The Clearing Version 2

Here is my final version of The Clearing scene, I improved based on some feedback from Jack Couvella who is an Art Director for Ubisoft Reflections. He pointed out a bunch of perspective problems I needed to solve, and suggested I try to push the depth and scale. Hopefully it looks much better now. I also changed the forground significantly, to make a more interesting composition. As well as using the rocks to point to the central Greys Monument.

Edit: Heres my final final version haha Ive nitpicked this illustration to death now. For the most part I am just trying to fix the dramatic change in contrast between the bottom left and the rest of the painting. And I've tried to make the lighting a bit more contrasty - who knew contrasty is actually a word.

Atomhawk 'The Realm' Brief

These are the location sketches for the Atomhawk Games brief. They are all based on photographs that I took whilst I was in Newcastle. Before I did any of these I did a lot of research into how nature reclaims structures, and also spent some time watch the 'Life after Humans' documentary series in order to better judge how to illustrate this I.P. setting. (1000 years in the future, nature has reclaimed the world, event has helped to destroy it etc)

I then went on to choose 3 places to do the black and white building studies which had to include greys monument. I decided to go with the shops surrounding greys monument, and the train bridge near grey street.

Next I went on to do two designs which featured the event which has destroyed the world. I felt that some kind of organic alien spaceship crash would help to explain how the world could change so much and bring back 'magic' as well as bringing plants to life etc.

For the clearing scene that had to be built around the pedestrianised area of greys monument. I felt a combination of the 3 areas that I liked from my location sketches would fit best. I liked the idea of a leaning/collapsed greys monument which was close to the old shops with trees and swamps growing around it. Cropped by the overhanging roof of the left hand street entry as you initially walk into greys monument are area in New Castle.

Of course they are not all this close together in real life but I felt it made for a more compelling concept by combining all 3 into an interesting composition and possible area to explore in the game.

I could of stopped the project here as I only had to do the environment section however I wanted to challenge myself so I tried to do the shadow as well. To start with I did 2 A3 sized pages full of thumbnails, a cross between sillouettes and value sketches. I tried to sketch them more naturally rather than in lines if that makes sense, in order to come up with more interesting ideas.

For the pose I decided to do a combination of thubnails 4/15/18 to create a dynamic character whic his made up of roots, moss, rocks, basically a loose collection of terrain in order for the creature to blend in with its surroundings. Sort of a elemental character whom controls the vines and 'lamphead' creatures in the game.

Lastly for the colour version I took my model sheet and rendered it as much as I could. I wanted to echo the colourful saturated nature of my final environment piece in the design to keep it part of the same world. As well as hopefully have a mix between creepy and scary in the design but still pg13, due to age group for the game.


I really enjoyed doing this project, creating the world and all of the ways nature has integrated with the city. However I dont think I was very successful in matching the style of the game set by Atomhawk due to the way I have illustrated the world. Instead I have tried to illustrate the world in the same vein as what has been set but as my own take.

In that respect I believe I would be unsuccessful if this was an actual art test as it would not fit in with the established team. In forethought I should of tried to really simplify my work similar to the reference given in order to better match the set style of the game rather than to do work similar to what I enjoy doing (stylised realism I guess).

Marco Polo Development sheets

 

Initially I started off my Marco Polo child designs in a cartoony style of drawing. I felt this was style was too forced and therefore I went towards more of my usual realistic style of rendering. Whilst my goal was to try and create a realistic style of work I incorporated some of the initial exaggeration from the first cartoony sketches, so that work didn't end up looking stiff. I think it has worked much better than if I were to try and make myself render in a cartoon like style, more akin of Dreamworks animation.   

Another area of difference from my usual work flow is the idea of doing the designs as figures in motion, showing poses that reflected the characters traits. This really helped me flesh out the character design and get a more interesting character design in the end I feel.

My goal with the Marco Polo designs was to have a character whom initially would look more akin to towards a 16th century Tudor style of culture whilst as a child. This was to reflect his beginnings and to help enhance the look of a character whom has been influenced as an Adult by his travels.

In my initial paragraph that laid out the world I was going to incorporate steam punk elements in to the design, but I decided that those kind of designs are quiet tired and I felt design a mixture of Tudor and Chinese/Mongol 16^th century clothing styles was challenging and visually interesting that it didn’t need the added science fiction influences.

