So um, I've been kind of practicing my 2D concept art and design skills for awhile now. It's been about, oh, a year or so since I started a practice regime for myself (you can see my progress so far on my sketchbook here), and I decided it was about time to start working a portfolio.
The main point of this will be to create a portfolio that will allow me to enter a university to pursue a degree in design and also (hopefully) be strong enough so that I may apply for a scholarship of some sort. While this is sort of a "student" admission portfolio, I'll definitely try to make the works as professional as possible so that it can at least compete on the industry level.
I'll try to explain my thoughts and design process as much as possible as I go along. Most of it will probably what design decisions, random notes and info that I might learn or encounter along the way and most importantly, self- critique and art direction. Sorry if it's a lot to read, but it will mainly be for my own archival purposes and hopefully it might turn out to be something useful or interesting.
The Portfolio
So my plan is to come up a couple different stories/projects and design their world using concept art. I don't really want to go too overboard with the amount of designs, just a few of the standard characters, environments, props, vehicles, etc. that can fit together as a whole within their own universe in terms of art direction. (Hopefully this isn't too ambitious!)
The 3 main focus points I want to achieve
1. Original, intelligent designs
2. Strong story
3. Draftsmanship and technical competence
I also want to be able to showcase my ability to design multiple subject matters (characters, creatures, environments, props, vehicles, etc), in different styles (Realistic, stylistic, etc.) and genres (fantasty, sci-fi, etc). This way, I will be challenging myself and constantly try to push out of my comfort zone. Also, it will allow me hone my fundemental skills in art and design as well as keep things new and fresh. It will also show that I can adapt to multiple designs and art direction.
The Process
I've come up with a rough 3-stage process to create my portfolio pieces. However, this doesn't mean this is the only way. It is mainly so that I have some structure to fall back to in case I go overboard (or hit a mental block) in coming up with new ideas.
Stage 1 - Doodling, ideas, story, mood, art direction.
Mostly experimentation and looking inspiration and ideas. This can be in the form of books, movies, inspirational images, random generators, notes, scribbles and doodle, etc. Drawings and renderings are super loose and random at this stage. Basically coming up with ideas.
Stage 2 -Sketching, design and style exploration, problem solving.
Trying to transform the shapeless ideas in Stage 1 into something recognizable. Here we tackle the the big design issues. Drawings and renderings don't have to be extremely tight and pretty, but can't be too sketchy as well. It must at least be able to communicate the ideas well.
Stage 3 -Final rendering, details, touching up and presentation.
Here all the ideas and designs are finalized and solved. At this stage it's mostly about cleaning up, adding final touches and details and creating nice layouts and presentations. If needed, it is at this stage where we will do the really tight and detailed images.
Reference
I'll be referencing various portfolios, artbooks and portfolio guidelines/advice that I may find. This may include other artists' work and the layout/presentation of their portfolio pieces.
Art Direction
Art direction will vary and depend on the project and it's world. I'll try to come up with a style guide and the overall look and feel before diving into sketching and designing.
I'll be self art directing my portfolio for the most part. But, if possible, it would be a great help if you guys could give advice or critique my work as I go along. A fresh pair of eyes can always spot the mistakes or inconsistencies that I can't see!
Also, I'll be posting my WIPs, sketches and self-critiques as I go along, so if anyone has any thoughts or ideas to share, please feel free to do so. We're all here to learn and improve after all!
Aaand that's about it. I'll be updating this post as I progress, it's gonna be a hell of a wild ride trying to get this done. I don't really have any deadlines for this, but ideally I'd like to get it done by September '13 (preferably earlier, buuut doesn't sound very likely). Thanks for looking through! And stay tuned for the first project! Cheers!
Okay! So for my first project I'll be doing a redesign of an old PS1 game - Guardian's Crusade! Had a lot of memories playing this when I was a kid, really great storyline and it had really good graphics for its time that really appealed to me.
