C is for Camping development
After presenting our finalised sketches this morning in the interim critique, we thought it was about time we started to digitise!
Here are our current sketches to start us off:
One of the first initial sketches of the basic ideas and composition including a map.
A more refined sketch of our ideas including a deer, sign, tent, rabbit, campfire and fold up chair!
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Thursday 27th Feb - initial digital development:
I started off by setting up the document with the correct dimensions for the back of the box and the sides as we were hoping to potentially utilise the sides of the box for larger structures.
After looking at my research into forest/ campfire scenes for reference on lighting, I created this subtle gradient backdrop:
Then, after referencing my basic sketch, I started to draw the basic outlines of the trees, shrubs / rocks, the placement of the letter and I decided to have 1 tree at the front of all the rest as a feature.
After picking a bright white colour like the true birch trees, I knocked it back a few shades to make it more suitable to use in a background:
I added a brush outline to fulfil the 'gruff' style requested in the brief, and started to use all the brushes in the palette to start to create the texture of the birch bark:
I added some 'blue' trees in the background to give the impression of a depthy forest and to stay true to the style we want to work in (50's illustration etc). I also added some shading where the canopies and shrubs/ rocks would cast a shadow.
I also added a bit of shadowing to each of the trees themselves.
And then I extended the larger shadows, adding to the mood of the scene. Here is what it looks like so far with the placement of the 'C is for camping' emblem, to be created by Danielle.
I then added a circular gradient the same colour as the floor fade to bright orange in the centre for the impression of a light from a campfire.
Here is the sketch I was roughly using as a guide:
I also added triangles of the floor colour to represent the beams of light broken up by the fire logs. Here I am starting to draw the logs:
And with swirly details and a mini branch
After adding the other logs, I realise that the mini branch needed to move so it didn't interfere with other logs.
Here I am adding the flames. Although I like these autumnal colours I am using, I may want to brighten them up to enhance the image for fire. The brush tool really helped to achieve this, too.
And with the yellow added, too:
The whole scene so far:
In the foreground I wanted a cascade of rocks for the rabbit to perch on and the assembly instructions to be written on, too. Looking at the composition at the moment, we may struggle to fit all of the desired details on and may need to compromise on sizes and shapes.
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After the last session I decided that the campfire needed to be brighter!
Even brighter! I added a couple of gradients and made the flames taller to make it stand out more.
Creating a Map
Danielle wanted to draw a map to be incorporated into the scene, but she didn't want to include it in the final design!
Drawing the Deer
In our brainstorms, we had many ideas for lots of different creatures to include on the boxes. We knew we wanted a larger animal to be in the campsite/ woodland scene and we ended up going with a deer. You can see a few sketches of foxes in the next images but we decided to not include a fox since we were including a rabbit!
I sketched a deer in a semi realistic style to get a rough idea of the shape of it's body
But we knew we definitely wanted it to be very stylised, there were a diverse range of sketches I put together. It was just whether we wanted to go with cute and make it look like a fawn or like an adult. We decided to go with the cute fawn look because we were developing the rabbit simultaneously and that was in more of a cute style.
So I put the two sketches of the cute fawn face and the realistic style body together to develop digitally.
In this image I am just going over it using the pen tool.
Using different brush textures for the outlines I created a furry effect on the deers' chest. I used the gradient tool fade from brown to clear and then added the grain/sprinkles effect to create the soft dark patches similar to classic drawing techniques I found in my research.
I decided to remove the outlines from around the eyes.
After looking at the deer so far overall, we decided that the body was too realistic, and that the poor deer had no neck! So I made the body more cartoony by emphasising the angles of his legs and back and making the head larger.
Drawing the tent
I started off using a sketch I had refined using pencils etc and scanned it in.
I filled in the colours, adding gradients for the effects of shadow. Danielle isn't a massive fan of gradients, and believes that flat colours would suit the overall design more, so this was changed. We also chose a different stand for the tent, opting for a slot system that would eventually suit nearly all components, which suited the user as difficulty level would be lower.