It also helped to keep to doing something that is out of my comfort zone which is the point of the whole brief. With the face I initially had a cutesy look going for Marco Polos child version, however this looked like just any child.

As such I decided to research forensic ageing photos which lead me to try and reverse engineer the adult drawings/paintings I found of Marco Polo. From my research I found that I could only find pictures of when he was middle aged and from when he was more or less at the end of his life. As such I had no reference for what he could of looked like as a child.

My initial head shots of the character I thought looked older than the required age range, with the final design I tried to add more baby fat to the bone structure of the face, it seemed to help both make the child look younger and also 'cuter' for more audience appeal.

One of the areas I find difficult was balance out the fat and bone structure of the face so that the character looked masculine and young, but not feminine or androgynous which appears to be the danger of drawing children. Before this project I should clarify I have never drawn children before, so this has been a great learning experience.

With the adult Marco Polo I decided to depict him in his mid 30s/late 20s as I felt that drawing him as an older character would force me towards just copying the famous images of him for the iconic appeal, and thus reducing the challenge of the brief. As Marco Polo is not depicted really as younger than 40 from my initial research. This therefore made designing him much more interesting and rewarding from a creative and educational standpoint.

For the adult facial design I basically just took the younger face and trimmed the baby fat, added more planes to the face as your face becomes more defined as you get older and Ive added some wrinkles as well as sunk the eyes into the brow. In regards to his style of clothes as mentioned I wanted to mix traditional Chinese and Mongol dress from the 15/16^th centuries with Tudor era clothes.

I felt their styles of clothing were so different it really helped give him that strange/otherworldly appearance he is famous for having when first returning from his 17 years in China.

At this stage I am quiet happy with the designs, I plan to come back to them later to render them out for presentation. If I get the time I will probably depict the Adult version of Marco polo in various poses as well.

I will leave them as is for now, as I need to move on to the Atomhawk brief for their in-house 'The Realm I.P.' I am heading up to Newcastle for some reference shooting soon so I will hopefully get this project started after that.

Edit: I decided to do a final sheet of development sketches exploring the style of of the characters with a visible line and 4 tonal colours. I think with a bit of work they would probably work much better for animation than my preferred style of painting that focuses on pushing the realism to what I can manage.

 

Dreamworks outreach Brief

The first brief I decided to tackle is for the Dreamworks outreach program. Essentially I have to create a iconic character as a child and an adult. I went with Marco Polo as I figured he would be as far out of my 'comfort zone' as I can get. Also Marco Polo doesn't really have an defining visual characteristics so I felt it would be much more challenging and therefore enlightening to try and depict him as a both a child and an adult.

The complete brief for this module is as follows:

Brief: Design 2 versions of an iconic character. One version should be the character as a child - between 5 -10 years old. The other version should be the same character as an adult.

Try to choose a character out of your personal ‘comfort zone’ – if you usually design sci-fi warriors/monsters – or young female characters – challenge yourself by choosing a different option for this project.

Choose from:

• Merlin
• Caliban (from The Tempest)
• Bluebeard
• Tinkerbell
• Marco Polo
• Wyatt Earp
• Barbarella
• Achilles
• Maid Marion (from Robin Hood)
• The Wolfman

After you have thoroughly researched your character's previous designs and iconography - and before you start working on your original design - write a brief description of the world your new versions of the character will inhabit. Create a mood board for yourself to refer to when considering details of anatomy/costume.

In particular, ask yourself these questions:

• At what date is this character living?

You may design an updated version of a classic character or place the character in a new environment (eg: Marco Polo as a space explorer) - or keep to the appropriate historical period for him/her.

• What are his/her/its prevailing weather/accommodation/lifestyle conditions?

How will this environment influence clothing/weapons/physique?

• How will the environment affect the character’s appearance?

Example - in How to Train Your Dragon some of the key action sequences take place underwater - so aquatic dragons were also designed. The Avatar sequel also takes place under water - lots of interesting design possibilities there!

Remember that, although this is your original design - the character design should still be recognisable as the source character. 

 

Example - updated versions of Alice in Wonderland (there have recently been several) tend to reference iconic 'Alice' design elements such as long hair, blue dress, apron etc.

Note how leading character designers such as Iain McCaig reference costume elements from different cultures/historic periods to give sense of authenticity to futuristic designs (Queen Amidala/Jedi Knights).

If you choose to create a non-human character such as Caliban or the Wolfman make sure the anatomy - however fantastic - is believable - do thorough research before starting designs.