Symbols - Concept development

Since I don't have different characters of different cultures of my own, I've been using inspiration from Asia, Africa, Middle East, and Western, to portray different versions of the same thing - Michael, the angel of righteousness, war, and justice.

Inspiration/mood boards:

Middle East:

Africa:

  Asian/Japanese:

My own doodles:

Middle East:

Africa:

Asia:

Next step is to refine and decide on a thumbnail I think suits the situation most, and to create 4 final pieces.

Symbols in culture and history

"A symbol is a sign which has further layers of meaning. In other words, a symbol means more than it literally says." - http://web.mst.edu/~gdoty/classes/concepts-practices/def-symbols.html

As mentioned in the quote above, symbolism is what we use to bring across subtle messages, stories, meaning, etc, which can evoke thought or emotion. Through out history, mankind has been using this to communicate with one another in different ways:

There are loads of symbols and connotations I've not been able to fit into my moodboard, but I've arranged some of my personal inspirations, such as religion or comics. I want this to implement these symbols throughout history and culture into different designs. Use my angels/demons as a base because they're already well established figures in my world. Use Michael, symbol of righteousness, justice and war.

Religion in Video Games

Do video games spend too much time emphasizing the violent aspects of religion? Some thought provoking reads to relate to my own religious class for my fantasy world:

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/02/study-says-video-games-have-problematised-view-of-religion/

"What all of these games show, and what should have been anticipated, was the connection of religion to violence. "

"...religious groups seem to frequently serve as gamers’ adversaries, and who hasn't played a JRPG in which you have to kill God? — this study is far too limited to make any reasonable conclusions about the nature of religion in games. You could write an entire thesis paper about the religious overtones in titles like Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor or mythology-packed action games like God of War or Dante’s Inferno. It seems unfair to judge the entire medium based on a selection of five modern titles."

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/03/objection-religion-in-video-games/

"In a recent sermon the Pastor makes this point: in the media most people of religion are represented as being either violent, hypocritical, mentally weak, suspicious, deviant, or as bare faced liars.

Despite being an atheist I actually believe that the representation of religion and religious people in the media is, in general, pretty one-sided and negative. I think video games as a medium is simply following in those same footsteps."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2012/04/religion-and-video-games/

"A game doesn't have to feature religious conflict to have religious content."

(part 3) How different races identify one another - Video-games

How races in video games view each other...This is an extremely wide area of study. So I'm going to pick out two examples of different cultures in games, and then discuss Euro-centrism in MMO's.

Mass Effect series - 18+ races - A beautiful example of different cultures/races co-existing in a video game. Of course the setting is space, which is much larger a singular planet like I will be doing! None the less, I'll be focusing on Citadel races. These are races that follow the Citadel Council. There are 9 races.

Of course, being under the "Citadel Council" umbrella term, does not mean they have much else in common. I find this to be a beautiful example of extreme different shapes, species, religion, biology, environment etc still being connected. More interesting, the Asari are found to be attractive by all the races (again, focusing on Citadel races). Some races first contacted one another, and have stranger bonds. Ideas of communication are different, as shown by the Elcor's inability to show emotion visually/verbally. There are plenty of examples

Humans are the most diverse physiologically, and are also the newest members to the Citadel Council. As there's nothing else to compare to, the viewer/gamer is found to believe human beings are the norm and compare other races as so.

But in Mass Effect, I'm impressed as how humans are not the "best" (or "worst") species. They're all balanced. This counters my research made into Elves and overly-powerful humans in MMO's.

I will most likely do a large study case on the interactions between different species' in the Mass Effect series for my Dissertation. So I will expand on what I have now more throughout Semester 2 :)

Final Fantasy X - 5 Races - Human, Guado, Al Bhed, Hypello, Ronso -

The game focuses on a common enemy, similar to ME, but that doesn't stop certain tensions and histories between the races. But I chose this game for the reason that no one race is completely isolated/evil. Even the Al Bhed, who are hated so much for their different views, are not "evil". The just work differently to the rest of the world. In Final Fantasy X-2, it's sequel  it's addressed and are widely more accepted, as is their culture and way of working. Humans are dominant race, with some past tensions with the Guado. Ronso are an isolated and very visually and culturally different beings, but peaceful and seen with respect, until the happenings within the FF X story.

