Illustration and Visual Narrative - Task 2: Composition

19/11/25-9/11/25 / Week 5-Week 7

Janice Cheah Pei Ern / 0376497

Illustration and Visual Narrative / BDCM / Taylor's University

Task 2

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LIST / JUMP LINK

LECTURES

INSTRUCTIONS 

TASK

FEEDBACKS

REFLECTIONS

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LECTURES

Week 5: There are 3 layers to a background, Foreground, Middle Ground and Background. The further the object, the less vibrant the colour is.

Figure 1.0 Background Layers

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INSTRUCTIONS

TASK

Final Background

Short Context of the Background:

The character is a lab animal who adventures through the forest after escaping from his enemies who are scientists that conducted cruel animal experiments. He reaches a part of the forest where he finds glowing mushroom which he can rest for the night.

Reference & Sketches

Before planning out our character's background, we have to look through Framed Ink as a reference for our work.

Using my 2nd character from the previous task, I want to plan out a laboratory background.

Reference used from Framed Ink:

Figure 2.0 & 2.1 1st & 2nd Sketch for 1st Character

I also thought of using my 3rd character from my previous task and design a forest/jungle background.

Reference used from Framed Ink:

Figure 2.2 1st Sketch for 2nd Character

Reference used from Framed Ink and Design Principle, Rule of Thirds:

Chosen Sketch:

Figure 2.3 2nd Sketch for 2nd Character (Chosen Sketch)

Mood Board

For my Chosen Sketch, the Mood Board I used has glowing mushrooms and jungle/forest filled with trees and leaves as it is related to the short story that I have created for my character.

Figure 2.4 Mood Board

Illustrator

Then I transferred the sketch into Illustrator.

Figure 2.5 Colour Scheme used

Figure 2.6 Final Background

Short Context of the Background:

The character is a lab animal who adventures through the forest after escaping from his enemies who are scientists that conducted cruel animal experiments. He reaches a part of the forest where he finds glowing mushroom which he can rest for the night.

Techniques Applied

For this task, I revise what I learnt in the lectures about adjusting the width of the outlines using the Width tool.

Figure 2.7 Adjusting Width of outlines

I also applied what I learnt about using masking tool for both my background and card design to crop out the parts that goes over the artboard.

Figure 2.8 Masking background

Card Design (Additional)

Afterwards, I also followed along Week 6's slides to create a card design for my character in Illustrator. I used a shield as the card emblem to emphasise on my character's identity as a warrior.

Figure 2.7 Final Card Design

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FEEDBACKS

All sketches are approved.

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REFLECTIONS

I was kind of stuck when designing the backgrounds for the characters but by creating a short story for the character really helps me to visualize it better. Having references also helped to bring out my ideas, especially getting the references from Framed Ink. Overall, it was a good experience and struggle as this is my first time designing a proper background for a character.