History of Illustration

Reading the frame and the objects in it

I started by tracing the lines of movement and the centres of attention in posters for Legend of the Guardians. In the production art, I marked the shapes of the talon weapons and compared helmets, armour and action studies. I wanted to understand how the same project could make a poster read at a glance and still give its characters equipment that made sense up close.

For Avatar, I compared a triangular underwater composition with a poster that uses the waterline and a grid of thirds. I looked at models and notes about how the creatures live. The skimwing reminded me of a flying fish, with wings closer to a butterfly and a narrow jaw like a gharial. I also marked the hexapede’s head and legs, and compared the plant life, forest dwellings and the furs and feathers worn by the forest inhabitants.

In Murder Drones I traced the opposing directions of the two figures in the poster and compared the silhouettes of different machines. The raptor-like body, the segmented centipede-like form and the snake-like or syringe-like tails suggest different behaviours before the characters move. I also marked the spread wings, interchangeable hands and the symbols that indicate the machines’ abilities.

Try the composition and redraw the equipment

For my poster study I used the owl’s diagonal flight to carry the eye across the sky, and placed a warm light between the dark rock shapes below. The small birds in the distance give the lead owl scale. For the prop study, I redrew the claw attachments and curved blades from the reference, looking at how the grip and cutting edge sit around the joint.

Silhouettes, anatomy and equipment

I used Bloodborne to study the way architecture and perspective frame a hunter. I marked the raven-like outline of a cloak and followed the fur and antlers on a creature to see how they change the silhouette. I also compared a folding blade and weapons that combine a musket with a Western sword.

In the Monster Hunter boards I marked broad armoured heads, the structure of legs, gliding membranes and the edges of scales and tails. I was interested in the possibility of a creature moving quietly on a hunt, as owls and bats do in my reference notes. I also compared the detailed monster illustrations with the simplified, brightly coloured totem marks and small icons.

I looked at Final Fantasy character and monster sheets for the effect of sharp shapes and fine linework. The pointed armour and weapons convey aggression, while the lines and muted colours can give the surface a worn quality. I compared those details across human costumes, armour and the silhouettes of large creatures.

Rebuild the pose in a drawing

In the Barioth study I followed the pale overlapping plates, the planted forelimbs and the sweep of the tail. In the darker creature study I tried small flying and curled poses before painting a low, stretched stance. The raised back and the turn of the tail were the shapes I kept clearest.

Three ways to organise a page

In BEASTARS I marked the watercolour-like passages, straight hatching, solid black shadows and rough-looking lines that still describe the animals’ expressions precisely. I compared those pages with Batman, where dense linework, muscular figures, stronger light-dark contrast and saturated colour can give each panel a different force. In Transformers I paid attention to how complex mechanisms remain recognisable across panels when their proportions and perspective are consistent.

In my studies I repainted Legoshi from the cover and redrew two close-ups of animal heads from the interior pages. The first exercise let me follow the colour washes and the pose. The black-and-white sketches made me concentrate on what the muzzle, eyes, teeth and horns were doing in each expression.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole · equipment for an animal body

I chose Guardians of Ga’Hoole because its fantasy society grows out of recognisable owl anatomy and behaviour. The adaptation from the novels to a 3D animated film kept a relatively naturalistic approach to the characters and props. The talon weapons interested me most. The blade has to sit around a curved claw without limiting its movement. Helmets and wing armour also have to fit different owl species while making warriors, artisans, priests and opposing groups distinguishable.

I compared the warm, clean colouring of the barn-owl protagonist with the darker feathers and eye scar of his brother. A white-feathered antagonist with bright red at the beak uses a different kind of contrast. The action studies and storyboards show how the owls fight with their own bodies. Fabrics and bones become flags and totems in their habitat, giving their society objects it could plausibly make and use.

One poster uses a strong low angle and lets the owl’s body trace a curve across the image. Another looks out from a dark tree hollow, with the protagonist in the lower left third and a much brighter view beyond. In the triangular arrangement I annotated, the surroundings fall into shadow while the centre stays lit, and the railings rise on either side to bring the eye towards it.

Monster Hunter · connect the creature to its world

I studied how the hunter’s commissions, weapons and tools sit within an ecology. The documentary-like creature sequences made me pay attention to how unrelated animal features can come together within one habitat. Aknosom, for example, combines an umbrella-like frill reminiscent of a frilled lizard, reptilian skin, a head and claws that reminded me of bird-hipped dinosaurs, and a crane-like fighting stance. The rendering of rough scale armour and skin folds helps those borrowed forms feel as though they belong to one animal.

I looked beyond the monsters to plants used as bait, dangerous plants, and plants associated with particular creatures. Together they give the world a food chain. I compared the colourful monster totems, whose simplified shapes still carry species traits, with the brush-like icons in the collection guide. The totems reminded me of some South American visual motifs. The small icons feel light and playful beside the more detailed reference illustrations.

I compared weapons that fold or transform with ones that use an accessory. The Switch Axe gives the axe and sword different movement and attack rhythms. The Insect Glaive makes its accompanying insect part of the hunt. I also followed how the creature’s material, profile and palette carry over into equipment made from it, so that the gear can still point back to the hunt.

