Illustration and Visual Narrative—Task 02： Composition

Illustration and Visual Narrative—Task 02： Composition

21/4/2025-27/7/2025（week1-week14）

Yuan Xiaoyue ,0367988

Illustration and Visual Narrative

Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media  

This week the professor asked us to add backgrounds to the three cartoon characters we drew before. 

Mood Board：

Sketch：

Then I made a background based on the golden spiral ratio for my monster from the sketch:

The professor also asked us to make monster cards for the monsters:

Final Output:

Rationale:

This work is centered on the original character Leo the dinosaur, integrating character design, scene atmosphere and card layout to form a collectible character card. The overall creative concept is derived from the combination of fantasy and childlike fun and dark night humor, with the goal of making the character both friendly and adventurous.

The background adopts a "Halloween-style" fantasy night scene, including the silhouette of a haunted house, dead trees and bats, creating a mysterious atmosphere. The dark blue night sky is matched with yellow window light and the moon to create a cold and warm contrast, highlighting the foreground of the character. The card frame adds stars, moons and oriental decorative elements to increase the sense of ritual of collecting cards

Techniques Applied：

In this task, I mainly used the real-time coloring function in the AI software to enhance the shadow and highlight effects of the character pattern drawn using the internal drawing tool, and improved the three-dimensional sense and expressiveness of the overall picture.

In terms of composition, I initially learned and practiced the most basic nine-square composition method. Although it is indeed the easiest composition method to master at the entry level, I gradually realized that it is relatively bland in terms of visual expression and theme prominence. Therefore, in the after-class exercises, I took the initiative to explore and try the golden spiral composition method, which is more beautiful and expressive in guiding visual focus and strengthening narrative.

Self Reflection：

Although I can use AI software to draw vector graphics, the shadow and highlight processing of characters is still stiff and needs to be improved. My favorite part is the design of the background and card frame, which has improved my painting and aesthetic ability. The composition techniques explained by the professor have inspired me a lot, especially after practicing the golden spiral and layered composition, I realized that a good division of foreground, middle ground and background can enhance the spatial sense and narrative of the picture, and also make me more proficient in using Illustrator.