CRITICAL ANALYSIS
After reading through Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’, I was inspired to create images based on the age-old battle between Heaven and Earth. In order to understand my subject matter better, I also read several biblical extracts, in particular Revelations, which describes the Armageddon. Once I had researched my idea further, I was then able to decide upon what characters, environments and key-scenes to depict. My story would take place in Heaven, Hell and Megiddo (Earth) and I chose to design St Michael, Lucifer and a human warrior.
To begin my design process, I started to research other artists and images that have tackled similar themes. These examples were then compiled into a mood-board to make referencing more easy. I also researched examples of techniques,styles and the level of finish that I wanted to aim for. I particularly wanted to focus on my brush strokes and my use of colour and textures. The artist Guangjian Huang was a useful person to research in this regard as can be seen from the image below:
The painting looks very realistic and has a fantastic atmosphere. The incredibly detailed areas are, on closer inspection, composed of fairly simple lines, more impressions of detail then details themselves. The artist has also made use of photo textures to give the piece more realism and depth.
Another artist I found useful was Gustave Doré, particularly for his work on Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’. He mostly worked with engravings, images carved out by lots of precise lines. I especially like the way he uses contrast in his images, making use of bright white to depict the angels in a way that makes them appear to glow within the image.
I tried to depict the angels within my key-scenes in a similar way, particularly in my third image where the angels are descending upon Megiddo (see below).
Work by Blizzard’s art department was also very inspirational, especially their character designs for Diablo, which deal with similar themes as mine. I also like the techniques the artists use to illustrate armor designs. They are a pleasing combination of line-art and painting, a technique that I have tried to emulate somewhat in my own work. Key-scenes by Leading Light Studios were also excellent to research. Their painterly style is refreshing to see in concept art, as many studios focus more on a photorealistic approach.
Aside from existing artwork, I also researched armour designs and locations in order to produce convincing characters and environments. During this course, I have learned it is common practice amongst professional concept artists to spend several days conducting visual research in order to fully understand their subject matter and so I gathered as many useful references as I could and again compiled them into mood-boards. These mood-boards proved extremely useful when it came to the design process and also when it came to painting the final images.
Once I was happy with the research and visual references I had gathered for each aspect, I started to thumbnail different ideas for environments and produce silhouettes for colours. This is a process that is used within the industry and is a very quick, very effective way of telling whether an idea or composition will work or not. Those that do are then taken forward into a slightly more developed speed-paint or line-work. I find it easier to use speed-paintings for the development of environments and key-scenes, whereas I prefer to use line work to further develop characters and creatures. When a suitable design has been decided upon, I then proceed to do colour tests. All the way through the design process, I am constantly referring to my references in order to make sure my work is as accurately following my research.
Analysing the work of other artists was extremely useful when it came to painting the final image. By looking at the ways in which others have approached certain aspects, I could attempt to apply their techniques to my own work. During this project I have learned a lot through doing this and feel my work has improved greatly as a result. I am more aware of the marks I am making and considering brushstrokes and colour more.I am also more aware of a piece’s perspective and composition, both in my work and the works of others.
Watching Feng Zhu’s online videos and tutorials was an immense help when it came to painting environments. I learnt several new techniques from his speed-painting tutorials, which I could then apply to my environments for this module.
I enjoyed producing the character designs as I could practice painting many different surfaces and materials, in particular the reflective metal armour. I also enjoyed learning about the construction of armour, and how each piece integrates and works with the other.
Comparing myself to the artists I researched at the beginning of the project, I definitely feel I am on my way to becoming a more commercial artist myself, especially as I have begun to adopt certain industry processes I have learnt during this course.
I think my work for this module is most comparable to the work produced by Leading Light Studios. I have tried to keep a more painterly approach in my work by using textured brushes. I only used photo-textures at the very end of the painting process and set them to overlay at a very low opacity.
For further development I feel I still need to work on anatomy, perspective and composition. I would also would like to improve on my colour theory, as well as speeding up my painting process. I can produce speed-paints quickly, but I find it harder to produce highly polished work in less than a couple of days. Also, when I work too long on an image, it can become stale and so speeding up my process will help to stop this from happening. I can do this by learning the shortcuts and visual shorthand that allows industry professionals to create high quality, polished work in short periods of time.
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