Start of semester 2 & developing concept style
After my semester 1 submission and verbal feedback from tutors, I realised that I spent a lot of time on research and theory in semester 1 and little on actual practical work. Therefore to improve upon last semester's work I will make sure to draw a lot more and start to incorporate my ideas through my own artwork. At the same time, I hope to develop a coherent style for concepting and move away from illustration as a starting point.
Since my submission 20 days ago I have been drawing what interests me. After showing Jim what I had been drawing, we agreed that I should practice drawing this character in different art styles to improve my skills. The character I decided to draw is Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She has 2 outfits within the whole game (student outfit - pre-time skip and empress outfit - post-time skip) and I chose to draw her post-time skip empress design where she is now the ruler of her kingdom. Her character appears in the game as so:
The following are the different styles I did of Edelgard:
First I tried a painting style above but I felt that it was quite flat and splotchy. Although the colours seem to match I wasn't happy with the effect from using the hard round photoshop brush so with Jim's advice I tried new styles.
Next I tried a comic style with a more dynamic pose as seen below. At this point after studying the character design for the first drawing I felt more comfortable drawing her outfit. In order to draw this pose I used a pose guide as an underlay and drew over it:
In addition to the time limit, Josh also advised that I incorporate South Asian culture into Edelgard's design as a way to start implementing my research from semester 1. I looked at various South Asian clothing for reference and settled for a bridal reference as Edelgard's main colours of clothing are red and gold, which are traditional bridal colours for South Asians. I simplified the design of Edelgard's clothing to avoid depicting her as a bride and instead made it more practical for an empress. The design on the left below was my first attempt to map out clothing ideas. This was much more quicker to draw as I tried to implement more the concept style of drawing that Josh talked about. Although the first drawing took around 5 mins to do, I tried again to hone down the clothing idea in the design on the right. This took longer to do (around 30 mins) as I wanted to include embroidery details to better represent South Asian clothing. I am quite happy with the design I came up with on the left. Josh also suggested that when concepting more like this, I should take care of the pose I draw the characters in as they can inform the viewer of their personality. I will take this into consideration when concepting other characters.
The following are my 10 minute attempts at concepting Edelgard (mostly portraits and one full body). I can't say that I'm very pleased with how they turned out as when trying to get across the important details I didn't take care with anatomy and facial structure so the faces/body doesn't look right. These are the 10 min drawings:
Following the conversation I had with Josh on Wednesday, I've decided to start concepting more characters from fantasy books that I've read. This is so I can practice concepting characters which do not have visuals already e.g. comic, film, video game etc. and instead I can interpret the description myself. I will focus on both South Asian and non-South Asian characters (with the latter attempt to bend their design to fit a South Asian style) in order to practice incorporating South Asian fantasy into my concept artwork.
Since my submission 20 days ago I have been drawing what interests me. After showing Jim what I had been drawing, we agreed that I should practice drawing this character in different art styles to improve my skills. The character I decided to draw is Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. She has 2 outfits within the whole game (student outfit - pre-time skip and empress outfit - post-time skip) and I chose to draw her post-time skip empress design where she is now the ruler of her kingdom. Her character appears in the game as so:
The following are the different styles I did of Edelgard:
First I tried a painting style above but I felt that it was quite flat and splotchy. Although the colours seem to match I wasn't happy with the effect from using the hard round photoshop brush so with Jim's advice I tried new styles.
Next I tried a comic style with a more dynamic pose as seen below. At this point after studying the character design for the first drawing I felt more comfortable drawing her outfit. In order to draw this pose I used a pose guide as an underlay and drew over it:
After speaking with Josh last Friday I decided to put a time limit on the drawings I did to try to push myself to concept better by getting down the crucial/main concepts of Edelgard. He also advised using opacity, which unfortunately I couldn't get to work as my drawing tablet experienced some issues. Instead I played around with the flow of the brush and was able to produce a portrait of Edelgard within 20 minute below. I chose to focus on her head accessories such as her head piece and choker so that she would be recognisable as Edelgard. Josh did mention that this drawing was similar to illustration and that I should focus on getting the idea across rather than perfecting an image.
In addition to the time limit, Josh also advised that I incorporate South Asian culture into Edelgard's design as a way to start implementing my research from semester 1. I looked at various South Asian clothing for reference and settled for a bridal reference as Edelgard's main colours of clothing are red and gold, which are traditional bridal colours for South Asians. I simplified the design of Edelgard's clothing to avoid depicting her as a bride and instead made it more practical for an empress. The design on the left below was my first attempt to map out clothing ideas. This was much more quicker to draw as I tried to implement more the concept style of drawing that Josh talked about. Although the first drawing took around 5 mins to do, I tried again to hone down the clothing idea in the design on the right. This took longer to do (around 30 mins) as I wanted to include embroidery details to better represent South Asian clothing. I am quite happy with the design I came up with on the left. Josh also suggested that when concepting more like this, I should take care of the pose I draw the characters in as they can inform the viewer of their personality. I will take this into consideration when concepting other characters.
The following are my 10 minute attempts at concepting Edelgard (mostly portraits and one full body). I can't say that I'm very pleased with how they turned out as when trying to get across the important details I didn't take care with anatomy and facial structure so the faces/body doesn't look right. These are the 10 min drawings:
Following the conversation I had with Josh on Wednesday, I've decided to start concepting more characters from fantasy books that I've read. This is so I can practice concepting characters which do not have visuals already e.g. comic, film, video game etc. and instead I can interpret the description myself. I will focus on both South Asian and non-South Asian characters (with the latter attempt to bend their design to fit a South Asian style) in order to practice incorporating South Asian fantasy into my concept artwork.
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