Maskelyne final (wip 4)

Urhhhh getting there! this is basically the finished character concept now, just working on the back perspective view, then maybe some final tweaks depending if I'm happy with the character in a few days. I can finally move on and design some more stuff for the scene then!

Dragon design final

Spent some more time on the dragon design, calling it finished for now, pretty happy with how it turned out. Need to move on now and start designing Maskelyne's boat looking forward to it.
Next blog post should be of some image references and hopefully some thumbnail ideas for the boat, im also going back and trying to finish of the Maskelyne character design.

Dragon design final (wip2)

Here's the progress i got with the dragon today after working through different ideas. I intend to do a back perspective view as well to accompany this concept so you can imagine the dragon almost in 3d. Pretty happy with how its looking at the moment, with the large claws and thick looking head makes the dragon look really strong and powerful. The concept is basically done i think... although ill have a rest on it now until tomorrow and ill see if there's anything i think could be changed or improved.

Dragon design final (wip1)

Here is the start of the final dragon design, just a quick sketch for now taking ideas from different concepts i created. I will now start painting and adding in detail, overall im pretty happy with the pose, although quite simple it looks powerfull.

Dragon ideas continued

After drawing the initial black and white ideas I wanted to move on and develop some closer studies and ideas for dragons, I really enjoyed this approach and I think it worked really well to get the idea across on how the rest of the dragon will look. Combining this with my previous sketches I have a perfect starting point to work on the final design for the dragon. My favorite design is number one because of the chunkiness of the neck and head, I like how the snout isn’t long but really short with a large lower jaw that you can imagine has tremendous strength and biting power. Another part of the design I really like is the battle scars, as this dragon is meant to be an old, ancient dragon I would presume it’s been hunted in in the past, or possibly had fights with other dragons so I wanted to really show its age and power with battles scars. One idea I came across was having the dragon being able to breathe and land and under water, because the dragon’s lair is underwater I would presume it could either hold its breath for a long time or can actually breathe underwater so I started to add gills to the design such as in number 4. I will mostly likely take design 1 further although I will use different elements and ideas from the other thumbnails and concepts I have created.

Dragon ideas

Here are a few dragon ideas i worked on today using the reference images i collected as a starting point. My favourite of the designs are 1 and 3, I'm not to keen on design 2 mainly because of the wings i don't really like them attached to the front arms, also i don't think the narrow snout works well, i imagine the dragon to have a much stumpy broader face like in 1 and 3. I'm not quite sure witch of the two i like the most yet, i like how the 3rd design looks large and strong but i really like design 1 as well with the broad head with the jagged scales. Ill probably do a few more sketches, like some head close ups in colour to figure out some colour schemes etc.

Dragon Referances

Here i gathered some reference images so i can start designing the Dragon for the scene. (Sorry for the backwards numbering just realised) I first started to look at 'real life dragons' such as the Kamodo dragon and other reptiles like the crocodile which will be very helpful when designing the dragon because of the scales and pointy armour the crocodile has on its back. I then began to look at dinosaurs and actual dragon designs already, just to see different views on what a dragon look like in different peoples opinions. Although i have some parameters to stick to like black claws, brown dragon with large wings threes still a lot i can do with this to make an interesting design. I'm pretty swamped with work at the moment, struggling to work on 3 projects a week is getting tough. Not even had time to finish the Maskelyne character design, but i need to press on and do some design work for this. Ill have to go back to other work when i can to finish it, but at least the design is down for that character it just purely needs painting. So I'm going to work on sketches and ideas for the Dragon today, looking forward to it!

Unmer Blunderbuss final Concept- Changes!

After not being too happy with the blunderbuss final concept i got some feedback on the weapon and began working on alterations to the design to improve it. Here i tried replacing parts of the weapon with dragon bone pieces, although i quite like the idea I'm not sure it fits the weapon description. I imagine the weapon to be carefully crafted with detail and care, but having it made out of mostly bone i think it looked to scrap built and kind of messy.

