Character Design Challenge 1 - Development

When thinking of a Spartan version of spawn I wanted to keep the iconic shield, helmet and spear. These will help to keep the character's silhouette recognisable as a spartan warrior.

In the original Spawn design the green glow is a prodominant feature, often the character is in shadow and the glow the only visable element. In the past I have not really used specular and bounce light. In the final painting working this element in will be a big focus.
The White markings needed to be retained to be more true to the character. Initially I considered making the helmet part of the character rather than an traditional helmet but after trying this I found it looked more striking to keep it bronze with high contrast flat white painted on over the metallic. It also helped to retain a heroic look rather than going demonic. In the final painting this will be carried on across the shield but with the "Spawn" logo.

Character Design Challenge 1 - Moodboard

The first character design challenge is to design a Hellspawn from Todd McFarlane's "Spawn".

In Spawn, the Hellspawn's are the soldiers of Hell's army in its war against Heaven. Fallen warriors who sell their souls to the devil in return for their chance at vengeance.

Spawn centres arond one such Hellspawn, Al Simmons who sells his soul to the devil Malebolgia in hope of seeing his family again. Simmons is sent back to earth a monster who has no hope of rekindling the relationships he once had. 

A number of my peers have expressed interest in taking part in the weekly challenge so to add an extra dimension to the challenges each week another person taking part will give input on each week's brief. This will make sure there is always an unexpected, extra element to take into account.
This week Chris Dickson has given me the challenge of creating a Hellspawn from ancient Sparta.
In the design of spawn there are certain visual cues I want to carry over to my character. The black symbiotic suit with the white markings red cape as well as the green glow. One other element I would like to incorporate is the Spawn logo, shown on the axe "Agony" (lower central image), it is also a familiar sight from the "Spawn" comic series.

Character Design Challenge 1

The first character design challenge is #88: Design a Hellspawn character from Todd McFarlane's "Spawn" using a specific time period and culture as inspiration.
Since this is the first week I will do a more polished painting as well as the development board on this challenge.

Character Design Challenges

As I work through my honors year I will be undertaking a series of character design challenges. Each challenge will be selected randomly from a list of around 100 varying character design challenges, using a random number selector http://andrew.hedges.name/experiments/random/. Spending a bit of time each week to produce a moodboard and a development board for designs that will be taken further into finished paintings.
The goal of using this challenge is to start generating ideas that can possibly be taken further in semester 2 for my final project.
This will give me a constantly changing challenge that will provide me with varied subject matter to work on. This will also provide me with an opportunity to critically evaluate my work.  I feel that it will be a useful practice to develop my skills.

Project Ideas - Post Feedback

Having spoke to my lecturer about my ideas for the project it has become evident that my 3 project ideas could potentially be separate elements of a whole.
Rather than looking at what I am doing, figuring out what I want to achieve by the end of the project myself is key.
SO... Ultimately I want to improve my digital painting and develop my own style/voice in illustration which will allow me to tell stories better through visual media.
The idea of taking source material such as my "Hunters" story bible from 3rd year Creative Research and using it as a foundation for my project to be based on. The first project idea 3D as part of the pipeline would be one thing to explore for consistency when depicting scenes mainly hardware, revisited locations, blocking out scenes etc. The second project, taking a series bible through to sequential panels and covers would be the ultimate goal of the project and the idea of designing the universe would be done in preproduction.
Getting some feedback on my ideas and realizing that all of the ideas were roughly going in the right direction is a relief.
Another idea as a smaller scale side project was to develop some sort of weekly challenge which would give me a constantly varying challenge. This challenge would also give me an element of the project that will serve as a basis for self critique and provide fresh subject matter separate to the bulk of the project.

4th Year Begins

Starting to figure out where I am aiming with my Honors project I am looking to base a project in 2D Illustration or Concept Design for games and movies.

3D modelling and animation have been used in 2D animated cartoons and movies such as the Batman: Sub Zero and the Iron Giant. In recent times 3D along with Matte Painting has been making its way into illustration. 1 possible way to go with this might be to explore how 3D can be used for comic books and graphic novels.

Another direction for the project in the field of illustration could be to look into the process of  taking a series bible through to a finalized comic/graphic novel. Using source material to design visual elements and take these into final covers and sequential pages ready for publishing.

The third idea for the project is to  do a large design project. Taking a series bible and designing as much of the characters, locations, vehicles, creatures and props in universe. This would give the opportunity to research and discover new ways to design visual elements of any story and start to build the universe.

Next I will do some initial research in order to develop these 3 ideas before speaking to my lecturers for feedback.