Eidy and Alyvia

My last day at Jagex today. Still feels weird thinking my entire life will be different in a week! Still ruminating on this world of mine, here's some more progress on the Eideann piece. Took the style in a slightly different direction after realising how much I really enjoy painting in a more 'traditional' manner digitally and it really reflects the kind of sombre realism I'd like the world to have. 

I've also worked a little more with my Oatley Academy Accomplishment, taking a bit of a mix of the designs I'd done and blending them into a traditional style portrait. 

Building worlds and opportunities

First off a warning, this post will most likely ramble on a while. It's mostly for my own records, but some of you might have the patience to get through it all! So I've been quiet (and missed posting in March) mostly because I'm in the process of a life move to a new place and new job in the west of the UK, in Warwick. I'm stepping out of the large corporate world of Jagex and into the nimbler market of mobile gaming. I think it'll be fun! A chance to stretch those long unused organic concept muscles and should give me back that feeling of being intrinsic to the production of a game rather than being a cog in a machine. Pay's better too, which is always nice. I've also had confirmation that I'm through to the final consideration for the Udon Warcraft Tribute Book and currently have 2 pieces through to final choice for Expose 11 too.

So the job thing came about quite by accident and happened pretty quickly -  within the space of a couple of days I'd applied to two companies and had a job offer within the week. When you're not really expecting much to come of something, it certainly messes with your head when you have to change your life on the answer to a 'do you want the position' question. But I think I made the right choice, I think I'm actually going to rather enjoy the faster turn around  of mobile games, but having more time to iterate and explore. I'd also applied to a larger AAA studio, but my 'folio wasn't really suited to their genre and it's got me thinking.

My work isn't bad. But it's a little fickle when it comes to pinning down what it is I do and what it is I'm good at. I took the portfolio building quiz over at the Art Order site, but it's hard to pin my goals down to just one company or one style. Ultimately when I try to just base work on 'getting a job' or fulfilling some other checklist, it never seems as appealing and I lose interest. But I do recognise that there is a fundamental lack of style or subject consistency that makes it hard to link any of my pieces to each other, even when the subject matter is similar.

I'd also put the following piece in for crit with the Oatley Academy's live session (have I mentioned I love the Oatley Academy?). It was supposed to be a trading card image aimed at the warcraft end of the style market, but Chris pointed out a couple of anatomy flaws and noted that the painting style might have been less engaging than the previous pieces he'd seen. He also pointed out the image didn't seem to have an artistic direction. Sure it was nicely rendered and dynamic and the character was kooky and interesting, but who was she and why was she there, why was she doing what she was doing, and why that mood? And in all honesty I couldn't answer. I'd just wanted to paint boobs, dynamic angles and my pirate character in a format that suited cards and had a nice composition. It wasn't anything deeper than that, and that's fine, it still makes an interesting image. But it's not engaging beyond just looking and saying, hey cool pose and colours! Art direction was what it needed. Not just the image, but the character. She was nothing more than a set of boobs and red curly hair in a costume shop pirate outfit who had the nifty ability to control the waters she sailed on.





What if I gave her history? What if she had a culture? A reason she was so foul mouthed and loved getting drunk? So I did a little more research and after a couple of days I was itching to get at the blank canvas. Below is the initial result and another quick stylistic exploration.  No means final, I may very well redesign this or any other iteration of her, but it's a step in the right direction. This is what I want my portfolio to be... interesting characters and worlds that are relevant in a style that's not hyper real, but allows for a little stylisation.

  

I used to write when I was younger and could stomach being awake on 4 hours sleep. A lot. I have an 800 page novel lurking in the background for when I can rest on my artistic laurels a little. I love building worlds and characters and finding interesting ways of connecting them. So I got to thinking about Eidy and her little village and it's traditions and culture. And then I got to thinking about Kana. Those of you who've followed my work for a while know I dabble with the dragon prince character artistically every now and again, but my goal with him is a larger project. I'd like to eventually do a novel/artbook combo maybe through kickstarter, since I love the idea of being able to show the characters and places off in a book the way the author sees them. It's not something many people can do (Janny Wurts being one of the few I can think of).

So I'm developing Kana's world more now. I'm trying to collect reference and document my ideas in a logical fashion (which for someone who never planned *anything* when she wrote, is an interesting proposition) with the idea of bringing in my Audacious Accomplishment characters too. They'll still be Clarice Starling and Lecter, after a fashion, but I want to give them my own twist. I'd been struggling with the characters because the designs just didn't have anything to them other than cool outfits and interesting faces or demon horn designs. Now they have a place in a larger world and I'm ditching the stereotypical demon designs I wanted to do for Lecter and am embracing something that's my own creation.

So what does this all mean? It means I have a common goal now between a number of artistic projects, that I can bring them all into the same book. Which gives me motivation to work in a style that suits me and more importantly will give my Portfolio consistency. And if people other than me like it? Who knows where it might go! Watch this space. And prod me with pointy things if I slack. :)

Iterations and iterations

One of the reasons I love my job as a concept artist is the ability to solve visual problems with quick thumbnail iterations. Especially with costume design. So my Audacious Accomplishment for Oatley Academy has been good fun thus far! 


