Developed Research

Dark and Light unicorns mood-board:

For this research, I gathered images of unicorns for my light/dark concept board, one side representing the purity of the animal, and the other showing a hellish nightmare. This board would be the center piece of my project, as I wanted this to showcase a clash between the order and chaos of the seven heavenly virtues and deadly sins. Examples shown in these images depict different types of concept pieces showing much more stylized and realistic variations; using brighter colours such as light blue, pink, white and light grey for the lighthearted drawings, as well as blacks, greens and reds for the contrast of the low-spirited versions. 

The purpose of these images, expresses the types of style I’m going for, the concepts all show realism using brushes that create a refined or painted design. Using this style, it provides me with an opportunity to follow a realistic visual look, while also leaving room for stylisation. These images will be used to create my final board, as I combine the different types of colour shades, and facial anatomy of a unicorn for inspiration. It will also give me ideas on how I create the darker aspects of my project, such as changes in horn structure conveying a more devilish look. 

Primary Game Sources: World of Warcraft Cinder-mane Charger/Celestial Steed

Although these are not primarily unicorns, these World of Warcraft horse mounts are perfect examples of light and dark contrasts. The Celestial Steed is supposedly made out of stars, and use light bright colours such as blue and white, both stated in my research to represent the heavenly virtues. Whereas, the Cinder-mane Charger is made out of ash, smoke, and fire, using dark colours  such as red, orange and black, again this relation to fire symbolizes that of hell, which in turn is the opposite of the purity shown by the Celestial Steed. Furthermore from this, they are unique ways to show how I can produce my pieces so they’re more unique, such as using the constellations within the structure like this. 

Wolf concepts and photographs mood-board:

This research was conducted to explore my wolf concept based upon the Norse mythology of Fenrir. I thought this link would be appropriate for my project, due to following a mythological theme throughout most of my animal creations. ‘Fenrir’ is known for being a ferocious giant beast ‘dwelling in the marshes’. What I like about this research, is the concept images are great examples of how I plan to create my pieces, the aggressive and dark nature shown, is similar to what I intend to produce as explained in my proposal. The wolf is almost mystical, which is appropriate considering the history behind how the wolf is created. Additionally, I also gathered some real life photographs of wolves in different perspectives, meaning this will make it easier for me to create the anatomy and pose of my creature, as i’ll have lots of reference to build my artwork upon. 

As you can see, the purpose of this mood-board is to indicate the darkness shown in this mythological wolf representing the deadly sin of ‘”wrath”. For this reason, the mood personifies an eerie and dark atmosphere to set the scene of my work, and to make my audience feel this evil nature just through the colours, and type of environment used (such as conventions of fog and rain to create pathetic fallacy). Many of my wolf concepts are shown on a moonlit forest or cliff-side, which is stated in my research and final idea to convey that sense of fear and destruction. 

Primary Game Sources: World of Warcraft Wolves:

Dire wolves, probably one of the most well known creatures in the game were a perfect source for my wold research, being as their aesthetic is rather striking and aggressive, using a combination of its simplistic style and jagged edges to create a threatening approach. I thought this example would be useful, as the structure of the wolf is similar to the legend of ‘Fenrir’, being as the wolf is rather aggressive and larger than other wolves. Additionally, I like the colour schemes, and how they used gradients of grey in the center, working back to lighter grey; this adds 3D dimension to the design, as well as giving it character. I want to use this technique within my own work, ensuring that all different types of colours and shades are being used for a realistic effect. 

Basilisk concepts mood-board:

This mood-board was created to focus on the design for my basilisk creature production which is representing the sin “envy”. It was important that the snake showed attributes of anger or jealousy. The serpents are typically green, and as snakes are supposedly seen as envious, this colour has been used throughout generations to show this emotion. I chose images with a similar style to what I want to use for my own work, and also ones with interesting styles and shapes, as this will emphasize my project theme much more clearly, and make my artwork fascinating. Many of these creatures have scales, spikes, and large fangs, as they are known for being monstrous, different concepts depict these serpents as either locating in the sea, or in dark dingy cave areas, which is why I gathered a large range of visual imagery for ideas. 

What I like about this research, is all of the designs clearly represent basilisk concepts, while using very different styles and aesthetics. Colours such as green and black are used for the more traditional examples, although less conventional colours such as: blues, reds, oranges, dark purples etc have also been used, meaning I won’t try to limit myself to a specific colour scheme when generating my initial sketches. What I dislike about this research, is some of these images show other variations such as a ‘Hydra’, which is another creature known to be made out of three snake heads. This difference in interpretation means there could be other ways of drawing my art pieces, something i’ll have to explore during the generation period. 

