Reflections: A little something extra

Over the course of this module my digital painting skills have increased dramatically. I'm still no where near where I need to be to become commercial, but the differences in quality are huge.

For fun, and as an example. Here's a painting I did for fun for my friends November 2012.

The original, Nov 2012.

And here's an updated version created November 2013, half way through this semester.

Version 2: Still needs finishing though. Nov 2013

Can't wait to see what kind of progression I'll make in 2014.

Final Character Sheets

Lars was the first of the character sheets to be completed.

Cliff being the second.

And Hammett the third.

Concept Art

I've created 4 concept paintings to practice painting and add some flavour to the characters. Lars' piece was posted below.

Hammett

Loved working on this painting, Hammett using his magic as an attack and looking more heroic doing it. Learning about the importance of lighting in concept pieces. The drawing started off with just a character painting, but after going back and looking over environment tutorials such as Hannsaki's tutorial (found here http://hannsaki.deviantart.com/art/digital-painting-tutorial-pt-1-90347578 ) I decided to try my hand at adding an environment.

I've never been good at environments and have always stuck to character sketches, so this was a big success for me personally, I'm trying to reach that darker DOTA style, it's trying, but I'm getting there slowly. I feel like this is a huge leap in quality for me.

The original character drawing

Cliff

This was created using the previously posted picture of Cliff. I'm trying to work faster. Again the overall quality is so much higher than I usually produce for environments, and the fact that I can keep this consistency is exciting.

Hammett and Cliff

Going for something a bit different from what I usually do. Artists often incorporate a main colour for a piece and I wanted to try something similar. Hammett plans his path, while reluctant Cliff holds on to him with a wary hand, almost trying to pull him back from the task.

Cliff Final

I really liked the way this character drawing came out. I'm starting to understand where less is more in drawings like this. Adding in lines at key points and leaving areas without seems really effective in furred creatures. Drawing is without the bag.

Meet Cliff

Hammett and Cliff are like peas in a pod, and they need to look the part too, so I sketched up some interaction between them.

Drawing this I realised that the pair have nowhere to store their gear, and as Cliff would be on Hammett's back a lot, Hammett can't wear a back pack.

So Cliff is getting one.

I think that adding the pack to Cliff not only cements him as a necessity for our hero, but also adds an unusual interaction between hero and sidekick while also adding more to Cliff's design.

I'm trying to not use opacity while painting Cliff, as practice in being a bit more bold with my colours.

Creating our Companion

No Hero is complete without his sidekick. Helpful, cunning and always there to save your hide when you've hero'd just a bit too hard.

Those traits aren't what we're going for though.

We want someone just as bone idle as our hero.
Upon drawing these out I was interested both in the Sloth and Tapir, both being generally "stupid" looking animals. The Sloth I feel just suits our character more, he's slow, ungroomed and uninterested, more so than Hammett could ever be. To back up these points, here's some fun facts about both.

Fun facts about Sloths.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrUM8m2rnP0

Fun facts about Tapirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJm6nDnR2SE

Rafei went for that quick witted, snappy Daxter. So lets go with someone who doesn't even really speak.

Draw me like one of your French Sloths.

Lars final

Trying a different approach with Lars' final piece, I tried the approach shown in a speed painting video. It can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU2kGFHOOaU and is a speed painting of Viola/Windrunner from DOTA 2 not using the Silhouette technique. The end result seems strong in areas but just doesn't have enough of that DOTA vibe. At this stage I do not see myself achieving the look through sheer lack of talent at this stage, but I'm learning so much through this module that I'm very happy with where everything is headed.

Silhouette's looking pretty good as well. The pompousness radiates from it.

Meet Prince Lars

A bit About Prince Lars

Prince Lars came to prominence through his military accomplishments. Only son to the King and heir to the throne, he took control of His Majesty's army at a young age. Not because he had any interest in military life, but because he wanted to see if he could. He was as ruthless a leader as he was effective and uprooted the military from the ground up with hand picked admirers taking the place of high ranking officials, all under the noses of the busy populace.

The King has taken ill and is not expected to return to rule. Lars is now in complete control of the city and wishes to expand to test his theories on the rising "new wealth" nobles - business owners and caravan traders desperate for landed titles. He wants to see how long it takes till they try to appoint a leader among them, just so he can go to war with them. A small, unremarkable satellite town sits on prime real estate and has to go. The occupants will be more than happy to help build the new homes before being permanently removed themselves. Much of the Prince is unknown, as he stays well within his keep at all times, testing the limits of his influence over his dominion.

Attempting to paint Lars without using any sketches or construction lines to guide the brushwork. It's a sloppy piece of concept art admittedly, and I'm finding his flat features very difficult to paint.

It seems easier to paint when painting in exaggerated features like Hammett's. His rounded, rosy face is great for adding in pinks and such for fun. Lars however is proving really difficult to do in the same manner of painting.

Creating our Villain.

