Concept Development - Prop Concept

Using my thumbnail as a guide I created this new and more refined silhouette for my prop. I decided to change the proportions of the prop slightly, because I believe that this increases the interest of the silhouette.

A sketch was fleshed out using a white colour and a soft round brush, with a low flow value. Mapping out the details of the prop and giving me a guide to continue the development of the design.

The sketch was inverted to black and the silhouette layer hidden. Giving me a base structure to add block colours.

I used a light gray tone for the glass in the lamp. This was painted on its own layer, meaning that I could add detail using a clipping mask. A clipping mask will allow me to paint detail freely, without painting outside of the designated area.

A darker gray with a touch of blue hue was used for the metal elements of the lamp design. All block colours were painted using a hard round brush on 100% opacity with shape dynamics added.

I wanted the lamp to appear well used, this meant adding burn marks to the base of the glass where it has oxidized. As the glass is not completely transparent, you would not be able to see the naked flame inside. Yellows and oranges were used to mimic the dispersion of light on the glass material, with stronger orange tones towards the center where the flame would appear.

Next a basic texture was added to the metal elements of the lamp, on a separate layer with clipping mask applied. This was done using a custom texture brush, to give the impression of dirt and oil on the materials surface.

A new layer was created with a multiply layer style. This was used to add shading and light occlusion to the design. The effect was build up using a custom brush with a very low flow value, giving me the ability to create soft transitions between light and dark colour values.

On a soft light layer I used a light colour to add highlights to the design. Again using a custom brush and low flow value. I tried to keep the specularity of the material in mind, replicating this in the rendered highlights. The material is a satin powdered metal and I believe that this is communicated well in the final image.

Orthographic images were sketched out using a soft round brush with a low flow value. This gave me the ability to mimic the effects of graphite on paper. I used the guides tool in Adobe Photoshop to aid me in the process of creating orthographic projections, making sure that the details were correctly aligned. A front, top and side were created because the back of the object is the same as the front and the 3D artist may need a top view to successfully translate the design into a three dimensional object.

Concept Development - Character Model Sheet

As with all of my concept art I have a specific workflow. Block colour is added in separate layers allowing me to change these colours at will, later in the development process. These block colours were added with a hard round brush and 100% opacity.

The first bit of detail added was the characters skin. using many different layers, building up the skin texture. Looking closely at reference images you notice that skin is made up of many different colours including green. At this stage I had added basic shading and some sub surface scattering. This is where the light is showing up the blood that is below the outer skin level.



Dialing back the opacity of the subsurface scattering layer made the effect much more subtle. The basic shading layer was duplicated and had a field blur filter added to smooth out the skin texture. The textures were created using a custom skin brush, with a very low flow value.





The last bit of detail on the skin was the highlights. I didn't want to push this too far as my workflow includes the addition of highlights and light occlusion later in the process. These highlights were added on a normal layer style, just using a lighter skin colour and a custom skin brush.

For the characters jeans I overlayed a photographic texture of my own jeans. This was worked into using custom texture brushes in a variety of blue tones. Dirt was also added using a custom brush, giving the viewer more of an incite into the personality of this character.

Again photographic textures were used for the characters belt, working into this with custom brushes and a low flow value. Strong highlights were added to the belt buckle, pushing the idea of specular highlights on metal.

The characters shirt texture was entirely created using custom brushes, in many different layers. Slowly building up the effect of tattered, dirty clothing. At this point the body is looking a little bit flat but I am only concerned with textures at this stage of the development process. Light occlusion and highlights will come later.

Now it was time to finish off any small details such as the character weapon, eyes and boots. All created using custom brushed and a variety of brush settings.

With the overall textures completed it was time to give the character a bit of shape. Pulling him from being a flat image to something that jumps out at the viewer a little more. This was done by adding light occlusion on a multiply layer, with a dark colour and a custom brush with a low flow value. I have started using flow values more than opacity because it gives a more natural feel to shading, building up the effect in one continuous stroke.

