Website adress

http://poomnegotiated.blogspot.com/

Researching other character design

Looking at what other people do for character design in google, there is no background at all. Instead it is more focus on character, one or as a group. But if I change the key word to concept art for game, then I will find characters in the setting.

Researching character design

I have research on character design and I came across an essay "Character development and its utilization for convergent media formats" by Vira Haglund 2012, summarizing what he wrote

The character has to be intriguing, the character need to make the audience want to see, read more about them. The viewer need to feel something for the protagonist. The character needs to be detailed for the viewer to care for. “In order to achieve an emotional bond between character and audience it is crucial to equip the character with traits, a personal background, motives, beliefs and values which are convincing and believable.” Haglund,V(2012)

Matte painting background for Jake

These are reference images

Why I chose these images, I chose the castle because I that is where he live. From the character design I made him look wealthy so a castle is a fitting place of resident for him. I had to change the lights that effect the castle. The second picture got a nice feel to the landscape, It look dramatic because of the sunset. The mountain and everything looks like hell perfect for the last boss. I removed the dragon and replace it with the castle. I  The fantasy tree on the last picture, it wraps around the castle, to give a feeling of getting control, overwhelm by the dark energy. So I change the texture of it so it match the background.

Source from

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/228839224789615174/

Source from

http://www.wallpaper4me.com/wallpaper/Volcanic-Dragon/

Source from

http://wallpapers-kid.com/fantasy-hd-wallpapers-1920x1080/fantasy-hd-wallpapers-1920x1080.htm

Collage the three pictures + Jake

Final image(need to fix a few details)

Sketches

These are the sketches for fiona, I have brainstorm many pose for Fiona. The reason I chose this pose is because I think of the pose myself and I feel better using what I draw.

This pose is a mid action pose which means the background will have to be in action as well, to justify her reason for running. Which is harder to be done.

This pose is a fighting stance, it would be strange to have character in fighting stance without anything to fight with, which makes it harder to draw background again.

I quite like this pose but I copied from other artwork so I feel wrong to copy others.

My quick sketch on Fiona, most of the detail are to make Fiona look different than Lilly. I chose clothes that make her look poorer compared to Lilly.

The face in the middle is the redrawn for version for Fiona, top left is for Lilly.

This is a sketch for the villain Jake. At first I give him a helmet so he would look more like bad guys like in Star Wars. I had a look at many medieval helmet, and I chose one which looked fantasy and bad ass. But I design my other characters without any armor so I feel this character should not have any armor as well.

background for fiona

Drawing background on top of other painting seems like cheating so I tried to make some changes to make it original. Drawing background is not what I do often so this painting is more like an experiment to me.

The building in the scene is from Venice I collage it with a castle that is half destroy. I didn't use the trees in the reference because post apocalypse shouldn't have any trees.

Reference images

When I create fiona, I think about my other characters. I want her to compliment well with my other character, Lilly.I chose this reference because, I think two handed axe will make the character personality looks straight forward, and aggressive. It will contrast well with the main character. The choice of clothing, I chose cloth that will say that she is from a poor family, not as wealthy as Lilly. The long skirt is to contrast with Lilly.

Fiona third character

The choice of color is more warm side, because I want to express her personality to be aggressive, and straight forward. Fiona live with her father since she was young, her mother had an affair with another man.At the apocalypse both Fiona and her dad survive.

Her dad is a carpenter, Fiona help him chop tree with her axe. After the apocalypse Fiona axe gain power and become available for combat.

Jake done

Jake is a prince most of his family died to the meteor. Jake turns corrupt, he is the main villain.He is the head of the monster army.His sword drains the life of a fallen foe and gives the user power. But the power also corrupt the user with hatred.

Rough coloring

Outline drawing

 This first one is a mistake, I drew the head too big which will make the character looks short. So I fixed it to make the character looks taller.

Reference research

The reason I chose these reference is because most of them look like a villain. I like the style of cape in this picture.

His inner shirt looks like a fitting cloth for Jake.

Looking at the cape that shows fighting experience.

Villian with long hair can also look handsome.

While I was searching for reference I found this and I thought this could be good clothing style for Jake. I only used the trouser part.

I like the design on the chest area.

This sword looks like it will drink some blood after a kill so I like it.

More reference on Villains with long hair.

The thing on his back I use in on my sketch, then decided to remove it because it looks out of place.

replace the house with trees

Researching essay

Looking at how other people create their work, in conclusion there is no right or wrong ways. It just depend on what the artist is most comfortable with.

Sergi brosa

You create short back stories for alot of your work, is this something you do after you’ve created the piece or do beforehand?

This is a free creativity area. What I mean is that sometimes I have a very clever idea to express, and sometimes I just start something and then I create a story for it. Sometimes I start with an idea and suddenly I see that an other idea could fit better with what I am doing, so I change things, and give them the new story.

Giving a back story to a piece is not easy, because you need an understandable image that explains everything by itself (who are the characters, where they are, what are they doing, and what is the final message of your piece) Fitting all of these things in one image is exhausting. So sometimes I just relax my mind and draw single characters, pinups, concept vehicles etc to make my life easier.

You have recently mentioned your plan to release an art book what can you tell us about that?

Yes, I can tell you good things and bad things about it. The good things; I think working for yourself is the best thing you can do (atleast someone like me). No one changes colours, no one who can tell me “that is not appropriate” or “this doesn’t fit our readers-watchers target”. So feeling free to do whatever you want to do is awesome. I think this is something we all would like to do because we are not robots obeying orders all the time. Saying all this, I don’t mean that having a good art direction over you is a bad thing. Many people know what things you could change in a piece to make it better. But there are always bad art directions, or art directions under the pressure of specific marketing studies that change everything you do. So then you loose your own personality in your pieces. This is why I think doing personal stuff is very satisfying for yourself and for your mind.

http://movingsketch.com/?p=1850

Adam Adamowicz

Main concept art from Fallout3

"Visualizing all of the aspects of a make believe world is quite an educational experience. On any given day I could be simultaneously learning about multiple topics, from motorcycle engines to 50’s fashion design. It’s kind of like writing and filming a National Geographic documentary film for an actual sci-fi world. For this job, I think the more you read on a wide variety of subjects, the better equipped you are to create depth and realism, especially for a fantasy setting. The fantastic that’s grounded in real world elements and then elaborated and exaggerated upon, seem to work the best, and create a solid jumping off point. This often creates fertile ground for generating additional story elements that can influence costumes, machines, and even motives for the various personalities inhabiting a made up world. 

http://www.awesome-robo.com/2012/02/farewell-adam-adamowicz-visual-mind.html#sthash.wu3nBAip.dpuf

Painting finish background

 I chose forest area and her house as a background in the evening. Using reference image I took from real forest.

Studying drawing building and post apocalyptic

I have no basic of drawing background, so i ll start from learning from videos and draw some buildings.

finish color character

Improving my coloring skills

Learning from watching others is important process in improving my skills.

I have put my artwork online for sale in
http://www.artpal.com/jace

coloring character

Looking for contest

Drawing practice

As I am not sure about which style i had to draw I start from the basics and study anatomy. As every style is a representation of reality.

Reference for background city

These are some image reference for the city layout, color both pre and post apocalypse. These are just images that I like, it is not use in any painting.