some work done, still behind schedule - but a really long entry

the past two weeks have been a horror. murphy's law at its best. however, those are but excuses and i shall strive for improvement.

for a start, before today's critique, i caught up on everything that should have been completed LAST WEEK. to make up for my lateness, i decided to spend more time reflecting on what i'm learnt through this process

(WARNING - LONG POST AHEAD)

Thumbnails:

finally, i came up with adequate ideas to complete the 8 thumbnails required by the assignment. i felt that this was important because idea generation was a necessary part of design and i wanted to force myself to go through it.  moreover, i werent satisfied with my first designs for both themes.  for my 2nd theme, i chose games/game genres.  more on these ideas below.

Full Scale Roughs:

I chose to colour all four ideas for 2 reasons.  1. my illustrator died on me while I was doing my actual piece halfway. It was already 3AM, so I didn't want to go into critique empty handed again. 2. i took it as practice (even though i'm already running late ahaha)

running man (top left): 
my personal favourite - because it had is integrated, and i finally was able to make use of the RUNNING MAN! i have conquered my nemesis.  i think the shading/colouring for this picture is pretty important, since the J uses only the hand, while the N requires the hand and the side of the shirt.  the O, represented by the squarish number tag might also be a bit tricky to see.  the jersey colour also needs to be a simple unassuming colour, so as not to draw away attention from the number tag. also, this piece looks completely different with and without colour.

track with silhouette (bottom left):
this is my second favourite piece, being my first decent idea. although i initially felt that it kinda "took the easy way" since it simply arranged items to form the letters, julian said that in this case it had a "competition" theme, which was actually very creative. i would develop both of these to decide which is my final running themed piece probably next weekend.  a concern i immediately had was the amount of detail required to draw 12 men.  instead, i decided to use silhouettes, which are a good contrast to the red track background, and easier and more reasonable to execute based on my skill set.

shoes, stop watch and running starting (top right):
my least favourite piece.  one of my earlier ideas, which i didn't like at all.  involved the simple arrangements of items. however, the track shoes and stop watch were good practice for assignment 2 (which i've already STARTED, suprisingly). also, i tried using the Holland Football Team colours, and found that I really liked it.  The colour scheme is perhaps the only saving grace of this piece, the good contrast between orange and black colour adds life to an otherwise dead piece.

track and field (bottom right):
the last token piece to fill up 4 ideas. i got this idea while running on the track.  in this piece, i tried to make use of the surroundings more, like in the other track piece.  i found the end result too simple.  the old, represented by a discus cage was also not really easy to see.  the N was supposed to be represented by javelins, although I'm not sure if people without prior knowledge would know. i tried to practice a bit of distance/horizon drawing with the track, but its very un-obvious :(

i paid little attention to the fonts in the running theme pieces, so i decided to put a bit more effort in the games pieces.

i will continue the second theme on another post, so that comments (if people read this) can be more well targetted.