As a part of my production for Age of Umbra, I have created two posters. I would have liked to have completed more, and do have many more ideas, but unfortunately, I don’t have available time left. One thing I will definitely be taking away from this project is to organise myself better and have better time management. I will also be referring to the research I have done on posters, which can be found here.

I started with some thumbnail sketches to get some ideas and I like them all, but I went with the first one, as it felt most like a fantasy poster, with the positions and diamond in the centre. I was heavily considering doing the bottom left because I liked the sword and text, and the vertical lines they create, as well as how the sisters are smaller than Kreo and it shows how powerful he is. Again, if I had some more time, I would have liked to make this one, and some of the others as well (such as the double exposure versions for Dara and Lesedi).

 

 

Onto the process; here I’ve spliced together all of the screenshots I took throughout the process of making the poster. As always when drawing something, I start with a sketch, which I did on a layer above the diamond so that I could delete it later. This was to get a sense of the way the characters would look in these positions and if I wanted to make any changes, I could easily resize with the transform tool, or erase a part and redo it. I was satisfied with the positions, however, so I went ahead with linework, and I drew each character on their own layer so that everything was separate and I could reorganize if I wanted to.

 

 

When adding colour, I made sure to use all the final character designs as references so that the colours were accurate and also drew highlights and some shading so that they looked less flat. For the background, I didn’t have much of an idea I simply knew that I wanted it to be dark but now completely black as then it would blend in with Kreo’s cloak. At first, I tried using different brushes and seeing if I could make a cool texture, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked and felt right, so instead, I just decided on a grey/black gradient. I also tried to darken the diamond on one side by using a clipping mask, since I didn’t want it to blend in with Kreo’s shoulder blades, which are a similar colour, and this helped but I am considering trying to make the diamond a different colour, as suggested to me by someone who also saw the final poster.
After adding the text and playing around with the positioning, I thought I was finished, but the gradient background didn’t feel like enough, and so I added in some embers (PNGs I downloaded off google), which made it look so much cooler, cinematic and more complete.

 

Here is the final poster, but this will also be on a separate post with the double exposure one as well:

 

 

Design Justifications and Techniques Used

 

Poster Elements – First, I’d like to go over everything I’ve included in the poster. There are the three main characters, which are the main focus of the poster and tell the viewer what the series is about and whom it follows. Each of the positions also tells the viewer something about the character: Kreo is holding his sword and is about to unsheath it, which puts forward the impression that he is always ready for battle, and be is dangerous snd strong. Dara has her fist closed to show determination and Lesedi is creating magic with her hand as that is a great aspect of her life and shaped her to be the person she is. There is the title of the series which is presented clearly and unmistakably so that the viewer knows which series the poster is about. And finally, the diamond and embers, the diamond being a prominent symbol in the show which represents Kreo’s power, status and evil in his heart, and the embers linking to a lot of aspects, such as fire and destruction, which happens because of Kreo, anger and passions which exists in all three characters, danger, downfall and many more. In general, fire is a strong theme in Age of Umbra and I wanted to include it in the poster, not only because it makes it more cinematic, but also because it reflects the mood of the series.

Scaling, Framing and Eyelines & Expressions – I’ve positioned the characters on the three visible sides of the diamond to reflect the idea that they are the three sides of the story and they all affect Unitaris in a great way. The diamond also being a symbol of Kreo’s power, also shows how they affect him specifically and help him understand the path he has taken is wrong, hence them being on top. There wasn’t great meaning behind having then facing away, but I thought about conventional poster techniques and how characters are usually looking away instead of forward unless it is to scare or unnerve the viewer, as that is more dramatic. Kreo is facing forward for this reason precisely, to show he is the most powerful and the villain, and everyone’s expression is solemn, to show that this is a serious fantasy series. Linking back to why I put them on the three sides of the diamond, I also used scaling to show that they are all important characters. They are generally the same size because they are of equal importance, and because more of Kreo is shown, I made the Ernestine sisters slightly larger to balance it out, and show that they are no less essential, and are also protagonists.

Negative Space – There is not all that much negative space in the poster unless you count the areas behind the embers. I had an idea very early on for a poster with a sword simply dragging across the floor, with darkness all around and a date, which I started but never completed. There, the negative space is very intentional and dramatic, so that the poster is ominous, but for this one, where all three characters are shown, I was really focusing on making them look cool and cinematic instead of mysterious, and so there isn’t really any negative space.

Font – For the text, I used the same font that I discovered for the double exposure poster because I think it really works with the mood of my series and reflects the high fantasy aspect of the genre. I positioned it in the lower right because Kreo’s cloak is blowing to the left and this balances the poster out.

Colour – The colour palette of the poster overall is that of the series, a.k.a that of Kreo as he is the one in control for most of the series. There is red, black, gold, and the colours of Dara and Lesedi also, with some blue and white. These colours are firey and dark, symbolising the dark ages Kreo brought about as Lord Umber. The diamond is a deep, blood red, which contrasts with Kreo’s dark armour, and the dark background, and instantly puts the idea of blood and death in the viewers’ mind, which is a big part of the series (fantasy battles and bloodshed). The text is gold instead of silver like last time to show Kreo’s status and also because it is a very fantasy-esque colour in my opinion. Everything stands out against the dark background, but the other reason I chose to make it a black/grey gradient is that a big sub-genre of Age of Umbra is dark fantasy.

Rule of Thirds – I used the golden rule! By placing the diamond in the centre, and the characters in the middle and on either side, each third of the poster is occupied, which is aesthetically pleasing and more natural to look at. Even the text balances out with Kreo’s cloak, and adds some dissymmetry for interest.