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Euro-centrism in video games 

Euro-centrism Definition: is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective. 

As with elves in MMO's, it's fairly evident that theres a certain impression of what the 'best kind' of human looks like, and how simply put, the white male is the role, the majority of characters will have blue eyes, and the body shape and mannerisms matches those of the West. European impressions are noticable in many areas of media, but the study of euro centrism in video games is very recent, new, and does not have much supporting theory, but the evidence is over-whelming. From the stereotypical Final Fantasy characters created in Japan, to games created in America, the rest of Asia, and even Europe, why is there a set formula of white, blonde, blue eyes?

This blog by student Andrew Leeson (http://andrewleeson.wordpress.com/) is a short few-posts bank of Euro centrism evident in video games, and he covers things from racism to half-breed characters in games. A great bank of knowledge even if only afew posts long, and I plan to read his reference sources to gain my own insights into euro centrism.

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

My studies into the psychological side of race perception is coming to an end. Soon, I plan to focus on visuals, such as symbols, clothes, and colours of cultures. I am almost 100% certain I'm going to start walking away from the words "race perception" and waddle towards "Social Interactions."

I hope to incorporate all the knowledge I've gained over race perception in real life and video-games and incorporate them into my final artifact. Time to get cracking!!

and Merry Christmas. :)

References and Websites with good information for later:
http://facts.randomhistory.com/facts-about-race.html
http://kotaku.com/5358562/minority-report-the-non%20white-gamers-experience
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?419136-Avoiding-Eurocentrism-in-the-non-human-races-(and-fixing-Tom-Bombadil-s-skin-colour)/page2

(part 2) How different races identify one another - Physical Attraction

I've covered the "Cross-race Effect", where it effects everyone's mentality, regardless of what race the individual is. But there's also the case of different visual attractive points and first impressions within our own races. For instance, in the West, slim is attractive, there is specific percentages for what males/females find attractive about one another, mainly in face shape. Of course, beauty is subjective and the average from surveys/other case studies are the most reliable answers possible, but I aim to find out what different cultures find visually beautiful within their OWN cultures, as apposed to race's judging one anothers physical attractions/traits/methods.

For instance, it's well known in Chinese history young girls would bind their feet to make them appear smaller/not grow, as that is found attractive.

African/Asian women of some tribes use rings to make their necks appear longer for many different reasons, one is to support their culture, to make themselves beautiful and of their own tribal identity.

English women would wear corsets to change their body shapes into what was considered beautiful waist-to-hip ratio in the past.

It is not uncommon for women of Africa to bleach their skin lighter. However in the West, a tanned skin is preferred as it shows beauty in the sense of health and wealth.

Men are also just as important in cultures. Depending on the culture, hairiness is seen as extremely attractive and a sign of masculinity, and in others it's the exact opposite.

"The key to judging someone accurately is that you have to be able to compare within cultures, not between cultures."

Also some great notes on clothing on different races, and how we rate them in social class and visual attraction in references...

References:
http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar05/slices.aspx
http://www.psychologyandsociety.org/__assets/__original/2012/01/McDermott_Pettijohn.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_attractiveness

(part 1) How different races identify one another - Cross-race Effect

"Cross/Other-race effect" is essentially the answer to the commonly heard "They all look the same" phrase used when one member of a race is trying to identify an individual in a different race:

The main idea of the other-race effect is that “Eyewitnesses are less likely to misidentify someone of their own race than they are to misidentify someone of another race” (Wells & Olson, 2001 , p. 230). For example, if you are Caucasian, you are more likely to misidentify someone who is Asian rather than if they were Caucasian. An explanation for this is the theory that “They all look alike,” which states that within a person ’s race they recognize the diversity among members, but when it is a member of another racial group the person does not see any real differences.

Ways to reduce Cross-race effect: "A study was done in which participants were forewarned about cross-race effect and how viewing individuals holistically according to stereotypes does not lead to the correct identification of facial expressions. Instead, participants were encouraged to focus on individual facial features. Interestingly enough, results from this study showed that the cross-race effect could be reduced and sometimes even eliminated when participants were wary of it. Therefore, cross race effect may be a result of people using stereotypes to holistically process faces rather than analytically view individual parts of faces to identify an emotion. This study also shows the effect education may have in helping our society to reduce cross-race effect as a whole. When individuals are more aware of how they may be falling into the trap of stereotyping, they can make accurate judgments about people."

If this is the case, and I want my project to portray different races without discrimination, what can I do to warn my audience in advance with this new information? How can I visually translate. I understand first impressions are very important, and are a part of what makes us human and identify danger/threat/fear...But they can also be wrong. This literally applies to the phrase "Never judge a book by it's cover.", yet, we always do. The same things apply to race perception.

References:
http://www.kon.org/urc/v6/schlick.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19676-they-all-look-the-same-race-effect-seen-in-the-brain.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect / Hugenberg, K., Miller, J., Claypool, H. M., (2007). Categorization and individuation in the cross-race recognition deficit: Toward a solution to an insidious problem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 43, 334 - 340.

Politics/Law/Religion with different racial groups?

A keen area of research I have been exploring and processing into this blog post the last few days is how different fantasy character species interact with one another, and to hopefully incorporate that into my character design in the future. One of the main questions in my jellyfish is:

Why is a sense of identity or humulity missing from fantasy characters/races? (e.g. All orcs and trolls are bad. What if a select few trolls were good? Why are they all bad? What if it befriended an enemy species?) How would two conflicting/similar/alien races interact? What politics are involved with such fantasy settings? 

Unsure whether to drop this, refine it better and revisit it in the future?

For certain, I will need a political agenda for all of my fantasy races, and I already have a religious complex set up which will serve as a "law" to some of the more faithful species. Of course, I want to avoid ALL of one race worshipping, as not to lump them/make them indistinguishable as individuals...

Things to look at more indepth in the future :) Will probably take a case study or two!

Study Case: Guild Wars Races

My Thoughts

Charr culture shares similarity to: Mongols, Roman Empire, Industrial Ages. 

Guild Wars is adorned with 5 playable races. What is suprising is Human's are most played. What is unsuprising to me is Charr's are an undesirable choice. My opinion on the matter is because in GW1, the Charr were just the "enemy". They weren't playble, they weren't very distinguishable, they were a race built for war and hate. I personally remember killing low level Charr's at the start of my GW experience, and them being labelled the "enemy" in my head. Only in GW2 did the Charr topic broaden, an extensive history given (one of which is still riddled with conflict with Humans) and the species finally given a chance to look good to players. But even still, they're described as harsh, creatures born to fight, their colours are mostly brown and red, and their brutal honour centered life-style is still negative views. 

"The charr would be the main threat to the humans of Ascalon, so we wanted something inhuman, iconic, and intelligent." - Katy Hargrove, on creation of Charr for GW1

Of course there are more races, but I'm focusing purely on a race that's been vilified, was once (and still often can be other than a select few in the GW history/universe) undistinguished from one another, and has a feud with the Human race (who lean more towards good, pictured in much lighter tones than Charrs, but aren't without fault!!)

Others opinions of races in GW2 (what they’ve been inspired by)

-          Disappointment at 5 races and humans being most selected. Why? Lack of imagination.

-          “Asura are scientists, tinkerers, and inventors.” “They are a large, predator race – in appearance, they clearly draw resemblance from canine and feline species.” “Human popularion exists at an interesting nexus of pastoral and industrial.” “The Norn are totally not Vikings. Any resemblance to Nordic mythology, or to Britain circa the 9^th century, is totally coincidental. Right?” “The Sylvari don’t simply dwell in nature; they are nature.”

References:

http://www.arena.net/blog/the-artistic-origin-of-the-charr

http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/16/3513902/guild-wars-2-writer-disappointed-in-games-players-heavily-favoring

http://kotaku.com/5938135/the-history-of-tyria-is-written-into-every-square-inch-of-guild-wars-2

Inspiration, motivation, methods and communication *Honours Guidebook*

This post is to clarify my last informal post, and to follow the recommendations made in the 4th Year Honours Guidebook.

Project is self motivated. I have to stay true to things that inspired me to pursue concept art as my major skill, and the motivations it'll take to achieve this by creating fantastical characters living among one another, and show my passion for fantasy character design and explain to viewers my research and understanding of concept art, story, illustration/technical skills for art, and appropriate interaction to make these characters seem more realistic and empathize-able with.

Critical Description: To research and present how fantasy characters of different species or social classes interact and live among each other in media and video games, and to input this research into creating fantastical characters without resorting to a black/white good/bad bias of classes/culture. *This will be clearer and edited as my research progresses in Semester 2!*

Reflection of work: Researching X, experiments will be Y, generating Z

Inspiration: Concept art and development of beloved existing characters. The research process.

Motivation: Beautiful emotive visuals and stories.

Methodologies: Case study and practice-based approach.

How I will communicate, interpret, define and experience the ideas: Through my methodologies, I aim to create pieces of work that will convey what I have researched and wish to express to viewers. I will use imagery, symbolism, story, etc, to define my research through my art. I want to show fantasy characters interacting with one another and the world around them, without resorting to the usual cliche's and stereotypes.

Update: Sketchbook and Methods

I will be journal-ling both in blog and sketchbook. I'll upload images every so often to this blog, but mostly I'll be using the sketchbook to document the iterativeness of concept design. It's just easier to scribble down in 2D in pages and pages over fidgeting with layers in Photoshop! It'll also count to my Concept Development Log, Pre-Production, and will help aid me in showing "This is what I researched, this is what I learned and drew from that" process. I'm sorry for the simplistic terms, I hope this makes sense! I'm usually very confident in sketchbook logging, but I've been lacking this semester. This might be more to do with the research, journal reading, focusing on an aim and proposalling, and I hear Semester 2 will be mostly practice based research, but I feel like I'm already lacking! :O

So I hope that makes sense! If not, tl;dr, see sketchbook for pretty doodles.

As I proposal away, this is for certain; I'll be using a Practise-Based and Media Research method of research. Due to the sensitivity and emphasis on humanities-centric/races, Qualitative research may also be involved with my project briefly.

Personal Development - Life Drawing 3

Todays bunch. It may be until Semester 2 for the next Life Drawing installment. I spent the 20 minute session drawing different body parts rather than settling on a single drawing :) It was pretty action packed today.

Michael & Gabriel

Concept art for 2 of the 5 "Swords and Shields" angels.

Both deemed as solders of war. Michael is an icon of battle and victory, and Gabriel is personified as an angel of divine forgiveness and mercy (and lesser used for icons/avatars in battle).

Personal Development - Life Drawing 2

Only one long pose today, of which I messed about with colours and trying to tackle the face...Which I failed at doing (digitally). There are afew analogue/sketchbook sketches too, which I'll scan in and update this post with in the next few days. :)

EDIT: Scans

Focus Group Discussion

Week 10, and in today’s lecture Lynn and Brian discussed a new method of collecting data; Focus group discussion. So for the class I played as the facilitator and governed a group of 5 girls, as we talked briefly about games (mainly, trying to pick a game they've all played to discuss it) and we settled on Pokemon.

I asked what they liked about Pokemon, and carefully listened into their conversation as they discussed various gameplay experiences. Used words: "All the same", game immersion, fun and challenging, everybody has a different connection/experience of game e.g. Judy talked about slot machine and gambling aspects, while others spoke of starter Pokemon and others about eggs/breeding. Everyone has a different story, Pokemon games allow this.

When asked what they liked about Pokemon games storyline, "meh" was an answer. It's not a focal point, and while objectives are there, it's not that clear, and the topic started to slide to jokes and the theme song. This shows me as the facilitator story is not an interesting talking point to them, and it's really hard to keep on topic with a group of friends! And not to get involved with discussion!

After generic questions were asked, I added my own, "How do you feel about original Pokemon, and how do you feel about all 649 them now?" And as always answers were varied.

Many pros and cons, a great learning experience, and I wonder if I'll use this method of info gathering in the future :)

Angel/Demon Hierarchy

Robin and Lynn had suggested at Crit Week that I look into and establish a hierarchy for my angels (and demons) in my fantasy world. I'm still waiting for my copy of Paradise Lost, but I'm going to power on through with my current set of angels.

I've looked extensively at different religious hierarchies and it's been the most useful on information. Of course from Holy book to Holy book and even website to website details vary, but I find this gives me the opportunity to take a grounded idea and turn it into something my own and new. I have however decided to keep the angels/demons holy names as to keep a level of familiarity.

Angel Hierarchy

Voice: Metatron, Seraphiel
Sword & Shield of Peace: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Raphael, Azrael
Gifted Virtues: Humility, Kindness, Patience, Diligence, Charity, Temperance, Chastity

Demon Hierarchy

Voice: Lucifer, Lilith
Sword & Sheilds of Chaos: Leviathan, Beelzebub, Mammon, Asmodaeus, Mammon, Belphegor
Poisonous Sins: Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony, Lust

Angel Voices and Swords & Shields dwell in an unimaginable parallel plane to the world they watch over. The plane is referred to as the Higherworld by most species, while some disregard it's existence and some believe that is where paradise after death lies. The truth is no living creature outside angels have seen the Higherworld, there is no record of how it looks, and no souls but angels inhabit it. The very same truth goes for the Lowerworld, the inhabitants of demons. But instead of a paradise, it's seen as a place of fear and nightmare. 

Minus the Voices, angels and demons can be killed by one another. No species has the means to kill these creatures. When an angel or demon dies, it is replaced. Angels or demons cannot reproduce, and instead are spawned in their respective planes, but it is unsure how. In the space of a year they are full-grown and matured, ready to take on the role of the angel before them. It is extremely rare to see a child or teen angel on earth. Demonic children or teens are more common, and take three years to mature.

3rd class angels and demons (virtues/sins) exist for the world. The Virtues try to aid the beauty of the world while the Sins try to destroy it. They influence the world quietly. Different cultures/species believe they do this for different reasons. The world could continue to exist without angels and demons, as they only serve to influence the inhabitable, not the environment. 

In my research of demons, I've found there to be much less significant information available than of angels. While there is a set hierarchy with angels in Holy texts and various kinds of cherubs and seraphim, there is surprisingly only 7 Princes of Hell, Satan (who is a Prince of hell), and the 7 sins linked to them. I found this quite strange, and had to dig deeper into mythology (especially Christian mythology involving the story of Lilith, and finding out about fallen angels such as Naamah, an angel of prostitution) to fill holes in my lacking demons.

Visually I'm still taking elements from different angels, media and fashion, and applying them to sketches. I'm hoping my next blog post will be an update into different male/female hairstyles in the real world from different time periods translated into fantasy feathery angel hair for my characters :) I'm hoping that will create distinguishable and unique characters. After hair, I'll move to fashion and clothes, and will actively be practicing life drawing to match different body types. And soon after, fashion me some demons. :)

Personal Development - Life Drawing 1

13/11/2012 - I'm so rusty!

(I hope to attend life drawing weekly and will update my blog with progress posts. I will practise anatomy, and how to utilize digital sketching/shading while working from life.)

Personal Development - Grey to Colour

Commonly used way to colour in Photoshop by professionals; greyscale to colour. Pros: To get all the shade values and lighting correct on the final piece without having to worry about using the 'wrong colour' (or a colour palette that does not mix well) in the picture e.g. deep browns and oranges on skin as a tone. Every thing is constant.

Con: Personally found it hard to colour on top of grey even with layers. This might be my own technical skills being limited. When colouring on top, I wanted to go further, and instead of altering the grey I started trying to add different hues for skin (later deleted). Again, colouring hair was hard to differentiate from skin due to flat grey layers. I found it messy.

May produce more sketches or works like this in grey to colour to practise tone.

Tooth Fairy

A creature that won't be in my fantasy world or that I plan to draw but found very interesting was the Tooth Fairy. It is a very interesting mythological character, in that it doesn't have a particular set image like Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. The reason I chose to do a quick research into it is genuine curiousness and the "Rise of the Guardians" (2012) film's fresh approach and unique portrayal of the Tooth Fairy.

Despite for the tooth fairy not having a set visual, a majority study on children vote that they picture it as a female, and as a small winged creature. A quick search on the Tooth Fairy will bring up many blonde young kids, with fairy wings wearing a pink dress. So the most opposite version to this is:

Dwayne Johnson's portrayal is the polar opposite everything we're used to. The only thing mildy resembalence (visually) is his wings, which even then are incorrect and resemble feathered angel wings as apposed to insect fairy wings. This was however, a negatively received character. Does this relate to how certain cliches must be in place to make the viewer familiarize with the fantasy character? Despite The Rise of the Guardians not being out yet, the films characters have been praised and a large fan base is growing online.

To make the Tooth Fairy half human half bird is interesting and unusual. It is a very unique design, and the colours used are not usually associated with Tooth Fairies. Her appearance however fits with her back story,  and her regal status is seen in the elegant design of a 'dress-like' feathers and royal tones. Her personality is of a kind bubbly girl, again fitting with the theme of a girly fairy. 

She doesn't look like the conventional Tooth Fairy, but has been re imagined and accepted, and is an incredibly cute and new out-look on a mythological character.

Just some fun research of my own :) Back to Proposaling!

Crit Week - Reflection

Week 8 marks Crit Week. I presented my recent media tests, results, and my exploration and portrayal of angels. I also briefly discussed how I wanted to go down the concept art route, my step back from in-depth story-telling, and what I plan to do next.

On the recommendation of Ryan, I've just ordered Paradise Lost by John Milton, looks like a fantastic read on angel-ness :)

Other feedback included was Lynn's concern for a missing link between my research and art. I need to demonstrate clearer my link between story and art. What is the connection?

I've decided to try start attending life drawing classes to improve my anatomy, as well as reading up in angels in the video game series Diablo.

Next on my blog will be a summery to my angel research, and how I might be able to place them in my Universe in the future. Things to think about are angels (and demons) hierarchy, powers, and how they'll be reacted to by my different species inhabitants.

Busy times ahead!

Colours in War

War is a part of every cultures history future and present, in both sci-fi and real life. It is especially predominant in fantasy games, with lore and mythology and the birth of the civilizations characters we play rising from these stories of fights.

Although the theme of good/bad is always there, something as dirty and complex as war can never be black/white. In the same way we as humans will support our nation and troops and fight for what we believe is right and justice, our enemies will the same way, so good/bad can be a matter of perception, or simply there is no good/bad, when both sides are shedding blood for a reason that cannot be the same value as human lives.

Without getting too lost in the reasons of war, I want to find out if colour, shapes and compositions play the part in good and bad. First example is Gears of War (2006). The Locusts and humans are both native inhabitants of  Sera, and a fight for an energy source amongst humans awakened and begun a war with Locusts, and now the two are determined for genocide of the others race. There is no right species here, only survival.

The original game was criticized for it's use of dull grey and brown colours. The more I research the locusts however I slowly find them to be of soft hues with hints of colours (yellows, blues, reds), and the humans to be mostly of grey and earthy (and sometimes white/blue) shades.

A brighter and holier representation of 'good' is The Sanctum in Final Fantasy XIII (2009). They are always represented in bright, white and contrasting colours (as well as regal purples and holy golden yellows), to the point where it's too eeire and you realize that they don't have a shred of good intention and that everything is painted to seem good about the organization.

Final example for war is the God of War franchise (2005). The brutal game is constantly screaming 'fight!' with it's muted tones and unavoidable red tones. And while this should be the norm with all wars in fantasy, I find it fresher to have decietful 'pretending to be squeaky clean' white-clad soliders in Final Fantasy XIII than to show constant barbaric scenes of dirt, dull, grey and red.

I hope to incorporate my findings on war into my angels and demons in my fantasy world. I would love them to be predominant figures in my world. Next step is to focus on moodboards for these fantasy creatures! Phew!