January 2026

For this project, I was tasked to ask someone for an original character that they designed, and to illustrate an environment for that character in Adobe Photoshop. For this task I was given 18.5 hours to complete it. I ended up using a character a classmate of mine designed named Coffi. Coffi is a dear, so I wanted to try to design this environment keeping in mind where a deer would be naturally in real life. In searching for inspiration I used both real forest environments and illustrated environments.

Throughout the design process I utilized creativity skills when planning out what kind of environment this character would live and thrive in. On top of this, I also utilized my digital illustration skills, and put a lot of effort into making the final product the best it could be. Although I had  a lot of fun designing this environment, I did encounter a couple challenges when I was working on it. One challenge I ran into was trying to make the textures of the rocks and grass look realistic. I handled this challenge by trying not to overthink or overcomplicate the piece. I experimented with different photoshop brushes, colors, and blending modes until I settled on a visual that I was satisfied with.

This project has taught me a lot about environment design, and I am very glad I had the opportunity to design an environment of my own.