Concept art portfolio piece, Critique highly appreciated
Hello! I'm currently working on a character concept art potfolio. This is one of the pieces. I would love to have a feedback on this design while I work on it, so I could learn more. What I'm interested in is are these concepts good and is my approach good. I'm a layman and I might have a wrong look on these things.
So here I have 12 thumbnails, some prosthesis and sci fi legs studies on one sheet. On the other there are variations of 6 thumbnails, where I was searching for vibe and style.
What I plan to do next is choose 1 or 2 of them and focus on them, and make new variations but within one, chosen aesthetic. I think I will choose version 3 and 6 as a basis and will play around their proportions, vibe and details.
Then I will choose one as my final design and make proper sheet with front and back view, some details. Maybe Callout sheet would be useful as well?
I want this project to be the best concept art piece for a portfolio it could be. So your insight and advice would be highly appreciated!
And maybe some words about this character - it's loosely based on a describtion of a tech assassin from the book Mechanicum (based in Warhammer 40k world) by Graham McNeill. She' s a woman of a perfect body, with legs that are too long and have too many joints. She wears mask resembling smilling skull with a horn on the chin. She floats over the ground. That's what I focus on. I don't want her to be precisely Warhammer 40k vibe, that's why some of the designs are far away from this world's aesthetic.
Replies
Your silhouettes looks very tame and similar , there is a lot of room to play around with different shapes and relation and push them to a point where they start to fall apart there you will find your portfolio piece
Let me show you few that are really good in my opinion
I would also think about how she is moving around, like on skates or on a board? just tilting forward and hovering? What are her attacks? Those thoughts could also reflect in the silhouettes. Some of the ones you got look a bit monster/zombie like, so far I like praying mantis needle legs the most. Keep it up!
Thank you for your answer! By "tame" do you mean they are too still, they could be presented in more dynamic poses?
And by "silhouettes" you mean drawings in first or second sheet? I'm not sure where could I implement your advice. Are these black thumbnails good and I should work on making 6 chosen ones more interesting? Or I should start from drawings like ones you've presented?
This hero is described as wearing slim suit and having a perfect women's body. So I didn't want to go too far away from this describtion. But maybe for a portfolio piece that is meant to showcase my abilities I should?
"push them to a point where they start to fall apart" could you elaborate on that? Do you mean literally that I could take these black, monolith thumbnails and play with their internat structure and outline much more?
Sorry I ask so much, but I would love to learn as much as possible thus I need to understand everything correctly.
Thank you for answering! That's her describtion in the book
"the assassin flowed across the milky white marble of the floor as though on ice. (...)the assassins legs were long and multi-jointed, fused together just above the ankles by a spar of metal, below which her legs ended not in feet, but in a complex series of magno-gravitic thrusters that skimmed her along just off the ground. Her athletic form was beautifully deadly, honed to perfect physicality by a rigorous regime of physical exercise, gene-manipulation and surgical augmentation. (...)she wore a facemask fashioned in the form of a grinning crimson skull with a horn of gleaming metal jutting from its chin." (Mechanicum by Graham McNeill)
I threw away that her legs are fused together, as it would limit the design and movement too much. But generally she floats just over the ground.
But to consider how she moves and attacks, that's actually a great advice! I planned to do it with a final design but I will go back to the earlier steps and play with it a little.
Carvuliero suggested that my designs are too still, so maybe I could use both your and his advice and do some sketching right now!
In the meantime I've chosen 2 designs and focused on them
Today I didn't manage to do a lot, but tried some dynamic poses. It was fun, but hard! I think tomorrow I'll make a few that will be studies of one move - showing it's stages.
If you look at your first image there is the same character with same proportions copied several times , you haven't explore wide variety of possibilities even one that doesn't work or match initial description , things that doesn't work can lead you to things that does
Silhouette is cut out or outline of the object willed with solid color/s , its not the pose that made the silhouette its relation and shape language
Something similar to your 3rd design on second image thats what I mean to push them Start with cliche[perfect woman ] then transform them in to something original[robotic implants ] then push it further to a point that is no longer recognizable[some mechanic monstrosity ] this will give you wide range of ideas to pick from
Oh, now I see the similarity! I tried to make them varied but they all are basically the same person, only a bit slimmer or more muscular. I guess I tried to make the silhouette different with 10th and 12th design - 10th was supposed to be top heavy, 12th middle heavy (having huge thighs), but it's still very small change and is lost among the others.
I'll go back and try to play with it a bit. I'll post later what I managed to do in the meantime.
That was a challenge! To make it a bit easier I took my "tame" silhouettes, came back to what feature I wanted to show in them and exaggerate it. I also tried to simplify them to one shape, like in what you'd sent me. You were right, some ideas I find really fun! Please tell me what you think, do you think it's a good direction? I need to practice that but hope I'm closer to the approach you suggested.
Yeah some of this are real nice , lots of cool possibilities
Looks to me that you are having fun with those so make more maybe miss and match elements
You could be a bit more specific now maybe bring one more cliche what kind of costume or fighting style she be using ? Whats the level of technology