Latest Thoughts and Problems. (P-BR)

In visual adaptation from a story, ideally, you want to bring the story to life creatively, while staying true to the original prowess of the tale.

The authors of these novels give years to the imagining of the characters and environments, and how they intertwine, and so the same standard should be held for the visual realisation.

Recently, something I've been wanting to do is play around with different styles, (as shown in my previous post). So I had fun trying out a new illustrative style with this current design.

Another question I asked myself was:

What makes the main character obvious or apparent in design?

I think this could be incredibly important for this project. The main character is typically the heart of these stories, allowing the audience to place themselves in the context of the story world and empathise with the scenarios.

 Therefore, the protagonist should stand out and be noticed by the audience.

So for the last couple of days I've been designing the main character Fundevogel, for an animation aimed at a young audience.

For the design I took inspiration from Rob Laro (Freelance Illustrator and Concept Artist), and Steve Pilcher (Pixar). I tried to take a bit from the style of both artists because I love the confident line-work and flowing shapes of Laro's designs, and I love the expression you find in Pilcher's work.

By being aware of these two styles while developing this character, I managed to create some really nice expressions in the early sketches, and an appealing, colourful design in his final render.

For the final character renders, I would like them to be all of the same illustrative style, so that they can be compared together in a lineup, and allow me to see how they contrast in terms of shape, scale, and colour.

Working Character Design sheet for "Fundevogel"

Visual Style Experimentation.

One of the great resources for those of us who want to enter the Art Entertainment industry, are the "Art of" books compiled by the likes of Disney and Pixar, to video game companies such as Bioware.

These books give the reader a glimpse into all the different styles used by the artists, which are explored throughout the design process.

Art of Ratatouille

Art of Ratatouille

Personally, I find it fascinating seeing the natural quick design styles of the different artists slowly come together to finally coincide with one another.

I decided to paint a quick character line-up from "Fundevogel", and try and use a different style to see how the designs was influenced.

I actually really enjoyed trying a different style. This style was achieved by using the pencil tool in photoshop, while trying not to lift the pencil at all. 

Going to attempt a bunch of different styles and see where it leads me. 

Fundevogel Progress Update.

Today, after I finished my previous post's experiment, I started painting for the "Fundevogel" adaptation tests once more.

Fundevogel's Mother is briefly mentioned at the beginning of the story, as she sleeps against the tree which contains Fundevogel.

In my head, the Fundevogal's Mother lived in the woods and travelled them often, so I designed her clothing around foliage, plants and trees.

Visuals from an Instrumental.

It is likely this won't benefit my final works; However, the task I decided to undergo today ended up being very interesting personally.

I had the idea to create a painting from an instrumental piece of music. I figured it would be a great way to be create something personal and truly subjective.

What I did was basically listen to the piece of music, and sort of just paint what came into my head as the song played. I didn't know what I would actually gain from doing this, but I figured I couldn't lose anything, either.

The piece is by an British Musician - Bonobo. And is entitled "Black Sands"

And I painted this: 

The song to me sounds completely separated from society and people as a whole. If hills could make music, I imagine it would sound like this song.

The song also strikes me as rather oriental, so the colour schemes and atmosphere became heavily influenced by that.

I feel the song also glows with promise and magic. It seems to create this by lulling into the song very slowly, building, and building, eventually delivering an over-whelming culmination of sounds.

Listen to the song and look at the painting, maybe even let me know what you think about it?

Thanks,

2013. Adaptation & Illustration warm-up begins.

Happy New Year all.

Have managed to maintain a steady work flow over the festive period, (Thankfully). However, the majority of work has not necessarily been created to support my honours project; Although some of it has.

I'm applying to DARE to be digital in the near future and so a chunk of time now has to be allocated to that also.

Obviously I won't be able to share any of the artwork for DARE yet. But I do have some new project work to reflect on.

Adaptation designs for story. 

Practice Based Research. 

Visual development of visuals for a short story. 

Story:

 “Fundevogel” by The Grimm Brothers. 

Focus Characters.
Forester.
Fundevogel’s mother.
Bird.
The two Children: Lina & Fundevogel.
The Old Cook.  

Locations.
Forest.
Forester’s House.

I quickly got to work sketching in PS. 

I didn't know what to do first, so instead of thinking about style or time setting or any of the details, I just quickly started doing some sketching of how I initially pictured the characters in my head while reading the story. 