Highlights were added on a soft light layer style. Using a light colour and custom brush with a low flow value. I wanted to really push the lighting at this point, putting a strong highlight down one side of the character really made this piece pop. I have noticed that Chris Robinson, among many other artists, use this same technique in order to give a bit of life to a character design.

Once the main pose concept was out of the way I started to work on an orthographic turn around. Using the ruler tool in Photoshop to create guides, ensuring that the front back and side sketches lined up correctly. It is very important that these details be correct when a 3D artist imports these images into a 3D package, in order to correctly translate the design into a 3D character.

Block colour was added to the orthographic projections, giving a clear distinction between different elements of the design. I decided not to add and detail to the projections, as this would have made it harder for a 3D artist to work from.

To give the model sheet a bit of flair I wanted to create a textured background. A fill layer was added with a slightly de-saturated brown colour.

Dirty textures were added using a custom texture bush and a low opacity. The paint splats are a custom brush that I created, just to add a bit of subtle interest behind each illustration. Highlights were also added to the background behind where each illustration falls. This was an attempt to pull the illustrations away from the page.

All elements were brought together and body copy added to give the viewer some information about the model sheet.

Finally I added some adjustment layers over the top of everything, pushing the curves of the piece to the desired level. The effect is subtle but I believe that it really give that professional finish.







I am very happy with this concept piece as I believe that it displays a professional standard that much of my previous work does not. I am beginning to understand the logistics of concept art to a greater degree and this concept piece definitely shows that leap forward.

If I were to improve on this piece I could have tilted the characters hat in order to add just that little bit more interest to the silhouette, even though I believe the silhouette to be very strong already. The proportions of the character were pushed just enough so that the character is believable but not too far as to alienate the design. The legs are slightly longer than that of the average human proportions, which was an attempt to give the character a bit of authority. I also tried to push the pose of the character to give his some personality and believe that this has been achieved.

Concept Development - Environment Concept

Bringing the chosen colour scheme into Photoshop, I decided to alter the sky colour in an attempt to bring the design together a little more. The colour was added using a hard round brush with 100% opacity and shape dynamics added. Shape dynamics give you a more natural feel when painting with a graphics tablet.

Moving forward it was time to add some detail to the concept. This comes in the form of photographic textures, these can act as a guide and be worked into using custom brushes in Adobe Photoshop. The layer that this is applied to is set to luminosity, allowing the detail to show through but displaying the colours from layers underneath it.

Using a custom texture brush I added some subtle highlights and shading, on a layer over the top of the photographic texture. At this stage I also painted some detail into the rocks on the underside of the floating island, using a custom rock brush preset that I created. Keeping the light source in mind, I thought about where the light would be occluded on the rocks.

A photographic bark texture was added over the top of the tree trunk base colour, again using a luminosity layer style. The texture was duplicated a few times and warped into the correct positions. I used the eraser tool and a low flow value to blend these photographic textures together.

Shading was added to the tree bark, wherever the light would be occluded. This was done with a multiply layer style, meaning that the information below the layer is kept intact. The base colour for the leaves had been removed because the edges were too harsh due to the hard brush used. I rectified this using a custom brush with a scatter setting and shape dynamics. The flow value was sat to 40% for this.

light and dark values were added to the leaves in two separate layers, one with multiply layer style and one with hard light. A low flow value allowed me to slowly build up the lights and dark's until the desired value was achieved.

Now it was time to add a little detail to the smaller elements in the environment. Photographic textures and custom brushes were used in order to add detail to this mine entrance.

some harsh highlights were added to any metal textures in the concept piece. I tried to keep these areas as small as possible, so that they would not distract the viewers eye away from the focal point in the composition, which I decided would be the mine entrance with light links leading out into the rest of the composition.

The small body of water was not clearly readable as water. In order to rectify this I copied another part of the image from a print screen. This was modified and pushed into position over the top of the body of water, giving the impression of light refraction.