The scene so far
This is the scene so far. We decided to ditch the gradients on the foreground rocks, and opted for a flat colour, simpler version instead. The deer was flipped so that it faced inward to the design, and put into place according to our original sketch. Danielle was responsible for creating the 'C is for Camping' sign, which I dropped into the design after receiving it over DropBox. Since the last overall look, I have also added in some other rocks and grass, using techniques I have seen in Pixar films for the shadowing (IE the different jagged edged shapes overlapping in varying colours) and the brush tools for grass. At the moment we have some problems with the area around the campfire, as the cutout lines interfere with the rocks.
I have decided to add more of said techniques to around the campfire to add a bit more depth to the background image.
And place it in a subtle colour.
We decided to test the playset with our components so far - mainly to see if the campfire could be any smaller to not interfere with other scenery.
After testing we found we could go a LOT smaller in the intended stock - and lose up to 2cm off the diameter! These changes were added to make more room for the other components such as text boxes and the rabbit!
Creating the rabbit
After drawing a few different types of rabbit sketches I thought I should just produce a combination of all just like the deer image, as I had struggled to come up with a comprehensive style using loads of different tracing paper!
I chose the 'cutest' rabbit face from the sketches, which became the influence for the deer's face.
But instead of having the same eyes, I decided to have the rabbits shut. I used the same brush techniques to make it look a bit more like fur! In this image I am playing around with the nose.
Which I, in turn, made more rabbit-like.
I also made the colours a bit warmer and curved the eye more into an arch.
I used the same technique as on the deer with the gradient and the grain/ sprinkles effect.
I also wanted to make the rabbit have rosie cheeks as he was smiling! So I used these grain effects, with the intention of lowering the opacity for a more subtle smile.
And then I added the other eye.
I had a few different ideas for the direction of the ears but I ended up with them facing them backward because it worked better with intended composition of the box.
I started to draw him a body (with loads of different colours so I could see what was going on) using one of my rabbit body sketches.
I used the same tail off the deer for consistency. I also applied the same blushed gradients to his ears and feet.
And his bum! Which I removed again because it looked like too much! I also made his body more cartoon-like so he wasn't so chunky!
Here he is placed onto the box. (this was simultaneously going on with the campfire surrounding being tested, which was made smaller to not interfere with the rabbit)
Adding the facts
Meanwhile, Danielle had been selecting and refining all the different facts we were going to use on the box, and had started to prepare the text boxes but she was struggling with the layout of them. She also had prepared some stands for the components to be propped up with, but was also struggling with where to put them. I had also done a little bit of extras by making a simple pot and mug with a skewer with marshmallows.
I had a lot of input in re-arranging all of the text boxes with what Danielle had already prepared. We discussed the idea of making the alphabet theme more prominent too, as I didn't feel that theme was strong enough. I thought that the Deer and Rabbit should be presented WITH their letters.
I also had a lot of input into the final composition of this box, deciding that the stands should be placed down the SIDE of the box, which was a big decision to make which I thought was necessary as it meant that we needed to re-design the sides to match our current illustration style.
In this image, the campfire area is being made smaller!
Building a gaslamp without a sketch!
With the stands placed up the sides of the box, there was a space that needed filling, and we didn't want any more facts because it would imbalance the text and image ratio in our opinion. So I decided to have a camping light there instead. I had a quick flick through some images of camping lamps and drew this gaslamp with no pre-sketches...
Once I had had the basic shapes in place I knew that the colours would balance it out.
Using a technique I learnt in the first year on my Buddhism booklet about creating successful lights with a glow, I added the finishing touches of a flame and two wrap-around wires!
An image from my Buddhism project last year:
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Today, we are nearly finished in our C is for Camping box! Since the last blog update, the text boxes have been refined, as I added the letters for the Deer and Rabbit, I have added a kettle and I refined the layout of the instructions placed on the rock in the foreground.
I also discussed with Danielle that I thought that we needed to resolve a few issues stated in the brief, after already pushing for the alphabet theme to be stronger... These issues I thought were that we needed variations in our text, as all we had were facts. I thought we needed a mini game of some sort that wouldn't interfere with the current design, some sort of incentive to purchase another box, and maybe a more creative element to be added.
This meant that the line across the top that states a fact about fireflies was added, with the idea that you could count the fireflies on the box. We resolved the incentive buying issue on another box, the treetops box, and I created a black and white rabbit for the children to colour in!
With these changes made, with the addition of Danielle's designed sides of the box and the extended top of the box, and shadows added to some of the objects, the design was finalised!
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