Concept Art: Characters

JabacOrdof

Hey everyone. I am learning the fundamentals of production level concept art from a very talented concept artist named Nick Oroc. After learning about new styles and tricks to speed up my workflow, I am going to take this sheet of silhouettes and see how many character concepts I can bang out.

This character is Judy Lucic, and is based around the same themes from my previous concept piece of an environment of recycled materials after a cataclysmic event. Judy is taken from the Ramones song "Judy is a Punk" and I am trying to tie recycled materials and punk themes into the outfits.

Here are the silhouettes I came up with.

[IMG][/img]

And here is one of my first attempts before the paint-over phase.

[IMG][/img]

Let me know what you all think, and let me know if there are any silhouettes you want to see me tackle next! Thanks!

-Eric Kilkenny

JabacOrdof

Alright I had to sort of rehash this, the anatomy was off, the pose wasn't quite right, and there was not enough contrast. Also, too noisy. So now I'm coming back at this from the top. This is just getting the pose and anatomy/perspective right, then I will go into the details.

[IMG][/img]

Avanthera

Hey Jabac Ordof,

Your approach seems very fast, but also quite messy.

On your original thumbnails, it's good that you have so many iterations, but most of them could be the exact same character in a slightly different pose, or with one new accessory. The whole point of a thumbnail is to really push the silhouette and come up with designs you wouldn't have otherwise, but you aren't really pushing your shapes like you could be. This might help: www.autodestruct.com/thumbwar.htm

As far as rendering, pasting images on top of your thumbnail might seem like a fast way to get results, but with the lighting all over the place in the source images, and the proportions all jacked, they end up hurting more than they help. I'd suggest to do at least a loose line sketch over the silhouette before adding anything on top, even if you plan on putting images on top. That way you have a complete general design before you start to focus on anything else.

Keep it up!

JabacOrdof

Thanks Avanthera, thats some great feedback! Ive started doing the lighting pass but I definitely need to push it further with drop shadows and contrast. I also need to find a way to harmonize these elements so it doesn't just look like a bunch of photos slapped together. I'll also be doing some texture overlays after the lighting is done and then will play around with more of the details and get some color in there. I also need to fix the blown out right boot and left shoulder, they are a bit too bright. Thanks for the feedback!

[IMG][/img]

JabacOrdof

Hey everyone! I have really worked hard on harmonizing this piece, using drop shadows, lighting, texture passes, and other small things. I am pretty satisfied with this piece, but I have some things to fix and to push further. I definitely want to continue these exercises with some different silhouettes, there are so many little tricks that can be used to create such cool effects and I want to try them all.

[IMG][/img]