The story of Blank Canvas begins with you, a book illustrator who hasn't earned anything in months. Opportunity arises when the writer, Vincent, calls you to inquire about a commission. While you benefit from receiving more than the agreed-upon sum, Vincent imposes a condition: You must complete the project within seven days.

As you strive to complete the commission, you fall into a state of art block. What are you going to do now that the deadline is drawing near?

Rating 16+ for alcohol references

Game Features:

• Second-person point of view narration for immersive experience.
• Player can choose their preferred gender before the story starts.
  
• Contains static, transitional, and animated illustrations.

BLANK CANVAS: Animated Visual Novel on the Effects of Art Block and Coping Mechanisms on Professional Illustrators

An Undergraduate Thesis presented by Tam Espiritu

ABSTRACT
Creative blocks result from difficulty developing ideas, which are frequently influenced by psychological and physical conditions such as stress and a lack of inventiveness. As they affect both professional and amateur artists, they use adaptive and maladaptive coping to inspire themselves to return to creating art. In addition to teaching viewers about the phenomenon of art blocks faced by professional illustrators, the study seeks to learn how these artists' preferred coping mechanisms influence their creative process and end product. For this study, visual novels – a narrative videogame – with choice-based narration offer an engaging solution. The researcher had interviewed 2 psychology experts and 4 professional illustrators. Based on the findings, the researcher investigated the effects of art block on professional illustrators and identified their preferred healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Despite the idea that illustrators can produce work independent of their coping mechanisms, they concluded that adaptive coping had a substantial impact on their artistic process and output. Therefore, the researcher succeeded on the production of the animated visual novel ‘Blank Canvas’ based on the effects of art block and coping mechanisms on professional illustrators.

Keywords: adaptive coping, art block, creative block, choice-based narration, coping mechanisms, illustrators, maladaptive coping, visual novel, videogame

Available now for Windows and Mac

Story, Art, and Game Development by Tam Espiritu