Our Villain needs to contrast sharply with Hammett's childish nature. But unlike Hammett I have no idea where to begin. So I start with the basics - head shape.

Hammett has a very round, thick featured face. So our Villain, prince of the "Tall Folk." needs to have a long face that shows the Prince as being well and truly above and beyond all lower beings. We also need an inferred chemistry between the two, as they may meet multiple times throughout the game.

Sketched out a rough size guide between the two versions of the race. I'm considering that perhaps he should have harsher ears than the Short Folk, as the rounder features define the kindness of the short people.

Exploring personality I've found is much more intuitive through drawing the faces you would attribute to those personalities. I didn't know how I wanted our Prince to look and act, but this image really nailed it down for me. I found myself gravitating to the more expressionless Prince on the bottom, second from the right.

There's nothing scarier than someone who just doesn't care. I feel like this character could be really versitile. He could channel the confidence and austerity of Fable's Reaver well.

The Fable Series' "Reaver" is a scary prospect. He has money, power, enough narcissism to create a Greek legend and he just does not care what happens to everyone around him.

Or he could snap and become a maniacal Tyrant much like Final Fantasy's Kefka.

Kefka wants to unmake existence... because he can.

Side Note: This particular face was inspired by Colin Firth in The King's Speech.

Hammett Silhouette Test

A Silhouette test shows that Hammett's features are a lot more defined than before. A wider head, bigger ears and rounder frame have helped him stand out a great deal.

Meet Hammett

So meet Hammett.

We all knew Hammett in school. He was the kid at the back of the class who was chubby and had that awkward facial hair thing going on. Hammett's not bright and he's fairly lazy, but he'll grow out of it as the adventure goes on.

Also meet progressed Hammett.

This Hammett's a bit more presentable than his sketched counterpart, but he's still every bit awkward looking. Although this is a more heroic pose for the purpose of his character sheet, which would have his more charismatic mid-game personality. He's still our hero after all. I've tried to make him look as DOTAish in style as I can, he's not that dark a character however. We'll leave that for the Villain. Painting in a more expressive and confident style is proving quite hard, but in creating this painting I've learned  a fair bit about how colour usage doesn't have to be as complex as in traditional painting.

A little Bit of Back story about our Hero...

Hammett belongs to a race which is divided into two main physical archetypes that have stemmed from generations of different living. He's of the halfling race, a people who grew off of primarilly agricultural and naturalist endeavours. These kind folk cherish family and the earth above all, and their existence is governed by the phrase "Keep on keeping on.".

Hammett himself lives in a satellite village, just off of the trading capital. Although his people stay out of the city, he himself enjoys it's busy streets and loves lazing over the bustling, begrudging "tall folk" than inhabit it. He's the size of a child, and to the quick glance is simple another overfed spawn of overworked parents. He tends to stray from the loyal and hardworking youths of his village, prefering the company of shade and his pet (yet to be designed).

Hammett finds one day, through his noseying on the conversations of well-to-do tall folk, that his home is in danger of occupation by new wealth nobles under order of the prince and general himself. Returning home to find his family and friends forced into constructing these new country estates - Hammett has to use his people's natural abilities, long lost to the tall folk, to find this prince and free his people.

"He's only a prince right? He owns, what? A city or sumthin'? Can't be that hard to get him to change his mind. It's not like he doesn't care 'bout short folk."

First Base

The style of DOTA 2 is going to be very hard to achieve as I am not a confident digital painter. One of the main points of DOTA's style is the confidence in colour. Trying out the previous act of starting with a silhouette, I created a base from which to work. Adding hairstyles and features to get a better feel for the character.

The colour is very muddy and will need to be lighter in future iterations. I'd like to keep it kind of muddy to go for a naturalist feel to the character. My favourite is by far the bottom right character, as I want someone scruffy and maybe even disheveled. Although I like the face, I don't feel that it's young enough for our hero, so creating a younger, fresher face is important.

Creating a line drawing of a fresher faced youth. He still seems a bit on the perfect side for our hero.

A quick silhouette test determines that the character needs a bit of work in his manner before he'll be recognisable. Adding some unique features is the way to get a better silhouette

Developing the Race

Drawing has always been the easiest way for me to find out what I want in my characters. So regardless of quality, sketching something out and giving it a look is always my first port of call after having a look about for my inspiration. After drawing a vanilla early teens protagonist with the ears, it seems too bland. Too human to be anything special, and far to normal to be my hero. The race needs to be further from normality.
Although Jak's race is never really explored throughout the trilogy, he's obviously not human. He's something more special.

Rafei contorts and stylises the features so well. Taking the typical human form and tweaking it. Even without the ears we would know that Jak isn't like us. I want my features to be more extreme than Rafei's so that the difference is unmistakeable.

So I sketched out some rough body types that are both typical and exceptional, while keeping it easilly recognisable.

