Developed Ideas & Tests

Week Number & Date – Week 3: 24/02/20

List of Tasks I plan on completing:

• Begin creating a structure for developed ideas and tests.  √
• Begin generating initial sketches, colour ideas, and photo-bashes for my wolf board.√
• Begin generating initial sketches, colour and developed ideas for my basilisk board.√ 
• To keep on track with my timetable, I have to ensure that I have developed ideas for my wolf and basilisk completed for this week by the 10th of March 2020. √

Current Position – What did I do this week and why did I do it?

Currently for this week, my main focus is producing the initial sketches and developmental ideas for my wolf character creation, as well as my basilisk character creation. Highlighting both the wrath and envy of their nature stated in my project proposal; and following on through the religious themes anticipated within my work. I began creating some digital pieces of some wolf head designs, as I wanted to look at the ways in which I could create fur, as this is something I haven’t explored much off within my previous art pieces. As you can see, I generated some basic outlines showing different head turnarounds for the wolf, and the positions in which it could face. This is important for me within this piece to explore a range of different positions of my creatures and animals, as I haven’t fully decided how they will be placed within my environment. 

Further to this, I also annotated these designs, as I wanted to look at the types of colours that could be used, and would fit for my theme as well as my style of work. Currently, I like my middle design the most, as the thinner strands of hair falling to the side, makes my wolf look much more realistic than the large fur I have used for my side and front facing pieces, making this look much more realistic, which is the style I have stated in my proposal I was using. 

Moving onto colour ideas, I used a range of neutral dark tones that fit with the realism of a wolves fur coat. The first experimentation used light and dark browns, whereas the second and third use different variations of grays both light and dark. The front perspective wolf head used a lot more variation of colour such as grunge and white, as this is shown in many traditional photographs and drawings on wolves, which I actually prefer as it gives my work something more interesting to look at. Conducting research on wolf colour schemes, these colours are all primarily seen in areas such as Europe, Asia, North America and North Africa, and the only other variation is a red wolf who prefer to live in swamp type regions and coastal prairies or forests.

Additionally, I like the light and dark browns, as its quite effective, and works well with the type of wolf I am creating. The light grey although fitting well with a more mythological type, which would be accurate as i’m basing my wolf concept piece on the legend of ‘Fenrir’, it looks too light hearted, whereas i’m trying to create a much more atmospheric evil and corrupt theme to my work, as its following on the themes of ‘wrath’. 

Wolf head test pieces and colour schemes:

Once the more traditional colour schemes were explored, I again changed my designs to different colour variations exploring less realistic and more mythological types, some of which were effective and fit well with my work genre, while others looked either too unrealistic or non-mythological. I particularly liked the middle design in my second colour type, as the dark grey and red eyes not only contrasted well together, but still had an element of realism to my fur colours and shade, as well as adding an element of evil due to the red bloodshot eyes, and dark tones. This really fit well with all aspects of my work, so I may consider exploring this further during the final development of my wolf, and depending on the colours of my environment within this scene. On the other-hand of this, the greens and purples did not work well, as it was too unrealistic, and the colours consumed the design, rather if I chose to use unnatural and bolder colour schemes such as this, it would have to be in much smaller quantities. 

Now that I have explored a foundation of colours, and styles I can use for my wolf, I focused on the whole body using traditional art, mostly because this was easier in looking at the types of motion I can use in my wolves pose, and the types of positions such as ‘howling at the moon’, I also started looking at what I mentioned previously, which was the fur style, as there are many ways I could produce this depending on my  theme using larger fur strands or smaller strokes all together. This is something I am going to have to look at much more closely during the final development, as I need something that fits well with a theme of realism, and also doesn’t take away from the design on my concept piece. Drawing head sketches such as this, really helped me look at the types of closer details I am going to implement within my finished piece, and also where the darker shaded tones will be placed; hand drawing is also a great way to create colour ideas, as i’ll be able to use this as a guide to explore this range when scanned digitally, rather than individually using the same traditional methods. 

I took one of my traditional sketches of a wolf head, and began to colourise it digitally. As I scanned in my piece of work, I was able to utilize pen pressure on Photoshop to shade it in using a variety of shades, this wasn’t done perfectly, as it was used to see what kinds of colours I wanted to use on my wolf, and where the darker tones within my piece might be placed. I realized this was hard to do, considering I couldn’t fully colour my design in due it being an image and not being able to colour underneath the lines, so I moved onto a different approach so I could create a larger range of colour concept ideas. I liked being able to incorporate traditional sketching into my project, as it allows you to see how you are going to draw your design, and what types of style you plan on creating before moving onto the digital versions, which will ultimately speed up the process of my work. 

Using my skills and knowledge of a wolfs proportions and head structure, I digitally created a more detailed front facing version of my initial sketches, so I could clearly see where to place the shadows and lighting on my wolf head, and easily change colour design if needed. For my first set of experimentation, I went for colours much more traditional to a typical wolf that people would imagine in the wild, looking at light and dark browns and grey, with orange or green eye colours (common colours seen in a wild wolf). Looking into my first three design choices, I like my third dark toned grey with a pink eye colour, as this really emphasizes the mythological nature of my wolf, and makes it still look realistic in terms of colour; while the others looked much more bland and realistic to what is seen in today’s world. The only problem I came across here, is my wolf design is suppose to convey a sense of ‘wrath’, and based upon the Norse mythology of ‘Fenrir’. When comparing these to these colours, I would say they convey a much more happier and light-hearted emotion, meaning this may not be a suitable combination for this side of my concept pieces. 

I again then manipulated these three colour sets a second time, rather making them less traditional and much more mythological. I really like these sets, as they focus more on the dark colours such as dim reds, black, and dark grey. The black colours of the fur mixed with the red eyes really works well in giving my wolf a ‘fear factor and essence of evil and sinister’, additionally, when combining this will my research on ‘Fenrir’, many pieces of concept art present him as being quite a dark character with red eyes, which would make this really appropriate in indicating to my audience the history and themes of my work. I additionally really like the dark and light grays used on my third idea, and the yellow eyes not only stands out really well, but the colours work really nicely together and still portrays a sense of semi-realism, which is the style I am using within the production of my artwork. 