~~
The story here is that the hero, Knight, and his fairy companion, Nehani are tasked to protect and deliver a baby dragon across the lands back to it's home. As they progress in their journey, they will undergo quests and adventures, etc. etc. and eventually save the world from ultimate evil.
Something like that.
~~
So here I'll be trying to update its look and also try to put my own design flavour into this classic game. I'm thinking of something that still keeps it relatively stylized, but with a little more realistic proportions. Something like a mix between Ghibli's Tales of Earthsea and Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon (my two main inspirations for the look and feel of this project). I sort of want to give it that Dreamworks' "3D" look in terms of rendering style as well.
For the designs I'm aiming for something more functional instead of stylistic. Meaning referencing real-life equipment and outfits, and then simplifying them in terms of style and detail to fit the overall look. I'll be keeping the genre the same as the original game - which is medieval fantasy-ish with some steampunk elements.
And here's a little style guide I put together to show what I mean.
One of the reasons why I want it to be stylized is because it's easier than doing crazy, hyper-real designs, and since this is the first project, I'd want to warm up with something relatively simple first. Character: Knight
To start, I'll be designing the 3 main characters first. Mainly because I'm actually less comfortable in designing characters so I'll want to dive right into it first. To begin with, here are some initial thoughts and sketches for the main character, Knight.
I imagined Knight to be someone who is kind hearted and has a strong sense of responsibility (you have to be if you're willing to carry a baby dragon halfway across the world back home). However he is also someone who has never travelled too far from his hometown before and can be quite naive. He is also curious (this is because in the game you can poke around crates and barrels to find hidden items). His role is the hero and protector of the group (and eventually, the world). So I'll try to emphasize this aspects of him in my designs.
As for his equipment, I was thinking he'd be wearing something simple with good protection (he is a knight after all), but not too over the top. He'll be wearing a helmet as well, which to me is a really important part of his design. So that will be an interesting prop to explore.
Woah, ok, it's really late and I've written a bit too much. I hope it was interesting so far. Going to work on some initial designs for the second character soon! So stay tuned!
Guardian's Crusade The World
Did a quick painting to sort of establish the mood of the world I'm trying to design. I was thinking it could be kind of a "early stage" visual guide and can act as sort of a splash page. It's still in the WIP stages, so it's still kind of sloppy in terms of brushwork and stuff, but I think I'm sort of happy with it in terms of composition.
Character: Nehani
Started on some designs and sketches for Nehani. She's Knight's fairy companion in the original game and is sort of the one who gives all the comments. Her role is mostly to give advice and occasionally acts as a healer character.
Before I started designing Nehani's appearance, I went online and did some studies of fairies and pixies. It was when I searched "pixie" into google and saw women with "pixie hairstyles" that I decided to give Nehani short hair. I wanted to emphasize an elegant and intelligent look to her as she is sort of the advisor/decision-maker in the group. She also has elf ears and wings, the design of her wings still needs some exploration as it is an important element to her look.
For her dressing I thought it would be good if I could add some "traveller" elements to her clothing as opposed to just a plain "tinkerbell" dress. Something that would suit a long adventure.
After mixing and matching some of the designs for fun, I decided I liked this combination the most. I particularly like the idea of her having braided hair for some reason.
Right now, all these designs are still in the early phase, so they are still quite sketchy and vague. After I can establish how the first three characters look as a whole, then I can start refining and polishing their designs.
Next up will be some initial designs for Baby (that's his name) - the dragon!
Are you sure this is the right way to get into University for art / design? Have you ever got any information from students or professors at your desired university about what they want to see?
My expirience (Germany and Design School) is, that they want to see who you are! What you like to do, what interests you most. They want to see how curios you are and of course, where you're good at. I think its totally fine to do such a project, but it is nothing original. You are redesigning something that is already their. Thats no original art. These characters are not your ideas, they already exist, you are just giving them another appearance, which can be fine, but I don't think that it is necessarily what the university wants to see from you. This project most definitely isn't you, It is a very ambitious and interesting project, but I doubt it is something for your appliance portfolio.
