BA3b Creative Practice

Week 6 - Ivan Concept and Process - Studies and Sketches - Ian McCaig Interview

Creative Practice

Ivan - Final Character Concept

If I have learnt anything from drawing Marya it's that I will 100% be creating a more detailed sketch before rendering. I've definitely learnt from my mistake and I will be making sure my proportions are correct before I start colouring my design. To begin with I firstly sketched the anatomy and then his clothes on top.

When I started the colouring, I made sure that it was beside my Marya drawing, as I was listening to Bobby Chiu's interview with Iain McCaig (sourced in Professional Practice), who said that it's great to draw a character next to another one, as he quotes ''Just the relationship between those two shapes,...it really is the abstract putting together of two things that create a relationship and the story, so do that with your characters.' Not only was I able to unify the art-style of my characters more, but I was also able to look at how rendered I needed my character to be, in addition to similar details that make them both cohesive, like the chain-mail and patterns for the lower part of the outfit.

Chain-mail

Through drawing my character, I also came up with an efficient way for drawing chain-mail. I was inspired by the top 2 images with how it was drawn so I wanted to achieve something similar which resulted in the sleeves on the image below it. Since it will only be small parts of the character it didn't need to be exceptionally detailed as it wouldn't really be zoomed in on. Below shows how I did this, by painting lots of light 'S' shapes, highlighting the middle letter of each row, then darkening the other ones.

Process

This was my process which was much quicker than the Marya painting, even though I ended up changing the legs slightly to look straighter and more grounded, unlike the previous ones. Although it's not shown completely here, I applied the base colours first and then just worked on top of it.

Final Character

I think Ivan turned out quite well although he could use some extra improvements like the shading on the face and hands - which I usually struggle with. It was definitely noticeable how much quicker I finished him in comparison to Marya though, which definitely made it easier from previous experience.

Studies and Sketches

Because I knew I needed to practice hands which I had trouble with on the Ivan piece, I did some sketchy studies of different photos I had found. In addition to this I also practised some anatomy below.

Because I am very into the game Overwatch and loved the dynamic poses they have within the cosmetics section, I took screenshots and also sketched them. I thought it would be a great way to practice the dynamic composition of the characters with their weapons in addition to the general anatomy of each one.

Lastly, a familiar face I drew this week while watching Johan work!

Professional Practice

Advice from the Industry 'Artist Interview with Iain McCaig' - from Bobby Chiu Previous Work - Terminator 2, Star Wars, Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, The Avengers

One of the reasons I decided to draw my characters next to each when working on them is from listening to an interview with artist Iain McCaig.

'Here's the thing that they do like, if you're doing the usual character full body or whatever, stick another character in it.' - Iain McCaig, 46:13 'The moment you take a figure and then put another figure next to it, if it's bigger - that diminishes that figure [or if] that ones bigger it makes this one grander. If you put it behind it's a little intimidating.' - Iain McCaig

- 46:17

'Just the relationship between those two shapes,...it really is the abstract putting together of two things that create a relationship and the story, so do that with your characters.' - Iain McCaig - 46:28

Jobs

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: Hi-Rez Studios Job Title: Concept Artist Link to Job Page (Accessed 8th March 2017)