Life drawing for concept artists; week 2

First off, I received some great feedback from Dave on the Gryphon skeletons and also to further the assignment for next week by creating a muscle map on top of the skeleton (front and side views); paying attention to where the bone pushes through the muscle and can be seen through the skin, eg pelvis.

•  Size of the skull with regards to how intelligent I want it to seem
• Wingspan to bulk of gryphon
• define wing bones/scapulae/clavicle -sternum from a front facing view
• begin to think of possible plumages and how the feathers join with the fur
• Tail variations, though a long tail presumably for balance.
• Movement; How would it walk/fly?

Next, Maggie took us for two hours of life drawing, similar to last week's class, with an hour of short fast poses and a final 50 minute costumed pose, with a focus on details and intricacies. 

 (click to enlarge)

Since we had much more time for the "long" pose, (50 mins), I decided to thumbnail it out and get the general angles and placement of the figure sorted before I dove in on the actual page.

Its scribbly and messy but it definitely helped me register the whole figure, not to mention solve a few problems early on, rather than having to fight it out at the larger scale. 

(50 minute costumed pose)

As a change of pace, we then visited the Maggi Cullen exhibition Constantine gallery in Middlesbrough Tower for an hour, with the instruction to pick some of the exhibits and draw from them.

"Morris Men" - Maggi Cullen

-Sam

Gryphon skeleton assignment

(click images for larger version)

For drawing for concept artists last week, I received the assignment "draw the skeleton for a fantasy creature, but make it believable".

I'm not quite sure I've managed the last part, but I chose the Gryphon/Griffin; head, wings and front legs of an eagle/bird of prey, with the hindquarters and tail of a lion. It wasn't until i started gathering avian skeletons like an estranged beachcomber, did I realise how weird this creature is. First off, its got two sets of back legs- how am I to make that work? Also following some research into pegasi and the wingspan required to lift an average sized horse, I decided that my gryphon would be about the size of a dog. (and then started pulling some personality from dogs as well in the poses.)

Blue Beetle assignment: Update

Next thing I did with the Blue Beetle brief was to scour google images and my own hard drive of reference images for anything that might be remotely useful in early concepts. At this point, I'm not exactly focused on one idea or time period or even reality. I then sketched out a basic male silhouette and used it as the base to spread my ideas over.

(click for a larger version)

The text might be a little hard to read, but I'll explain as I go. From left to right then, first is the Winged Scarab idea, this version is the most similar to Ted Kord's outfit- in that its figure hugging. Instead of the black beetle emblem spread over the shoulders, I've lifted the egyptian motif of a winged scarab as his iconic. The rest of the pattern comes from the resting position of a beetle's legs. The original trace gave me the silhouette for the weapons on his back.

Next one over is a more gunslinger styled Beetle, my thought for this guy was that he is the BB of the postapocalyptic future- his raggedy trenchcoat, his goggles/hood based on a hazmat suit, he'd be more the inventor/macgyver styled hero, his gun would be a rifle of some description.

Third across is (my favorite) Hercules Beetl- I mean High Fantasy Beetle. This was originally just a visual pun- a medieval/fantasy Blue Beetle with armor that was based off the Hercules beetle. A vehicle/gun would be problematic for this version, though. The Egyptian twist comes through in the shape of his breastplate, the scarab again, this time the overlapping plates of the armor show the detail. 

Second from the right now, is ancient egyptian scarab priest. This idea came from the over-shoulder armor with the two capes, taken almost directly off the back of a beetle. This version would play up the original mystic backstory for the beetle, and his opulent robes are a nice contrast to previous designs. 

And finally, we have time displaced/far future Blue Beetle. I didn't think this guy through as much as the others- except that his outfit would be more technologically advanced- or perhaps mechanically enhanced, to give him powers, rather than mystic power or physical training.

I've never actually done any vehicle design before (or drawn a bug for that matter) new frontiers all round! My idea for the Blue Beetle's "Bug" his flying blue beetle-y sky thing,  isn't too different from the original comic version- though mine has the same carapace/wing structure as biological beetles. The feet curl up and in while in motion, but straighten out to land on, or for it to be used terrestrially- the wings are shielded by the carapace so it can't be more tank-like
Also at the bottom a variant on the silhouette and a stag beetle snow mobile. 

-Sam

Drawing for Concept artists, week 1

Yesterday, we had a 6 hour class titled "Drawing for Concept artists", and as you might expect it focused on drawing ability. For this class, the Games Art (MA) and Concept art (MA) are joined together, so we started by giving short presentations of our work up until now as introductions. Then we had to show 8 nudes (of varying weight/race/gender/age/pose) that we'd drawn from imagination- My attempt is below.

Then we had a life drawing session, and it was ...definitely different, at any rate. I'm now pretty glad I kept the sessions with Claire and Michael up over the summer. Especially one exercise, when Maggie, the tutor, played Macklemore through the soundsystem and asked the model to walk/dance to the beat in a circle, giving us only 5 seconds at the most to get the gesture down before she moved again.

 I just grabbed a conté randomly when we started so these didn't come out the greatest when I photographed them, well enough to get the idea across, I hope.