Turning on the advisability of the shadows layer, which I had previously created, I added some more highlights in specific areas of the composition. Using the shadows as a guide for the correct placement, according the the light source.

In order to add a little more interest to the piece and push the perspective a little bit further, a small island was introduced to the composition behind the main island. This was created using a custom brush, to give the concept a traditional feel.

Custom cloud brushes were used to add some atmosphere to the concept piece, introduced with a very low flow value to build up the effect. I added thicker cloud formations on the underside of the island, to push the idea that the island is floating in the sky.

Finally a hard light layer was created and light values were painted in. This was to give the effect of a sun shaft, which lands on the focal point in the composition. Reflecting on this, more light value should have been added to the mine shaft area. At this time the light lands in an area with not much interest, just above the desired focal point.





This was an interesting task and I believe that the final result is fairly successful, considering that environment concept is not my strong suit. If I were to improve this I would alter the space in which the light shaft falls, in order to push the focal point in the image a little further. The buildings perspective could have been improved and more detail could have been added to them.

Concept Development - Character Sketch

 For this task I wanted to create a design somewhere in between numbers 3 and 11 from my thumbnail sketches. Using these silhouettes as a reference I created a new and more refined silhouette for the character design that I wish to move forward with. This was produced using a hard round brush, 100% opacity and shape dynamics. An eraser was also used with the same settings in order to cut out some negative space.

 Once I was happy with the silhouette, I then needed a simple line sketch that could be used as a guide when adding detail later in the development process. This proved to be a simple task when following the shapes in the silhouette. For the sketch I used a soft round brush with a low flow value and shape dynamics, giving me similar properties to a soft graphite pencil.

The line-work was completed in white in order for me to see it clearly during the sketch process. This then presented me with a problem, as I needed the line-work to be black moving forward. In order to rectify this I altered the levels on that layer, pushing the values all the way to black. Another way that I could have done this would be to use the colourize adjustment but I find my method much faster.


I am happy with the overall outcome of the sketch and look forward to fleshing out the character, 'sculpting' detail using colour and custom brushes.

Concept Development - Artist Admiration

Chris Robinson

Works for Blizzard Entertainment as senior art director on World of Warcraft. His way of thinking when it comes to art really appeals to me, adding character to digital works with the addition of traditional textures. He also uses custom brushes that mimic traditional mediums. More of this is needed to bring a bit of variety and flare to this digital age of art.

A quick digital sketch from Robinson of a stylized owl creature. Even in this simple digital sketch he has used custom tools to make it seem more traditional. In this case it looks like felt tip has been used for minimalist shading, when in fact it is a digital piece. The silhouette of the character is also very interesting, he obviously made sure to include some interesting negative space.

Pablo Broseta

Broseta uses simple brush strokes with custom brushes to get across an idea quickly. You can see in this example that the concept looks extremely detailed but if you look more closely you can see the brush strokes. He also uses custom brushes that mimic traditional media, bringing life and character to the piece.

Vivid colours are used which suggest a fantasy setting for this character, the blues and greens in the colour pallet really make this piece pop.

Mat Kolbeck

Kolbeck is a freelance concept artist. He uses multiple custom brushes in his work to build up the highlights and shadows in different layers. The smudge brush (Adobe Photoshop) has also been used in this piece to soften areas of skin and cloth. Again the silhouette of this character has been thought out carefully. If you were to look at just the silhouette of this character you can still make out the characters personality and mood from his posture alone.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bibliography

Broseta, P. (2016) Vieja Guardia [Digital]. Available at: https://cdn3.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/696/179/large/pablo-broseta-retrato-anciano.jpg?1451133485 (Accessed: 31 March 2016).

Kolbeck, M. (2015) [Digital]. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RKo3v (Accessed: 31 March 2016).

Robinson, C.G. (2014) [Digital]. Available at: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BdFXWQmCQAAXdxN.jpg:large (Accessed: 31 March 2016).