Project 1: Pre-Production Concept Art

25/03/17

01/10/17

Image created by Terryl Whitlatch

I was drawn to this specific piece by Terryl Whitlatch because of numerous things. One of the first are the colours. The colours used on this little creature complement each other well and are actually fairly similar. The brown used for the body is only a few shades darker than the brown used for the path.

The focal point of the image is likely the face. When someone thinks of round and fluffy, they would likely think of something cute like a kitten or a puppy, but this animal's face seems to directly contrast that. Being small, round and fluffy, but with an almost eerie face to set off that assumed cuteness.

The image seems to depict a completely imaginary creature. It's practically impossible to say what this image depicts because this animal is unidentifiable.

The atmosphere of the image could be depicted in two main ways. Either a traveller or group have come across this creature and are going to get a new companion or a new discovery, or they are about to get attacked. The atmosphere is either sort-of jovial or upbeat, or very tense.

The meaning of the image is something I have no clue about. I am not even sure there is a meaning behind the image, it just seems to be of a small brown fuzzy thing with spindly legs standing on or walking down a path.

One of the first things I noticed about the creature were the legs. They don't seem to fit the type of creature this could be. The legs seem to resemble bird legs, which are somewhat scaly and have sharp talons on the ends of the toes, while this creature isn't very angular in any way, giving it a non-threatening and possible soft appearance

Several comments from my peers were very similar about the focal point and the first thing they saw, which was the creature for many of them. One person said that there was low saturation, which is true as the colours are fairly pale, rather than strong and super vibrant. A third comment from one of my peers just said 'Finding Nemo' which I found out that the comment was referring to the character called Bloat, who is a puffer-fish with a similar colour pallet.

This image shows one of Terryl Whitlach's creatures behind a transparent rule of thirds grid. As seen on the intersections of the grid, there is little going on aside from one of the creatures legs so it would be safe to assume that Terryl did not use a rule of thirds grid. The largest form in the picture however would likely be the creature's head, as it is a bright purple, in contrast to the yellow body.

This concept art of an unused creature from Subnautica just about fits the rule of thirds grid, with the crab creature almost being on the bottom left cross-hair and the pink sac of the one next to it almost landing on the top right intersection. The golden spiral seems to fit at the angle I have positioned it at, as the focal point is the crab at the front. The frill of one of the top right and the curvature of the coral shell plates just below the main crab seem to complement the outer curve of the spiral.

 In this bit of concept art, also an unused creature from Subnautica, the rule of thirds grid doesn't seem to fit as well as it did for the previous artwork, but still highlighting the colossal creature on the top right intersection. The golden spiral fits at an angle, like the last one, and is complemented by the bit of land in the bottom right corner and partially complemented bu the tentacle under the submarine but not quite fitting.

VISUAL WEIGHT

For this first image, the dominant form is highlighted in red, the sub-dominant form is highlighted in yellow and I highlighted the subordinate form or focal point in green.

The colour key is the same as the last image for this picture. Dominant in red, Sub-dominant in yellow and subordinate form/focal point in green.

This is a sketchy thumbnail environment I have recently been working on showing part of an industrial landscape. There is a focal point in the image which I used  the Golden Spiral to find, but the spiral has not been put back into the image just yet, but it will soon.

13/10/17

LEADING LINES

In these images, I have shown any leading l

 

These are the pieces of work on concept art environments I have done in the last couple of weeks.

Out of these 5, I decided to develop the piece I called "Happyshroom". 

Final Environment

This is the final result after I had finished in the allotted time. Unfortunately, I didn't get chance to add the shading or the subtle glow I wanted to put on the stem of the flower. One of the main themes I wanted to try was using very solid colour using 100% opacity and flow to try and get a sort-of cartoon-ish appearance to the piece of work and I feel it went quite well.

03/11/17

PERSPECTIVE

Perspective is part of visual language that defines the angles that a structure or environment is viewed from.

This is the mind-map I created for a mini-project we were assigned. It isn't quite done but it nearly is.

EVALUATION

For this mini-project, I was required to make a 2D environment of my choosing, while including some key aspects like: Perspective, Lighting, Dominant and Sub-Dominant forms, The Golden Spiral and The Rule of Thirds grid. I was also required to create and show development through a mind-map, mood-board, silhouettes and some sketch overs.

I feel I followed these given specifications to the best I could with the final painting I produced.

Overall, I am happy with the way that this mini-project turned out. Mainly because it is a fairly complex scene with very heavy use of perspective and lighting, along with how the lights interact with other objects in the scene. This lighting is also what I am most proud of, as lighting and overall shading isn’t one of my strongest points, which can also be seen in the painting itself as there are a few areas where the light doesn’t function naturally or doesn’t behave like it should. I feel I used the given time limit to the best of my ability without making things stressful or unworkable.

The Recourses I used were complicated although not many were used. The main materials I had were Photoshop and the drawing tablet. Throughout the project, I referred back to a Power Point on the Google Drive so I could make sure my development followed the steps and I included everything necessary and omitted everything that would be inappropriate or excessively unnecessary for the task (luckily, I didn’t have to omit anything).

Photoshop was useful for this project as it has many tools I could use to improve the experience I had while I created. Some of these tools include undo, redo, Hard Brush, Soft Brush, Eraser and layers, which I could use to alter how the painting looks and what I draw on. These tools were useful as it gave me significantly more lenience than if I was drawing the scene on paper and then painting it traditionally. The layers got slightly troublesome after a while as I forgot to name them, meaning I accidentally painted certain small sections on a different layer without noticing. Luckily it wasn’t a noticeable issue at the end.

The image would work well in the game Terraria, although the game uses a pixelated style, almost all of the fan and official artwork is done in differing methods. I feel this fits into the game so well because it actually does. The image I created is a rendition of a biome and enemy that gets added with a modification to the game, called the Calamity mod.

Personally, if I had more available time I would definitely go back and alter the lighting to improve it overall. I would also change somethings about the scene itself, like making the lava look more like real life lava that a much thinner, more watery substance. I would also change some shading in areas on the piece so it corresponds better with the light sources all around the tunnel, along with cleaning up several outlines.

In conclusion, I feel I performed this task well to the given requirements and specifications, although there is still a significant amount of improvement that could be done.