End of Module Evaluation

Project Report

Presentation Boards

Final outcomes - VALKYRIE

While I'm happy with the colour choices and composition used for the text page for Valkyrie, I think her character illustration is the weakest of the set. She was the last one to complete on my list and with simultaneous responsive and cop deadlines I let this fall by the wayside a bit and could have dedicated more time to making sure she was right before wrapping the project.
Valkyries are female warriors that appear on Viking battlefields to carry off dying soldiers to Valhalla, where they will feast and fight forever. I based her design here on my earlier Thor illustration, as most of the existing depictions of Valkyries have them very scantily clad, which I don't feel works anymore, especially in this project.
I feel that she could be more distinct from Thor than she is, and I could use different colours and shapes to achieve this, but time constraints meant I didn't have enough time as I would have liked to be able to mess around and make sure she was right. I'd also revise her general shape, as I don't think she communicates the character of warrior woman as clearly as the other female character, Hela, does.

Final Outcomes - HEIMDALL

I feel happy with this outcome as I tried to capture a specific characteristic in the design and I think I did quite well. Heimdall is the gatekeeper of Asgard, a stoic guardian of few words. To express this simplicity I stuck to variations on primary colours, and blocky reds and browns to convey an earthen, trustworthy figure. I think in the future I'd change the colours around to investigate more successful ways of expressing these ideas.

Final outcomes - HELA

While I'm happy overall with these two pages, I think the general design of Hela's character and the colour palette kind of makes these feel like they're from a different book.
Hela is basically the god of death and bad things in Norse myth, I wanted to get that across with an intimidating silhouette and colours that contrasted but weren't similar to any others in the book. Because of this though I'm not sure that it totally works with the others as a set. In the future I'd choose a different god to illustrate that would fit in with the other characters more cohesively.

Final outcomes - ODIN

With Odin, I tried to break out of the mold of the shape boundaries I set myself, as the King of Asgard should have his own thing, surely?
I wanted to convey his size and power in the same format as the other illustrations without changing the formatting, so I thought it appropriate that his character refuse to be constrained by the visual boundaries I established for him, and let his size dominate the frame.
I think this was successful as he feels to me like one of the more unique ideas I've had with these outcomes. I wanted him to appear complex to reflect his importance as king of the gods, without overcomplicating him. I definitely wanted him to be a striking and memorable presence among the book, and I think making him the biggest sod in it works well towards this goal.

Final Outcomes - LOKI

I had some difficulty with the design of Loki, because he doesn't fit into the stocky mold of a Viking god, being a slippery boy known for sneakiness and mischief. I wanted him to have a reserved look rather than the big blocky look of Thor and Odin, so I based his design on more snakelike imagery. I found that simplicity was the way forward too, as I was trying to recreate his horned helmet and elaborate shoulder pads, but when I tried to put too much detail into this aesthetic it just became lost and didn't look like anything. After a lot of faffing, I decided to reduce these elements to basic shapes to communicate the general aesthetic rather than trying to visually replicate Viking armour in circles and squares.
This process has been something I've been adapting to loads this year, focusing on ideas rather than fiddling with visuals to an extent that the image is diluted and the concept lost.

Final outcomes - THOR

I think this version of Thor is probably the most solid of my outcomes, I wanted him to evoke thoughts of 80s action heroes like He Man, Conan or any number of other barbarians. I based his asymmetrical look on a combination of these aesthetics and how he appears in the Marvel films. I feel like the way I think about character design has changed radically through these illustrations, as I found it a lot easier to understand proportion and the balance of colour in this digital medium rather than in my sketchbook.
I think this is the way I want to think about character moving forward, I find this way of working a lot better as I get bogged down and often annoyed with myself and my work when continually working in a sketchbook. I think my work can really suffer when I do this, as I get pissed off with my inability to realise something on paper and then leave the idea and end up settling for something weaker. To counter this I'm trying to be more confident in my idea generation and focusing on getting my ideas out in one medium or another.

Final outcomes - Title page

I've really enjoyed working with block shapes in my 80s investigation of Norse mythology. I bought a font called Thunderstorm (totally radical) to experiment with and it proved to be successful for the look I was going for.

 

I used common imagery and tropes from that period of popular design to try and create an immediacy in my own designs and root them firmly in that colour explosion of a decade.

I've never used this kind of shape exploration prominently in my work before, so I thought it'd be a good idea to do some research into the style of composition first. I came across this design from 1922 by Iakov Chernikov, who was a Russian architect and graphic designer. This constructivist design is something I never would have thought to look into for inspiration at the start of this year, but the way that shape and colour are so carefully considered leapt out to me as an interesting way to tackle my illustrations for this project.