Blunderbuss final concept

So here's the final....final concept i think, i went back to the old design but fixed a few things up which i think improved the overall design, such as changing the detail on the stock, while also adding a polished dragon bone decorative plate which breaks up the weapon from the metal materials. I also like the rivets along the underside of the barrel from the dragon bone design so i copied that over onto this one. And i think i made the brass/gold parts of the weapon actually look like metal.. i hope? much better than before i think anyway. Back onto the character design now..........

Maskelyne final (wip 3)

Today's progress with the character design, Just working on the front view at the moment. Again i want all the work i create for the project the best i can possibly do, so I'm not trying to rush anything (Although i am keeping a track on how long stuff takes me and hopefully improve my work flow). Recently ive been looking at Alex Garners work who creates beautiful paintings that have these edgy sharp brush strokes to show folds in clothing so I'm trying to incorporate some of this into my work. Tomorrow in class i can hopefully get some feedback on the first week of starting work properly, the more i look at the work i do the more i feel unhappy about it and want to change something, Hopefully tomorrow with a fresh view on things and feedback ill be able to solve any problems i have.

Referances
-Alex Garner Devaintart page: http://alexgarner.deviantart.com/

Maskelyne final (wip 2)

Trying to push on and get more done on the character design. Blocking in some colours, not to sure on the deep red pants yet, although i do think the character needs some colour of some sort. Also working on the face trying to sort any problems out by flipping the canvas back on forth. Still needs a fair bit of work.

Unmer Blunderbuss final Concept

Here's the final concept peice for the Unmer Blunderbuss that Maskelyne uses in the book. Now that this weapon if finished i can include it in the Maskelynes character design . I am pleased with how the design turned out, the silver and brass materials work well with the overall design and feel of the gun, the skull and glass bulbs under the stock of the gun make it seem a bit more mysterious and gives the impression its not just a normal weapon.

Blunderbuss final design (wip 1)

Finally managed to get the final design for the blunderbuss sorted! just need to do a paint over now and finish the design. After drawing the thumbnails i began blocking out a 3d model choosing the best parts of the ideas i liked, such as the detail on the stock, and having the glass bulbs underneath the stock which will prevent them from getting in the way as much as they on the top or close to the firing mechanism. I also added other details to improve the design such as cables and more patterns behind the skull that also serve as an iron sight. Going hopefully finish this weapon design tonight so i can work on the final design for Maskelyne more. Pretty happy with how the design for this weapon turned out though, i thought the skull was going to look really out of place and make the weapon look really of balanced but by adding the curls of metal behind the head it makes the bulk of the barrel blend into the rest of the gun making it look much better.

Blunderbuss thumbnails

Here are a few thumbnail ideas for the blunderbuss weapon. The main requirements that the weapon has to have is the skull infused onto the end of the barrel, the glass bulb attachments on the stock. and runes and shapes decorating the weapon. So this is what i came up with. At first i struggled trying to get the skull to look right on the weapon as it made the barrel look really weighted at one side, so i beefed the guns up a bit, and even tried to infuse the skull into the gun by having metal pieces clasping onto the skull. I like the edgy sharp parts to the designs, i also really like the stock for design two.  Next ill take the design i like or take different elements from different designs to start blocking out a 3d base model.

Blunderbuss referances

Think its time i start work on the blunderbuss if i want to include it in the characters design. So here a little mood board of images to get me going on designs. Probably going to start some thumbnails then try block something out in 3d, and use some nice perspective renders to work on top in Photoshop.
Pretty rushed for time, struggling to stick to my time schedule already, Maskelyne and the weapon concept should be finished this week as i need to start designing concepts for the dragon in week 5.....
I'm way of from anywhere finishing the concepts so Ive got a lot of work to do tomorrow. Ill do my best for getting it done for Monday, while also juggling the other modules.

