My Fair Lady- Felicia Li
At the beginning of this project, I was full of expectations and felt that this was a project that I was very interested in. I quickly began to research and think about how to make the content of this project. But soon I realised that my vision was too narrow. I always couldn’t jump out of the plot and story background of the movie, so I chose to change the background to what I was more familiar with and more personal – Chinese elements.
But I encountered the biggest problem when designing the character. Because the background is set in the Han Dynasty, it is difficult to add science fiction or mechanical elements. I think they are not in line with the background of the times. In terms of costumes, I have been confining myself in a cage where I can only draw ancient costumes. Although I still want to think more, time does not allow me to hesitate, so I can only design characters according to the original idea, but the effect is obviously not good. Compared with my own character design, they are mediocre and boring, which makes me regret my original decision.
After that, I began to promote environmental design. I’m better at designing characters, so I put more time into the field I’m not good at. I study and draw scenes at the same time, hoping to do them better. I’m more used to flat painting – that is, celluloid style, painting by superimposing lines, colours and light and shadow layer by layer. But this technique is very time-consuming, and I think the effect is far inferior to thick coating. So after completing the first environment, I began to think about how to improve efficiency and picture effect. I saw a video of an artist who made an environmental concept map by pasting, painting atmosphere and refinement. I think this method is both efficient and beautiful, so I started to try it. But I spent a lot of time on the draft. I couldn’t find the right drawing materials, I didn’t know what angle to draw, and I couldn’t continue to advance my draft… All kinds of problems tormented me. Every day I flip through and learn the conceptual drawings and environmental designs of various artists, but when I painted by myself, how did I I can’t do it well, which makes me entangled and anxious. I have been drawing drafts over and over again, unable to advance, questioning the composition and design and then drawing new drafts, and so on until I wasted all my time.
In the end, I have recognised the technique of thick painting, and I just want to stick to thick painting. But my mastery of this technique is not thorough enough, especially in environmental painting. At the end, I found that I had been doing useless work, and the final effect was not even as good as my most familiar technique. At least for me, although it takes a lot of time, the techniques I am familiar with can help me complete my design smoothly, while the unfamiliar techniques not only consume a lot of time and energy, but also have a bad effect. It’s not the problem of the technique itself, but my stubbornness and rusty with the new technique, which makes it unable to play the real effect.
Even so, I am still very grateful to those who helped me in this project. The professor explained the methods and skills of lighting to us, demonstrated to me how to use the perspective line correctly, and put forward constructive opinions on my ideas. When I was confused, my classmates discussed the difference between different techniques with me and gave me suggestions such as He rich in the costume design of the characters, share their own design ideas with me. I also learned a lot from it. With the help of others, although it was difficult, I finally completed the content required by the project.
Completion does not mean perfection. Every time I look back at my work at the end of the project, I have all kinds of dissatisfaction, but I think art learning is like this. If you always feel perfect, it is difficult to make progress. This time I learned: First, jump out of the comfort zone, imagine boldly, combine different elements to create, and don’t be afraid that they are unreasonable. Second, the technique requires a lot of time to practice. Don’t avoid any painting technique because of your own discomfort, otherwise you will never master it. Third, do the work you are good at first. Studying is accumulated over time. There are certain risks in making temporary decisions. Leave your curiosity for other time. Don’t delay your work process and cause big losses. Finally, although there are many shortcomings, my mood has calmed down when I think of these. Each project is a process of my learning. I can only grow up again and again through these setbacks. I am grateful for this. I hope I can do better in the next project.
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