Mood Boards with Tony

In today's lesson with Tony, we were in the mac computer room and he gave a presentation about mood boards.

One of the roles of a mood board is to establish a palette and to gather ideas for a design.

An archetype is the first of it's kind, a stereotype is when there are more than one of it's kind.

Our task for today is to create a mood board of a character, with the goal of creating the bust of the character.

• Research/Assemble technical references - e.g. costume, weapons. 
• Research/Assemble archetype characters/faces - (consider as casting list). 
• Research Setting - urban/landscape/architectural details/culture & period. 
• Include element of appropriate typography/fonts. (Maybe natural form/environmental). 
• Establish colour palette (and colour swatch). 
• Synapsis & name of game. 

pirate week 16

Today we were drawing a model dressed up as a pirate in Tony's class. The aim of the lesson was to create a realistic looking life drawing.

To begin with I did the drawing in charcoal to make sure everything looked okay, then it was time to colour it in using pastels. 

I think the end drawing was a success because it has a realistic look to it for the most part, the lower end of the image where the hand and gun is needed more work doing to it though. The shading and colours used on the face, hat and clothing seem to work really well.

Portrait week 15

Life drawing portraiture face, the aim of today's lesson was to draw out the model's face. We are working towards preparing ourselves for creating concept artwork, this drawing will be of the model's face and shoulders; muscles and bone structures.

First attempt practise drawing

To begin the drawing I drew out the form using simple shapes, a circle for the skull.

End of the day photo

The technique of drawing out the forms before doing any detail works really well as it allows me to get the drawing accurate and lifelike. I am pleased with the result in this drawing as it is my most favourite drawing this year to date.

The head is created from the skull; cranium, face, neck and jaw. These parts are drawn in using spheres and shapes. Drawing in the foundations first makes the work much easier in the long run. We were given diagrams of the forms for human anatomy, it showed simple shapes to use which really helped with drawing this piece. The muscle diagrams helped too.

The Perspective in Concept Art

Video games that are represented in 3 dimensional graphics allow us to experience realism in the virtual world; perspective allows us to mimic the real world by adding depth to the rendering. 

2 point perspective 

The image above is an example I made in Photoshop; the object would be more realistic if the vanishing points were spread further away off the image. 

2 point perspective 

3 point perspective 

In a perspective drawing, an object gets smaller the further away it is from the viewer. 

If an object overlaps over another object, it will appear closer to the viewer. 

Colours are less saturated the further they are away; the more air the light travels through the more the colour is affected. 

Distance - Saturation 

1 point perspective 

The 1 point perspective was used by Leonardo Da Vinci in his Last Supper painting. 

The Composition of Concept Art

When concept art is created; lots of planning and thought goes into the process. Concept art is created using a set of rules to allow for a pleasing appearance/layout. 

One important thing is to start with is the horizon line; the artist must decide where the horizon will be so that they can see the perspective. The horizon line fits best sitting on one of the rule of thirds. 

The rule of thirds is where the image is divided into a grid of 3 by 3; the main focus point of the image should intersect where the horizontal and vertical lines meet. Other parts of the image can be less to scale, contrast or colour; leading eyes back to the main focus point. 

Using the the golden ratio 1:1.618 allows for the viewer to focus on the main area of the image. 

The diagonal rule can show movement, such as a beach shore line or a river. 

An S-line is for example, a curved road in the shape of the letter S; it shows flow or movement within a scene. 

The triangle rule is where three objects are positioned in a triangle; our eyes naturally move between objects. Most humans are used to reading from left to right. 

The frame rule is where an object reveals another focus point through a hole such as looking through a keyhole or a window; the object we are looking through is like a frame. 

Avoid Clutter; any unnecessary elements in the image will distract the viewers from the main focus points of the image; distractions or clutter may appear in the foreground or background of the image. Light objects against dark objects, flares, telephone poles, wires, etc can create clutter in the composition. 

Undesirable Mergers; avoid positioning a tree directly behind a character, if a tree appears to be growing out of the character it can make the image less effective.