The project was created as a presentation for a workshop assignment for students. The workshop was titled, "Let me guess what you do... Designing an illustration that captures the spirit of the location."
Our goal was to design a workshop that guides students through the entire process of creating an illustration, from concept to final result. Additionally, we wanted to demonstrate how 3D graphics can be used in illustration to create more engaging and interesting compositions.
Design an illustration depicting the workplace. (environment only, no character design)
The illustration should depict:
- An interesting composition,
- Space design / layout,
- Dominant, characteristic element (prop) associated with the location-usage,
- Props indicating the character of the person occupying the workplace / room.
Learning objectives
- Experience the entire design process — starting from concept development, sketching, and reference searching, through creating a 3D blockout, to producing the final drawing,
- How to find creative solutions and innovative ideas based on discovered references throughout the design process,
- Understand advantages of using simple 3D models in illustration process,
- Improve drawing & modeling skill.
Each participant starts with:
Each participant will draw one of the previously prepared sentences describing the space that the illustration is supposed to represent.
Sample descriptions:
-A dangerous carpenter's workshop, where the concept of occupational safety is completely unknown.
- The "Little Bee" pastry shop, drawing inspiration from floral motifs for its baked goods
- A pseudo-medical office diagnosing using divination techniques.
- A pseudo-medical office diagnosing using divination techniques.
- "Heavenly Kitchen," run by Gordon Ramsay's good twin brother.
- An armory workshop focusing its activity around the problem of cracked turtle shells.
- The favorite café of all the elderly ladies in the neighborhood.
- A cobbler's workshop - from centipedes, for centipedes.
- A post-apocalyptic pigeon mail service.
Research
Our entire philosophy of work is based on the premise that thinking, asking questions, seeking answers, and planning constitutes half of the design process. We believe that ideas should be actively sought out, and that a concept emerges as a result of this search rather than as a sudden inspiration. Creating a mood board is a stage where students learn to find references, think creatively, and avoid settling for the first, most obvious associations. We aim to encourage a critical approach to the project—constantly analyzing, identifying weaknesses, and solving emerging design problems.
Main objectives:
- Searching for information and reference photos about the drawn interior,
Main objectives:
- Searching for information and reference photos about the drawn interior,
- Making mood board - Grouping/preparing photographic materials
Planning
We believe that in design work, it is crucial to search for the best concept and not settle for the first idea. It was important to us that at the beginning of the project, a series of highly diverse sketches were created, each approaching the topic in the most varied ways possible. Only after generating several proposals can we choose the one that best addresses the topic at hand
Main objectives:
Main objectives:
- Framing / Sketch of the final illustration,
- Organizing the space, determining the allocation of each section,
- Creating a list of main objects.
Choosing one compositional sketch
For the workshop, we decided to continue with the sketch that had the greatest potential for development in the 3D stage. The sketch presents the illustration in a simple, flat perspective—through 3D, we can bring depth to this concept and show students how the initial drawing can be developed and enhanced.
For the workshop, we decided to continue with the sketch that had the greatest potential for development in the 3D stage. The sketch presents the illustration in a simple, flat perspective—through 3D, we can bring depth to this concept and show students how the initial drawing can be developed and enhanced.
Preparing a 3D blockout for the illustration,
A 3D blockout created for an illustration doesn't need to be detailed or complex. It is essential to establish the scale of objects, distances, and perspective. Using a model in the illustration helps achieve a perspective that is difficult and challenging to draw by hand.
At this stage, we focused on testing several different camera angles to choose the one that best suited the given theme. Since we were working on the theme of "squirrel gallery," we aimed for a viewpoint that would showcase as many museum exhibits and artifacts as possible.
Main objectives:
- Creating interior blockout,
- Creating prototype objects (trivially simple models),
Sketch
At this stage, we added details to the blockout to build the gallery's image and give the overall composition a more illustrative character. Using the previously created moodboard, we incorporated distinctive objects related to museums and squirrels into the drawing. We made the acorn the central motif of the illustration.
Main objectives:
- Initial draw
Main objectives:
- Initial draw
- Filling in the missing elements from the blockout
Line art
The next stage was the line art, where we created the final, precise drawing.
Applying the value
The next stage involved setting up the lighting and painting the values in the illustration. Here again, 3D was helpful as it allowed us to illuminate the scene in an interesting way and base the lighting model on the drawing prepared in this manner.
An underpainting
We choose a primary color scheme to serve as the foundation for our illustration, and based on this, we create a gradient map that we apply to the previously painted value drawing. With this prepared base, we can gradually add additional elements.
Final illustration
The final result of our work is the finished illustration, along with a presentation showcasing the entire design process that led to its creation.
Nikola Kucharska and Michał Kubas
Both graduated in graphic design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland.
Nikola has been involved in various aspects of illustration for 11 years. She has illustrated over forty books, authored more than ten publications, and illustrated numerous board games. Her work primarily focuses on creating original comics and children's books. She collaborates with many publishers in Poland, France, China, Denmark, Finland, Korea, Germany, and Spain. She has received numerous industry awards, including the main prize in the 2018 Wise Book of the Year competition and the 2021 Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres for her book "Animals That Have Disappeared: Atlas of Extinct Animals." She conducts workshops with children and author meetings at major industry events, including the Beijing Book Fair, Turin Book Fair, La città dei giovani lettori, and Salon Régional du Livre pour la Jeunesse. Currently, she is focusing on creating comics and graphic novels, with her debut album "Bepa and the Earthling" premiering this year.
Michał has been working in the video game industry for 14 years — starting as a 3D artist, then moving on to roles such as lead, mentor, consultant, and currently, art director. Throughout his career, he has been involved in various aspects of game development, including environment design, prop modeling, weapon design, environment art, shaders, UI design and programming, tool design, and the optimization of large open-world scenes. He has worked on both large AAA productions (Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Mafia III, Dying Light 2) and smaller indie and mobile games. Currently, he is the co-owner of Quite OK Games, whose debut game, "Laysara: Summit Kingdom," was released this year.
For some time now, they have been working together on projects that combine their extensive experience in the publishing and gaming industries with their passion for creating imaginative stories.
