Workflow of My Environment

JabacOrdof

Hey everyone! New project up here in Montreal; a fully developed environment painting. Really excited for this one because we get half of the semester to really sink our teeth into it and I'm sure I am going to learn a lot. The environment I have to create is based on a random assortment of themes given to me by my colleagues. I drew "Bright" "Amazonian-Punk", and "Recycled", so I am going to have to get really creative with the interpretation of the themes. First things first, the thumbnails. Coming up with a concept based upon which of these sketches reads the best will be my first step before deciding on anything else. Please let me know if any of them strike you as stronger than others and if not just sit back and watch for my updates. Thank you all!

-Eric Kilkenny

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Sharvo

Hey great thumbnails, and some interesting themes to get in them... I really like the sacle of number 3 (top row last column) I also like the first two in the bottom row and the middle one in the third row.

I think they all contribute differently and i see different things in those ones especially compared to the others. Maybe mix some of those up?

JabacOrdof

Thanks Sharvo! That's a good idea; now that I can actually look at them and see what the strengths and weaknesses are I should be able to incorporate some of the strong elements together into a very interesting layout. Thanks for the advice and I hope you'll come back to see what comes of it!

HowToTrainAZombie

Have you ever played Limbo? looks like your work is inspired from their backgrounds which is really cool. I like the dark tone and atmosphere. Is that what you're looking for specifically?
Amazonion punk feels like it could do a lot with a mixture of colors which is kinda the opposite, but this definitely looks like it has a "Recycled" feel since the backgrounds look apocalyptic n stuff. Not sure if that is any bit helpful, but I like what you have so far. Maybe you can more to the background and foreground in terms of whats going on in the picture. (wildlife, or anything that brings out the environments characteristics).

JabacOrdof

I'm glad you like it HowToTrainAZombie. I do draw from Limbo a bit to get that bright feel for the background, since limbo featured a lot of stark contrasts in light that really silhouetted the foreground. Amazonian-punk is a genre that one of my colleagues made up on the spot, so I get to really interpret it any way I want, and I was also thinking a lot of intense colors to the man-made structures with a amazonian theme. Once I choose which thumb (or thumbs) are strongest I will be able to find a focus for the scene and really figure out the characteristics. Unfortunately the class critique was cancelled because my teacher had a health emergency, so next week I will be able to move forward and decide on a concept. Thanks for the feedback!

JabacOrdof

Alright, finally got to get some critiques from my professor and colleagues and, along with the feedback I have gotten here, have gone and refined what I believe to be the strongest thumbnail. I have made some alterations and combined elements from two of the other stronger thumbnails in an attempt to enhance the composition. This is not necessarily final, it is just a second and more refined pass at the composition. Let me know what you think of the strength of the composition, whether or not you think it could be enhanced, and how well the scene "reads". All comments and critiques are appreciated greatly, as always. Thanks everyone!

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JabacOrdof

Hey everyone! I have made a Polycount faux pas and was not able to show my step-by-step progress on this, and I promise to do better next time. I was extremely busy with all my projects but all of your feedback thus far was taken and greatly appreciated. I got to learn from Nick Oroc, who is a fantastic concept artist and just a great guy to talk to, and I learned so much over the course of this project. Let me know what you think about this and ways you think I could improve moving forward. As always thank you all!

-Eric Kilkenny

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