BA1a Concept Art Insects

Insect Project

The first project was an introduction to character design or more specifically creatures.
We were given the task of designing an insect, making the insect be realistic in a zoological sense was encouraged, for example: how would the insect eat, or defend itself.
The project was to be in a number of sections first being block silhouettes, to empty your visual library and also to find a creature that looks good even in the silhouette stage, many of the best characters look distinctive even from their silhouettes.

 This is my iteration page, I choose two silhouettes I liked and filled them in with tones, I considered other heads and features of the insect as well as how it would work in a zoological sense, I decided the insect would be a parasite, so its arms and face were redesigned to pull through flesh.

 For the character page I would consider how the insect would move, this page would in a professional setting be given to an animator, The insect is pulled around by its front body and can rear up, and lunge like a spider.







To paint my insect I used a technique called glazing, this separates out colour from tone making it much easier to paint, First I painted in the insect tonally,  and the using another layer set to soft light put in colours, more cold colours in shadows and warmer colours in the more lit areas, to add in the base colour I made another layer and set it to multiply and painted in the body, during glazing some of the tones are changed but most of the tonal work is done.

 For my final page I painted my insect in its environment I looked at raw steak for the texture of the wall, I'm not completely satisfied with how the insect came out but this is almost the first time i've used this technique. Sadly my first version of this painting was lost, I will save more frequently in photoshop in the future.

BA1a Research: Colour and Light

Colour and Light

Correct use of colour and light are vital for a concept artist, to create realistic looking images but also to add depth and drama to the image

 Example: Concept art for Inception

To create depth this piece uses aerial perspective on the buildings as well as painting the dust in the air in the mid ground, The background of the image is slightly out of focus mimicking a camera lens.
The almost all the light in the piece comes from the sky in the back which creates somewhat soft light, but lights the characters in a dramatic way.
Lens flare is visible in the top of the painting, adding effects that make the painting look like it taken with a camera seems to becoming more popular in concept art.

Example: Luna Key Visual for Final fantasy XV

Many effects in the image are used to make it seem realistic,
Direct light in the image comes from windows from the right and hits the floor and the lower part of Luna's dress, it bounces off illuminating part of the walls, guards and reflecting off the smooth floor.
This way of lighting the piece makes Luna the dominate the image, if you squint or lower the brightness the guards fade away leaving a sole image of her, making the character seem important.