So you might say 'This is what I love to do, this is me.' Yes, I get that, but you should look over your current boundaries and explore more of there is to art than concept art. Show them that you are curious and love to experiment and try new stuff. Thats what ( german ) professors are nuts about. Always try yourself on new stuff. They surely have seen some concept art in their life, its not what they know that lets you stand out.
Your painting and drawing skills are good, that should not be a obstacle.
If you already know that it is exactly that what you are doing is what they want to see, then forget what I was telling you
I really like the way you plan and organise your project, really looking forward to it, but as acapulco said before you should think about if you really want to redesign something instead of creating your own stuff..
Good luck with your project/portfolio anyway, definetly watching this.
acapulco, wow man, thank you so much for sharing your honest thoughts and giving such detailed advice. I really appreciate and it really gave me a lot to think about.
Um, first, the information I got on what kind of portfolio I should have is from Art Center College of Design's admission portfolio guidelines, which suggests entrants to "include original design ideas for an existing story or a story of your own invention." Soo, what I'm trying to do for this project is actually to redesign the entire world using its existing story as a base. I'm not trying to create fanart or just give the characters new clothes or anything, but rather to create my own intepretation of the visuals of this story.
And since the original game is actually quite old, the graphics were really simple and primitive and also the game itself did not touch to much on character development or design (in fact the main characters barely talked at all), so it does give a lot of opportunity to add elements of my own creation and design flavour into it. And it can also show potential employees my ability to adapt to existing IPs (like how so many film and game companies are "reviving" old titles, and sometimes adding a twist to them.)
But of course what you mentioned doing more original content is definitely true, and I must admit I chose this project also because it was something simple for me to start with. But it's also extremely fun and exciting for me, and also challenging (especially after spending a year just doing studies and practice and not doing my own stuff). The portfolio is just another excuse for me to do this project, to be honest.
Oh and you mentioned I should look over my current boundaries and explore more of there is to art than concept art. Um, does that mean doing things like fine art and stuff like that? I must say I'm not truly into fine art at this moment, but I do like to explore other aspects of design, such as product design and architecture. I'll definitely want to find ways to incorporate those things into my portfolio as well if possible. But I would like my portfolio to as stay concept art/design focused as much as possible, I mean, since it's the job I would like to work as in the future.
Thanks again man, I must say I never really thought to much into all those things you mentioned. I really just wanted to do a portfolio as quickly and nicely as I can to get into a school. It's also a test of my skills so far. But you're right, I definitely need to flex my design skills even harder and try new things as much as I can.
Hello again! Time to push this portfolio thing forward!
Character: Baby
Some sketches of Baby - a shapeshifting guardian dragon that's still, well, a baby. He's the reason why our heroes decided to embark to this adventure and is also a key member of the group. In the original game he's the only other character that joins knight in combat and starts out weak but potentially becomes extremely strong later in the storyline.
For Baby I wanted to sort of design a "cute" character. So, I used baby animals such as wolf cubs, bunnies, baby hippos (to capture the snout), etc. as a reference point in designing him. I struggled a bit to capture the "dragon" aspect of Baby, but I think maybe the tail and wings might help communicate that a little.
All in all I'm quite satisfied with how he turned out, although maybe he might be a bit too generic? I still have to figure out his shapeshifting powers and how it can be shown visually.
-
Also, more progress for Knight and Nehani!
I picked the things I liked in my quick sketches and fleshed out the look of Knight and Nehani. I also did a line drawing of them to help solidify the details and to fix any mistakes before going into the rendering. (which is the next step)
For the design, I think I could've made them a bit more unique? I don't know. I'm quite happy with how they look, but I felt that I could've pushed the design
and technical aspects of the drawing more - I just don't know how. Or perhaps I didn't give myself enough time and rushed into it a little. If I'm being 100% honest I think they look a bit generic but I'm quite happy with them for now.
