Visual Communication - Bachelors
Inspired by Shirley Jackson's novel, 'Haunting of Hill House', Tenement is based on a poem of the same name about a young caretaker of an old haunted house. The project utilises AR in order to enhance the overall artwork and viewing experience. Taking inspiration from dollhouses and anatomical sketches, the main aim of this project is to tell a simple story that engages its viewers.
The main character of Tenement is a young woman named Vivienne, who becomes the caretaker of a haunted house after the passing of her grandmother. The house hates her, and she must do her best to survive it or be consumed by it. Tenement explores themes of grief, loneliness, and isolation through the lense of a haunted house setting. The final project is an illustrative storybook design taking inspiration from cross-section drawings of dollhouses, as well as anatomical sketches. The goal is for the final image to feel reminiscent of aspects of retro horror, Australian Gothic aesthetics, and storybook illustrations. AR elements are used in the final design in order to enhance the themes at play, and to create an engaging viewing experience.
When doing the lineart and the rendering of the final piece, I wanted to pay attention to special details that you would only spot if you looked for them; like there being plenty of dark hiding places, water stains on the walls, the patterns on the teacups, and the stained glass in the dining room. The basement was left pretty bare, because in the AR portion it would be mostly covered up anyways. I made the outside look more like a painting; minimal detail in order to draw attention towards the centre of the piece. There are many small elements that add to the environmental storytelling, which are connected to the wider story of the upcoming game project, ‘The Huntress,’ for which Tenement is a preceding project.
Sophie is an artist, illustrator, and designer. Her work is heavily inspired by horror media from the early 2000's, as well as all things generally weird and wonderful. She works mainly in illustration and motion-based design, and is currently working as an artist for many different independent video game development projects.