BA3b Creative Practice

Week 5 - Koschei's Citadel Environment - Citadel Silhouettes - Marya Sketches - Marya Piece Progression - Marya Final Character Concept

Creative Practice

Environments

The Citadel - Koschei's Domain

For my final technique I wanted to try using photos in my environment, as this is also an area that I haven't really explored very well - with my last matte painting being the summer before I started university which was a personal piece.

Firstly I started with thinking about the shape of how I wanted my main building to look. I played with a few shapes where some resembled more traditional castles, to towers and harsh shapes. Because I felt like already I was drawn to a few silhouettes, I stopped after 15 of them.

Favourite Iterations

These were the three iterations which I chose to take forward and experiment with. I particularly liked the mountain type design as I thought it was an interesting idea to have the castle built into the rock. I chose the second one because it had a solitary feel to it, and I thought that a wall around the front looked quite menacing in addition to the silhouette being very tall itself. I also picked the last version because it is the most identifiable as a castle/citadel/place of importance.

Thumbnails

Next I experimented with creating a few thumbnails which would give me an idea of how my silhouettes would look in an actual scene. Because I am quite a novice to environment design I wanted something that would challenge me but not to the point where I felt it would be very out of reach, which is why a lot of them feature the similar perspective of being far away. Even though this doesn't seem particular interesting, creating a building will definitely be the most challenging for me, which is why I didn't want to choose a perspective that was very complicated (for example looking up at it).

Progression

(The photos I have used are shown underneath this image)

To create my environment I firstly started to paint over the tower base that I had made and used a photo for the base colours. The more I worked into this however, the more I contemplated my decision to use the tower silhouette. I came to the conclusion that the shape itself wasn't as interesting to draw as I originally thought, which I also asked Johan about and he agreed that he thought it lacked the shapes of the other ones I drew. Because of this, I decided that it would be best to use one of the larger shapes which instantly solidified my decision that it was the right one. Already it made the horizon just look much more interesting than the tower and it took more space within the scene which composition-wise looked more appealing. My next task was to add additional photos, so for the castle I downloaded a free pack of photos from Photobash.org, and put together around 6 or 7 of these to create the base of the castle. For the rocks I found some photos from Google which I could mix together as the ground beneath it. I wanted to add something more to the water as I also felt it was a bit lacklustre, so I found a marsh type terrain image that I could also use to place of top of the water.

Now it was time to make the whole look more painterly, so one of my techniques that I've been using for years which I find is excellent for blurring images well and keeps the silhouette is Filter > Noise > Median. Median is so so good for concept artists because you can make the photos in your scene look as if they were painted, while keeping the silhouette - which the original Blur tool does not do. I learnt this in the graphic design department when I was studying art and design in college a few years ago and its been very useful for things like this. I then decided to paint the lighting, which originally was going to be blue but I decided to change this to a bright green instead. I felt that the scene itself didn't portray the evil environment that I wanted to convey, which is why I made this decision. This was also the case with the castle itself, I felt like it needed to have some element of originality than being a standard castle since this was meant to be set in a different dimension to the world where the game would be. This was where I added the dark vines which stretched across the castle, which definitely gave the castle a more interesting and sinister look.

Photos Used

Problem I Experienced

One of the big issues that I had while creating my piece was how blurry everything was. I usually use a soft brush when I work which is a bit of a habit as I feel that I have more control over it, although this wasn't particularly great for my painting as it was meant to have many harsh edges. To combat this I used Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen, which completely transformed my piece! It's crazy to see how much this effected the visuals of my artwork. I know it isn't to the standard of AAA concept art however it definitely made a huge difference for me and will affect my process in the future with how I approach hard surface imagery and environment art. Below I have images which compare the difference between the original and sharpened versions.

Final Environment

Finally, this was my finished result. I can't say I'm too pleased with how it turned out because I know that I really need to improve with the depth in my images in addition to drawing hard surface things like buildings. However, I am happy with some of the decisions I made with this - especially to change the shape from the tower, in addition to adding the vines all around the castle. I think these really enhanced the appear and made the piece just look more interesting.

Marya - Final Character Concept (Part 1)

In addition to working on my final environment I have also been working on my first rendered character - which would be for my portfolio and part of my character series that would be on display for the exhibition.

All I can say is ... I LEARNT A LOT from this.

I think the main reason this character took much longer than it should've was the constant revisions I was always making, whether it be to the pose, weapon, clothing or character herself. After doing this I have a whole new heightened appreciation for why concept art is so important, especially for art like this which should be given to the 3D modeller to use. I feel like it's important for myself at this stage to be drawing a sketch which is more accurate and defined which I can use as a base than scribbly poses to work from. I think it is still good to decide what kind of pose I wanted, but not for going straight into colour - which was a mistake I made. I should've drawn a more detailed sketch and then coloured over it, which I will definitely be doing for my next character instead.

Unfortunately I didn't take as many screenshots as I should've for this process but it's evident for many revisions went into this piece and the mistakes I have made. In addition to what I mentioned before, I also spent too much of my time rendering than figuring out the form.

Changing the Fur

One of the issues I had while drawing Marya was how the fur I drew looked really static and not like how I wanted. It was difficult at first because I liked how the jacket looked but the parts around her gloves and boots definitely needed some improvement. I started to look at different photos of furs and as I tried to analysed how the forms worked I almost had a realisation that fur doesn't look like its curved in one direction unless its on specifically designed clothing. Because this was a medieval setting, I wanted it to look less manufactured so I extended the fur lines in all directions - which gave this a much more realistic depiction of fur.

Finished Character Concept

A miracle to say but I'm actually really, really pleased with how my first character turned out - despite the rather annoyingly long revision process I went through! Not only was I happy with the result but I also learnt a lot from it, which is so essential for my improvement and going forward. Characters are definitely my strength and I feel that this is definitely taking me in the right direction. This is my first proper character portfolio piece that I would be happy to post on social media to advertise my art in the hopes of getting a job.

Professional Practice

At the end of each week I will be looking at job opportunities in my chosen specialism, relating to the role of a Concept Artist and/or Illustrator to further my knowledge of what it takes to be hired within the industry and what employers are looking for. These will include unrealistic expectations that I don't meet as of yet, but I feel that it's good to be aware of them.

Important: Some links may be available at the time of submission if the job has been filled, which is why I have written the date accessed and have presented screenshots.

Company: CD Projekt Red Job Title: Concept Artist Link to Job Page (Accessed 29th February 2017)