I took the colour concepts used on the head designs, and utilized this using a basic side portrait sketch of a wolf, so I could see how they would look on the entire body rather than just the head (as I haven’t decided yet what type of angle I am using within the environment for my wolf). This was considerably helpful in deciding what colour scheme I plan on using for my wolf creation, as I am able to see what the body will look like with the majority of the colours; admittedly I will be adding extra tones as I enhance my work and make it look more finished and detailed, although this way I will be able to see how its going to roughly turn out. I realized the darker colours used for the wolf, although fitting well with my project theme, might not stand out as much I need it too within my environment, while the darker grey does stand out quite well, and looks extremely nice on a side portrait viewing. 

On my second-set of colour schemes, I actually quite like the darker tones of black here, as although it may blend in similarly to the dark grey, it makes up for it using the high contrasts of lighter and darker blacks, meaning there is still room for a lot of variety and manipulation here. I also particularly like the lighter black/grey with the yellow eyes, as again it contrasts really nicely, and even produced quite small, you can still visibly see the colour of the eyes, making this colour scheme stand out and visually pleasing compared to the others. 

Wolf environmental photo-bash and initial sketching:

To get started on my environment production, I created a set of black and white thumbnails to clearly see what type of area I can create quickly; I was advised to use this type of working by an art peer; and it seemed to work out great in highlighting shadows, lighting and overall design of what forest I want to use for my wolf. I particularly like my first design the most, as its an open area where I can clearly place my wolf character design once finalized, I also liked my cliff design, as this would make my wolf the clear center piece of my work, and people would immediately be drawn to this rather than the background. The problem with this, as its not very interesting to look at, so I want to ensure the environment is at-least equal to the visual quality of my wolf. Looking at my other initial designs, I like the lake in the second piece, although I haven’t left any room for my wolf to be placed that would be obvious and a visual focus; the same applies to my graveyard design, even though I like the eerie atmosphere it is portraying. 

As I am extremely new to environmental design, I wanted to photo-bash some images together that I could use to create my initial sketch for the type of layout I am going towards for my wolf environment. As stated in my proposal, I wanted my wolf character to reside in a eerie forest near mountains and by the moon, as its traditional for a wolf to be seen out during a full moon. Although this photo-bash wasn’t perfect, it really gave me a clear idea as to what I wanted to produce; I added different variations of trees, as well as a body of water and cliff side to clearly emphasize an isolated dark forest a wolf would lurk in. I chose these set of images, as they particularly convey the type of atmosphere I am trying to produce in my own work, from the colour schemes, and overall musty style used in these images and photographs.  The great thing about this photo-bash, is I chose the images carefully, matching that of my first initial thumbnail design, as this way it looks much more original, and follows along the visual style and look I had planned from the beginning. 

Moving on, I began to sketch over what I wanted to see in my environment, once the rough design was completed, I went over this again to make the lines slightly bolder and easier to work with and manipulate. I plan on changing some of these elements so I work is much more my own; specifically the colours and shading I will be using to enhance this production. I decided to use a photo-bash and sketch-over, as this why I will know that what i’m producing will be in the correct perspective, especially considering I have never designed one fully before, meaning to get a good grade, I have to ensure that this aspect is correct before moving onto the details and added artwork pieces. I really like this scene, as it fits well with the type of environment a wolf would actually live in, its an open forest area with a supply to water and moonlight, which I believe fits nicely; I added two trees around the side, as this shapes the environment nicely and makes it look well shaped as its enclosed. 

Once this was done, I moved onto adding some very rough details such as how I may create the grass, and where the shadows from the moon will be coming from. I wasn’t happy with this style, as the grass details made my work look unrealistic, so I may consider using only colour shades to create the realistic effect that I need, rather than outlines. Additionally, I am not satisfied with how the mountains and cliff-side look behind the trees, as they currently do not posses any detail, and the points at the top need to be rounded off more to present a realistic style. 

As I wasn’t happy with the current layout of my mountains, I decided to redo them, making them look much more realistic by sloping them and adding cracked lines. I was much happier with this, as it gave the scene more detail, and started to look much more realistic following on from what I imagined. The next stages was to produce basic colour schemes, which would have to be quite dark and dingy focusing on the nature of Fenrir, and considering the forest is set at night. I also may consider adding more landscape objects such as bushes and wooden logs to the front grass, as currently (excluding the grass details that will be added using colour), my main area is looking too bland compared to the rest of the landscape. 

Wolf environment poses:

Now that I have established an environment look, I began to sketch out some wolf poses as to what I would think worked best. I drew poses that I thought added some mystery and essence of stalking to its stance, as this fitted well with the legend of the ‘giant wolf’ who would hunt and kill. The first stance staring towards you would be a great way to not only show the details of the face, and the colours of the eyes (known to be bold), but also symbolizes a sense of power that comes from facing away with the moon beaming above. Similarly this feeling also works well with the second pose, as the wolf would be wandering around the forest, with its head turned again towards people; which creates the feeling that he’s on the prowl and knowingly aware of others presence.

The third is much more typical, and would show only the side of the wolf, meaning this would be beneficial as I wouldn’t have to focus on the details of the face. Additionally, this works well with the stereotypes surrounding wolves that howl at the moon, and would paint a clear picture as to what i’m representing. On the other-hand of this, the wolf doesn’t create enough atmosphere with its pose, and doesn’t create a threatening setting. Finally, I quite like the forth, as it implicates the wolf facing towards people, while the hunched back makes the wolf appear powerful and aggressive, two qualities I really want to show within my work’ I additionally like how it looks ready to attack, as again this reinforces its wrath-like behavior, something I need to show to meet my project theme. 

Now that I had chosen the forth pose for my wolf final design, I began to add some shadows to the environment, to see how I would layer the colours up on top of this, and to decide the direction of the light, shadows is something that I struggle with, meaning during the final development of my work, I plan on changing and developing this thoroughly until it looks correct. I was quite happy with this, as I needed a brief plan that would determine the dark areas of my work, such as on the river here, so that I can see where I want the moon light to travel across. I also used this as an opportunity to dark some of the branches on the trees, as this gives it some more direction for lighting, as well as some 3D dynamics. 

