Kara - Final Cover Art

The final cover art featuring Kara for Computer Arts Practice. This character was designed as part of my Creative Research module. 

For this cover I wanted to do a close up of the character rather than another full figure shot like the previous cover featuring Siyok. I chose this to go forward with as based on feedback from previous modules I lack texture in my painting. Prior to this I haven't experimented with texture overlays and texture brushes in paintings.

Looking back on the painting now I feel that there are a number of issues. Firstly the form and anatomy of the character are off in places. The armour on the front of the character looks a bit thick, giving her look a bit front heavy. I think this might be because of the position of the arm which is covering the armour on the back of the character. The other main issue is the way the character's hair line down her neck falls. The hair line should come from higher up behing the ear...... which i now think is a bit small? With this painting I found it very difficult so get a good sense of texture on the character's skin and hair.
On the plus side I think that the textures on the armour and the planet behind the character and the armoured parts of the character came out alright though I feel the armour could have done with stronger highlights to give the material more of a sheen.
I think the overall ambience and mood of the painting works well as everything ties in together. I think the painting is cohesive from the background to the main character.
Like the issue with the previous painting of the back of Siyok's head being too tall, I feel that that these are issues I would have noticed and fixed if I had been working traditionally as I have done a lot of life drawing. I still feel there is a bit of a disconnect when working digitally, this may be due to lack of experience working digitally and I think this is an issue I want to overcome.
As with the other painting I am fairly content with the final outcome of the image. Though it has it's issue I feel that it has good moments and works well as an illustrative comic cover. I think the planet and background behind the character works well and I learned a lot of new techniques and functions in Photoshop while doing this.

Kara - Final Cover Art WIP

In contrast to my other cover featuring Siyok this cover was a bit frustrating. I couldnt seem to get to grips with the rendering on the character like I did with the previous painting and feel this took a lot longer than I think it should have.

I found with this cover I found it difficult to work on a character so close up as I struggled to render the large flat armour surfaces while maintaining a sense of texture.

Like the other painting though I learned a lot doing this painting as far as functions on Photoshop such as texture overlays, blending options and filter effects. 

The character's Stetson is a bit small and too far forward on her head. This will be adjusted before the final logos are applied.

Kara - Final Design

The Dota 2 character art guide was also useful when finalising the design as it has introduced me to "Value Patterning." Using the natural tendency of the human eye to seek out boundries and differences between different areas on a surface.

Distinguish between the different panels on the armour of the character. By lightening the blue and applying a carbon fibre texture to the plate. The Dota 2 character art guide was also useful when finalising the design as it has introduced me to "Value Patterning." Using the natural tendency of the human eye to seek out boundries and differences between different areas on a surface.

The Dota 2 Character Design Guide can be found at: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/dota2/workshop/Dota2CharacterArtGuide.pdf

The final design of Kara is ultimately what I was aiming for throughout the redesign. Between this and the other side of this project in Computer Arts Practice a number of aspects of my work have been highlighted that I need to work on and improve. Things such as tonal work, anatomy, lighting and overall consistancy of work.
I feel that I have a long way to go with my work but am hopeful as I think that since the beginning of this blog I have improved my skills.

Kara - Colours

In keeping with the military style aesthetic, the colour schemes have been based on various uniforms from armed forces as well as looking into what kind of colours companies use when producing combat gear. 

Bar the green and desert style camo schemes I have tried to use colours that wouldn't be associated with a specific environment. I fond that distinguishing between the panels on the armored sections makes the designs look more interesting and gives a modular feel that could is a feature of the teams gear in the story giving them the ability to change the armour they wear depending on their target.
As always going forward I will seek feedback from my peers before deciding on a final design.

Siyok - Final Cover Art

The final design of the character after it is finished and the brightness and contrast is tweeked. This art will be used for one of the 2 final comic book covers that will be produced for the final outcome of the project.

The character has come out with all the elements I wanted initially. I do think that it needs something more to tie it to sci fi as I feel that it could potentially fit into a fantasy setting also. Possibly it will read better when seen in the context of the story. Perhaps some sort of equipment could help this issue also? Something to consider if i take this project further after the end of the semester.

Looking at the finished painting i realised that the head is a wee bit too tall (from jaw to the top of the head) which I will be careful of when producing the final cover that features Siyok. The other issue I have with the anatomy of the character is that the chest looks too human. I feel the pectoral muscles could have been designed differently just to give the character a more alien look. If this project is taken further I will look to nature more to see how this could be adapted anatomicaly.
Another mistake I made with the production of the image is that I flattened the original sketch into the render and failed to get tidy of it all so this still shows through slightly.
Colour wise I think the painting works well. The character looks like he fits his background and with the lighting running across the character helps to tie him in. one of my peers has pointer out that the lighting works across the character apart from the spots on the character's skin. They have all come out the same colour from head to tail rather than having the transition from light to dark like the other skin colours do.
Overall I feel the painting works well despite the issues.
The intention of the painting was to give the feeling that the water is clear but quickly gets less inviting the deeper it goes.The texture on the background was to give the impression that where the water  looks clearer at the top there is an impression of gasses and unsettled sediment.
Though there are the issues outlined above with the painting I am content with the final outcome. The character looks like a bottom feeder and looks very amphibious. I am glad that I went with this colour scheme as it helps to tie the character into the murky, amazon like water environments outlined as the characters home planet in the series bible.

Siyok - Character Final Cover Art WIP

WIP shots of the final painting of Siyok. I thouroughly enjoyes doing this painting and felt i learned a lot doing it. I have managed to work out a bit more as far as my pipeline goes as well as new techniques when applying colour to an image.

Half way through the process, just as I had started to apply colour I realised the whiskers were all wrong. The left whisker looked nothing like the original intended design and was way longer and thicker than the right, it looked like a great big green bean. So luckily this was caught and fixed before I got too far with the colouring.

Siyok - Final Design Colouring

This is the final markings and colouration of Siyok. Having spoken to a group of my peers there were multiple designs from the previous post that were pretty popular but this was chosen consistently. Most of the feedback I received was that this scheme gave the impression of a villainous character and that it was more relatable than most of the others yet still could pass as an alien species.

This colour scheme was heavily influenced by the markings of the Hellbender Salamander, however I wanted to have a contrasting element to the green.

Having looked at a lot of cat fish species I decided to lighten the underside of the creature as this theme is consistent throughout nature and I felt this would give a more realistic/believable look to the character.