We were asked to take scenes from a film and transpose the characters into an extra ordinary setting, so I set my heart on Silence of the Lambs, where Clarice Starling would be a priestess new to a the rank of Demon Hunter rather than FBI agent, and Lecter would be the demon she needs to get into the mind of, to catch the even more evil threat (Buffalo Bill). 

I'm exploring stylistic choices here as well as costume choices, as I'm still trying to figure out where I'd like to push my art in terms of getting that something special I can call my own. Ultimately I have my favourites, but as ever, I welcome opinions and feedback! And these are very much a first iteration. Once i decide on a stylistic direction, I'll explore more costumes, hair styles and faces. 

I should also point out here that I envisage Starling as more of an HQ-based demon hunter.. the sort who doesn't leave the office much and is more research and questioning-based, so practicality is a lesser concern over looks (imagine if you will a less prudish, high fantasy female equivalent of the get up the priests of the vatican wear). I'm also trying to bring a little of my biggest inspiration, Brom, into my own work, in my own way, so if she feels a little sexier in some, that's a deliberate choice.

And here's some quick thumbnails with the idea of turning my fiesty, dirty-mouthed, water-wielding pirate chick, Eideann into a potential trading card. Also really trying to get better at doing dynamic, interesting poses, since my initial attempt at a more fleshed out version of her after doing These Thumbnails Here, was Pretty Damned Boring. 

Proof of Oatley

Okay I'm going to start sounding like a rabid fan or something with this Oatley stuff, but hell it works, and I'm prone to gush about stuff that works. (For balance's sake -  I had the same kind of colour epiphany when I watched Jason Manley's Light and colour stream and can also highly recommend that for people who can handle their classical painting breakdowns and want some enlightening on colour!)

Back in December i attended the first of my live sessions - where Chris shares his desktop with us online and  goes through a bunch of student pieces offering advice and occasionally paintovers. My major problem with the piece below was I'd started it as a pure characer practice then built up the environment as a secondary thought, meaning a lot of it felt a little contrived. Chris also made the suggestion of dappled light, which is possibly my favourite thing about the image now, and refocusing the character so he was facing the same way as the beast. That made the narrative much stronger... some kind of threat off to the right or above of the image as opposed to two forms in the picture simply doing their own thing. Tweaked little things like the line of the mask so it fed back into the face of the elf, and tried to do the same with a lot of the subtler environment elements, the result of which means the eye is subconsciously fed back into the face of the elf where ever it wanders off to.

I've shown both the finished piece and a comparison between the finished piece on the right and the piece I submitted to Chris for critique. The left hand one isn't bad in it's own right, but the right hand one just subconsciously feels more solid and composed. 

Audaciously Accomplishing...

So my time at the Oatley Academy continues. Just over half way through, and I'm still learning immense amounts from it. A lot of it is information I've picked up over the years, but it's condensed into what I would consider a really understandable form, though I know there are others in the course who are struggling a little with some of the latter homework.  I think my masterwork studies over the years have definitely helped me get to grips with what's being  explained. I should also mention here which I might have done earlier that the course I'm currently doing is a composition-heavy one. But damn if it isn't making me look at artwork in a totally new light a lot of the time. So many subtle things I would have missed before.

While I've been doing the more serious tasked homework, I've also been thinking about my ideas for the ultimate goal of taking the class, which is ending up with two finished pieces. The theme of the work is taking an existing film set in the ordinary world, and transposing it's characters and narrative into an extra ordinary one. So my film was Silence of the Lambs, and i'm turning into a dark fantasy setting, where the FBI is a holy order of demon hunters recently open to women, and Lecter one of their worst captured demons.

These are just my first initial musings. I'd like something of a Brom-esque aesthetic to it, but as i gather more inspirational ref, it's likely to fluctuate. Also dabbling with the idea of having it be pushed stylistically in terms of character design, since that could be where I'd like to take my portfolio. Enjoy!

More bust fun - Epona

I should probably start by saying that these busts were mostly inspired by the gorgeous works of Dapper Owl over on deviantART... go check her gallery if you like these, she has such a beautiful style!

Just another bust, this time a little more labored over (female faces with their soft blends are harder for me at the moment, being in hard surface mode all the time for Transformers Universe) depicting another friend's character, Epona. A somewhat phoenix out of the flames of tragedy character, I chose to use her as practice for more over the top expressions, as mine are usually quite still. She's a faerie who was robbed of family, voice and wings, then sold to the circus as a freak act before she escaped. 

Here's the final piece and an animated gif of progress shots as I remembered to take them. 

New Year's Resolution

Alongside the usual 'must get fitter/more productive/drink less' kinda promises that will ultimately be broken in the near future (though I swear i'm going to get at least part way through the P90X program if it most likely kills me), what should be my most achievable goal in 2013 is to try and keep a more active web presence. This means more updates to this blog, and trying to respond to comments and posting more on the other sites I'm on (CGHub and deviant art being the prime at the moment).

So as it's aaalmost 2013, here's a quicky to start with, just a quick bit of character bust fun for a friend, of her character Ramah, desert prince and werewolf (focusing on the former).