Next up is fleshing out Baby, colouring and rendering Knight and Nehani and maybe some environment design!
Oh and if anyone has any thoughts, critiques or advice - please feel free to share! I'm here to learn and to stab my weaknesses after all!
Still missing Nehani's wings and some more detailing and refinement here and there, but I think I can finish up both characters pretty soon. Afterwards I'll be putting them into sort of a character presentation sheet. Will be working on Baby in the meantime.
I finished up the world landscape illustration. I plan to use this as sort of the front page of this particular project, to kind of set the the mood and tone of the other portfolio pieces. I've been hammering at this image for awhile, and there are still some parts I'm not 100% satisfied with, but for the sake of progressing, I'm just gonna call it done for now. I might come back and really polish it up at a later date.
I also completed the three main characters! Here's a group shot of them together. (Note that Nehani (the fairy) is supposed to be much smaller in size in comparison, but I left her big for this particular image). Rendering wise I think I did an "ok" job, not amazing, but for my skill level at this moment, I think it's still acceptable.
And lastly, I compiled all the sketches, thumbnails and made a concept sheet for each of the three main characters. Spent awhile arranging the layout. Not sure if it's really effective, but I think it works. Also might tweak or change them in the future
The eyes are a bit odd in the main image - not one of the 3 is looking straight at anything; the pupils are at the extreme edges of the eye for each.
I'd probably reduce the opacity of the faery's wings or add iridescence and a more distinct pattern. Blue butterflies typically combine a light or medium blue with black and/or white highlights.
DWalker - Cool! Thanks for the feedback dude. Yeah, that image of the three characters together is definitely out of sync. All I really did was take the the three seperate characters from their concept sheet and slap them together to see what it would look like. The fairy wing tip is definitely useful, I admit I was being a bit lazy when designing her wings. Will be doing some touch up on the characters soon!
Completed the concept design for Knight's house. Spent quite some time working on these two images, more than I would have liked, honestly. Sorry I didn't really post up any progress, but I do have some process shots which I'll post up soon.
For now, these are the more or less finished designs. Of course they're still open to changes if I see the need for it in the future. Lots of struggling, but I learnt quite a lot doing these.
That's all for now! Um, this is really as far as I had planned to do for this project (I thought of designing the three characters, on exterior design and one interior design). There are some other things I have thought of that I can add (like dungeons/wilderness environment concepts. Creature designs, towns, etc), but I also have some other projects at the back of my head that I'd like to start on as well (like some sci-fi, modern stuff, different styles, things like that). Mostly to kind of expand the the scope of my portfolio.
But I dunno, what do you guys think? Should I add more meat to this story before I go jumping into another? Or should I just do different stuff and jump back and forth?
Latest stuff looks pretty cool! It does feel like the scale from the exterior to the interior is quite off, though. Like the furniture and other pieces are too small when you look at how large the door and windows are on the outside shot, and it feels too deep inside. I'd put some human reference in both shots to iron it out.
I really like the outside painting. Has a nice feel to it.
Replies
So um, I've been kind of practicing my 2D concept art and design skills for awhile now. It's been about, oh, a year or so since I started a practice regime for myself (you can see my progress so far on my sketchbook here), and I decided it was about time to start working a portfolio.
The main point of this will be to create a portfolio that will allow me to enter a university to pursue a degree in design and also (hopefully) be strong enough so that I may apply for a scholarship of some sort. While this is sort of a "student" admission portfolio, I'll definitely try to make the works as professional as possible so that it can at least compete on the industry level.
I'll try to explain my thoughts and design process as much as possible as I go along. Most of it will probably what design decisions, random notes and info that I might learn or encounter along the way and most importantly, self- critique and art direction. Sorry if it's a lot to read, but it will mainly be for my own archival purposes and hopefully it might turn out to be something useful or interesting.
