WEEK 8

WORK IN PROGRESS

OUTLINING AND CONCEPT REFINING

As I already have the initial sketches done on paper for the Kanjis, all of them have been scanned digitally in order to start with the outline and rendering.
The initial sketches are often been redrawn by redrawing out the concept on top of a digitally typed character in order to make the illustrations more look like a hand-drawn typographic design.
The concepts often are adjusted during this step to match with the prompts considered for the future that the learners will be memorised with the illustrations, or have been adjusted to a clearer message of the context of the actual Kanji behind a particular illustration.
For example, the below character 電 (den) refers to electricity but also consists of a smaller component of 雨 (ame), rain. Where 雨 is also included in one of the illustrated Kanjis, the same visualised character is also introduced here so this has been adjusted in the finalised linework.

Initial sketch on paper

A redrawn version of the initial sketch on top of a web typeface. The typeface that I have chosen to trace on top is コミック体, Comic Tai, which enables me to easily change the structure in an illustrated form by looking at the way the actual Kanji originally looked instead of other cursive looking typefaces

A finalised linework which will be rendered for the next steps

Another example of the illustration concept that has been changed dramatically in the line working process is the character 泳 (oyo(gu)), to swim
As the prompt will be considered to be related to swimming, a fish was added indicating the swimming motion (shown at right)

Also as noted the component 氵 is a secondary form of the Kanji of 水, its visualisation was adapted from the element from the Kanji illustration of 水 developed before - this could ensure consistency by looking at all of the illustrations as a thread in a Kanji cooperative system

Finished illustration of 泳, to swim

The illustrated form of 氵in the character 泳 is adapted from the previously drawn 水 to bring out the message of 氵 stands for water

Misunderstandings

Some of my misunderstandings in generating the visualised concepts, such as the kanji 磨 - in Chinese this most likely leads to grinding certain things into powder by friction or polishing to make it into a shiny surface. This kind of confusion was caused due to the bias of using Chinese in my first language as a typographic designer

Initial idea 1: By simply looking at the sketch the context is more leading to shiny and metal

Initial idea 2: Grinding coffee beans, but this will lead to the meaning from the Chinese language instead of Japanese

Finalised version: In Japanese, even 磨 refers to polish but more likely people will learn the character from 歯磨き, brushing teeth which also helps me to generate the prompt

Kanji pictograms

Referenced material from Naoya Abo, A Dictionary of How to Write Japanese Characters, 1999.

Illustration references from kanji dictionaries eg. For the character 死 (shi), death, the drawing shows death consists of a smaller kanji which stands for bone, and the entire drawing closely relates to the kanji context which helps my illustration design

A Kanji pictogram shown in 死 inspires how I used its form to ideate my concept

Finalised version of the illustrated Kanji

Adding in line weight

Adding in line weight is one of the procedures to be done during outlining which could make the illustration look more finished, especially the typographic designs applied with curvy shapes