I started with the forester. Because he is the first character the reader is introduced to, he helps you build your own picture of the world and perhaps affects how you imagine the other characters. 

The character I initially pictured as the forester was naturally, not that interesting, because, well, the only words you are given to imagine him in your imagination is "forester". So I quickly began varying the design of the forester, quickly, just for fun. 

initial forester design stage.

As you can see, the silhouettes are quite vague. I couldn't decide if the forester should be a nimble, agile explorer, or some sort of rooted type, Father Christmas-y, figure. 

I decided to take the nimble design a little bit further, because the story informs us that the forester can climb. It wouldn't look believable seeing an enormous, bulky character dotting up a tree, as if gravity didn't exist. 

...Or maybe gravity doesn't exist in this world? These are the kinds of fundamental questions I keep having to consider when piecing together these visuals. 

Anyway, it was the nimble design that was taken further to begin with. 

quick, (badly painted), forester next step.

However, I really lost interest in the piece as I was working on it. The design itself was incredibly boring  and non-original. 

So then I actually began to think about the importance behind the designs of the characters and how greatly they can be used to convey personality in an awesome way. I wanted to be working on one that would be symbolic, interesting, original, and appealing - not wasting time on a bland, badly thought-out piece. 

So I went back to the drawing board, and I'm still there.

I'm currently beginning to play with images of different trees, to influence the symbolism behind the characters' designs. 

"La Luna" (Pixar, 2011), does this in such a charming way, which really helped create some very memorable characters, despite only being less than 7 minutes long. 

La Luna (Pixar). Note the facial hair in relation to the brush and mop. 

So for example, this is the sort of thing I'm going to be doing with the designs. (I made this picture in literally 2 minutes, purely as an example). 

very rough example of using objects to influence design. 

So I shall hopefully have some interesting designs to update with in the coming few days.

Character Sketches.

Got my sketch on this morning. Messing around with incorporating basic shapes into character designs again.

Self Critique and Explanation.

WHY? Why does the painting look like this?

click to enlarge.

Ok, let's give this a go.

I'm going to assume that you haven't seen this painting before, although I'm sure the majority reading this have. So sorry to post the same piece again. But I need to reflect on it.

So the painting was inspired by painters from the Dutch Golden Age, (the 17th century), Pieter Claesz and Harmen Steenwijck. 

The lyrics that inspired the painting were from a song by Fleet Foxes. 

"Through the forest, down to your grave. 

Where the birds wait, and the tall grasses wave."

Because I wanted to create an image which dealt with the mortality and the passions and joys of life. I instantly thought of those two painters. 

Those named in particular were famous for using composition and lighting, amongst other principles, to symbolise the idea of life and death. 

Steenwijck's composition can be understood through diagonals.

This composition allows a contrast symbolising Life & Death. (Light and Dark).

Now the idea behind the location of the painting is quite the contrast. The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker was the main inspiration. When I heard the lyrics for the first time I was reminded of the location of a grave on Windfall Island. It sits atop a hill, which acts almost as a branch from the island itself, as if it's reaching out to the sea. I always loved this image in the game, and thought it would make for a cool adaptation for these lyrics. Here's a screen capture to show you what I'm referring to.

The location struck me as very poetic.

Again.

As for the artistic nature, the painting leaves a lot to be desired. 

Having just read a nifty "How to critique your own work" article, I decided to pick apart the painting. 

1. Looks flat, simple brush strokes haven't been used properly. Detracts from the smooth, pleasantness of the sky.

2. Learn how to actually paint clouds. Next.

3. Out of place clouds, that were never taken any further. Actually prefer these little wispy clouds to the looming dark ones I ended up using.

4. See No. 2.

5. The reflection on the water is boring. Sky almost blends into sea. The sun's reflection in the sea probably wouldn't look like that at all.

6. Make my own grass brush next time. The repetitiveness of this brush is painful to look at.

7. I normally paint rock better than this. I think I was confused wether to make it look like dirt or rock. I guess it's not too bad.

Thanks for reading,
I promise never to post that painting again.

Ok, bye.

Interview with Kenneth Anderson.

Yesterday, freelance artist, Kenneth Anderson, was nice enough to grant a structured interview.

Despite going in with a list of specific questions, Anderson would often pick up on something from these and a whole new area of conversation would stem from that, which made the interview much more interesting.