Once this was established, I added my chosen pose into position on the scene, to see how it would look, I wanted the wolf to look exceptionally large, which is why I made it over half the size of the trees, as Fenrir, which is what my design is based upon, was considered enormous. I decided to make these outlines quite dark, as I wanted it to be  bold, being as this would be the center piece of my environment, and the focus point. I was quite happy with where this was positioned, meaning I could now move onto developing the environment without worrying about the placement of my wolf. The reason behind focusing on the environment first, is the details of a forest would take quite a large amount of time, and to ensure that the quality of my wolf and final piece is good, I have to make sure that this is also visually pleasing so that my characters won’t look overly detailed compared to their habitat. 

Moving on from this point, I began to add colour to all the different aspects of my environment, this highlighted everything within my scene nice and clear, although it also emphasized how unfinished my piece was by this point. For this reason, it was important that I began adding details and colouring to the black outlines to match the objects much more realistically. Something I realized, is the rough look of the river and the grass made my work look much more stylized, meaning this is something I would have to focus on correcting and enhancing later on within my project. I experimented with different colour ideas, and I particularly liked the first and third colour combination, as the blues and purple tint works really well with the supernatural atmosphere’ the problems here were the colours of the river, which worked nicely with the hue of background, but didn’t fit the realistic mood I needed. 

After lots of colour experimentation, I decided on this collaboration of much more natural but still sinister surrounding. I was quite happy with this, as it allows me to create a platform for my base colours for my tree, water, grass, and mountainside, so I can add other shades, shadows and highlights to this. The grass is currently too dark, although this will be changed with other tones of green both dark and light to give it some height and more realism to its texture. The moon currently uses a lighter and darker grey which I really like, although currently again its looking too stylized, meaning i’m going to have to blend these tones and remove the inner black lines that were originally used to separate the light and darker areas more clearly. 

Here I made quite a substantial amount of progress, by colouring in the lines using more suitable colours, as well as removing some which made my work look rushed and unrealistic. I also adjusted the lighting of the moon and blended in the colours, I realized the darker side was facing the incorrect way compared to the other objects, so I corrected this and also added a moon shine affect onto the water. Moreover, I added some darker and lighter shades to the stones against the trees, and also some minor detailing to the mountains to give it a better shape. Finally, I thought it would be a nice touch to add a magical element to my scene, so I decided to add some yellow fireflies using the gradient oval tool as this gave it a small outer glow that I scattered across the trees. The next step in my progression would be to focus on the water and the grass, which I left to last as this will require more time and energy compared to the dark and light tones on the trees and mountain side. 

Again working on adding the basic detailing and shades to my work, I focused on the grass and water which was the longest development aspect so far. I used a variety of different brushes including ‘Kylies ultimate pastel’ found in the basic utilities in Photoshop, as well as a blending brush for the grass. For this, I added light and dark areas of green for the grass, and then used the blending brush to blend this together upwards; I then continued to use different shades to make this look more realistic; the same process for the water was used, although here I was able to dab on this specific brush to look like water ripples, which I then blended using light and dark blues, and pen pressure to blend in with the moon light on the water. 

Finishing off the basic development of my environment, I added some stars in the sky using a splatter brush with a light silver colour, using different types of pen pressure; this worked out really nicely, and gave the sky much more detailing then only using a simple blue base. Later down my progression I will enhance the shadows and details, making my environment much more clean and finished, as well as ensuring my wolf creature is as detailed as possible to match the level for my character and environmental wolf piece together. 

Final Wolf development:

Moving onto my wolf character design, I began to draw out my wolf structure using my initial sketch as a base for the stance. I decided upon my three favourites for its colour scheme, using the opinions of my classmates and my own preference. I was really happy with this outcome, as it is a simple yet effective design; for further production I will add much more fur detail and facial feature, but for the development of this I was happy with the current product. I may also need to adjust the paws, as this looks slightly off, but as this is just the initial development so far, these are all small things I can change during its final production. 

Moving further onto colour ideas, I based this on the first colour scheme used in my development of my wolf,  I really liked the grey constant, But the pink eyes do not look as good on a full body as they do on the head piece alone; this is an issue as the eyes is something Fenrir in Norse mythology is known for being as they are bright. If I decide to use this colour concept, I would have to lighten some of the fur areas up a bit, as currently it is looking too traditional and dull compared to the atmosphere I am trying to convey within my piece. 

Next, I began colouring my final design using the second selection of colour concepts. I actually really liked this tone of grey, it wasn’t too average, and the yellow eyes stood out much more than on the first idea. Something I would have to look into is brightening the eyes up a little, so I can get them as bold as they are on my test piece as this would really enhance this colour concept quite drastically. Again, similarly to the previous I may need to change the light and dark contrasts so they’re more exaggerated, as currently the lighting doesn’t seem to differ as much as I would like. 

Finally, I created a much darker black wolf, with red eyes. I actually really liked this colour combination which I was surprised about as I thought it would be too dark for my final piece. This actually turned out to be my favourite out of all of the designs, as it made the wolf look really mysterious and sinister which worked well with the mood I was going for. I decided to make the black much darker compared to my original colouring, as this made it look more evil and didn’t match too closely to the other light blacks and grays. This again needs to be enhanced in terms of lighter tones, as currently there is a large portion of dark areas and the lighter colours aren’t very noticeable. 

I decided to choose the black wolf colour scheme to put within my scene, which was making it look much more finished. Now I have reached this point, I am going to start developing ideas for the rest of my characters and environments as i’m happy with the overall progress I have made with my wold character and scene, so I can now focus on the much smaller details such as lighting, shadows, and final detailing to make my product look finished. Additionally, I also enhanced the size of this wolf to appear much bigger, as its size needs to be exaggerated to show its ferocious nature, and general large appearance matching its mythological history. 

