room design

i'm starting to talk about shit that's relevant to my writing openly to my friends so that obviously means i need to blog more. i feel like that shit's wince-worthy and makes people uncomfortable in the wrong setting, so i guess i'll pop back here.

before getting into the nitty gritty, i guess i should say that i'm going to try going back to college. not necessarily scad,(the college i attended before dropping out) more likely the kansas city art institute. or maybe just some community college courses first, i'm not sure yet. i know it's more practical, but i'm afraid if i do work in an environment with such low expectations i'm not gonna get jack shit done.

i'd most likely have to speak with a bankruptcy lawyer about my current debts to scad before seeing if i can even go to college, but it is something i'd like to pursue more seriously than i have been just pondering in the past year. so... unfortunately, that means i probably won't be working on vns as much when/if i get back into school some time next year.

so i'd like to talk a little bit about designing backgrounds, more specifically rooms. even more specifically, private rooms. that belong to characters. i'm talking mostly about apartments, actually. hah. a mild bamboozle having you thinking i'm talking about bedrooms...

anyways, it's a nice, subtle way to show more of your characters' personality, hobbies, etc. you don't have to fill in all that shit right away, though. you can just start off with a layout that adheres to the character's aesthetic and lifestyle.

taking inspiration from precedent imagery,



and turning it into something all your own.



i know my changes aren't very big, the bed being changed into a couch, the flag being changed into a tbd carpet design, putting a chest in front of the couch in lieu of a coffee table to tease at riley's adventurous lifestyle, and... i guess these are pretty decent changes. all i really ended up borrowing was the staircase and placement of the tapestry.

but it doesn't really say a lot about riley. sure, i got the chest. and the carpet and rugs haven't been designed yet but i do plan on giving them an arabic(? moroccan?) impression. i kind of stole the idea from the afghan rug my dad got me. it's supposed to be another jeer at all the places riley's gone to. but... that's really it. it doesn't tease a lot else about him. this can be very effective (especially in this case, considering it's the living room) for characters that have a lot to hide about themselves, but it doesn't do too well for someone that is living alone, never really expects any guests, etc.



this isn't an exact sketch up of what i want, but it does give what i feel is a good idea of what i want. if it's not enough, i've provided some notes for my background artist to go by.

you can't see them that well in the picture, so i'll just type them here

• a few clothes on the floor towards the stairs and on the couch
• phonograph [in the corner], but no records
• shelf with cool old bottles on display under hanging rug
• treasure chest used as a table with a dinner plate, empty glass, and globe on top
• luggage that seems packed, worn, and covered in stamps. dusty
• pinups under the couch

see you don't even have to draw everything, just having like a blueprint of the layout along with a vague sketch should be enough to give your bg artist an idea of what the fuck to do.

having precedent imagery of course helps too. (without that picture i showed at the beginning, they'd probably have no idea what the fuck the stairs are. they might confuse them with the brick or wood or something.)

it all seems like a bunch of stuff, but it actually does tell a lot about him. since there's a phonograph and a shelf with a bunch of old bottles, it teases on how riley appreciates old things?? like relics mayhaps??

the globe is supposed to show that he really likes the world just... how much there is to it, but i guess it could also be interpreted as riley's desire to show off and seem better than he is. having a globe personally in your home makes you seem like an overly cocky dickhead trying to seem smart, fuck you if you think otherwise.

the luggage shows his desire to adventure, along with all the places he's been, as well as him always being ready to leave. they're dusty because he actually hasn't gotten the chance to use them and leave for a long time.

notice how i changed the couch to be on wires instead of just one thicc brick to show that he has pin ups poorly hidden under the couch. there, you can see how riley is a filthy piece of shit. that loves titties. too much. fuck that guy.

since it's supposed to be like an apartment with multiple rooms, i'm really tempted to make his bedroom decently pristine in contrast to show that he spends a lot more of his time in the living room... but of course i have to make sure his bed is unmade to show that he does, in fact, sleep in his bed. he just uses his living room as a living room.

i should probably put some dumbbells next to a mirror in his bedroom too, to show a bit more of his over confidence in himself.

i'm getting tired, but i hope this gives an idea on what i mean? a room can kind of tell its own story about the occupant. there are little things that can mean a lot, like fashion magazines can show what kind of style the owner likes to go for. more extravagant and expensive magazines show someone that likes to live a decadent lifestyle while a character with their definition of a fashion magazine being a kmart sales handout clearly has a lifestyle that's focused more on practicality than beauty.

having a display case of guns can hint that someone's a hunter... a display case of alcohol can hint at someone's alcoholism... having a lot of sources of heat like fireplaces, space heaters, and blankets can hint that someone either really likes the heat or they're sort of decaying through some kind of sickness or age... (it might also indicate poverty depending, but this all depends on the rest of the contents of the room)

if the person in question has roommates, this can also show pretty evident conflicts of interest like how in my dorm my side was always fucking covered in clothes it was such a huge mess, but my roommate's side was always an organized mess if that makes sense? their bed was risen while mine was closer to the ground because of my height... 

i didn't decorate much, but most of my decorations included bubbly and geometric aesthetics along with a bunch of anime bullshit while their side of the room had a very woodsy theme? there were like... foxes and flowers and an old looking map of some fictional land i don't remember which... 

point is, try to think of how other people want places to look differently if they live together and how these styles will clash in the space. that might be my exercise whenever i work on cyan's place or prism's place.

i hope this was helpful at all even though it was kind of just me rambling?