I guess you could say it was an informal structured interview? 

Regardless, I received a lot of personal information about his career, his journey (so far), and also where he finds his inspiration. Which was obviously enormously helpful to someone like myself, hoping to make it out there in the big ol' world not too long from now. 

Anderson often gathers inspiration walking his dog. 

Thankfully, about 5 minutes in I remembered to begin recording. I always forget to record things, so I'm glad this one time I actually remembered - even if it was belated. 

One of the main things we got talking about were other professional concept artists/illustrators/fine artists that we were interested in. I managed to find out a whole bunch of artists who I had barely researched or sometimes even heard of, but were informed these were "must-knows" in the industry. So that was a big step in research direction.

One of the ideas this brought to light for me, from that meeting was the idea of comparing concept artists from the 60's/70's, and examining the styles, the influences, and really just the whole purpose of the concept art then, compared to the concept artists of today.

Bobby Chiu is part of Imaginism Studios Inc.

Imaginism Concept Art

So that'll give me a tonne of arts to look into for a while.

Also, after my previous post about my adaptation of song lyrics to art, I've decided it's time to begin experimenting with interpretation and using different styles of approach when drawing. 

So I guess I'm going to find a short description of a story world, (there's tonnes online), and draw up several adaptations of the same description and explain the decisions of the art created. 

'til next time.

Illustration and Music 1.2

So yeah, this post is just an add-on to the previous one. 

Here is the finished interpretation of the aforementioned lyrics. Few things I don't like about it. Those can be fixed once I get better. 

Illustration and Music.

Ok, incase you don't know exactly what illustration is...


Well, The Free Dictionary describes illustration as a

"pictorial matter used to explain or decorate a text."

So this illustration is created through my interpretation of the song:

"Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes.

Not the entire song, per say, but one specific lyric which grips me every time I listen.

"Through the forest

Down to your grave,

Where the birds wait,

And the tall grasses wave"

So as you can see I haven't exactly finished the painting quite yet. I have my layout and I have my colours blocked in. I think the sunset harmonises with the message of the illustration and harmonizes well with the composition.


I'll hopefully be finished the painting by next week, because I have a lot of other things to do.


Also need to do another presentation for Crit week. So hopefully get some helpful feedback this time round also!

Tonight's Study. And Next Steps!

Hello again. 

I've decided to start doing some more environment studies again. So before I get back into that swing of things, here's one I quickly did tonight to loosen up. 

This is based on a painting by another artist, who you can find here on tumblr. So I thought I would just state that. 

So that was a nice little exercise. 

Also, I've set a few tasks to do for the next week. Which are paramount, and WILL BE DONE.

 You have permission to steal my milk money if I don't. 

• Literature Review blocked out. 
• Different painting every night. 
• Write up analysis of two films and explore and compare their concept designs and overall adaptations. 
• Have a good ol' Starbucks observational drawing jam. Let me know if you want to come along. (It's less creepy when you're not alone.)

Bye!

Character Sheet Task.

So today I decided to take a painting I did over the summer..

and pluck the character from the painting and develop his personality.

I had to first figure out which sort of personality this guy could have?

So I decided, he's obviously fond of nature. I like the idea of him having to urge to stare at the moon every night and not know why. Similar to Disney's Hercules always feeling like he doesn't belong on earth.

Then I realised, he's sitting in what could potentially be a rather difficult area to reach. So he could be very agile and a skilled climber.

So I threw these ideas together and created this character sheet.

character development exercise.

Industry Interviews.

The last few weeks have flown by.

However, I have a few exciting things happening in the development of the project in the very near future.

Exciting thing number one!

Junior Concept Artist Sarah Morris from Atomhawk has agreed to help me out with a bunch of questions I have concerning my project.

Atomhawk's visual designs are breath-taking.

Also, my Academic Tutor (Lynn) has been kind enough to get in touch with freelance Concept Artist Kenneth Anderson on my behalf. He has also been kind enough to help me out. So it looks as though I'm going to meet up with him and conduct a sort of discussion/interview about his practices.

So I'm currently drafting up questions and topics that I'd like to hear their opinions about.

Will hopefully remember to record that interview, because I'm sure I'll get some really valuable advice.

So a big Thank You to those mentioned I feel is in order.

Exciting thing number two!