The Portfolio
So my plan is to come up a couple different stories/projects and design their world using concept art. I don't really want to go too overboard with the amount of designs, just a few of the standard characters, environments, props, vehicles, etc. that can fit together as a whole within their own universe in terms of art direction. (Hopefully this isn't too ambitious!)
The 3 main focus points I want to achieve
1. Original, intelligent designs
2. Strong story
3. Draftsmanship and technical competence
I also want to be able to showcase my ability to design multiple subject matters (characters, creatures, environments, props, vehicles, etc), in different styles (Realistic, stylistic, etc.) and genres (fantasty, sci-fi, etc). This way, I will be challenging myself and constantly try to push out of my comfort zone. Also, it will allow me hone my fundemental skills in art and design as well as keep things new and fresh. It will also show that I can adapt to multiple designs and art direction.
The Process
I've come up with a rough 3-stage process to create my portfolio pieces. However, this doesn't mean this is the only way. It is mainly so that I have some structure to fall back to in case I go overboard (or hit a mental block) in coming up with new ideas.
Stage 1 - Doodling, ideas, story, mood, art direction.
Mostly experimentation and looking inspiration and ideas. This can be in the form of books, movies, inspirational images, random generators, notes, scribbles and doodle, etc. Drawings and renderings are super loose and random at this stage. Basically coming up with ideas.
Stage 2 - Sketching, design and style exploration, problem solving.
Trying to transform the shapeless ideas in Stage 1 into something recognizable. Here we tackle the the big design issues. Drawings and renderings don't have to be extremely tight and pretty, but can't be too sketchy as well. It must at least be able to communicate the ideas well.
Stage 3 - Final rendering, details, touching up and presentation.
Here all the ideas and designs are finalized and solved. At this stage it's mostly about cleaning up, adding final touches and details and creating nice layouts and presentations. If needed, it is at this stage where we will do the really tight and detailed images.
Reference
I'll be referencing various portfolios, artbooks and portfolio guidelines/advice that I may find. This may include other artists' work and the layout/presentation of their portfolio pieces.
Art Direction
Art direction will vary and depend on the project and it's world. I'll try to come up with a style guide and the overall look and feel before diving into sketching and designing.
I'll be self art directing my portfolio for the most part. But, if possible, it would be a great help if you guys could give advice or critique my work as I go along. A fresh pair of eyes can always spot the mistakes or inconsistencies that I can't see!
Also, I'll be posting my WIPs, sketches and self-critiques as I go along, so if anyone has any thoughts or ideas to share, please feel free to do so. We're all here to learn and improve after all!
Aaand that's about it. I'll be updating this post as I progress, it's gonna be a hell of a wild ride trying to get this done. I don't really have any deadlines for this, but ideally I'd like to get it done by September '13 (preferably earlier, buuut doesn't sound very likely). Thanks for looking through! And stay tuned for the first project! Cheers!
Project 1 - Guardian's Crusade Redesign
Okay! So for my first project I'll be doing a redesign of an old PS1 game - Guardian's Crusade! Had a lot of memories playing this when I was a kid, really great storyline and it had really good graphics for its time that really appealed to me.
~~
The story here is that the hero, Knight, and his fairy companion, Nehani are tasked to protect and deliver a baby dragon across the lands back to it's home. As they progress in their journey, they will undergo quests and adventures, etc. etc. and eventually save the world from ultimate evil.
Something like that.
~~
So here I'll be trying to update its look and also try to put my own design flavour into this classic game. I'm thinking of something that still keeps it relatively stylized, but with a little more realistic proportions. Something like a mix between Ghibli's Tales of Earthsea and Dreamworks' How to Train Your Dragon (my two main inspirations for the look and feel of this project). I sort of want to give it that Dreamworks' "3D" look in terms of rendering style as well.
