During my free time I have completed a
variety of designs, the majority focus on the use of human anatomy in fan art
versions of characters I really like from particular games, TV shows or from my
own concepts.
The first illustration I started with
was a basic anime style design; I used a reference drawing to complete this
design and added particular features such as the bear hat and teddy. I decided
to create a textured background for this design so it would contrast with the
clean line work of the character. I really like the hair on this character and
the clothing colours, however I’m not so sure on my inclusion of the hat it
looks slightly off balanced which I wasn’t pleased with. But I’m glad I completed
this so that I can continue developing my skills and hopefully become more acquainted
with designing with human anatomy.
The second illustration was fan art of
the ‘She-Ra’ character Catra as I really loved their personality and style; I resonated
so much with this character especially during the ceremonial scene which is why
I chose to use that event as the inspiration for my design. I really wanted to illustrate
just how Catra managed to add feminism and strength to a more masculine choice
of clothes for a formal event. I used soft shading for this design as I wanted
to shading to be really soft so it would match the style of the background I was
hoping to create. I really love how the shading turned out as it really
emphasises that concept of merging genders and works well on the fabric to
create a greater perception of depth and realism.
My third illustration was inspired by the
first two merging a new character with a more realistic background. I explored
the use of a photo and the Gaussian blur tool to create this as it was a
technique I had seen within a tutorial and was intrigued to try it within my
own wor
k. However compared to my Catra illustration I feel the lighting on this
design is a lot flatter which may be because I chose to combine cell shading and
the airbrush style between elements. I feel this was a good start to my
explorations but there is clearly a lot of room for improvement with my use of
the human anatomy and how lighting works on such a complex figure.
Following this I was inspired by a phrase said by my partner
of ‘Me Goose-Ta’ rather than the Spanish version of ‘Me Gusta’ I found this
hilarious and really wanted to capture that moment through an illustration; I
was also inspired by my recent purchase of the ‘Unentitled Goose Game’ for this
design. I really love how this turned out, I attempted to use a textured brush
for my outlines rather than my commonly used basic brush. I felt this would
work a lot better for my chosen concept as it ensured the lines weren’t as
harsh or bold as my usual designs. I really enjoyed exploring the development
of type for this design as well as I needed to work on visibility and
composition to ensure the concept remained visual and appealing without
becoming lost behind the character.
Next up was the creation of another
piece of fan art from an anime I really like called ‘My Hero Academia’ of the
character ‘Katsuki Bakugo’ I really enjoyed the development of this design and
tried to add more texture following the completion of my previous experiments
as I like how the use of textures has previously heightened the quality of my
work. Their quirk is explosive sweat which they control via their hands hence I
made sure the theme of the background was influenced by this considering the
pose of my design didn’t show this. Once again I tried to use just soft shading
and although I like certain areas much better in comparison to my previous
designs such as the shading on the neck and in the ear, I’m not sure this
method works best for these types of illustrations as the lighting becomes
almost too faded due to the style of brush. Due to this I am interested in
completing a more complex illustration using only cell shading to see whether
this technique works better.
For my final illustration in this series I decided to create
the character Sally Face from the game… ‘Sally Face’ an indie horror game which
follows the story of a young boy ending up in prison due to unnatural forces.
This game was extremely riveting and I really wanted to create some fan art
based on this character. Since the style of the game is rather grunge / punk I wanted
to maintain this theme within my design by layering multiple colours of textured
brushes leading to black for the background. I also made the character’s
sweater a slightly lighter grey than the pure black in the rest of the design to
ensure it would remain visible against this background. Once again I attempted
to use the textured brush for the line work so it would appear slightly softer
and alongside this I then utilised cell shading to add the rest of the detail
to my design.
I feel this is definitely the best illustration of the
series and I am pleased I can notice throughout this how I have managed to
improve my skills and develop my understanding of combining brush styles and
colouring styles. This will be really helpful during future projects where I can
use these findings to help improve my designs.
Comments
Post a Comment