Kenneth Anderson, whom I previously mentioned, has an awesome portfolio on his website, and so I decided to take the colour palette of one of his paintings and use that to do my own concept design work.

Here's the end result.

Also here is his original, which i took the colour swatches from. 

Andersons' artwork has a very interesting style. 

What did I learn from doing this? Well quite a lot actually. 

I got a lot better at blending colours and facial tones. (Even making the nose and ears a bit rosey adds so much to these studies, it's quite unbelievable.) 

I also learned that I need to keep practicing in order to get to the quality of work expected in the industry. So I may do more of these studies. 

However, I feel like the first two characters I drew (the top two), are the strongest of the four, and the last two are visually weaker. So I think I need to think more about the sort of character the person is more thoroughly before I dive in and start throwing colours around. With the first two I knew what sort of characters I was after, and with the final two I was just sort of trying to make something that "looked cool." And that just didn't cut it. 

I have also managed to add some books to my collection since my previous post. 

One that I started reading recently, "Drawing Basics and Video Game Art" by Chris Solarski has me very excited. The book is very much "as it says on the tin", in the way that it teaches drawing fundamentals and thereafter goes on to illustrate how these translate into the world of video game art. 

The book explores the work of Da Vinci, Rembrant, and others.  

Like a book I read last year, ("Creating Characters with Personality"), Solarski also provides the reader with exercises to complete in tandem with your reading of the book. This is something I am a big fan of, because it feels like you are getting so much more out of the words written on the page by actually doing, and taking the time to think about what you've actually read, as apposed to merely rushing through book after book hoping that something will stick. 

The next book is "Watchmen: The Art of the Film".

I've always loved the graphic novel and the film. So I had to track down this one for my honours project. In honesty I came across this book by chance during a visit to Dundee University's library. 

The Art of "Watchmen"

Nevertheless, at a glance the book looks like it's going to be a great help. The fact that the concept artists for Watchmen did very much adapt the style that was already in place from the graphic novel makes this a great resource for my project specifically. So hopefully I'll pick up some useful advice. 

More Silhouettes. Sorry.

I don't think I've mentioned before, but for a few months I've been watching tutorial videos on the excellent CTRL+Paint website.

The website's founder Matt Kohr, now a freelance concept artist, creates these excellent video tutorials which can all be accessed FOR FREE.

One of his videos focuses on silhouette iteration, and today I've basically been doing the tutorial. The videos are really easy to follow and he goes into just the right amount of detail that it just sticks.

Anyway, I'd highly recommend giving his website a visit if you would like to improve your 2D skills.

So the tutorial basically allows you to experiment with the inner detail to silhouettes using masks in photoshop. I created a silhouette which I liked, made several copies, and made the inner detail different each time to suggest different results from the same silhouette. Rather fascinating.

Anyway here's his example.

 And here's my efforts.

I know the styles seem rather different, but the point is to experiment and discover some cool ideas. Not to do an exact copy of his work.

Clay Sculpture?

So I've been researching clay sculpture a lot recently.

Hopefully this blog post will not only let me express my personal views on traditional sculpture but also entice yourself to perhaps consider giving it a try!

My first proper attempt at sculpture (high school aside), was during the development of my short animation that I made in third year - (before the summer).

I used an easily accessible product named "Newplast". The modelling material is ideal for stop-motion animation; However, it can also be used for creating still models.

"Newplast" the industry standard for stop-motion flicks.

Neat fact: On the London studio visit trip I noted that Tandem Studios used Newplast almost exclusively for their stop-motion projects. So I was glad to have made a good choice.

Since then I've made two more sculpts from Newplast. Thankfully, I seem to be getting better each time.

My latest rough sculpt. Newplast.

However, for my exposition I would love to use polymer clay, or an oil-based clay to create some really polished character statues/maquettes.

I guess I should share the sources I've found during my research!

This video is a great two-parter, which gives a neat little intro to the life of professional sculptor, Tony Cipriano, who, despite sounding like a mafia boss, explains his work excellently and clearly.

I've also bought a couple of books on the subject to get me started, and help me hopefully pick up the foundations of modelling.

The first is "POP SCULPTURE", by Tim Bruckner. This book is actually recommended in Cipriano's videos, and really does lend a massive hand to people eager to learn this way of art.

Recommended by Tony Cipriano

On a more basic level, "Modelling Heads and Faces in Clay", tells you the step by step process to making convincing human heads. Which although perhaps seen as boring by some, is obviously essential if you want to be a great character sculptor.

So hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have finished a first draft of a clay sculpt. And hopefully it'll be on the way to being awesome.

Art Dump Ver. 1.1

Finished reading "The Skillful Huntsman" today. (I'm reading other books parallel to this one). And got inspired by the incredible artwork yet again. So here's some character sketches for y'all.

Update/Pitch Summary and Reflection (Week 4)

Today I had my first progress presentation of my honours project.

It went really well! Got some really useful advice and now have a much greater idea of where I what I want to do next.

I basically put across my vision for my final project. - Which I have just realised hasn't been discussed on this blog.

To begin with, I've changed my entire idea. About a week ago, if memory serves.

Research Domain: Story Illustration and Design

Aim: To design an appropriate universe and artistic style for a story and interpret the importance of visual creation in adaptation.  

(Current) Objectives:
-Examine existing design processes and interpret reason behind creative directions.
-Critique and contract justification of bringing a stories' universe "to life".
-Create a broad visual realisation of a story, and assess the design process.

So basically, I'm going to completely realise the visual feel for a short story. And the process is going to be fun/interesting part.

This is kind of how I envision my final showcase to look. This is of course very early doors. But I like where it's heading.

design process: silhouette-thumbnails-refine-scenes-polished final concept art- high quality clay sculpts.

So this will allow people who view the exhibition to see my entire thought process in terms of design direction and decisions and, of course, experiments. I also would like to add a bit of inter-activity also. For example, I have a set of head phones which should be worn when viewing to add to the experience of the project. The head phones could either: Tell the story, in a compelling rhythmic style, play ambiance & foley sounds appropriate to the story- (through the help of one of the CSP students perhaps)- or even a mix of both.

ANYWAY...

Tips I received from pitch session:

- expand my research horizon, look into more books which cover the design process for films/games.
- consider making a timelapse video tutorial/info video about how I go about designing. (They do say the best way to really learn something, is to teach it). So I'm quite excited about the idea of that.
- What makes my design process/ideas different? What other creative professionals have done this well?

So as soon as I left the pitch session I headed to the library and got a hold of a few goodies.

- 2 DVD's (Gnomon Workshop):
"Character design for Games and Animation"
"Anatomy of A Short Film"

Image courtesy of graphixshare.com

(Gnomon DVD's were particularly recommended by Robin Sloan.)

I also grabbed a book which caught my eye.

Image courtesy of Amazon.co.uk

Because one can never draw too many naked people.

But seriously, I started flicking through this in the library, and ended up reading about 15 pages, so I couldn't not take it home. Some of the points made are incredible, and I only wish I'd discovered this sooner. I will no doubt post more about this book as I read more into.

Up until the start of third year, I hadn't bought a single art book. This fact is more than slightly depressing. But at the same time I'm now getting my hands on every scrap of art literature I can.

For adaptations such as "The Lord of the Rings", the studios release the accompanying "Art of" books. Although some of these books don't really explore the process that well, some of them can be incredibly interesting and can really help illustrate the pipeline behind visual development for adaptations.

So for my personal development I want to become much more well read in these Art of Books, and in Art books in general .

'til next time,

Clay sculpt test.

Another art dump. Enjoy. 

Silhouette Studies.

Over the summer I came across a blog while researching silhouettes and basic character design theory. 

"Academy of Art's": "Character and Creature Design Notes".

This blog is a great resource for character designers. They don't post too often anymore; But they make up for it by having one of the most awesome archives.

I'm a massive fan of silhouettes. I love being able to get down the idea for a character, (or any design for that matter), and then having all your options on the table to choose from. Readability is such a key factor in design, that it almost seems silly to me NOT to harness the usefulness of the silhouette. If you have a strong silhouette then you have an advantage of an interesting design from the word GO.

Because of the tremendous fundamental benefits which silhouettes can lend a design, improving my illustration through the use of silhouettes will be a major part of my personal development.

If i can make my first step (silhouette) in the process as great as possible then it serves to make sure the journey itself goes in the best direction.

Seriously though, it's often thought that with a thumbnail or silhouette, the key thing is that it must be done as fast as possible. But that has very little to do with it. It's the readability of the design which is key (Jason Chan 2009). So ultimately, I want the foundations of this design project to be as strong and interesting as possible, so that in the end they best represent the story.