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.