ARTIST CASE STUDY Grace Liu Who is she

ARTIST CASE STUDY Grace Liu

Who is she? Grace Liu is an American storyboard artist. Her preferred medium is mainly 2 D, however she does utilize 3 D in some of her panels Grace has previously worked for Marvel Animation, Sony, Film Roman and is currently working for Nickelodeon. She has a number of pen names she uses for different social mediums: Instagram: GRASSFLU Tumblr: NARGYLE Twitter: RAWRGYLE

Why I chose her Grace’s art style is kitted heavily towards animation. Her design work is simple yet detailed, a style created around keeping characters animation friendly. Despite the simplicity, her use of colours and line work are clean yet sketchy; she focuses on poses, anatomy, proportions and key features over needless detail. Her work is focused around being used in animation, after all.

Analysis of her work (Colour) The main medium Grace uses is Storyboard Pro, though her colour work is done in Photoshop. She always keeps her colour pallets simple, sticking to warm and cool colours per character. E. g. the character above is using a warm colour pallet, all the colours are quite muted, being pale greens and browns besides the blocked blacks and skin tones.

Analysis of her work (Lines) Her linework in this piece is defined but still sketchy. The focus is on the anatomy and staging of the characters, not flawless linework. In her workplace she’d be expected to produce clear storyboards that others could refer too, and produce them at a reasonable pace.

Analysis of her work (Pipeline) This piece was a personal work. In a work environment this would be used to demonstrate an in-detail preview of a pilot episode etc. This would give producers and directors a look at the style and intended tone of the piece. This is apparent as most storyboards would not be in so much detail.

Do these processes help save time? The techniques shown allow her to produce work of high quality without the worry of running over deadline or looking tacky This is because: Her line work is simple The colours are clear and bold The focus on staging and anatomy make the mood and theme of the scene clear. These are desirable traits for a storyboard artist as it makes it easy for the animators to work from, further in the pipeline.

MY RECREATION My case study of one of the pieces: ORIGINAL

Conclusion From this study I’ve learned: Having a more sketchy style isn’t bad, it can be used as a style trait Colours and palettes can make a huge difference to a piece and a characters’ ‘feel’. Staging's importance has been emphasised to me, the right camera angle can change the mood of a scene. Its helped me see a new balance between cartoon and realism in character design.

Conclusion Techniques I learned: This study helped me learn how to create good looking lightning and light effects It helped me get a better grasp of darker colour palettes such as the colour of skin in the dark etc, and highlights. This helped me learn how to make colours vibrant, and how to make them glow. What could GRACE improve on?

Thank you!