BCT GA1A01 - Portfolio Submission One

Commentary For My Six Drawings

First Artwork - Cherries in Love

When I was looking for art to draw online, I found this image which was too adorable to pass up. I desaturated the image for reference, and sketched the image with HB, 4B and 6B pencils.

The shading on the cherries turned out quite well. For the tint in the background I lightly shaded the area with my HB pencil, the softened it with a small brush. I used my kneaded eraser to create the hard lights, and the 6B pencil for the darkest shades. It’s harder to tell when desaturated, but the shade under the cherries is not its shadow. It is in fact the cherries’ reflection, which is reflected off a glossy surface presumably. 

Laxman. (2012). Love Cherries. Retrieved from:

http://speckyboy.com/2012/07/22/30-stunning-examples-of-still-life-photography/

Second Artwork – Rocks

 

For this piece of art I wanted to experiment with using markers on a proper image for the first time. I chose this picture of rocks because it has simple shading, and involves drawing negative space, much like what we did at Albert Park for the first week of class. I drew the outlines and simple shadings with pencils, then went over them with four different markers: blender, Warm Grey 1, Warm Grey 3, and Warm Grey 5.

The image looks alright, but much many improvements can be made such as more detailed and blending of the shading. I did not take enough risks as I didn’t want to accidently ruin the image with a wrong stroke of the marker.

Secor, D. (2012). Rocks. Retrieved from:

http://landscapesinpastel.blogspot.co.nz/2010/05/chapter-fourteen-rocks.html

Third Artwork – Water Drop

 

Being able to drawing realistic water has always been a goal of mine as an artist. A water drop seemed like a good starting point for a balance of simplicity and detail: not too much graphite needed, yet the slightest difference in shape and shade has a huge effect on the overall image. I chose this image for the lighter background so I won’t need to tone the paper. 

I used different shade of pencils with my brush to create the soft edges of the water ripples. The most challenging part was sketching small spheres of water that’s bouncing upwards, as each has its own refracted lights and shadow. Adding more detail to these spheres would be the main improvement I could make, and perhaps using charcoal for the hard shades as well.

Retrieved from:

http://www.mysouthlakenews.com/2012/08/city-of-southlake/water-conservation-twice-a-week-a-permanent-solution/attachment/water-drop

Fourth Artwork – Rain Drops on a Window

 

For this image I decided to do something different, which was to draw numerous less detailed subjects as opposed to one main focus of an image. It was a rainy day so I decided to draw from my head how water droplets would look on a window.

I toned the paper with graphite powder which I obtained from sharpening my pencil and crushing the shaved lead. It was toned unevenly on purpose to create the appearance of a tinted/foggy window. I drew each droplet randomly with some reference (spraying water on the table) on how water drops can look. I shaded the droplets with a HB pencil and pulled lights with my kneaded eraser. This created simplistic spherical shapes with three dimensions, but no detailed enough for refractions.

Improvements that could be would be more details for each water droplet, and perhaps a more realistic grouping of different shapes and sizes of droplets as the image still gives off an artificial feeling.

Fifth Artwork – Straw in Water

Continuing on with my fascination with water, I draw this sketch of a cup of water with a straw inside. This sketch turned out well in my opinion. 

I first toned the paper by shading all over the page lightly with a HB pencil, and then smudged the graphite with a small brush. This way I could create highlights with my kneaded eraser. I experimented with charcoal, which I used to draw the dark edges of the shadow. I smudged the edges as well to give it a soft water effect. The straw’s refraction is perhaps the highlight of this drawing as it displays the intriguing effects a clear liquid has on light.

The main improvement that could be made to this sketch would be a better balance of contrast between the cup and the shadow, and perhaps more hard shadows for the water inside the cup.

Sixth Artwork – Elderly Man

Thinking about a portrait to draw, I chose my Facebook cover image which had the face of this elderly gentleman. The faces of elderly people are especially interesting and challenging to draw due to the wrinkling and sagging of the skin. I initially tried using cross-hatching for shading, but quickly found it too complex with all the different tones and curves on the face, and opted for brush smudging instead. 

The end result is not bad, but I believe it could be improved with a better method of shading (e.g. if I took my time with each shade line) and perhaps the use of charcoal pencils for higher contrast.

Unfortunately I could not find the original drawing of this man so I can only link the image I drew from.

Retrieved from (Slight Profanity):

http://love-noeline.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/draw-rest-of-fucking-head.html

GA1J01 Board game Beta

The board (beta) for my group's board game (GA1J01 - Game Design Principles). Just finished drawing it up.

GA1A01 - Character Thumbnails and Backstory

Nyssa Farajian Thumbnails (drawn with mouse)

• Sex: Female
• Age: 34
• Job: Diplomat / ???
• Children: One Daughter
• Emotion: Calm initially, then becomes frantic in plane crash.
• Setting: Plane crash

Nyssa Farajian is a 34 year old woman of Armenian descent. Her physical attributes include: 174 cm in height, 62 KGs, long light brown hair, and generally perceived as physically attractive though not by model standards.

Nyssa was born in Yerevan, Armenia Soviet Socialist Republic, 1951. She grew up in a stable middle-class family and was the top of the class in all her schools. She travelled to Moscow and completed a university degree in International Relations and Japanese, and was offered the role of a Soviet Diplomat in Japan. 

From 1976, major political events had increasingly strained the relations between the Soviet Union and Japan. Nyssa was recalled to USSR in 1982 for a year. Without her knowledge, she was targeted and became a victim of an experimental procedure performed by the KGB (Committee for State Security in former USSR). Nyssa has no memories of what procedures were performed on her, and did not notice anything odd as she was redeployed to Japan in 1983.

She has worked as a diplomat in Japan for 12 years, and is fluent in Armenian, Russian, Japanese and English. She has a 5 year old daughter.

In Game

Nyssa Farajian is a foreign diplomat on board the Japan Airlines flight 123. 

She is briefed by KGB Agent Vladimir Putin before departing to Tokyo Japan. On her connecting flight, she becomes one of the passengers of the infamous Japan Airlines flight 123, in which the game will take place. Japan Airlines flight 123 was a real flight in August 1985 and the single most devastating airplane crash in history, resulting in death of 520 passengers who were on-board the aircraft. 

The crash did not happen immediately, as the total elapsed time from the first explosion to the final crash lasted around 32 minutes. Whether or not Nyssa becomes one of the survivors will depend on her (the player’s) choices made during the midst of this crash.

Her “true” role in the crash is not revealed until very late into the game’s storyline.