Update: the 150 words are all done!
As it goes with anything, things evolved. Near the 100-day mark, you’ll notice a shift into black backgrounds. This was to provide some cohesion to what I was doing, and it also allowed me to push each piece’s style a lot further with accepts, bubbles, drips, chips, and more!
The constant through it all was one rule-- each character would always have a base-color, depending on its pronunciation. The color key is such:
1st tone: red
2nd tone: green
3rd tone: blue
4th tone: purple
Neutral tone: grey
(Pleco’s OG colors, btw. I considered a few pallets, but this one had purple!)
The 10x15 layout displayed is both “raw” and also complete. It is the culmination of all my hard work. One hundred and fifty days of individual pieces brought together and essentially unedited.
It certainly tells a story, but it also feels fractured and a bit chaotic. At some point, I will bring the black background to all 150 words, and I might even play with some amalgamation of all the characters (sans-backgrounds) and see how that looks, too. Who knows. The sky’s the limit! The beauty of digital work, after all, is that it can always be changed and adapted.
Thanks for following this fun project!
-Jake