Commission: Poster Illustration

Project Details

Project type: Illustration Commission

Date: 2020

Hours: 12

The project is to create an illustration featuring two characters from three separate games (Maple Story, Vindictus, and Fly for Fun) as a commemoration of how the client and her significant other met.

REQUIREMENTS:

6 character commission

17in x 20in

Full color

Minimal background to highlight the characters

FINAL:

PROCESS:

My process for this project was to:

1. Understand Client’s Intent

The client wanted a big poster illustration featuring two characters from three separate games. The purpose of the illustration was to commemorate her relationship with her husband via how they met - through playing games. The characters are in game avatars that the client and her husband played. The client did not have a specific aesthetic in mind, but wanted her illustration to be printable and frame-able.

The client sent me the below references of the characters they wanted me to draw:

2. Alignment on Design and Intents

After reviewing the characters, I realized that all three games have vastly different aesthetics, so I had to create an unified look by reinterpreting the characters in my own style. Since the most detailed characters were also the client’s favorites, I chose to have my own redesigns mimic the style of that specific game. The client and I also opted to go for minimalistic backgrounds since the characters themselves were very intricate.

The early sketch and layout of the illustration took into context how the poster looked when it was viewed from far away (because it was meant to be hung and framed). The silhouette of the entire illustration took the shape of a heart. The line art was done in an anime-style, which was a happy medium between the aesthetics of all the games.

3. Create Flats

Flat color lays were created after the lineart was done. While choosing the colors, I had to watch what colors I chose due to the nature of how the illustration will look after it is printed. Vibrant colors cannot be reproduced from screen to print due to the nature of how CMYK printers work. Therefore, I could not play with crazy colors, and instead had to focus on composition.

4. Rendering the Final Design

During rendering was when the final say was made on the colors. In order to ‘bring out’ certain areas, I had to mute the nearby areas, despite not being able to use very vibrant hues. In addition, I added a background that did not have lineart or much detail - it added a little more flavor to the initial drawing, while also not taking away from the main illustration.

TESTIMONIAL:

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If you would love to have a commission done, or need other design work, feel free to reach out.

Email: me@jennerchen.com