upon using feedback from eachother, tutors and mentors.
Research: We had to do a lot of research for this project as we had to find characters and creatures which would hold our interest for twenty weeks. We began by looking into the folklore's we had chosen, here's a few of the moodboards I made.
Development: We split our FMP into three five week periods, this means we had five weeks to work on each folklore then four weeks leftover for polish work and stretch goals.
The first folklore we worked on was Japanese. We both had about ten characters for the Japanese section.
When I started working on designing any of these characters I tended to begin with a bit of research and getting references for the ideas I have, I then sketch out some of my ideas and they are then fleshed out using value studies. Here's some of my favourite characters from Japanese folklore.
The second folklore we chose was Inuit. This we chose because the creatures were very odd and we had real artistic license as there isn't much information about Inuit life and mythical creatures. I enjoyed designing most of the creatures from Inuit folklore and I'm happy I had the chance to go back and refine some of the characters in the last few weeks of FMP.
The last five weeks we spent on Greek folklore we had a few less characters and we had compromise to make sure characters were finished to a good standard. I had about eight characters for this section.
A lot of the Greek creatures were fun to design as they are mainly hybrids and a lot contain animals, which is more suited to my skills.
Self assessment: I learnt a lot over the course of my Final Major Project, I realised what I'm best at and I'm figuring out my artistic style as I go. That is mostly what I wanted to take away from FMP however having a mentor has greatly improved my work as I can get real industry feedback and notes from a professional. I personally have found it a great help and I will take what I've learnt to improve my work even more ready for portfolio use.
Considering the amount of work both me and Georgia have achieved we managed the workload very well and kept a strict time plan which helped us complete all the work we needed to in the time we had.
We made sure we had the book ready for print four weeks before the final hand in date to leave room for errors in print or delivery. We also planned to have that last four weeks as time to work on stretch goals which in this case was refining designs ready for portfolio.
I've learned to use grey scale paintings to show lighting then using a colour overlay to just give the creature more context and character, I found this hugely easier as when I work in colour I tend to lose the lighting information.
Both Georgia and I are really pleased with how the book came out, we did multiple test prints throughout the project to see what the print would come out like and which size would be suitable. It paid off as we had to make some changes to size and cover, however the final result is amazing.