Primary Game Sources: World of Warcraft Giant Snake:

Although World of Warcraft has a large range of snakes, I particularly liked this ones use of colours, as it used a variety of purely greens to produce an almost venomous effect. The colour combinations work really nicely together, which is why I wanted to take inspiration from this design. I liked how only one actual colour was used, but different tones of it was placed so that it gave the snake texture and vibrancy. The use of one tone could be used throughout some of my creatures designs and colour ideas, so I don’t have to use such a broad colour palette. 

Owl concepts and photographs mood-board:

Depicting my research here, I gathered images and photographs of snowy owls, as these have beautiful colours, tones as well as white feathers which can be used as a great visualization when presenting purity. The images I chose were close-up head-shots and further away images in different angles, environments, and concepts. The reason behind this, is I wanted reference that could be photo-bashed and used in my project, as well as enabling me to see the proportions and anatomy of an owl, making it easier to draw my own artwork based upon what I can see. Mostly these images are of snowy owls, as these are the ones with the most white in them, as well as have pretty blue eyes, which follow along the colour schemes I wanted; although I also collected photographs on barn owls, as these are light brown and white, which are colours that are seen as pure, and also have some more interesting looks to them. 

These mood images are really useful towards my project, as I can take parts of these designs, such as feather styles, colours, environment ideas, and apply them to my own work to make it more realistic and much more genuine. I not only gathered photographs and artwork pieces, but also sketches, which I can use to see how other artists initiated their designs, and also where they highlighted there shadows and lights. What I like about this research, is all of the images clearly analysis and show the qualities of an owl and their visual build clearly from both front facing, spread wings and non spread wings, meaning I can position my own design on an owl in a variety of different ways. 

Primary Game Sources: World of Warcraft Snowy Owls:

One of my favorite creatures in the whole World of Warcraft game is the owls, they have a variety of interesting and unique designs, and look extremely nice within the game. Particularly, while playing I realized that the snowy owls are very similar to the colours, and shades to the concepts I want to design, as well as the real life owls taken in photographs and shown in my mood images. For this reason, I took screenshots of this in different positions, as its good reference material to get the wings showing different ways. Again, I really liked the colour pigments, as they effectively use shades of white to show the feathering of an owl. I am impressed by this, as the game is very stylized, yet they make this work nicely with great textures making them still look correct. I also like the style of the owls, as they appear strong and brave, all admiral qualities I would need in a heavenly piece of artwork. 

Stoat concepts and photographs mood-board:

Finally, looking at the study of my creatures, the last of my heavenly virtue boards is the “stoat” representing ‘wisdom’. These animals are seen as wise, and looking into my research for folklore of the Komi people, they are symbolic of beautiful young woman, and in the Zoroastrian religion, the animal is considered sacred, and its white fur constituting purity. For this reason, I chose this animal as it worked well with a religious and symbolic take to my project, as well as visually looking the part for a peaceful and non-threatening creature. Again what I like about this research is the variety of different artwork styles that worked well within these pieces, additionally, the different stances and positions of the creatures giving them different types of creativity and emotional portrayal. For example, a simple and clean style with a playful position would make my piece seem more friendly and happy, whereas a realistic style using a standard anatomy perspective would look much more serious; something I need to take into account during my production. 

The purpose of these mood images, allows me to look at the types of positions of a stoat, where they reside, and the colours of the species, as I am new to creating this type of creature within my drawings. What I most like about this research, is the creatures are quite simple in design, so building up a body of real life photographs, and comparing this to the concept pieces people have created will give me the opportunity to create this animal using my own style. What I dislike, is there isn’t much variation with the types of colours or areas shown, meaning I may have to look further to see if there is anything I could add to make my work more interesting, as well as more accurate. 

Primary Game Sources: World of Warcraft: Ferret

This creature within the game was a surprise to me, as I wasn’t looking for in-game research for a stoat. Although this isn’t technically a stoat, it really looks like the creatures body. I could only find images within the game of them lying down, although this still gave me the opportunity to look at bone structure definition highlighted in the shadowing of the legs and arms. The shape of this ferret-type animal looks almost identical to a stoat, which is why it was useful to my project as inspiration and reference. The colours need to be changed and adapted, although you can see where they’ve changed colour pigments, something I could use within my artwork to change the lighter tones on its stomach, different from the tones on its back. 

Moonlit dark forest & cliff-side: (wolf)

Here I looked at landscape and portrait variations of forests set at night, as this is meant to convey ‘wolves that howl at the moon’. I thought this was historic due to the context of this environment being displayed behind my wolf concept board. I wanted this environment to convey fear and horror, which is why all of them show images of abandoned forests with winding dark roads and twisted trees, conventions used in all types of media from film and book to instill worry in the audience and readers. The images tell me about how I can produce my environments, using fog, rain, silhouettes, and animals such as crows, as symbolization for destruction, death and bad occurrences. Whats best about this source of research, is they are great examples of the type of atmosphere i’m trying to present within this piece, as well as the message of ‘”wrath”. Additionally, many of the forests use different tones such as grey, blue, purple, and black, which really inspires me to experiment and layer up my colours to create the type of sky and environmental background that fits my theme and style. 

