Semester 2 Summary
During semester 2 I focused more on developing concept art by implementing my research into practice. I chose to focus on character design over environment design as I considered it the weaker area of the two (I felt more familiar with building design due to having studied architecture).
I started off by trying different drawing techniques to develop a concept style that suited me and used a video game character (Edelgard) I was familiar with to draw in various art styles. This confirmed what I already knew: I was comfortable with illustration but found quick concept sketches difficult to manage. I then moved onto concepting a book character who is South Asian (Mehr) as practice for having a brief but no visual reference to copy from, so I found my own visual references to create my interpretation of the character. This time I was given a time limit for creating 18 different versions of this character. As I kept drawing I found that once I was familiar with the character, each design was quicker to draw.
Using advice given I've been practising 10 min sketches of the characters I've developed since then and found that I was more successful when I wasn't trying to create an exact replica of a reference (as I've always been used to) and instead drew my own interpretation of the character.
As my overall focus is on fantasy genre video games, I then went onto concepting original fantasy characters of South Asian origin. This became the main focus of my semester 2 as I spent the rest of the semester developing 4 main character concepts: jewellery warrior class, jewellery mage class, embroidery warrior class and embroidery mage class. I chose jewellery and embroidery as themes because they have a strong link to South Asian culture and I thought it would be interesting to explore these themes in a video game setting. I believe this developed from my research in semester 1 and my objectives this semester to establish a methodology for authentic design. I tried to achieve this by moving away from the western mindset of a 'warrior' and 'mage' class and used historical references of South Asian warriors and magic to create designs that felt authentic to the culture.
At first I relied too much on the references I had as I was still mimicking what I was seeing whilst drawing. As a result my work lacked imagination, flair and interest for the viewer. I believe this was because not only was I unlearning my self-taught art style to adapt to a concept art style, but also that I struggled to find visual references which were helpful for my designs. This was a problem I ran into quite a lot as South Asian fantasy is not a well developed art concept, and most of the references I could find were often orientalist and examples of what not to do. With advice from my tutors to start by taking a historical reference, e.g. Mughal warrior, and changing one element of the design, slowly I felt more comfortable with coming up with interesting concepts and trying new ideas.
In addition to Practice 2, I felt that our Research 2 assignment also helped with developing my concept style. By networking with concept artists I was able to learn how to establish a methodology that suited me and the important aspects of concept art. All in all, I learnt that there is no one way to concept, and my style should be a combination of what I, the artist, deem important and what is required from me in the situation e.g. client's needs, design limitations etc.
My objective this semester was to develop a concepting style so that I could create authentic South Asian character designs, and I feel that I managed to achieve this with a lot of trial and error on my part and also with the support of my tutors. I found that concepting requires a lot of output where more ideas are rejected than accepted, and more importantly is my ability to generate ideas and adapt as necessary, rather than achieving the perfect design in the first attempt. I hope to take on board what I've learnt this semester into my final third semester to create a project that uses good concept art practice to create innovative and authentic South Asian inspired game design.
I started off by trying different drawing techniques to develop a concept style that suited me and used a video game character (Edelgard) I was familiar with to draw in various art styles. This confirmed what I already knew: I was comfortable with illustration but found quick concept sketches difficult to manage. I then moved onto concepting a book character who is South Asian (Mehr) as practice for having a brief but no visual reference to copy from, so I found my own visual references to create my interpretation of the character. This time I was given a time limit for creating 18 different versions of this character. As I kept drawing I found that once I was familiar with the character, each design was quicker to draw.
Using advice given I've been practising 10 min sketches of the characters I've developed since then and found that I was more successful when I wasn't trying to create an exact replica of a reference (as I've always been used to) and instead drew my own interpretation of the character.
As my overall focus is on fantasy genre video games, I then went onto concepting original fantasy characters of South Asian origin. This became the main focus of my semester 2 as I spent the rest of the semester developing 4 main character concepts: jewellery warrior class, jewellery mage class, embroidery warrior class and embroidery mage class. I chose jewellery and embroidery as themes because they have a strong link to South Asian culture and I thought it would be interesting to explore these themes in a video game setting. I believe this developed from my research in semester 1 and my objectives this semester to establish a methodology for authentic design. I tried to achieve this by moving away from the western mindset of a 'warrior' and 'mage' class and used historical references of South Asian warriors and magic to create designs that felt authentic to the culture.
At first I relied too much on the references I had as I was still mimicking what I was seeing whilst drawing. As a result my work lacked imagination, flair and interest for the viewer. I believe this was because not only was I unlearning my self-taught art style to adapt to a concept art style, but also that I struggled to find visual references which were helpful for my designs. This was a problem I ran into quite a lot as South Asian fantasy is not a well developed art concept, and most of the references I could find were often orientalist and examples of what not to do. With advice from my tutors to start by taking a historical reference, e.g. Mughal warrior, and changing one element of the design, slowly I felt more comfortable with coming up with interesting concepts and trying new ideas.
In addition to Practice 2, I felt that our Research 2 assignment also helped with developing my concept style. By networking with concept artists I was able to learn how to establish a methodology that suited me and the important aspects of concept art. All in all, I learnt that there is no one way to concept, and my style should be a combination of what I, the artist, deem important and what is required from me in the situation e.g. client's needs, design limitations etc.
My objective this semester was to develop a concepting style so that I could create authentic South Asian character designs, and I feel that I managed to achieve this with a lot of trial and error on my part and also with the support of my tutors. I found that concepting requires a lot of output where more ideas are rejected than accepted, and more importantly is my ability to generate ideas and adapt as necessary, rather than achieving the perfect design in the first attempt. I hope to take on board what I've learnt this semester into my final third semester to create a project that uses good concept art practice to create innovative and authentic South Asian inspired game design.
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