This next exercise involved the model walking forwards but each step drawn needed to be connected by the previous foot- I think  like the 2nd one the best, though I didn't manage my space properly and didn't fit in the feet.

The next assignment for this class is to draw about 3 sheets worth of skeleton designs for a fictional creature, the kicker is that no matter how fantastic the creature, the skeleton must work. But I will cross that bridge when i come to it- probably after I've finished the Blue Beetle assignment for tomorrow's Character & Environment Design seminar.

- Sam.

Design Brief: Blue Beetle rework day 1

Today I got my first brief from Nigel- To take Ditko's (dorky) 1960's version of the Blue Beetle, and re-imagine it as a concept for a live action film for an adult audience. It also must have some kind of Egyptian twist to it. And we cannot draw ideas from the DC/more recent blue beetles. We've got 3 days to come up with as many variations and ideas- not finished illustrations- as we can. Designs for the character, his flying beetle vehicle and his gun (optional) are specified on the brief.

Starting off by brainstorming out some things in my sketchbook at Southfields during lunch. A nice twist on this brief is that it isn't too constricting- the setting isn't described at all, nor does it specify that Blue should be a hero, or even human for that matter. My prior knowledge of this guy is based entirely on the much more recent "Young Justice" cartoon. If you can't read my chickenscratch at the side, don't worry, its just my way of jumping between trains of thought (something you might already be aware of if you've talked to me irl).

I'm pretty interested in the thought of a 1930's explorer in egypt idea, finds the scarab and gets cursed...or something. Another idea is an almost Kick Ass-ish teenage vigilante, though for an adult audience that may not be the right path to follow. Looking into scarabs and different types of beetles, different time settings/locations, age and gender of the BB, Dystopian post-apocalyptic future BB, incorporating the 60's version's chainmail  and goggles into the look, - And also remembering that he has a vehicle and gun to feature in also.   

-Sam




 (Unrelated blog running postit note:  I'll be setting all of the older posts as hidden/private so its clear what is my postgrad work.)

I return to education! But first! A recap!

I guess I'll just have to accept my fate as an unpredictable blogger, who often leaves large gaps of deadzone between well documented..uh.. "stuff". (Stuff that we're going to call work.)

Most of the work I've done since June (the last update! oops) has been life drawing and the world-building concept project I mentioned in the last post, Oculus Sclera.

These can all be found in my portfolio site at, probably, higher resolutions. I never decided whether this would be a game, animation or comic, so I just designed and wrote til I got an idea of the world I wanted to make.  Basicly, a peacekeeping force known as Oculus protected a royal family of the largest kingdom, but they got betrayed and all but destroyed. Years pass, and it falls to the two characters Howland and Jessica to take back the kingdom from the evil faction. 

 

The Oculus Sclera is the reborn organization, of which Jessica and Howland are the main members. I decided early on that Howland would be a talented magic user, while Jessica's ability lay in her martial prowess, and together they could pull off combos and synchronized fighting styles. 

Another thing I knew from the get-go was that, while Jessica would be the melee combatant, she wouldn't be totally heavily armored. But she wouldn't be boob-window, here stab me in the midriff, chainmail bikini clad. So I tried to come up with some alternate styles. The first is the ceremonial Oculus clothing which is very similar for both male and female- coat, sash and boots. Though the male version includes a blindfold (for plot reasons). 

They would each have the basic "?" looking staff weapon that would transform into, in Jessica's case, swords, bows and polearms and for Howland, a series of elementally themed staves. art wise, I came up with about 15 or so silhouettes but only developed this one, Siren. This was the first time I had attempted anything like this so it was an excellent learning experience. It certainly gave me focus, to have all the pieces drawing from a single world concept. 

While I had a pretty good idea for the OS magi, the Mundus remained pretty badly described in my notes. So while exploring the idea of what was originally a mecha design for something else, it became more of a weird magitechnical golem. The Mundus then solidified as faction that combined technological advances and previously known magical enchantments, while holding firm "mundane" beliefs. ie, magic users shouldn't rule as "absolute power corrupts absolutely" etc. The above golem would be piloted remotely by the Mundus leader, a surprisingly young man who was disfigured and has turned to experimenting on himself and others for "the greater good of the kingdom".

Anyway, moving on from the OS work, as you can see if you checked out my portfolio, it was only a means to an end. Getting into my choice of masters of art course (MA). I was successful in my application! (huzzah!) And I'm now living in Middlesbrough, in the North East of England. The course title is Ma Concept art for animation and video games, and I'll be studying here for 12 months to graduate next September.

Classes are to start this coming Monday and I'm very excited! I'll be bringing this blog back to life as I write about my experiences and reflect on what I've learned during the week.
I've set a rather lofty goal for myself, however. To work my damnest and during easter 2014, submit my work to imaginefx to see if I meet the standard. I have a few other goals in mind, but each is more distant, and at the moment they would be impossible for me. First, get into imagineFX, then to paint a MTG card design, and finally, someday, work for Arenanet. Getting a degree out of this course is a nice side effect.

-Sam

Ps. If I get a spare chance, I'll update the layout/background of this site, its just a liiiiiittle bit dated I feel.