Illustration & Visual Narrative/ Task 3: Digital Triptych

25 Nov 2023 - 8 Dec 2023 (Week 9 - Week 11)

Natalie Chu Jing Xuan, 0354589

Illustration & Visual Narrative, Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

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Digital Triptych

Using Scott McCloud's theory of transitions, the goal of this assignment is to produce a digital triptych with three panels: 

• one before
• one during (the climactic turning point)
• one after a significant event

Moment-to-moment, action-to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, and aspect-to-aspect are some of the transitional techniques used by Scott McCloud. 

I chose to use scene-to-scene transition in this task.

Fig.1 Sketch, Rationale, Moodboards/References

Sketch

Refer to the story research on previous task on werewolf's urban legend: 

"Werewolf is a person who was attacked by a wolf and transforms into a wolf form when full moon occurs, and returns to human form during day time."

I decide to draw a boy being attacked by a wolf in the 1st scene and the boy return back to human form in the 3rd scene. The 2nd scene, which is the climax was the boy transform to werewolf during full moon, this was illustrated in the previous task. 

With these idea, I uses Procreate on my iPad to sketch out a rough idea on what will be happening in my scenes.

Fig.2 Rough sketches

With these sketches, I then consult Mr.Hafiz through WhatsApp for feedback. He said that I should add a scar on the werewolf's arm in the 2nd scene. Therefore I switched the injured arm from left arm to right arm, so the scar will be visible in the 2nd scene, since the 2nd scene shows the right arm of the werewolf. Then, I re-sketch my draft to a more cleaner version, so it will be easier when I digitalise it in Illustrator. 

Fig.3 Changes in 1st scene sketches, before(left) & after(right)

I was not satisfied with the facial expression on the left sketch. It does not seem very terrified, so I changed it (right).

Fig.4 Progression of 3rd scene sketch

Compared to the drawing in Fig.2, Fig.4 shows how I use shapes to guide me when drawing the human body. I find this method easier to do and the human body ratio looks more balanced.

Sketches before digitalise: 

Fig.5 Sketches of scene-to-scene transition 

Digitalisation

After having the sketch on Procreate, I then transfer them to Adobe Illustrator. 

Fig.6 Digitalising in Illustrator

I made my sketch to template and dim it down to 50%, and start using pen tool and shapes to trace out the illustration. Then I colour it(2nd step), add in backgrounds(3rd step), and add gradient(4th step).

Fig.7 Before gradient(left) & after gradient(right)

Fig.7 shows the differences of the shirt, shorts, grass and tree's shadow before and after gradient. Whereas, Fig.8 shows the scar on the three different scene. It was a key component that I added in my transition to represent that it was the same person (the clothing also). 

Fig.8 Scars

Final outcome of scene-to-scene transition:

Fig.9 Final outcome