Basilisk test pieces and colour schemes:

Beginning with the development of my basilisk creature representing ‘envy’, I began with drawing initial sketches using the exact same process as my traditionally drawn wolf sketches. I focused both on the body structure and the head design, looking at details and different types of texture ideas for the scale design. I realized the smaller bumps are much more stylized whereas the full scales give a lot more detail and really give the shape of a snake that I need within this artwork. what I like most is my serpent designs using a front and side view, as they look nice and emphasize the snake metaphor well, what i’m concerned is, it may not look like a basilisk enough, as in mythology this beast is known for looking rather un-natural compared to other worldly snakes and serpents; this is something i’m going to have to explore within my project further to see what I like the most. 

Moving my work over digitally, I created a set of basilisk poses that I thought would best fit my environment. The first was quite traditional, and stuck to an upright position seen by snakes and serpents. Although I liked this pose, it didn’t create the impression of evil or envy, which is something I was particularly looking to produce in my work. The second was an unusual stance, that I believed worked well, as it almost looked as if its lurking in place; as well as perfect for a water type scenario that I plan on using in my own concept. The final sketch was the most accurate to my initial drawings, as I particularly liked this stance as it looks as if its getting ready to attack by its hunched posture, this type of threatening atmosphere works really well being as i’m creating a basilisk representing envy as a seven deadly sin. 

I started producing two sketches with developed shading based upon my research and traditional initial drawings. I created two, based upon what type of style I was going for, although decided to leave out the scales until the fine-lining was completed due to how time consuming this process is. I realized working in gray-scale at first when producing a sketch is a helpful way in seeing where I plan on using dark and light shade when transferring my piece to colour, and also highlight what the result of this will be. Currently, these two developed ideas will give me a helpful starting point, which I may use to photo-bash elements of these two drawings together to create my desired final piece, as both of them possess elements I specifically would like within my final concept design. 

Now that I had finished producing two basilisk sketches, I began to clean up the lines and use scales for texture on each of them, so that they started to look more finished and realistic. The scales really added to the level of detail that I needed for my final design, and now that I had produced these, I needed to find out which elements I liked from them individually, so I can start mapping out what my finished piece would look like and incorporate this from each. I prefer the scales and back fins of my first design, as this is more true to how they would have looked in mythology, although I also prefer the viper-type fangs on the second, as this gives my basilisk more of an vicious and envious style, which is much more appropriate for a large snake. 

Now that basic design concepts had been established, I moved onto colour experimentation for my first design. First of all, I used a navy blue tone as I believed although this to be a stretch, could work out nicely for my design as blue is a heavily used colour that is liked by both genders statistically. The problem with this is, it didn’t match the design or style, and looked too un-realistic, although the darkness of this did work well with how black the scales were. Secondly, I used a dark purple/magenta which I believed actually worked really nicely with this concept, it was unusual and non-stereotypical, but didn’t look ridiculous in the sense of realism which I was quite surprised about. Finally, I used a mint green, which fitted well with the contrast of the black, and particularly stood out to me, as green is obviously most associated with feelings of envy, leading me to design a basilisk in the first place, which made this more appealing to me. 

The second set of colour schemes was much darker and more bland, as here I wanted to try and focus on using eerie colours that matched the vicious and haunting nature of a basilisk monster. I started using a grayish green for the first design, as I thought it matched the mood of the environment I plan on using within a cave, and also fit really well with what media and concept artists believe this creature to look like in mythology times. I moved onto a darker type blue/purple, which is more realistic then my previous attempt, as its a lot darker and much more faded, making it look more natural to its body, as well as giving my design an interesting tone that is less cliche. Finally, my last concept  was much bolder, as I wanted to see what an orange type would look like, this isn’t considered completely unnatural, but again is a lot less seen in other drawings, making it much more unique and interesting to look at, especially considering how well the light pink eyes work with this colour and the black scales. 

For my second drawing, again looking into colour manipulation, I used very similar dull tones for these three, following on to a more realistic look, while also exploring colours that may not be traditionally used in other basilisk concepts, keeping mine more original. The light green again follows along a musty feel to the character, making it appear almost infected or blighted, which is good associations for the depiction of envy. I decided to again use blues and purples, which I quite liked, as this time I turned down the vibrancy so that they were not as strong, and the colours fit better with the lighting that will be used within my scene. I think I favor the green design out of these three, as the tones work really well, which is to be expected when designing a serpent. 

Moving onto the next set of colour ideas, I began changing the vibrancy as well along with the colour balance when choosing different colour schemes, as this way I could see what they would look like when the colours became much bolder. I went for more classical colours within my first two schemes, looking at browns and greens which were much more traditional for this type of beast. I actually really liked the dull brown, as it worked really well with the gray used on the spikes, and the lighter brown contrast on its stomach. Although I had previously experimented with greens, here I turned up the vibrancy, so that it was more visible , and actually made this look more mythological. I quite liked how bold and bright this was, as its something that would immediately drawn attention in a dark scene. The final red used actually looked really nice for this character creation, the red (a renowned colour to symbolize evil due to its relation to hell and blood) colours really made my design stand out, and also gave that impression of death and brutality just from its appearance. 

Once I had finished changing around the colours, I realized I liked the traditional greens I chose to use the most, as it matched a snake and its appearance of envy much more clearly, and looked the best with the dark scales. Now that this was decided, I could focus on how I was going to create my final basilisk design, looking at how the colours and the aspects of my initial test pieces worked together. From my first concept, I like the black and green contrasts, so I will most likely use this position and body for my piece, from my second, I prefer the much larger fangs, as it makes my creature look more venomous and frightening, which is important as they’re being portrayed as a representation for the seven deadly sins. 

What did I find difficult or easy?

What I found easy:

What I found the easiest, was the colour schemes of my creatures, I knew how I wanted them to be perceived, and also how other forms of media have portrayed my wolves and basilisks, meaning I had a lot of reference to build my final pieces on. Additionally, once I had sketched out some initial ideas, it made it much easier to see what kind of faces I needed to produce and how I would produce them digitally. 

