Colour Study

The next step in the Concept Visualisation unit of work is to add colour to one of the Value Studies that I have produced. Here's what I have chosen to add colour to, before and after colour.

So as you can see, there are some huge differences from the initial value study to the improved colour study. Many of these changes took place due to proportions, such as the width of the waist and the length of the legs. However other aspects, such as the second bed roll and the flag where changed to fit the overall composition of the character.

Looking at Light

Light is one of the most important aspects of art, without it there is no form, no colour and no sense of distance. Today we had a lecture on the importance of light within images and how to recognise different forms of light, from Bounce light to reflected light. Below are two images I have chosen, and I'll be talking about the light sources of the image and how realistic a portrayal this is.

Above you can see a concept art drawing from the game "Halo 4". The direct light source isn't visible in the image, but its coming from somewhere in the top left hand corner and you can see this from the shadow cast across the hangar. There is a small light source on the right hand side of the image, in the form of a bar or light connected to the hangar itself that slight illuminates the surrounding area. Light is also bouncing off the meteor in the top right hand corner of the image, reflected onto the hangar itself.

This second concept art drawing is for "God of War: Ascension". The direct light source is coming from the top right hand corner of the image, and the shadows from the struts above the building can be seen on the ground. There is also a small amount of light coming through the fabric in the right hand corner, which is bouncing off the ground and illuminating the water in the bottom left hand corner. Finally, bounce light from between the struts is illuminating the ceiling of the tunnel slightly by reflecting off the ground and upwards.

Character Biography

Another thing that Nigel said would be a good thing to do to help me develop my character further was to write them a Biography, and that is exactly what I have done below.

Our soldier began life as a simple farmer boy with his mother and father. He didn't have particularly high aspirations, in fact he only wanted to inherit his father's farm when he was ready to become a man and continue the family business. However, he chose to take up arms and join the military when pirates attacked the farm, hoping to use it as a new hideout on land. The soldiers parents are killed in the raid, but he survives and flees to the nearest town where he is taken in by another family. He is driven to join the military to fight against the pirates and avenge his parents death, and achieves his revenge a year into military service. However, after many years of service with the military, the soldier is forced to leave after his Commanding Officer deems his methods too vicious and cold for the army. The soldier feels betrayed, but follows his officers orders and leaves, searching for a new use for his skills, with nothing but his tattered uniform, a sword and a musket.

Value Studies Cont.

I've decided to further develop one of my Value Studies in response to the Group Teaching session that we had on the 16th. Below you can see the development and the variations I have come up with from this particular silhouette.

As you can see, from the first development of the Silhouette I have created a number of different variations in much greater detail. The first development itself was one that I felt wasn't good enough to be worked on any further, but a lot of people said that they preferred this particular work. So I decided to experiment with it a bit more, and this is what I came up with. Below are the three developments in a larger image, and a brief explanation of what I was thinking with each.

With this image, I was inspired to give my character a torn flag because I saw a number of Value Studies in Group Teaching that incorporated flags and I liked how this was done, and also to represent the soldiers dismissal from the military. He has his weapon drawn to highlight his brutality and vicious nature, and has bandages around one eye to illustrate what he has lost in his past, and the wars he has been in. His uniform is torn, but still wearable and his backpack holds all of his possessions.

This Value Study depicts the soldier leaning on his gun to walk and I wanted to use this to show the distance he has traveled prior to meeting the witch. His weapon is still drawn, but is lowered as if to show the soldiers violent nature has been slightly tamed in his travels. I wanted to experiment with the hat and coat, so I made his hat smaller and coat longer just to see how it would look.

The third and final variation of this value study shows the character leaning on his torn flag, furthering the idea of his tiresome journey and the longevity of his travels. His hat remains the same, but his eye patch and short coat have been returned in this study, and his sword is now sheathed to show that the journey has almost completely tamed his violent nature. Finally, I developed the backpack to have more compartments and a second role of fabric.

Value Studies

After the creation of the silhouettes, I have begun to work on Value Studies of a select few of my silhouettes. Below you can see the first two attempts I made at developing silhouettes:

My third variation is the one I am the most pleased with, and I have managed to develop this particular silhouette into two different variations of the character:

Soldier Silhouettes

Here you can see the 50 Silhouettes I have put together to form a basis for my version of the "Soldier" from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Tinder-Box". I have created them using a Custom Brush that I made using Adobe Photoshop CS6, with the help of a Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet.