These were the easily recognisable body types of fantasy. Humans, Halflings and Elves. Our hero is atypical, so I want someone who doesn't seem capable of defeating the bad guy.
Coincidentally, this image coincided with the release of second installment in The Hobbit franchise. As a short person, the idea of the little guy who could really appeals to my nature, and I found myself being drawn to our halfling fellow.

 

 

Frodo and Bilbo are both fantastically flawed, physically and mentally.

So we've decided on our hero's build. But what about our Villain? Villains should be opposite of the Hero in terms of appearance atleast. Harking the hostility between Tolkein's dwarves and elves, I feel that a tall character would be both imposing and superior enough to sell the villainous character.

Starting Out

I knew immediately that I wanted the typical Bob Rafei look to the character, and how else to hark back to him than to create that big eared look. So I started by putting electronic pen to electronic paper.

This was just a doodle of a potential starting point but it seemed far too similar to Jak 'n Daxter characters. I'd like to point out now that it is Jak n Daxter that I feel I want to pinpoint as inspiration. Rafei has worked on many games in his time but it's the childhood classics that just tug you right in the heart strings.

So if not long thin ears, what?
Big ol' broad ones.

Racial identity I feel needs to be strong with the character, so to combat the typical handsome, streamlined face of heroes, I've decided on broad, almost fat features to the face. This will also help balance those big ears.

In Class: Relections

Evaluations and Reflections

Perspective

 This was the first of 3 perspective drawings created within Ryan Locke's practical sessions. The task involved drawing areas within or around the university as a measure of perspective skill in the class.

My perspective work is very poor. This piece was scrapped as soon as it began for the reason that ruins a lot of my perspective work: lack of forward planning. For this drawing I simply started with an object and drew the objects around it, attempting to "tie" them together as I went. This dependency on structures can result in well detailed work when the perspective "works out" but relying on luck or feeling a way through a drawing is not enough to guarantee a satisfactory result enough of the time.

This work is an improvement on the first as it had an element of planning before committing to drawing, however the need to tie objects together was still very much present in the process and because of that the scale of items became skewed, deviating from the real life objects in order to "fit".

This drawing was also scrapped quickly.

Progressing further, this image used a combination of the two previous methods. Starting with an object in the corner, in this case the monitor, and creating construction times from that. Under request from Ryan, rough shapes were sketched in very light lines before defining features were added in darker line. The perspective of the piece is still awry and the line work not very confident but it has shown progression from starting. As an artist there seems to be a strong urge to make things fit in the scene when they do not and this can skew perception of an object. This process also alludes to a fault present in many artist's work which is scale. Working bigger seems to be the natural inclination and confining a piece to a smaller section than the whole page seems counter intuitive, but when learning perspective it seems that learning to constrain oneself to guides and plans is nothing short of a must. To expand on the lessons learned in this piece it would appear that practice is the main element in gaining confidence in perspective. With additional research materials such as tutorials on technical drawing (such as Karl Gude's great tutoral found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=felys-u4nfk ), with 1 and 2 point perspective being a mandatory learn, coupled with observation and practice, the overall quality of perspective work should increase dramatically. Weaknesses of the drawing from a line standpoint would be the table in the bottom left corner, which is a prime example of lack of confidence in the piece. The open drawer just off centre to the right has major overlap in line, which in perspective / technical drawing must be avoided to maintain accuracy. The drawing is in no way a bad starting point from years without perspective work but does show that much work is needed to reach industry standard.

Perspective and Life Drawing

Drawn with paint markers, the brown adds a seasonal style to this piece which works well in it's favor from a creative standpoint. The area in which the piece was drawn is also seemingly recognisable from the image which speaks well for having captured the street's character. This was tested by showing the image to a range of people and having them guess where it was drawn, most managed to identify that it was indeed outside The Burgh coffee shop in Dundee City Centre. Capturing the people walking past was challenging as the field of vision was quite small being that it is a scene through a window. However, keeping the detail on the passers by works in the scenes favour by placing more emphasis on the area which adding accents of bus life. Important aspects of the scene were details on both the tree planters and the building on the opposite side of the street in detailing the scene correcting. The piece was created within a 15 minute period as a challenge, the goal of which I believe was achieved.  The anatomy of the passers by seems slightly off in the character by the rightmost tree which hinders the piece but is not overly noticeable. Overall I believe this to be a successful sketch of a scene as it is easily recognisable from the location in a short time frame.

Sketches created before the large Burgh coffee shop piece.

These drawings are cute but out of proportion, which in a way lends itself to the style but from a technical perspective is a trait of my own drawing that needs to be stamped out in the future.

Bringing the Blog up to Speed

Over the Holidays I've made the mistake of neglecting to update the blog with my work and research so it's time to shove everything up.

We'll start with some research, the following image is a more realistic goal in terms of where I should be aiming skill wise.

The quality of paint work in the textures is still very much in style but is more accessible to someone like myself - although I would say reaching that level is still very much a challenge that may take beyond this module to achieve.