Dark cave and sea: (basilisk)

The purpose of collecting these images is to create a source of inspiration and reference for the background of my basilisk concept board. When researching this creature, many pieces of artwork show the basilisk as either a creature of the land, or a creature of the sea. I wanted my work to be as truthful as possible, so I thought of combining these areas and creating my creature in a cave area with a source of water nearby. (Similarly to that of the basilisk in the Harry Potter film ‘The Chamber of Secrets’. Although I gathered a large variety of both landscape and portrait photographs and concepts, my final piece will most likely be created in a portrait view, as this will take up much more space, and the serpent look of this would mostly take up height rather than width.

My intent when gathering this exploration of ideas, is to look at the types of colours and shadows that are used in a cave effectively, as well as how they create the light sources, as this would be quite important to show how dark the inside of the cave is, contrasted to the light of the river-beds on the outside. The atmosphere that this represents is mystery, as these legends in Greek mythology are known to be mysterious serpent kings that can cause death via a single glance. What I dislike about this research, is it leaves a lot of experimentation that needs to be done during the initial sketches, as cave systems have quite a large amount of detail, and I need the water to resemble some amount of realism so it follows along with the style I am using. 

Bright and vibrant tree forest: (owl)

The research conducted within this board is much more generalized, and focuses on the positive appearance that highly contrasts with the environments of the deadly sins. As an owl is an animal linked to the goddess of Athena, seen as wise, pure, and patient, I thought a forest with bright flowers, lights, sun glares and colours would fit nicely with how this artwork is suppose to be portrayed. When generating ideas for this piece, the board itself will most likely be landscape, as this way i’ll be able to show the colours and large extent of the forest area, as well as still showing the details of the owl within the environment. I particularly like the concept pieces drawn for this, as the forests are very magical, using old fashioned lamps, and pixie dust specs, which are associated with a fairy-tale land. 

I selected my images based upon how the owls in the environments looked, as this was a great way to look out how I could position them to fit within the forest. Additionally, I also took concepts with colours such as pink, blue, green, and orange, as you would see these in bright vibrant areas, as well as completely exaggerating the differences with the dark forests and atmospheres, and the order and chaos this brings to the piece. 

Primary Research: Photographs of Forests

During my trip to Iceland, there were some beautiful open forests with flowers and glowing sunsets, which is why I used this within my primary research. The forests are a perfect example of the types of scenery I want to create within my piece, and the bright colours and daylight that the forest will have within my concepts. Additionally, while walking through Shoreham, there was a large open try with sunbeams following through; this was a really pretty photograph, as well as represented what types of forestry and cheerful background I could create simply using trees and radiant sunrises. This research was invaluable for me to see what type of atmosphere i’m trying to convey by visiting some myself, as well as having some personal visual interpretation of the forests, so I could recreate a similar layout when initiating sketches and concept ideas. 

Woodlands and riverbanks: (stoat)

Lastly, I looked at riverbanks and streams as an environment idea for my stoat; these creatures shown in my research like to lurk in snowy or woodland type areas. I thought having them live in this type of environment with water, would not only make my scene more interesting, but would fit with their history of being multi-talented by being able to run, swim, and climb trees, meaning they are clearly quite adaptable. I intend to use these sources so I can create my own layout designs for the forest, and see how the stream flows across this. Perspective would be key in this type of area, meaning a large amount of reference to refer back too would be extremely useful. Additionally, this is also necessary, as I can decide what type of forest I can create, as shown in many of these photographs, they have used birch trees, oak, pine etc, meaning I would have to look at what is most appropriate for a stoat, and incorporate this using the layouts and colour schemes of my mood images. 

Primary Research: Photographs of oceans, rivers, lakes and Waterfalls in Iceland/Shoreham-by-Sea

Finally, Iceland photographs taken by the rivers and waterfalls were amazing images to present how I wanted a natural woodlands environment to look like for a stoat. This combines a natural green-land scenery, with water and streams, which is the land I was envisioning for my creature within my final boards. The amount of detail that has been captured within the photographs are great materials to enhance the realism and production when creating the rocks, riversides and grass stems. Here I can also see the breaking of water, as well as how water-falls flow nicely, which usually wouldn’t be something easy to photograph in person. Moreover from this, there a sunset in Shoreham during afternoon hours along the beach, which allowed me to collect an image of ripples in the water forming along the shore, as well as a stream of sunlight along the water (which will be useful during the creation of my water and warm feeling environments using colour gradients).