For the designs I'm aiming for something more functional instead of stylistic. Meaning referencing real-life equipment and outfits, and then simplifying them in terms of style and detail to fit the overall look. I'll be keeping the genre the same as the original game - which is medieval fantasy-ish with some steampunk elements.
And here's a little style guide I put together to show what I mean.
One of the reasons why I want it to be stylized is because it's easier than doing crazy, hyper-real designs, and since this is the first project, I'd want to warm up with something relatively simple first.
Character: Knight
To start, I'll be designing the 3 main characters first. Mainly because I'm actually less comfortable in designing characters so I'll want to dive right into it first. To begin with, here are some initial thoughts and sketches for the main character, Knight.
Woah, ok, it's really late and I've written a bit too much. I hope it was interesting so far. Going to work on some initial designs for the second character soon! So stay tuned!
Now, let's get this rolling on!
Guardian's Crusade
The World
Did a quick painting to sort of establish the mood of the world I'm trying to design. I was thinking it could be kind of a "early stage" visual guide and can act as sort of a splash page. It's still in the WIP stages, so it's still kind of sloppy in terms of brushwork and stuff, but I think I'm sort of happy with it in terms of composition.
Character: Nehani
Started on some designs and sketches for Nehani. She's Knight's fairy companion in the original game and is sort of the one who gives all the comments. Her role is mostly to give advice and occasionally acts as a healer character.
After mixing and matching some of the designs for fun, I decided I liked this combination the most. I particularly like the idea of her having braided hair for some reason.
Right now, all these designs are still in the early phase, so they are still quite sketchy and vague. After I can establish how the first three characters look as a whole, then I can start refining and polishing their designs.
Next up will be some initial designs for Baby (that's his name) - the dragon!
Are you sure this is the right way to get into University for art / design? Have you ever got any information from students or professors at your desired university about what they want to see?
My expirience (Germany and Design School) is, that they want to see who you are! What you like to do, what interests you most. They want to see how curios you are and of course, where you're good at. I think its totally fine to do such a project, but it is nothing original. You are redesigning something that is already their. Thats no original art. These characters are not your ideas, they already exist, you are just giving them another appearance, which can be fine, but I don't think that it is necessarily what the university wants to see from you. This project most definitely isn't you, It is a very ambitious and interesting project, but I doubt it is something for your appliance portfolio.
So you might say 'This is what I love to do, this is me.' Yes, I get that, but you should look over your current boundaries and explore more of there is to art than concept art. Show them that you are curious and love to experiment and try new stuff. Thats what ( german ) professors are nuts about. Always try yourself on new stuff. They surely have seen some concept art in their life, its not what they know that lets you stand out.
Your painting and drawing skills are good, that should not be a obstacle.
If you already know that it is exactly that what you are doing is what they want to see, then forget what I was telling you
Good luck with your project/portfolio anyway, definetly watching this.
acapulco, wow man, thank you so much for sharing your honest thoughts and giving such detailed advice. I really appreciate and it really gave me a lot to think about.
Um, first, the information I got on what kind of portfolio I should have is from Art Center College of Design's admission portfolio guidelines, which suggests entrants to "include original design ideas for an existing story or a story of your own invention." Soo, what I'm trying to do for this project is actually to redesign the entire world using its existing story as a base. I'm not trying to create fanart or just give the characters new clothes or anything, but rather to create my own intepretation of the visuals of this story.
And since the original game is actually quite old, the graphics were really simple and primitive and also the game itself did not touch to much on character development or design (in fact the main characters barely talked at all), so it does give a lot of opportunity to add elements of my own creation and design flavour into it. And it can also show potential employees my ability to adapt to existing IPs (like how so many film and game companies are "reviving" old titles, and sometimes adding a twist to them.)
But of course what you mentioned doing more original content is definitely true, and I must admit I chose this project also because it was something simple for me to start with. But it's also extremely fun and exciting for me, and also challenging (especially after spending a year just doing studies and practice and not doing my own stuff). The portfolio is just another excuse for me to do this project, to be honest.
