Some research and inspiration

So before I start the next part of my project I thought it would be a good idea to fully explain what it is that I'm going to be doing.

I'm going to be traditionally illustrating 6 of the creatures that I have designed so far. My aim is to show male and female variations, plus the offspring and environment in one image.

I was introduced to the work of an illustrator by the name of John James Aubudon, whose work I immediately fell in love with. After looking through his work, it's really inspired me and I've decided to make a few changes to my original idea, which was to do a sort of reference sheet

Here is a list of the illustrations that he did for the book "Birds of America". The amount of detail that has been put into each image is stunning. I also really like how a part of the animals temperament and behaviour are also illustrated, as well as the type of environment that they can be found in.

So yup, I'm aiming to create 6 highly detailed gauche pieces. Each one should hopefully take just under a week to finish, and I think the hardest part will be composing each piece well, and also deciding what will be featured in each piece. Once I've got the initial sketch done then it should be a much easier process.

Not strictly.....

...Work that fits in with this project but....I felt I wanted to put it up here because I painted a new environment- underwater. I've never attempted to even paint water from above the surface let alone from underneath it. I also feel that I'm starting to get used to composing an image more effectively. So that's why I wanted to upload this, because although it's rough I still think it was a successful practice piece and I learnt from it.
A better attempt at a background than the last sketch I produced, and this was done much quicker in just about 2 hours.
This is of one of my bettas (Siamese Fighting fish), Seaweed. I used a combination of pictures of my tanks for this, and am pretty pleased with the out come.

Another awful attempt...

At including backgrounds in creature sketches.
This is pretty bad but I did have a lot of fun doing it. Can you guess where the inspiration comes from? I started playing Shadow of the Colossus again recently and it really made me want to draw something huge and partially stone. So here he is.
I did attempt to make it look like he's somewhere high up, somewhere desolate and grey and miserable. *shrug*
Tis only a really rough sketch done over the course of about 4 hours, and I wont be wasting any more time on it.




I promise I will stop drawing land animals now and start on everything else!

To do list

Right, even though I have this else where, I thought it would be a good idea to stick my to do list up on here. The more places I can see it the better I guess.

Designing stage (Ongoing throughout the year) This part of the project will span the whole year and is something I will carry on with in the background.

* Main character design- Aimme (Done)
* Companion creature designs-
Earth (Done)
Fire (Done)
Water (Done)
Air (Needs to be redesigned)
* Mutant designs-
Lesser mutants (Done)
Giant mutants (Done)
Sentient mutants (Done)
* Creature designs-
Humanoids (Done)
Land creatures (Done)
Flying creatures (Started)
Sea dwelling creatures (Started)
Insects
* World layout-
Map
Cities
Civilisations and their dress codes (Started)
* Environments-
Forest/woodland (Started)
Jungle
Desert/wastelands
Ice wastelands
Coast
Mountainous
Destroyed cities
* Weaponry-
Close range
Long range
Projectile
* Enemies-
Main antagonist (Started)
High priests
Priests
General followers (Started)

First major part of project (From now until the 10th January)

* Digitally render 2-4 large, fully detailed pieces that illustrate a range of environments with/without creatures that could be found. The aim is to improve my sense of lighting and composition.

Attempt to model in zBrush (From 11th January-10th February)

* Experiment and learn how to use zBrush (download trial version).
* Create at least 1 decently rendered creature model

Second major part of project (From 11th Feburary onwards)

* [At least] 6 digitally rendered concept art pieces, painted to the best of my abilities. The aim of which is to: improve my ability to render anatomy, composition and lighting, as well as create drama and atmosphere in each piece. Each painting will demonstrate the development and evolution of Aimme and her companion critter, as well as portray the various environments and the creatures found within.

Research to be conducted (Research to begin with the start of Term 2) This will be in a separate sketchbook.

* Research into mutants
-Mutant designs in films
-Mutant designs in games
-Real life mutations in humans and animals
* Research into botanical drawings
* Research into drawing methods
-Learn perspective
-Learn how to light a scene properly
-Learn how to improve composition
* Research into concept artists
* Reference as many different environments as I can (Create a resource folder of own photographs).


That's it for now, but I'm sure I'll think of more things to add, although I'm sure this is more than enough to keep me occupied for the rest of the year o.O

Huge post is huge....

Mr. Evil

So these are basic designs for "Mr Evil". I realised that stupidly I haven't even started designing the main antagonist for the game.



Whilst doing really quick rough sketches I came up with this profile and really liked it. So I decided to stick some hair styles on it to see what fits. So far I like design 2 and 4 the most. 1 looks silly in my opinion, and 3 looks too soft even though it's a mohawk. I'll develop styles 2 and 4 further in a little while.

What?! A background?!

So yup, to my surprise I've actually drawn a background. I didn't intend to, and perhaps that's why I manage to do it. I used a reference picture taken when I went to Scotland over summer.
I'm pleasantly surprised and pleased with how relaxing it was to sketch.

Anyway, enough rambling. I drew this originally to illustrate a species that I came up with years and years ago. I found the most embarrassing drawings ever and decided that these's guys need a good old revamp. And then I realised that they'd fit in perfectly with this project. The species is called Arathamos, and here you can see a stag and a doe together. They mate for life and live in small family herds.
The second use to this picture was to start drawing environments that the player would encounter in the game. This is heavy woodland/forest and should be an interesting challenge to paint.



I used this reference for the stag and this for the doe.

Pre-existing designs

I was looking through my finished work folder and found quite a few pieces that I've done recently independently of this project. I think some of them would fit into this world well and so here they are.

The image above is a feline species which in colder areas of the world would be quite a common sight. They're about as large as a German Shepherd dog, and very curious. Because of their smaller size, they would have to rely on ambush techniques to bring down their prey.

And this design has been rattling around inside my head for some years now, so I was pleased when I finally got him drawn. Undead mutant dragons? Hell yeah!

I think this fits in well with the whole radiation poisoning part of the story, and would explain how the poor guy is still going.

These two were drawn over summer when I was working out this project, so it doesn't really surprise me that they fit if I was thinking about this project whilst drawing them.

I designed this character last year, so it's quite old now, but I still really like him so I want to use this project to put his character to good use. He will be developed further soon.

Next to be designed will be the "bad guys" of the story; the religious sect.

I'll update once I've sketched some rough concepts up later.