Visual Journal - Doodling Fantasy

 Part of my intention with my visual journal is to draw things that interest me, in the hope that this will spark an idea for my storytelling.
As I'm currently reading the "Court of Thorns and Roses" series by Sarah J Maas, I'm really inspired by high fantasy characters and the vast world that she's crafted in the books. I took a moment to scribble down some of the characters.

Nothing much happened on this page - I enjoy drawing with blue ball point pens, but these didn't feel very successful because I only gave myself a couple of minutes to sketch. I did feel inspired to take one of these characters and draw them digitally however.

For this, I selected a few key visuals from the character descriptions - the tattoos, on her arm, moon & star tiara, and blue eyes. All very simple descriptors, but make the character recognisable. This is something I'll be using in my own character designs.

Another purpose of this exercise was to experiment with some digital brushes. I enjoy working digitally because the flexibility it can give me, and it means I don't have to reach for as many physical tools - it was a habit I got in to whilst commuting. I loved the painterly textures I managed to bring out on this piece. The visual language of this piece is somewhat childish - I naturally tend to stray away from realism and instead exaggerate certain features. This will be something that I intend to further explore within my visual journal.