ILLUSTRATION & VISUAL NARRATIVES - Task 2
21/10/2025 - 09/11/2025 (Week 5 - Week 7)
Lexandra Feodora Stefano/0384629
Illustration and Visual Narratives/Bachelors of Design (Honours) in
Creative Media/ Taylor's University
Task 2 [Background & Card Design]
JUMPLINKS
Week 5
Composition in art is the way in which different elements of an artwork are
combined. It consist of foreground (closest to view), middle-ground
(transition), and background (furthest from view). Composition techniques are
guidelines used to create a visually appealing image, create a sense of
balance and harmony, movement and flow.
Week 6
Mr. Fitri gave a tutorial for the card design of this task. He also told us
about storytelling basics. There are 3 acts structure, first is setup which is
the world in which the protagonist exist prior to the journey and usually ends
up with the conflict being revealed. Second is rising tension, the series of
obstacles the protagonist must overcome. Third is the conflict and resolution.
Conflict is the point of highest tension and the major turning point.
Resolution is the conflict's conclusion or where the journey ends.
Week 7
Continue our progress and make sure to submit before the given deadline.
INSTRUCTIONS
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IkLpmndcnmq0ZiGEVRt4DtAwsy50FJUo/view?usp=sharing
TASK
Background
In this task, we were asked to create a background for 1 of 3 characters
that was made in the previous task. I decided to the background for the 3rd
character, which is the prompt "A happy robot wearing a box on its head on
top of a building". First, I started looking up references to help me with
the sketches, here is the mood board for the background.
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| Fig 1.1.1 Mood Board (21/10/2025) |
For the background, I decided to make it a little dark (sunset or night time)
to set the mood a little bit and also to the character pop even more. Mr Fitri
also reminded us that, when creating the background, we have to keep in mind
about the composition. He provided us with 3 types of composition that we can
choose to help with the sketches. Here are the thumbnail sketches that I made
on IbisPaintX.
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| Fig 1.1.2 Sketches (21/10/2025) |
From the 3 sketches that I made, Mr Fitri chose the 3rd sketch, but he said to
change the position of the robot from standing to sitting down. Here is the
final sketch for the background and composition.
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| Fig 1.1.3 Final Sketch (26/10/2025) |
After getting the approval, I started transferring the sketch into Adobe
Illustrator and started making the background. First, I made the overall
shapes and repositioning the character so he is sitting down. Here is the
results of the overall sketch in AI.
Techniques used :
- Pen tool : P (4-5 pixels)
- Edit the curve : P, Alt
- Shape Builder : Shift + M
- Berzier Handle (To edit anchor points), Alt (To break)
- Selection Tool : V
- Direct Selection Tool : A
- Artboard Tool : Shift + O
- Transform Panel : Shift + F8
- Remove stroke on colour layer
- Live Paint Tool : K
- Shadow : Multiply
- Highlights : Colour Dodge
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| Fig 1.1.4 Outline (26/10/2025) |
Then, I used the same method I used for colouring the characters, which is
using the live paint tool and I started colouring the base colours first. For
the colour palette, I used a list of dark blues to show that the environment
is dark because it is night time. I also used yellow to show lights from the
buildings behind Hapbot. For the building that Hapbot is sitting on, I use
different shades of grey to keep it simple and to highlight Hapbot.
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| Fig 1.1.5 Base Colour (28/10/2025) |
After finishing the base colour, I moved on to the shading and highlights.
For this step, I used the same techniques as the first task. I added shadows
on certain areas using multiply and highlight the places that hits light
using colour dodge. Here is the final result for the background.
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| Fig 1.1.6 Background Final (30/10/2025) |
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| Fig 1.1.7 Background Final-Grid (30/10/2025) |
Rationale: Hapbot is exploring the city because it is one of the things he enjoys doing in his free time. He loves climbing on top of buildings, looking at the view down below and looking at the place he lives at from above. He loves sitting around and enjoying his time while also keep making people around him happy.
Card Design
After finishing the background, I moved on to make the card design. First,
I looked up some references that I want to use to make the card design. I
decided to reference tarot cards for this task because I like how simple
but detailed tarot cards are. Here is the mood board
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| Fig 1.2.1 Mood Board (29/10/2025) |
After gathering the references, I started making the cards using Ai with the
size 63mm x 88mm with 5mm bleed. In the card, we were required to put in the
character name, description, and rarity. First, I started with making the
bleed for the card using the square tool.
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| Fig 1.2.2 Bleed (04/10/2025) |
Then, I followed the tutorial given in the slides (using the square tool, other shape tools, and text tool) to make border and the
overall layout of the card. Then I added the requirements for the cards.
Here is the results for the card layout.
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| Fig 1.2.3 Card Layout (04/10/2025) |
After finishing the layout, I imported the background image that I did before
and adjust it so it fits in the card perfectly. After making the adjustment, I
exported the file into my device. Here is the final result.
|
| Fig 1.2.4 Card Design (04/10/2025) |
After finishing, I decided to ask Mr Fitri for feedbacks and suggestions. He said to
change the colour and font of the text. I also added some changes for the
cards and he said to fix some of them to make it aligned. Here is the
final result.
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| Fig 1.2.5 Card Design Final (07/10/2025) |
REFLECTION
Experience - In this task, I managed to make a background
for one of the characters that I made in task 1. I made a simple
background which is a city at night to show that the character is
exploring even during the night. This task made me realise that the
background plays an important role on setting the mood of the drawing.
Other than that, making the card design was also a little complicated
because I couldn't come up with any ideas at first. But once I found
an idea, I can create it quite fast. This task was a little
complicated but it was pretty fun to do, especially the card
design.
Observations - The background, colours, highlight, and
shadow plays such a huge role to explain and set the mood that the
character is in at the moment. Playing with the shadows and highlights
can change the mood of the drawing so much. Composition also plays a
huge role in making an eye-catching drawing/illustration.
Findings - I found that character design and background
design takes a lot of creativity and can be quite difficult because we
need to think of the design, colours, background, stories, etc. Same
goes to the card design because it needs to look good for the
audience.
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