Inspirations from bwen1030.blod.163.com

I found this person's artwork on pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/source/bwen1030.blog.163.com/ and really like the art style as well as how they blend human elements with animal elements, it works very well.

I like that the horns are layered in a sense, that the material their made from is not smooth. I also like how they come from under the skin, rather than just sit on top, it makes it look more natural and believable. the detail on the armour is nice as well, especially around the stomach area, its reminds me of perhaps the plates of an armadillo, which is interesting.

For these two, I like that they are human animal hybrids, that is something I could explore. As seen in Thundercats (below) for example, they are an alien race from the fictional planet, Thundera. However only their hair and facial features really communicate that they are humanoid cats.

I like the look of this as it's very simple in colours, using mostly blues, greys and yellows, but it is still very intricate in detail. I particularly like the top bit, which reminds me of a saint's halo. But the colours and facial features make this subject look evil. The reds and yellows, connote hell, the facial features and deep lines communiate something demonic perhaps. The lack of smooth skin, and typical aesthetic appeal also contributes to this feel of evil.

Inspirations

More initial research and finding inspirations for where to start. I looked at artwork that I found to have elements of things I like or take ideas from.

Moodboard

As initial inspiration I constructed a moodboard featuring characters from DotA 2 and League of legends as I feel the styles are very similar and also the actual characters themselves. I chose characters that were particularly otherworldly. What stood out the most was that the DotA characters in particular had interesting facial designs, for example the characters Sven, Faceless Void (not featured in the moodboard), Night Stalker, Ancient Apparition, Razor, Bane and Terrorblade. They either do not have faces in the traditional sense, with eyes, nose, mouth, for example Sven and Razor, which gives them a very inhuman feel as they lack the characteristics. Or someone like Terrorblade who does not quite have skin but something else, again is obviously not human, and not of our world. Such is true of characters from League of Legends, such as Kha'zix, Nasus, Azir, who are more animalistic in appearance. Then there are characters such as Bard, Blitzcrank and Jax (not featured), who also lack faces but have somewhat human appearance except Blitz who is a robot. 

The clothing, or lack of, is another interesting feature. For example many characters in DotA are barely clothed, having their skin look like some organic material or the structure being different in some way, for example Bane, Ancient Apparition and Terrorblade. Different eye and skin colours also feeds into this otherworldly feel, as exhibited by Vengeful Spirit, with her blue skin and somewhat red eyes. 

Artist style copy

I figured that a good starting point was to do some artist copies in the style of the other artists. I started with Bane from DotA 2 as he was an interesting looking character who looked very much otherworldly so he was good inspiration for the brief. 

I decided to paint him in Ashley Wood's style as I was very drawn to experimenting with brush strokes and trying to do something quickly, as my style is very difficult and I wanted to try something new other than my usual very blended colouring.

Above is the moodboard I used to refer to for colours and style. I chose a few images that featured similar colours and use of brush strokes.

First I started off by tracing over the figure of Bane. 

Then I blocked in the background taking colours from Wood's paintings, particularly the ones of Spawn, as I liked the rusty colours.

Then I painted the figure, again using the rust colours, particularly because the original image of Bane was all purple, so I thought I'd keep the colours all in the same range.

Overall I am happy with this as I can see the brush strokes and it does give it a certain sense of atmosphere, as can be seen in Wood's paintings. However I found it difficult to get that more viscous look as my strokes still seem to look quite flat and not as opaque. This will take some practicing and messing around with brushes.

Inspirations- Bob Rafei, Ashley Wood, DotA 2

These are the inspirations listed in the brief. I researched some images of all three and tried to simply analyse their styles and possibly draw comparisons between them. For example the somewhat cartoony, fantastical style of Jak and Daxter and DotA 2 characters, however they are fundamentally different in both proportions, colouring and line work. Ashley Wood's style in comparison to both is also greatly different, his line and brush work in particular, unlike the other two, is very rough and blatant. His subject matter, is also of a somewhat different nature, in that his work contains robots, characters from other games or comic books. His work does not feature outlines as Rafei's does, and nor is the shading smooth. It is more impressionistic in a way, as you can see the brushstrokes and that gives the artwork shape and life. 

Week 2- Tonal Studies

In the second class we were doing tonal studies of objects that were laid out in front of us. I was fairly happy with these but I feel as though the shading could have been smoother on the lower drawing. The texture of the sellotape was difficult to show through shading. I was rather happy with the tonal range on the bottle, seen at the top of the page. Looking back I wish I had taken a photograph for comparison to analyse more closely how I could have improved the drawings. 

Week 1- Perspective Drawing

During the first class we did perspective studies. I did mine on the second floor of uni just outside the lecture rooms. As it was one of the first drawings I had done after summer, I was very rusty and my lines were not clean at all. overall it looks like a mess in my opinion. To improve I could have drawn in pencil and then committed to the lines in pen so it looked neat and the lines would have been straighter.