Maskelyne final (wip 1)

Urghhhhh! poses take me far to long, definitely need to improve on that, the one area that takes me the longest as i keep re doing, and re doing the poses until i get something I'm fairly happy with. Pretty pleased with this one just hope it will either stay the same or get better while in the painting process.. ow and the back pose, even harder! gonna try do some figure drawing at night when i have some free time now and then, just quick 5-10 min poses to try and improve.
So quite a lot to do with this character now, i also need to start designing the characters blunderbuss if i want it in the design. I will do a separate design sheet for the weapon but i think it would be nice to include this with the character.

Thoughts on concepts

Here I've combined all the ideas and concepts or even certain parts i liked. This will give me a good starting point for the final character design. Usually i find the first design i do is usually the weakest but i like something about the face of the design, it fits the description well will a sunken face and also look quite intelligent, which i don't think i could get across in the other designs. Ive also made some notes and changes i want to keep in mind for the final character design. So i best get started and also begin designing the blunderbuss he uses in the book.

Maskelyne clothing ideas..

Here's a few more clothing ideas for the character. Again i tried different variations for quite posh clothing looking at men's Elizabethan clothing and fashion.

Maskelyne continued..

Further progress on Ethan Maskelyne this time focusing purely on face designs and ideas. I'm also going to do a few more quick ideas for different clothing before deciding on which design to take forward as i will have a fair few preliminary sketches to work from then for the final character design. I quite like these face designs because i think it fits the description well, the character with a long face and strong features, especially in 'B' its almost as if you can see the bones of his skull. I also imagine the character to be quite worn out looking, large dark bags under his eyes and almost looking malnourished because of all the travelling and away from land the character does.

A head start...

After gathering research and reference images i began sketching some ideas loosely. I tried to keep the character slim looking and have a sunken face. I wanted to design the characters clothing as he is described first in the book, quite posh looking and intelligent. I have also started to block out ideas of what he would be wearing on his boat while the dragon attacks. A thick Whaleskin cloak along with boots, gloves and a mask of some sort to protect him again the poison sea water. I quite like the facial ideas but I'm not set on the pose or clothing so i will be doing more design work before i finalise on the design to progress further.

Ethan Maskelyne referance's

The first scene to start for this project is where Ethan Maskelyne fights a dragon on his boat at sea.
So i chose to start Maskelyne first and began gathering all the information i found in the book. Such as: Tall, lean man with a long cadaverous face. Brine spots stippled the back of his hands. green eyes shown vigour and intelligence. Maskelyne is described wearing more posher clothing earlier in the book but for the boat scene he is wearing mostly whaleskin clothes and cloaks with goggles to protect himself from the brine waters. So i may decide to design both clothing although he will be wearing the whaleskin clothes for final scene painting. Following the descriptions i have gathered as many reference images as i could find for literally anything that could influence and help design the character from clothing ideas, poses, face ideas and even images to help design the whaleskin clothing. Next i will start the process to design the character using thumbnail images and sketches.

Progress

So I decided to read 'Sea of Ghosts' a great book by Alan Campbell. While I was reading this book I started to gather descriptions of characters, weapons, interesting scenes etc. This then formed the foundations for my project as my aim is design various parts of the book to show I can illustrate and design following a description while also using creativity to come up with interesting designs.

 After reading the book and compiling the reference document from the book I began creating my project plan deciding on what exactly I will be doing for my Honours project, and also working out a time schedule to help plan and organise myself. I quickly began to realise that I needed to cut my outcomes in half as I had set myself far too much to achieve over the two semesters, so things had to be cut down and shifted around. I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to get the work done in time, but I need to get good start as soon as possible and keep up the momentum.There was one more factor in my schedule I had to account for, printing my work into a book to display the concept art. This is a problem because most online book printers needed around 10 business days to deliver, so I have had to shift the schedule around again and account for getting the book put together and ready to be sent so that I will get it by the deadlines.

If all things go to plan, my next post will be showing mood boards and thumbnail sketches for possible character designs... looking forward to it!