Devan's Devas: Fantasy Webcomic Adventure
Above is a video recording of the creation of a page from Devan's Devas. The entire collection can be found here, but I wanted to take this space to explain a lot of the processes behind how I design Devan's Devas.
If I had to summarize my core philosophy, it's, "A design is finished when there's nothing left to remove from it". I don't necessarily think minimalism is the right way of things, but I strive to have a reason or a purpose behind every single detail in the visuals and writing of Devan's Devas.
First is the color palette:
Nearly the entirety of Devan's Devas' four hundred and going pages can be re-created using only these colors (and many of those colors were rendered defunct over time). The only times I create new color swatches is typically when I need to introduce new characters. I try to keep the palette simple to keep the general look of the entire story as consistent as possible. Very often the color palette of a new character isn't even decided until they are actually drawn into the story; this is to make sure that the colors I choose don't clash with the the palette of the general background.
Next is how I approach the addition of text, or word bubbles:
One of the loose rules I have for myself is to never allow the word bubbles to be more than two lines high (as demonstrated). If I ever need a character to speak more than that limit can handle, I rewrite the statement to allow it to be split into multiple bubbles. My reasoning for this is that the reader will be much less likely to actually read the words if they're presented with way too much text at once; it needs to be rolled out in smaller doses to be easier to consume.
This also has the side effect of forcing me to be very selective with my words. The brevity, I feel, improves the quality of the writing as I'm forced to remove anything that's not absolutely essential to the plot.
And finally, character and costume design:
As with everything else, simplicy is the goal here. There are no elaborate or intricate belts, buckles, or decorations on any character in the story. They are not drawn like that out of the interest of saving time (though that is a nice side benefit!), but for the purposes of reducing distractions. The simpler an outfit, the more memorable it can be for the reader.
I'm also highly selective of the colors that go into each character's outfit. I usually put a soft limit of two colors per outfit (with room for variations on a single color) to reduce any potential clashing. Very often the secondary color is a shade of grey, white, or black for the same reason.
That's the quick version on how the visual style of the story is laid out and how I've tried to keep it since page one.
April 5, 2016
Well I should probably update for the sake of updating. Basically, employment got in the way of things. Devan's Devas continues (slower), Dejan Voo is on hiatus, and actual work on Project Pisces will (probably) begin when Devas is complete, and that's the way it'll be for quite some time I think.
July 1, 2014
New navigation UI up top! Well, it's the same navigation, but it looks prettier now. I had left it as plain-text because of the evolving nature of what this site is, but as of right now I don't see any categories I'll need to add anytime soon.
June 1, 2014
In the act of making further refinements to the graphic design section, I decided that the children's book cover needed a revision as well. It took a couple days, but I am really happy with how it turned out! You can see the new cover here; someday I might actually write the rest of the book!
May 29, 2014
I decided to dive back into After Effects to class up my All Music project and to bring back an old project I had originally removed from my portfolio; Century of Seating. It's a project I left to the wayside because I didn't know how to present it on the site (the crazy wide dimensions of the project made it somewhat unfeasible), but taking an old 3D rendering I made and exporting it to Youtube seems to have solved that issue.
May 7, 2014
I decided to remove the Youtube and Deviantart links from the upper navigation; I realized it was probably in bad taste to link to outside websites from my own website's main UI. I don't update it terribly often, but my Deviantart profile can still be accessed here, and the two important videos from my Youtube page are already embedded into my graphic design section.
April 26, 2014
Server switch has been completed! Unfortunately, my half-hour downtime prediction was blissfully optimistic; Devan's Devas and Dejan Voo will take just a little bit longer to go back online. That's completely out of my control, but all should be fine by sometime today.
Edit: Dejan Voo seems to be up and running, though Devan's Devas is still having trouble for no apparent reason. I'll complain to the authorities if it's not up by tomorrow.
Also, my link forwarding from my legacy URLs seems to be broken as well, though that might just be a side-effect to all this transferring.
April 25, 2014
I'm switching the hosting plans for Draxyle.com, so expect some downtime across all my sites sometime over the weekend (hopefully only a half-hour at most!).
January 28, 2014
I took a bit of time to refine and re-write a lot of the commentary in my graphic design section. Also you'll notice the updated promo images on the front page; the old ones for DejanVoo and Pisces were nearing roughly a year in age, and my drawing skills have improved a lot since then.
January 3, 2014
Two new items added to the graphic design section!
"One Plus Heart", a Children's book cover and inside spread, and "Persona 3's Mass Destruction" in kinetic typography. These are two pieces I've been working on over the last month in order to round out the portfolio a bit; always wanted a good motion graphics project to show off.
October 28, 2013
New logo up top! Was going for a more structured, neon vibe; I think it turned out pretty cool.
For reference, this was the old one:
It was something I just threw together really quickly; not exactly refined enough for an established logo.
October 12, 2013
I finally added a page dedicated to Project Pisces! There's not much there as of right now; just a brief explanation of where I am with the project. Once I actually start working on it in earnest I'll create a proper, dedicated website for the title.
July 30, 2013
I've added a graphic design tab to the upper navigation. It leads to a small collection of my work from university, so a lot if it is a couple years old. I figured it was about time I put them up on the internet though!
July 5, 2013
Welcome to the launch of Draxyle.com! Hop on over to the kiosk page if you're lost and confused; this site is mostly designed as a static hub for Devan's Devas, Dejan Voo, and as a general portfolio site for myself, but if you ever want to know what's going on with my work in general, this is a good place to stick around!
I plan on updating the site with a section for my Graphic Design work once I get that organized and figure out how to present it all. The artwork tab will just link to my deviantart account for the time being, because that's probably simpler for all involved!
Stay tuned for more to come~
