2D - Development Work

Going into this week, I finished off the sketch for the layout of my recipe, reading downwards in simple steps - and with the pacing of the piece, finally decided on aiming for a 2:1 ratio. Upon sketching down my ideas, I initially wanted everything to be boxed off nicely, however upon adding characters in, decided not to, to make it a little more interactive and more playful. 

It was also with the feedback session, that I noted that enlarging the heads of the characters would make them look more appealing and friendly, so was something that I made a note of when it came to the lining stages of my piece. 

To finish off the layout, my final idea is to include an interaction similar to the second panel, but will be something I will explore at a later date, as getting down the ingredients is the priority for me at the moment, ensuring their designs translate well as are the most important part of the recipe. 

When it came to finishing off the latter, more complex steps of my recipe, I turned back to the inspiration of the Cooking Mama games, making the steps more interactive as they went along, as the further along the recipe goes, the more complex they also become. It is also for this reason, when looking at sprites from the game, that I intend to keep the same images throughout the recipe when it comes to the ingredients; ensuring it is clear which is which throughout as to not overcomplicate things for the younger audience. 

Similarly, given I also wish to include a character, I looked at character sprites from the games too, to give me a basic idea on proportions, even if I don't with to exaggerate them as much. 

Lining Process 

Going into the lining process, I was a little unsure how I wished to go about lining my work; or if I wanted to line it at all. One of the initial ideas I had was to not line the piece and instead work on flat colour like one of my personal pieces I did recently. 

Quickly however, I realised this would be a bad idea. Although it works well for characters, details would be lost when it comes to ingredients. What I don't want is for things to become too confusing, and a lack of lines would only add to that; and in addition, it can be time consuming. Instead, I decided that lining my sketches was the best way forwards, as would keep both characters, ingredients and instructions coherent. 

When it came to lining the initial characters, it was simple enough, especially once I had figured out a line width that worked well for both the main lining and the details. For the initial part of the recipe, the text boxes being bolder to indicate the importance of the information was the best move, as should be the highlight of the starter of the recipe. 

The ingredients however was something that I had to take time with, as I wanted to ensure that they looked somewhat realistic, whilst keeping the simple appearance to communicate what it was whilst having them look simple, but too a part of the same group.