Oh and you mentioned I should look over my current boundaries and explore more of there is to art than concept art. Um, does that mean doing things like fine art and stuff like that? I must say I'm not truly into fine art at this moment, but I do like to explore other aspects of design, such as product design and architecture. I'll definitely want to find ways to incorporate those things into my portfolio as well if possible. But I would like my portfolio to as stay concept art/design focused as much as possible, I mean, since it's the job I would like to work as in the future.
Thanks again man, I must say I never really thought to much into all those things you mentioned. I really just wanted to do a portfolio as quickly and nicely as I can to get into a school. It's also a test of my skills so far. But you're right, I definitely need to flex my design skills even harder and try new things as much as I can.
Some sketches of Baby - a shapeshifting guardian dragon that's still, well, a baby. He's the reason why our heroes decided to embark to this adventure and is also a key member of the group. In the original game he's the only other character that joins knight in combat and starts out weak but potentially becomes extremely strong later in the storyline.
-
Also, more progress for Knight and Nehani!
I picked the things I liked in my quick sketches and fleshed out the look of Knight and Nehani. I also did a line drawing of them to help solidify the details and to fix any mistakes before going into the rendering. (which is the next step)
For the design, I think I could've made them a bit more unique? I don't know. I'm quite happy with how they look, but I felt that I could've pushed the design
and technical aspects of the drawing more - I just don't know how. Or perhaps I didn't give myself enough time and rushed into it a little. If I'm being 100% honest I think they look a bit generic but I'm quite happy with them for now.
Next up is fleshing out Baby, colouring and rendering Knight and Nehani and maybe some environment design!
Oh and if anyone has any thoughts, critiques or advice - please feel free to share! I'm here to learn and to stab my weaknesses after all!
Still missing Nehani's wings and some more detailing and refinement here and there, but I think I can finish up both characters pretty soon. Afterwards I'll be putting them into sort of a character presentation sheet. Will be working on Baby in the meantime.
C&C welcome! Thanks!
I finished up the world landscape illustration. I plan to use this as sort of the front page of this particular project, to kind of set the the mood and tone of the other portfolio pieces. I've been hammering at this image for awhile, and there are still some parts I'm not 100% satisfied with, but for the sake of progressing, I'm just gonna call it done for now. I might come back and really polish it up at a later date.
I also completed the three main characters! Here's a group shot of them together. (Note that Nehani (the fairy) is supposed to be much smaller in size in comparison, but I left her big for this particular image). Rendering wise I think I did an "ok" job, not amazing, but for my skill level at this moment, I think it's still acceptable.
And lastly, I compiled all the sketches, thumbnails and made a concept sheet for each of the three main characters. Spent awhile arranging the layout. Not sure if it's really effective, but I think it works. Also might tweak or change them in the future
I'd probably reduce the opacity of the faery's wings or add iridescence and a more distinct pattern. Blue butterflies typically combine a light or medium blue with black and/or white highlights.
Completed the concept design for Knight's house. Spent quite some time working on these two images, more than I would have liked, honestly. Sorry I didn't really post up any progress, but I do have some process shots which I'll post up soon.
For now, these are the more or less finished designs. Of course they're still open to changes if I see the need for it in the future. Lots of struggling, but I learnt quite a lot doing these.
That's all for now! Um, this is really as far as I had planned to do for this project (I thought of designing the three characters, on exterior design and one interior design). There are some other things I have thought of that I can add (like dungeons/wilderness environment concepts. Creature designs, towns, etc), but I also have some other projects at the back of my head that I'd like to start on as well (like some sci-fi, modern stuff, different styles, things like that). Mostly to kind of expand the the scope of my portfolio.
But I dunno, what do you guys think? Should I add more meat to this story before I go jumping into another? Or should I just do different stuff and jump back and forth?
I really like the outside painting. Has a nice feel to it.