What I found difficult:

What was most difficult, was planning out my wolf environment, as mentioned this is a new form of art I needed to familiarize myself with, which is why it was important that I used my photo-bash skills acquired throughout my course as a utility when designing the overall layout and perspective. 

Planning for next week – 

How do I plan to catch up: 

I have completed my tasks set for this week, which was to start producing test pieces for both my wolf and my basilisk. Although, to ensure I keep up to task, I need to start and finish development for my basilisk environment quite quickly during the next week, so I can move onto the creation of my owl and stoat boards swiftly. 

Do I need to change anything about my work or planning:

I like my work and planning during this week, as it allows me to work on individual assets for my character and environment creation, and then build my body of work based upon what i’m produced. I need to consider developing my environments slightly quicker though, as I need to complete all of my test pieces during these three weeks. 

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Week Number & Date – Week 4: 02/03/20

List of Tasks I plan on completing:

• Continue creating test pieces for my wolf and basilisk. Changing colours and style. √
• Begin generating initial sketches, colour and developed ideas and for my owl board. √
• Begin generating initial sketches, colour and developed ideas and for my stoat board. ×

Current Position – What did I do this week and why did I do it?

Starting the next week, my plan was to immediately get going on the creation of my basilisk environment. As stated in my proposal, I wanted this to be set in a dingy cave with some variation of water that’s enclosed, which is what I imagined a basilisk would be seen, as well as how it is portrayed in films and other media. My first thumbnail sketch was drawn in quite an open area, which I thought would be a great position to make my basilisk the center focus; the problem with this, is it looked a little to bare, and there wasn’t much space left to add a source of water. My second design was based upon a photo-bash that I used as a source to create a much more detailed style, which I really liked as it resembled a cave experience with a large pool of water. I additionally left lots of space to play around with this concept, such as the water and basilisk position within the environment. 

For my third design, I went for a tunnel concept, as I thought this would be an interesting way to show that the basilisk is enclosed and underground, as well as lurking somewhere dark and dingy, this also lied with problems, such as limited space and height that I would have to work around my designs with, as well as lacking visual interest and therefore colour options in my environment. My forth was quite simplistic, I went for a simple cave look, trying to make it appear as if one whole hall had been enclosed except a particular area, as I thought this would be a way to draw immediate focus; although I liked the hanging spikes from the top, I didn’t like this concept as much, as it didn’t look realistic enough for my chosen style of work. 

Moving on, this is the photo-bash I decided to use, I gathered up a range of images that I thought fit the themes of where I was going, the original image was just a simple cave area, although I wanted something more interesting to see, so I found other images of ponds and waterfalls that could be placed nicely within this area as an opening with trees, which I really liked. Additionally, taken from my initial sketches, I found some sources of spikes and hanging wrongs, that I also added to make my environment seem more like a cave. 

Basilisk environmental photo-bash and initial sketching:

From this, I began my initial sketching, by taking all the aspects of the elements I like from my references till I was happy, so I was able to start changing aspects of the environment to make my piece more my own, as well as too my liking. I decided to make the walls smaller broken-down stones, as this made my concept much easier to breakdown when I began to add colour and details, as well as giving it a more unique look for a cave, which I quite liked. I made the water fall down into a large lake type formation, which really completed my scene, and gave it the appearance I originally anticipated for. 

Again once the initial process was completed, I began to outline some of the areas to make them more defined in my scene, as well as give some shade to the rock and waters so I could see where the light was coming from, giving my piece of artwork some framing and shadow and and light direction. I was really happy with this how this was starting to come together, as I could clearly see how it was beginning to look, and also how the colour would be placed on top of my sketch lines. 

When experimenting with colour, I mixed a range of much more natural themes with other more mythical colours. The reason behind this, was some of these tones gave my artwork a much more realistic feel, while others made it seem mythological, which considering i’m basing my work around Norse mythology particularly for my basilisk scene, I thought this could work well. Looking at my first colour scheme, I really liked the colours of the rocks, as they’re natural but stand out really well, the only problems I had with this, is the water was much too saturated towards a mint green, although worked well in bringing out the rest of the colours. The second design was my most natural colour scheme, as it combined similar tones to the first, although the water was much bluer and less bright, making this more realistic; specifically, I liked the dark and light browns on the the threes, as this worked nicely outside my cave aesthetic 

My third was again quite realistic, but focused more on the darker tones of a natural wood and cave area, being as its much more brown. This type of lighting most likely wouldn’t be seen within a cave, as its lit up too brightly, which wouldn’t work well in my concept, although this type of tone works really well with the stones, and gives them a more interesting look. Again the scheme was the most nontraditional out of all of them, as it went with a much brighter, pink colour balance, which I quite liked as it really gave my work a mythical appearance, something to consider in my work; although this range is too far-fetched most likely to be used in my final product. 

Finally, I went with the much more natural colours, which I believe is the most appropriate route to take within my piece of work for this project. I quite liked the dark and light contrasts between the time of day, and the rocks, which I could definitely use to my advantage during the detailing and shading process, which will allow for a much cleaner end piece. Now that my colour schemes, were chosen, I began to work on removing the black outlines, and changing the tones within the environment especially in the water and on the rocks. 

This large step in my progression took quite a while to complete, I began to clean up the lines of the spikes, rocks, and trees of my environment; and then most noticeably I added some light and dark highlights to my rocks, making them more subtle and realistic to my cave scenario. Although this did deprive me of some aspects of detail, my work was looking much cleaner and more finished, I removed the lines within my water, to get ready to add some details to this, as the lines were much used as a simple placeholder to define what that space was going to be occupied with. 

I then took this a step further and started to add some shadowing to the trees, blending in the colours and adding highlights to the side to give my trees some more colour and definition. In my future progression of my work, I will begin to add the tree engravings down its spine so they look finished and less smooth, but during these stages I was more focused towards cleaning up the line-work so I could make room for the much smaller details later on. 

I added stars using the particle brush similarly to my previous wolf board (which is going to be a reoccurring factor within all my concept pieces). This small touch really adds something to the sky so its not using just a flat colour, as well as being a simple and effective way to convey that its night time (bringing on conventions such as fear, and darkness, which are good symbols surrounding my basilisk board). Mostly I am finished with the base design, and now only small details are required for these stages of my work. 

