Final Thoughts!

Overall, this first project is everything i expected it to be and more, i fell as though this has really pushed me to take my artwork up to the next level, a year ago i could never have done something like this in seven weeks.  it's helped me to get used to using a graphics tablet, and though i prefer traditional this project has helped me to see that digital art is very easy to get a hold of, you just gotta know the skills.  bits i liked, the drawing, the random silhouettes, and the final pieces which make you feel proud.  bits i didn't like, being honest, writing the blog, and essay writing, i know it's cliché but it's the truth, writing isn't my strongest subject. bits i could improve on, more time to do iterations, i felt as though i could do a few more iterations if i had another week.

Final opinion, amazing first project, really challenging, was able to get some great feedback, and look at other people's incredible artwork, making new friends and adjusting to my new uni life.  Looking forward to the rest of the year and new projects to get done.

But all that has to wait because before all that the new pokemon game comes out next week, and that takes top priority over everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reading

Nick Thomas    

Final Character!!!!!!!!

When i first started drawing my character out, i felt as though i would need to change it halfway through, but once i got past the linework and started adding colour and value it all fell together. I am particularly pleased my the face i drew, seeing as how the face just didn't look right in the last one, so before i drew this piece i sketched out a few rough face design's, then i drew the face on my character and it worked! i felt so relieved that the wrinkles didn't ruin it.
It may have been due to the fact that i did my environmental's beforehand but the colour art seemed to flow very easy for me, getting the hardest part of the painting done in a couple of hours.  For that i am very pleased with what i've achieved. :)

first final character

when i first attempted my final character piece it was mildly criticised about the fact that i had taken the pose from my character sheet and just enlarged it, so i figured i needed to start again. here is what i looked like before i left it.

i really need to work work on the hands and face a bit more if my final piece is gonna be any good.

 

Final Environmental 2

This one i spent the most amount of time on, i kept changing bits here and there because it didn't sit right with me, finally after about 10 hours of working at it i was able to produce something.
Stage process:

first stage

adding gradient layer.

focusing on the tree.

adding highlights to the back fields and mountains.

more colour to the background.

light separation.

adding shadows and more light.

adding character.

final highlights.

End Result.

Final Environmental 1

My first environmental is my favourite one, i worked on it for about 8 hours, i had the most trouble with the lighting, i really like the way the tree look's like the wind's pushing it, and i added the river in the spur of the moment. It went through a lot of stage's to get to it but i'm pleased with the final result, here are those stages.

first design

adding a gradient value

highlighting the background a bit more as well as shadowing the tree

defining a ledge under the tree, adding a rock face and river on the right side to give it something extra.

adding a main light source.

adding background lights, and front shadows

more mist, and lights.

final highlights, and river highlights plus tidy up.

Final result

Environmental Thumbnails

After getting my research done, i had an idea of how i wanted my first thumbnail to look like, and after a couple of tutorials on youtube, that idea became reality, so first up are the line work thumbnails, they where mainly 5-10 mins quick sketch's, except for number 2 which took a bit longer.

i messed up the layers on thumbnail 3, that's why there's a little colour on it. after this is the value studies, adding shadows and shading to show where the light sources will come from.

lastly come's the colour study, i was experimenting with different brushes for the last one so that's way the style is different, i think the one i focused on the most way number 3 with the tree textures, this was before the lecture where Nigel said that the only ones we had to go into true detail on where the final environment's and character piece.

Environmental Thumbnails image research

with my environmental's, because of my time time period i immediately thought of a landscape type environment rather than a town, also maybe some forest's in the background, so i started looking into image research, and here are my pics:

 

Model Sheet

Model sheet's are used to depict the character is a full body view, in front ways, side ways, and back ways, some model sheet's remove the arm on the side ways viewpoint because the design features may be hidden due to the arm. looking at my character sheet and other model sheets, i got the idea of how to create, i mainly used my examples for measurement of the body height, because i don''t want one side being taller than the other. this one i managed to get done fairly quicker going back every now and then to add bits here and there, and now the finished result.

here are a few examples of model sheets used.

Character Sheet

Now i got round to the character sheet, at first i designed a full character design in a way to lead up to the final character piece, after that, i started making facial expressions to show my character's reactions, in one of the drawings i came up with the idea of the lower her health is in the game the more withered her face becomes and her skin and muscles start disappearing to reveal the skull. i also added some movement in there, i wish i could have done more movements, if it did go to an animator, they'd have more to work with.

some character sheet references i looked at while creating this.

Iterations research and work!!!

Though through my silhouettes, i had my character design, i needed to do more iterations to my designs before i could produce a final image, and so my research began:

Facial structure: for facial structure, seeing as my character was going to be cut up and disappearing i decided do give in a unique face, in a group crit somebody suggested that i make half the face old and whither, i decided to do just that, and that stayed with me throughout the rest of the designs, these designs where just to give an idea into different faces, most of these came from random thoughts, while other's came from pictures.

Hairstyles: for these i looked at the type of hairstyle's that kimono women have, i got a mixture of pics, afterwards i began to draw out and then added value studies to my design, overall i think i spent about a day on this piece, even though i knew i had to stick to the edo period, i was hoping a little to do no.3 as one of my hairstyles, but i don't regret making my end choice, my personal favourite's are number's 3, 5, 7, and 8.

i used the face and head structure to do my facial design.

Moving on from that i went on to do the kimono dress and it's pattern's, it was difficult as first to get the flow of the kimono right, however after a few tries i got a pose i liked, then started to add value and colours to it as well as coming up with patterns to create, they where probably the hardest out of all of them. 

Female Figure Proportions

before I created these images, I had to learn about getting proportions right, where the light and shadows hit the body and the clothes, so it looks like the body is moving.  This helped a lot in the overall result because it gave me a good chance to see how my kimono would look with some value added to it.

Arrow's follow where the light and shadow hits the body.

first attempt at clothes.