Synopsis of "The Tinder-Box"

Another task I had to complete for this particular unit of work was to summarise the story of "The Tinder-Box" by Hans Christian Andersen. This will give me a much better idea of the story itself and make sure I don't miss any crucial information about my chosen character, or lack of crucial information.

The story of "The Tinderbox" by Hans Christian Anderson is briefly summarised below:

            The story begins with a Soldier, returning home from the war. As he travels home he meets a Witch, who tells him about a hollow tree that, if lowered inside the tree, leads to three rooms that each contain copper, silver and gold. These chests are guarded by three dogs and if they are placed on the witches apron, they will let the soldier take as much money as he pleases. She only asks for an old tinderbox in return, that can also be found in the tree. The Soldier agrees, and collects as many Gold coins as he could carry, and then grabs the tinderbox and the Witch carries him up to the surface.

            However, when he gets to the top and the witch asks for the tinderbox, he questions why she wants it. When she doesn't tell him, the Soldier cuts off her head with his sword and leaves with the tinderbox as well, heading towards the nearest town.

            When he makes it to the town, he surrounds himself with luxury and friends, giving generous amounts of money to the poor and living in the most expensive places he could find. However, the money started to run out, and eventually he was left with just 2 shillings. He was forced to leave his luxury and his friends and return to a life of poverty, his only possession being the tinderbox that he had taken from the witch. He used it to light a match, but one of the dogs appeared. He soon realised that by striking the tinderbox he could summon the dogs to do whatever it was he wanted.

            He commanded them to get him more money, and the soldier returned to his life of luxury. Learning of the beautiful princess that lived in the castle, but was not allowed to be seen by anyone by order of the king because he's scared she'll marry a soldier as was once prophesised. So the Soldier commands the dog to bring him the princess one night, and he instantly fell in love with her, and kept asking the dog to bring her to him every night. The royal family eventually found him and ordered the Soldier to be hanged.

            In the end though, the soldier outsmarted the king and queen, and ordered the dogs to save him from being hanged so they killed everyone, leaving the Soldier to marry the princess and rule the kingdom. The wedding festivities lasted a week, and the dogs remained there viewing the celebrations through their strange eyes.

Research into Georgian Europe

In my latest project, I've been supplied with a time period to base a character of "The Tinder-box" by Hans Christian Andersen around, and the era I have been allocated is "Georgian Europe". I have chosen the character of the "Soldier" for the sake of this project because the soldiers of this particular time period where known for bright uniforms, and I think I'll be able to adapt this and create a realistic character. In order to successfully transpose this character, I have to undertake some research into the time period itself. Below you can see the research I have done, along with a number of reference images for my chosen character.

The Georgian Era was the period of time between 1714 and 1830, and spans the reigns of the first four Hanoverian Kings; George I, George II, George III and George IV. After reading "The Tinder-Box" by Hans Christian Anderson, I would like to focus on the character of "The Soldier" for this particular project.

Architecture within this period of time was characterised by the emergence of the Gothic Revival style, similar to the image you can see to the right. This particular style of architecture is profoundly intertwined with the High Church and similar ideals, along with a strict resistance to the Modernism movement. The origins of this movement date back to the 1740's and is known as a very ornamental style, incorporating medieval gothic styling and contemporary materials and construction methods. This particular style of architecture has always interested me, with the medieval atmosphere that can be felt throughout the entire building, I would like to incorporate this kind of style in my own piece. However, I feel such a style would be better suited applied to the environment that the character finds himself. That way I could better capture the style of architecture in the greatest detail.

Soldiers among this time period typically dressed in a red regimental coat, a white shirt, grey trousers held up with braces, shoes and a cap. These caps differed for each regiment, and this is a detail I could look at changing, even the traditional Tricorne design could be replaced with something like a Shako. It was known that in some cases it was the bright colours incorporated in the uniform that attracted men to the army, so I can integrate this into my own work when I begin working with colour. Typical weaponry of this kind of Soldier was a Brown Bess Musket and a Bayonet, a very unreliable weapon. From the 1790's soldiers were also equipped with Service Swords, but these were carried by the cavalry or infantry officers.

Below I have included a number of reference images that I can refer to as I design this particular character and their respective environment:

 

Freshers Project

We were given a little project to do over the first week of the course; we had to draw either an Environment, a Prop or a Character in Norwich Castle, but adding our own twist. Our Group (Group B) was given an Environment in the Castle Keep, and our chosen theme was "Derelict", specifically "Nature taking back the castle" as Jordan explained to us. Here is my work in this theme: