Concept Art Study Results

Finally finished 'Clarity Pause'. It's taken awhile! The purpose of this painting was to illustrate something with free flow and with little to no research. "How does this effect an illustration? Is there still a present story? Is the image interpreted and given a story from the viewer?" I personally drew this picture on a whim (to practice perspective originally), with no regards to the characters, their names/personalities, what they are doing/mission, clothes, their surroundings, etc. I personally am unhappy with the results, and know the picture would have been infinitely better if I had properly researched clothing, armour, terrain and had 'bonded' better with the characters.

Using Bryan Tillman's "Creative Character Design" and the available CGCookie tutorials (and other relevant tidbits) I have revisited my girls in hopes to breathe some proper life into them, and to shape them into characters with a purpose, rather than a pretty face with no reason.

My characters already exist, I've painted them. But I know they can be so much better. How I envision, them, I've created a moodboard in hopes of laying out my initial thoughts into their personalities.

In the next step, I created simple silhouettes as well as giving them names and back story at the same time. The mix of both resulted in a better idea of the stance or poses my girls might take. I take inspiration from my moodboard, as I transfer my silhouettes to a digital medium. I was impressed at how much the silhouetting process can help define the core of a character, literally setting personality through shape.

Even though I was happy with my silhouettes  to progress my personal development I followed CGCookies various versions of it. Solid, Sketchy Line, Bold Lines, Contrasted, Value Shading. The results were interesting and varied, but I found XXX to be the most comfortable for me. I may use these different methods in the future for different reasons however.

While I have no intention of repainting 'Clarity Pause', I now have two fleshed out characters I'm happy enough to paint if I wanted to illustrate their stories. Maybe one day I'll revisit Tamira and Kara... :)

Quotes

"... A strong pose just from the start. Cause, If you can get an emotion displayed in the first few seconds of looking at it, then you know you succeeded in creating a successful silhouette"
"The driving force behind a character's personality is what it wants to achieve."　
　
References:
Tillman, B. 2011. Creative character design. 2nd ed. Focal Press
http://cgcookie.com/concept/cgc-series/training-course-character-concept-art-natalia/

http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/drawing/witch-doctor/
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/features/20-character-design-tips