This was the full development of my scene by this point, I added different tones of blue specs within the water to make them look like ripples, as well as some white water spray at the bottom of the mini waterfall, as this would logically happen in this scenario. I was really happy with the progress made for this, as my environment looked clean and stable, even by this point; Meaning I have more than enough time to add the finer details. Finally, the last stages would be to move onto the creation of my basilisk character. 

When sketching out the design for my final basilisk concept, as mentioned before I took the elements of my test pieces that I liked the most, and decided to draw them together to create the concept I wanted. Once this was completed, I moved onto redoing the scales, which was rather time consuming, as realistically these would be drawn quite small, meaning I had to take my time and be careful not to rush this process. After this, I used green tones inspired by my colour choices made on my second basilisk test pieces, which I then made darker so they contrasted better, and the colours were more traditional to a snakes skin and scale texture. 

Basilisk Final character creation:

Now that my concept and colour combination was decided, I moved onto the details of the scales. For this, I went over the main base colour with dark and light green variations to create a 3D dynamic that stood out more to appear as scale skin. I was surprised how effective this was, and how much it improved my beast concept, especially on the face. Once I finally completed this task, I then went under the main lining of the stomach, to add some highlights and shadows to the belly, creating the impression that this is a circular object with dimensions. 

I then decided to manipulate the colour once again, as I thought a darker combination would work much better within my cave, being as all the other tones are quite light. Additionally, this makes my basilisk appear more sinister, and draws focus away from the large area of environment you can see behind it. I may need to consider making the dark and light colours more visible now, as the darker colour change has blended them in slightly, which makes my lighting look too weak. 

Now that all of my designing was completed, I moved the basilisk over to my environment, and adjusted the size accordingly to fit well within the boarders and on the base of the rock. I was happy with the positioning, as you can clearly see and view both the details of the environment and the character, which is what I originally planned for. This also allows for my basilisk to take focus, without taking away from the environment, as you can still clearly see all around it. Moving on, I will beginning production on my owl and its environment

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When beginning the construction of my owl, I began with the same process as my previous concept pieces, by traditionally sketching out some full body designs, using different perspectives and angles. Not only is this good practice to see how I will be drawing out my owl digitally, it also gives me the opportunity to experiment with different poses of which I can create my character, before implemented into my environment. I particularly like the bottom right drawing, as I discovered that the wider eyes and larger disconnected beak looks much more realistically like a barn owl, as well as considerably making it look much more friendly. 

I transferred some of my ideas digitally, so I could then experiment with colours. I decided to be quite broad in the range I use, as I wanted to see what different colours worked best with my style, as well as what I preferred overall. I realized I liked the simple lighter tones such as white and grey, as well as the autumn colours ranging from light oranges to mild browns, which work well with this breed of owl. I looked as side views, front views, and other forms to see what I liked the most, where I found I liked the front facing stances, and side view, as they allow you to clearly show off both the feathers and facial features of the owl. 

Similarly to how I’ve progressed my ideas before, I created a range of colour ideas, using a basic sketch of a barn owls face, as this is the most practical way to experiment with colour schemes without creating an initial test using its full body scale. I heavily relied on using a blotch-like brush with pen pressure, so my work appeared to look like feathers. The first colour scheme stuck to what most people would recognize, using different tones of dark brown, gray and white, which worked out really nicely. The second was much more pail. as I was trying to create a pure visual effect, using mild tones such as light brown, and pale skin-colour like choices. I was happy with this, but the lighter tones around the edges may need to be brighter, so this doesn’t look half blended into the inside colours. 

The last two were much more natural, one sticking to autumn dark browns, and the other using different variations of gray. I preferred the grey, as the tones worked much better as the face was lighter than the outside, the brown variation needed to be lighter in the center, as currently I thought it looked too dark, especially for the atmosphere i’m portraying for an owls sense of purity. 

The wings were heavily based on the colours used for the facial experimentation. I wanted to experiment with this separately, as the colours on the wings are very different to the structure on their face. As studied in my research, the tips of the wings get dark around the edges, while the main base goes from light to dark using different shades depending on its location and breed. For this reason, I took three of the most used colours for forest barn owls, and decided to try and layer up some tones that would best fit how I would create this if my owl was flying. I liked the white and gray the most, as these look almost angelic and holy, and the simple dark and light contrasts work the best due to there being less colour changes. I also like the top brown, as there are a larger range of tones which really build up nicely near the top, whereas the lightest doesn’t have this shade range properly. 

Owl Photo-bash and environment sketches:

Moving onto my owls environment creation, I created a mixture of portrait and landscape thumbnail sketches, to get a clear idea of the type of forest I want to make for my owl. Within my first sketch, I left quite a lot of empty space, as I wanted to give myself a selection for where my owl could be placed. The problems with this, is a branch perch would be too far away, and a flying in perspective might not draw enough attention due to how wide and open this space is.

For my second landscape drawing, I really liked the shaping of this, as it looks as if its being enclosed, from down below, which would make for a good flying pose for my owl. One thing I did not like, is how tall I made the grass, which makes the floor seem too high, this is something I would have to change and replace in some areas. The final design was made using a portrait perspective, I decided to change this, as the wider areas made my forest have too much negative space; this was my favourite design, as the trees did not leave too much room, and I was able to add more elements to this scene such as a small pond.

I decided to use the second sketch, that I established using this photo-bash collected of vines, mushrooms and a forest scene. I was drawn to these images, due to the type of light-hearted atmosphere it created with its style and colours. The images that I used were very simple, but allowed me to change this to how I liked, I knew I wanted a source of water within my scene, which is why I chose this picture, with a large space in the middle, that I could remove for this reason; allowing me to create a base idea for this environment piece.

I sketched out my design here, mixing my reference material with my own sources of ideas that I wanted to add to my piece. I decided the lily-pads made my forest look more natural, and almost fairy-tale, and the mushrooms are also usually associated with happy environments and myth and magical qualities in fairy-tale genres of media. This sketch really defined where I wanted to take my project, which previously I was uncertain about, especially  when considering the positioning of my owl. 