BEASTARS · keep animal anatomy in a human gesture

In Paru Itagaki’s BEASTARS I looked at the way a high-school setting makes conflict and friendship between herbivores and carnivores feel social as well as physical. Most pages are black and white. The characters stand and gesture like people, yet the animal heads, tails, claws and fur still carry their species and temperament. The leopard and gazelle hybrid was especially useful to study. A gazelle-like skull and horns sit beside carnivore teeth, leopard markings and a leopard tail.

I followed how the drawing starts from a shape, establishes the shadow edge, then fills the shadow with fine repeated lines or grey blocks. Dots and grain can add texture. Other panels put solid black against bare paper for a stronger contrast. I also noted split panels, fisheye views and one-point perspective as ways to change how a scene is read.

The posters I collected generally establish the base colour and the major light and dark shapes with flat areas, often with a watercolour feel. The covers vary more widely. Volume 1 reads like watercolour, Volume 7 like marker, Volume 11 uses black and white, and Volume 16 relies on line alone. Those comparisons gave me several ways to decide how much rendering a drawing needs.

Test the silhouette before committing to colour

I started with a low creature whose front limbs and long upward blades interrupt a long, trailing body. Across the first sketches I adjusted how the head sits between those blades and how the plates overlap along the back. A blue and yellow study let me test how light would break across the main volumes before I cleaned up the drawing.

I separated the linework, the shadow pass and the colour alternatives. One version keeps most of the body in teal and green. In the other I brought violet-blue into the long blades and armour, keeping the red crest and warmer accents distinct. The final study carries the violet-blue into the larger plates, with turquoise, red and warm highlights separating the head and joints from the rest of the body.

Find different paths through the image

In the key-scene studies I drew over the examples to see where the main figures sit and where the brighter shapes lead. One group builds triangles around a central figure. Another uses diagonals and places the light higher or lower along them. I also marked fisheye curves, an S-shaped route and a grid of thirds. I kept these on the same board so I could compare when a composition should hold the eye at the centre and when it should move it through the space.

Compare the shapes of a ship, a console and a creature

For the ship I marked rounded rectangular hulls, forms that are narrow in front and wider at the back, manta-like wings and layered shapes that overlap like petals. On the console board I looked at pipes, weighty triangular supports and the brackets behind displays. The cockpit drawings also helped me think about how an object reads when it belongs to an interior.

For the elemental creature I looked at wings whose membrane reaches from an upper limb to the tail, a deer-like body carrying totemic patterns, and a mantis-like structure with lizard-like skin. I also marked plated fins, the direction of curved tails and the length of tusks. I used those examples to compare how much of a recognisable animal I could keep while changing the outline.

Push the silhouette from a hull to a layered wing shape

I sketched compact bodies, long side profiles, split noses and swept wings. The design I developed has a central cockpit with two forward points and long blades swept out behind it. The thinner, layered shapes near the back bring the petal-like references into the silhouette and break up the larger mass of the ship.

I compared a lighter hull with a red cockpit against a darker hull with an amber cockpit and mint and blue accents. I took the second direction into the final painting. Blue and violet reflections keep the dark blades legible against one another, while the warm cockpit stays the first detail I want the eye to find.

Give the console a front, a back and a place to stand

I tested floor-standing units, wall fittings, worktops with different tiers and monitors on supports. In the developed version I set a slanted work surface above a wide base, with side and hanging screens carried by an upright structure. The cable and pipe shapes show how the screens and controls join the rest of the unit.

I compared a grey-blue version with red panels against a warm neutral casing with violet trim, blue screens and green supports. The latter gives each part a separate colour while keeping the screens cooler than the shell. In the final pass I shaded the rounded casing and the deeper joins, so the blocks read as surfaces of one object.

Explore three different body plans

The first sketches range from standing and crouching creatures to floating forms with fins, tusks and thin limbs. I continued three directions. One is curled, with a long tail, curved facial shapes and hanging tendrils. A second has a round, radial head and layered fins along its back. The third is low and streamlined, with a long body, paired tusks and a swept crest.

For the curled design I compared a cool green and blue body against a warmer red and orange one. For the radial design I kept the gold around the head and tested green, turquoise, ochre and blue across the body while keeping the striped fins. For the tusked design I compared a mostly blue body, a tan body with blue markings and a green body with a red crest. Keeping the silhouettes consistent within each set made it possible to judge what the palette changed.

I took the long, tusked silhouette into the final illustration. The swept blue crest and pale tusks make the head distinct, and blue patches with fine golden accents break up the warm body. The body and fins taper towards the tail, so the eye can follow the whole shape after meeting the face.

Bring the three designs together in one image

I tested six thumbnail compositions, changing which of the ship, creature or interior dominates the foreground. Some put the creature directly in front of the viewer. Others let the edges of the room or the ship draw the eye into the space. I developed three versions of the diagonal arrangement, changing the foreground scale and how much of the creature’s head interrupts the frame.

In the final painting I kept the creature very close on the right, the ship crossing the foreground from the left, and the work console further back. The tusks and luminous body markings identify the creature even when much of it is out of frame. Cool teal light in the background separates the console, while darker blue and violet bind the ship and creature into the foreground. I wanted the three designs to read at different distances inside the same scene.