Concept Development - Character Thumbnails

After deciding that I wanted to create a stylised cowboy character, I then began to create some thumbnail designs. Thumbnails are an integral process to concept art, they allow you to find out what will work and what wont. The process also give a client the ability to have input into the design process, choosing which thumbnails they would like to see in more detail.

My technique for thumbnails is to block out the silhouette of the character using a hard round brush with a black colour. This is because the silhouette of a character has a huge impact on the success of the image, a good silhouette is interesting and can be recognised with no other details. Once I am happy with the silhouette I then move in with a hard round brush with a white colour setting, adding the illusion of a hard light hitting the character. At this stage of development it is not imperative that the lighting follows the laws of physics, that is the only way I could think of putting that haha. What I mean is that some details of the character would not be lit in usual circumstances, at this stage it is good to show those details anyway while trying to maintain a consistent lighting direction.

Once I was happy with the verity of thumbnail images I had designed, the next stage is to choose three or four that will work well for the brief and push the detail even further. This can be done by adding colour. I have chosen numbers 3,6 and 11. I don't want to push the stylisation to much as that would give the design more of a graphic feel. With that in mind I thought that these three designs fit the bill. I also decided that I will mix details from two of the designs in order to create an entirely new design. The next stage of the thumbnail process will come in another post, until then.....have a good one.