Once I eventually moved onto the colour generations, I was quite happy with how my scene was coming together. First of all, I went for a classical wood-like scheme, which I actually really liked. The colours stood out nicely, and the bushes at the top had a really calm and tranquil shade of green that fitted the scene well. The second idea was again quite mythological, and also rather dark compared to the others, as I wanted to see if a less natural blue and green pigment would work; in fact the colour differences between the logs and the bushes was really great for an enchanted forest, this might have been too abnormal for the themes I’m going for. 

Moving onto the third design, this was again quite, natural, except the leaves were largely more saturated, and the grass was darker, I liked the realism of this, but it didn’t set the scene of being a vibrant and happy place, rather seeming quite miserable. This same feeling applies to my forth design, although the purple may seem quite appealing, and even quite mythical in an interesting way, it portrays too much of a depressing atmosphere. 

Following on from the patterns of my previous two boards, I went for a much simpler colour scheme that was vibrant and realistic, matching well with the themes surrounding my owl and its history. From this, I began to add minor details such as the stars in the sky, matching my other set of concept boards; as well as attempting to add some blue willow wisps, that I thought would add to the enchanting affect, and give my scene something more visually pleasing to look at. 

Final Owl character creation:

Completing all of my developments for this week for my environment, I now moved onto creating my final owl concept, which I began by looking at different poses. Due to the style of my environment, I realized it would be quite difficult to create my owl perched on a tree branch. For this reason, I decided to create a range of different flying poses, that I thought would look goof flying out or within my scenery. The bottom uses a side portrait in different wing positions that appear as if its flying across the screen. Whereas my center design is rather front facing, meaning it would be coming out from the trees, which I quite like. This type of pose portrays a sense of power, and draws focus to the center, whereas the side view may not capture a good amount of detail from the concept, and will not look as powerful. 

I went with the middle front facing pose, as previously described, portrays power and attention. I changed this slightly so the owl is dipping on the right side rather than the left, as this fit my environment better, and would appear as if my owl is sweeping through the trees. From this, I began to add some basic details, such as to the pupils, and feathers, as well as define the lines to look much more cleaner; this being so when I use colour, it will be much easier to see where the different tones break on my owl. 

Once again looking at colour, I conducted some experimentation looking at how the colours contrast together (which I based upon my test pieces on my owl heads). The first being based upon the light and dark grays, which looked really nice, and focused in on the lighter colour schemes I was looking for. Secondly, based upon my darker tones, I created two darkened versions, one being gray, and the other brown, as I wanted to see hat a darker owl would look like. I quite liked the brown, although it didn’t stand out enough; the gray on the other hand did to this, but the colours did not match the environment. This left only the lighter version of the browns and white, which again I really liked, and the colours matched up with the forest environment nicely. 

As I decided upon the last colour scheme, using whites, grays and light browns, I began to shade in my owl, using my specific brush to get that feathery affect I liked. I layered this with other colours so that it blended nicely on pen pressure, and continued this process throughout the whole of the body, building down the colours as I went. I also attempted to add some shade to the wings inner sectors, although this still needs enhancing during its final development. 

Finally, like all of my previous designs, I added in my animal within my environment, to see how it started to look when finalized, I was really happy with the posing and the overall colours that I used on this; as mentioned before, some areas such as the wings, as well as the grass clusters within the environment still need to be tweaked; something that can be fixed and worked on during the upcoming weeks of my concepts progression.

What did I find difficult or easy?

What I found easy:

What I found the easiest during this week was layering up the colours and using shade; the more I practiced this skill during each of my concept art pieces, the better I became, and the easier it was to accomplish this. 

What I found difficult:

It was difficult initially designing my environment, as I wasn’t completely clear where I was going with its development until the later shade or colouring stages meaning this was largely a trial and error area for me which was sometimes rather time consuming. 

Planning for next week – 

How do I plan to catch up: 

I’m quite on task with my progression throughout these weeks, I have steadily began to create my wolf, basilisk and owl environments and characters design, meaning I am readily made to move forward to my two final boards. 

Do I need to change anything about my work or planning:

I need to practice perspective more, so when I am photo-bashing ideas together, it won’t be as challenging for me to begin to implement my own areas of work, trying to work around what I have already. Additionally, I need to focus on the amount of time i’m spending on initial ideas, so I use all my time given throughout the weeks efficiently. 

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Week Number & Date – Week 5: 09/03/20

List of Tasks I plan on completing:

• Refine and finish my wolf and basilisk concepts. √
• Continue working on my owl concepts, and developing stoat ideas. √
• Begin working on my unicorn board exploring head designs, colour ideas, and different concepts. × (cutting due to time constraints and focusing on my four other boards) 

Current Position – What did I do this week and why did I do it?

For my last board, I followed the exact same process, starting with traditional drawing for my initial concept ideas. I looked at different types of fur texturing that could be used for my stoat, as well as its stance, being as they can go on two feet or on all fours. It was fun to play around with this, as I looked at how a stoats body proportions lie, and how they differ form weasels. 

I then once again moved onto creating some more ideas digitally, this time allowing me to explore colour variation as well as stance, I looked at the types of ways I could shade a stoat, which was really useful as I was able to see what kind of detail I could do with the use of just colour. My other designs were kept quite simple, as these were purely used as examples of colours I could generally use. 

Now that I was finished looking at basic colour schemes and general figure proportions and style, I then started to think about colour much more thoroughly. I stuck to what I’ve been and used for my first concept, using very mild grays and whites to explore a simple white coat fur (my original plan due to these creatures known for being the pinnacle of purity). I then broadened this range with darker tones such as light oranges, browns, and yellows, which looked nice, although was an uncommon variation of this species. 

Next, browns and whites were used together, which actually became one of my favorites, as it made how simple its design was more interesting, and fit well with this animal. Finally, my last was a mixture of dark and light tones, as I wanted to see if I could get them to work together; I found that although I liked the tones contrast, the different was too extreme, and might be hard to blend and shade if used for my final colour scheme. 

