Week 4 Prometheus

This week I was interested in breaking down Prometheus' armor a bit more so I did some concepting, we wanted to work with the original color pallet amount of white and additionally gold or purple to show divinity or dignity/power. 

Prometheus - Robots color pass

I really need sleep

Prometheus Round 2 - Robot Ideation

Taking the feedback from the first round of robots I presented to the group and to Nick, I worked on a few more designs based on the chosen silhouette. After talking with the team, we wanted to give the robots cloth in some way, not necessarily attached to them but in some way draped around them, and with the silhouette that I got, the figure really spoke to me as a robed figure and most of my designs reflect this.

Prometheus Concepting

I was chosen as one of the Art Directors in the theme world project, my story was a sci-fantasy retelling of Prometheus.  In our retelling Prometheus shapes robots instead of humans from the earth, establishing a connection between our great builder Prometheus and her creation.

2D Visual Development Character and Scene - SciFan Prometheus

Reference: https://www.pinterest.com/PrismGhost/musa-the-golden/

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=moebius%20floating%20city&rs=typed&term_meta[]=moebius%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=floating%7Ctyped&term_meta[]=city%7Ctyped

Creating a more robust and Sci-fantasy aesthetic for a world has always been a goal of mine in a design project, and Moebius continues to be a great inspiration for art in that vein.  Prometheus is a bit of an odd character to adapt in many ways because he's generally depicted either nude or in a pretty simple robe, but since I wanted to push the other-worldly and ethereal aspects of the Titans and Gods I think my Prometheus will start a bit more regal. 

I'll likely end up simplifying the design as I go forward, but Moebius had a habit of giving large complex articles of clothing with elaborate linework alongside gradient blocks of color.  I'll likely end up reducing the detail around the legs and belt area, leaving the greatest area of detail around her chest and arms.  Creating a detached exterior that is alien to the new life our prometheus surrogate brings light and technology to.

I figure I couldn't do a more fitting subject for thematic and shape exploration than the iconic scene of Prometheus enduring his punishment.  For this I'm doing a bit of changing to the original myth to make it a little more thematically relevant to the character and the irony of her punishment at the hands of the new gods.  She is chained by the unbreakable metal of her own making and the rock is replaced with a crystal which stores the sun's energy, where the titan Prometheus gets fire from to give to humans.  Plot-wise I still have a bit to work out, but since I'm specializing I'll have more time to put into working on this and my 3D with less time split between all the balls I have to keep in the air.

Story/Myth Restyling

I'm going to be recreating The Myth of Prometheus in a sci-fi setting

we're gonna tempt fate again and go for Moebius

Lighting and Recreating Robo

Junk Robo is a go-go!
This week's assignment was to create a 3 point lighting arrangement and recreate the subject.
For this I placed a favorite junk-assembled robot on top of various sketchbooks to stabilize it on the slanted light table.  The light table provided a strong rim lighting all around the figure, while the light form the room provided ambient light, and I used a friend's phone flashlight for the spotlight.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the result, blocking out the shapes and sampling the colors directly from the photo was easy enough as I worked them in the same document. The lighting is fuzzier in my recreation but I feel it's more dramatic and emphasizes the 'giant robot stomping through the city' look I had tried to recreate with the under lighting.

John Berkey Paintover

Original by John Berkey

Paintover of my model without perspective lines

Recreation by me, with paintover lines where i could identify relevant perspective

Drew Struzman - Composition Study

This week we tackled recreating one of the iconic movie posters by the immensely talented Drew Struzman.  The Thing being one of my favorite movie posters of all time, I chose that one. 

I would credit the success of Struzman's composition to the Diamond and radial elements that focus the viewer on the unknowable but subtly identifiable nature of the titular Thing.  The light radiating from the Thing's face focuses the composition on the mystery of its identity.  The spiked halo surrounding the head adds mystery to the picture before you understand the location of the movie, revealing the hood to be a furred hood attached to an insulated winter coat, combined with the splotchy nature of the marks at the bottom of the poster, a keen viewer can guess the movie takes place in a cold environment.  The diamond is created by the Thing's stance combined with the whipping snow serves to frame the figure, the only representational element, as the primary and only focus of the scene. 

9-14-18 Digital Live Drawing

Frank Franzetta Value Assignment

This week's assignment was to apply value to a linework by the great artist Frank Franzetta.  I'm a little unsure about the result, I feel like I'd need to make another pass to be satisfied, maybe with a harder edge brush and try to blur the result instead of using a soft edged brush.

Sillhouette Studies - Brian Froud

Week 3's 2D assignment was to create sillhouettes branching from one of the designs of Brian Froud.  I followed the vulture anatomy of Skeksis (this big ugly vulture magician guy) and developed a cast of bird people (and a bat for good measure) to explore the shapes and attitudes of various avians turned humanoid.

I really enjoyed the more robust shapes of the bone vulture and the peacock, but the kiwi might just be my favorite of the bunch.

Syd Mead Shape Study

For our second 2D assignment we were asked to do a simplified shape study of some of the works of legendary concept artist Syd Mead, I chose one of his sleek car designs to focus on

Overall I really struggled with this one, I think I'll likely revisit it to touch up on mistakes I'm seeing as a continue to review it.  I think I'll try making rough 3D model of the shapes in order to get a better visual understanding of how to shape the forms more convincingly.

2D Art First Post

2D Art First Post