Stoat photo-bash and environment sketches:

For my stoat environment, I wanted a simplistic forestry area that would showcase a large riverside where a small stoat would reside in. I found the perfect image that I could use for photo-bashing my ideas together, including fallen logs and the rocks it would use to hold this up. For my idea, I thought I could use this fallen log for my stoat to run across within my final concept, as its again in the center, and would highlight their natural behaviors of lurking near forest areas with sources of water. 

Once I had sketched this design out, I added in some highlighted shading to see where I would place these differentiation’s when I move my image over to colour. Now that this was completed, I could start to see how my environment was forming, which is always essential for me when progressing forward within my artwork, as I like to have a clear structure on where my work is heading towards in terms of visual style, look, and colour scheme. 

Taking this to colour, I again looked at a range of rather traditional schemes that are much more likely to be set in the woods, as well as more mythical ones that are less commonly seen. The most far-fetched in terms of realism would be my forth design, as I wanted to experiment with extreme tones, the same with my previous designs, to see if it could potentially work and be a unique design. In this case, the river and grass colours were slightly too extreme, although did really bring attention towards the river, something I need to do for my final concept. The second focused most towards a realistic perspective, I stuck to quite saturated colours, as I was thinking about how this would be built up using colours, shadows and highlights later on in my production, bringing out these colours more-so. The forth and final colour scheme was meant to seem quite mystifying, it used a warm blue glow, which really complimented the river and the sky. I may consider using this scheme, although later in my production as i’m focusing towards realistic detailing for now. 

After playing around with my second concept, I ended up with this environment colour scheme, keeping the river vibrant but also natural. Additionally, I also liked how these colours brought out the tones of the grass, and dimmed the sky colours, to make it appear earlier in the day. As these are now going to be my chosen colours, I was not ready to move onto adding finer details and removing the black outer lining. 

To begin this process, I began with the tree bark, as this was one of the most consuming visual pieces within my scene. For this, I simply added low-lights and highlights to the bark, making the integrations stand out more, which is an important part in making the more realistic. Once this was completed all the way the tree, I added shadows to one side of the tree, and highlights to the other, to give the appearance that the light was predominately falling from the left. 

Moving onto the water, I planned on adding reflections later on within my project, so for now I stuck to focusing on the levels of colour, and and how I could layer this to look like water streams dependent on the direction. I stuck to using thin lines of lighter and darker tones, and blending this when appropriate; once I moved onto the water fall areas of the river, I tried to make this look as if it was falling down, and small amounts of water spray was coming up. Although the white was effective is showing this process, I need to eventually add more detail to this, so the fallen areas stand out more from the rest of the river. 

I then moved onto adding a mossy layer to the fallen down tree across the river. I wasn’t sure how to do this, so I began by creating a simple base of green, and then adding different levels of dark and light areas. It turned out quite well, and gave the look of a rotting element which is what I needed. I scattered this around at random across the tree, until most of the parts that would be touching the water would be covered. 

Finally, as instigated throughout all of my concept boards, I finished off my details by adding some stars in the sky. I thought this would be a nice feature to add to keep my boards looking like a finished set, as well as making the sky a lot less bare and more interesting. By this point I have now finished adding in elements to my environment, and now will be moving onto my stoat final creation. 

This is the overall finished environment so far, I am quite pleased with the level of detail that I put into this; although being one of my more simpler designs, it came out looking very effective, as well as Incorporated all the assets that I had originally planned to be in my concept during its drafting.

Final Stoat Character creation:

As completed throughout the rest of my character creations, I began my stoat process by sketching out a set of poses that I could potentially use within my environment scene. These were drawn quite rough, as a stoats design is rather simple, and they were simply used for the purpose of working out a position to use; I ended up learning towards the first design, as it was in the correct perspective for my stoat to walk across the log, and you are able to see most of its body and facial features as the head is facing towards you. I like the standing up pose, as this creates a sense of curiosity, although I would have to put it on flat ground, which would be out of focus and hidden among the grass. The bottom concept would be good if my stoat was running across a horizontal branch or log, but as this is not the case, it would again be awkward to place within my area. 

This is the final detailed sketch of my stoat, using my initial pose as a template for my drawing. This again did not take long, as the main features that are visible are quite small, and the overall shape and physique of a stoat is reasonably simplistic, being as most of its detail is given by its fur colours. For this reason, I kept this design basic but vibrant, so I could see which areas I am adding the colours too, and when they may need to change. 

For my stoats colour combinations, I took inspiration from my previous digital examples, and created a set of different colour palettes depending on its fur type. The first gray one was quite dark, and a lot less cliche, being as you would unlikely see this colour for a stoat. The second was the most traditional, and followed along the schemes and plan I had for its colouring, bright browns and whites. Contrasted to this, my third was rather unusual, I used a pale red as I wanted to see how natural this would look, and how well it would work on a stoat, I quite liked this, although it wouldn’t work in my environment due to the other types of colours. This way of thinking also applied to my forth, even though it again creates  a sense of myth and fairy-tale, which wasn’t unwelcome within my concepts. 

Overall, this was my final scene with my semi-finished stoat character creation. I was happy with its position and fur colours, although it may need defining in areas so that you can visibly see the pupils and facial features nice and clearly even when they are quite small. The colours used were elements taken from my second colour concept, and dimmed down to make it more realistic to its environment tones. 

What did I find difficult or easy?

What I found easy:

I found it easy to produce the colour concepts, as I knew what I was looking for within my final pieces, as well as what I was trying to avoid, so errors could be changed quite quickly during my experimentation period. 

What I found difficult:

Again, I found it difficult to initially create my designs, I was uncertain of what I wanted within my scene, meaning I just have to keep changing things such as shade and placement of objects until I found I was happy with it. 

Planning for next week – 

How do I plan to catch up:

I have completed all my work for this unit, being as I’ve cut out a board to specifically focus on my four that I have created. I also wasn’t happy with my fifth idea, as it didn’t fit well with the rest of my project, which I will explain in further detail within my evaluation.