PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) Hawthorne CITY

HAWTHORNE CITY- This is the courtyard scenario, where the citizens would come to pray. Here I tried to give insight to what the ghettos of Hawthorne would look like and where Marshalls story would really take place I'm going to flesh it out some more but in the mean time try to get a sense of what principles this city might have been built on and where it has ended up today. I was inspired by some of the earlier scenes in blade runner, so I'm going to strive to make it feel even more cluttered and clamored, Neon lights and steam rising from manholes in the underground. Here I have the original and the slighty expanded version which I feel immerses you a bit more into the scene. I'm gonna go get to working these projects. Till next time!

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) Environment

Here it is Hawthorne City, this was my second attempt at an environment, these are the line and value samples just to get an idea. I honestly approached this much differently than the last. Ofcourse I incorporated perspective but also I played with my shapes a bit more to get that illusion of depth in the piece, and to have a feeling of an extreme foreground element while looking as far out as the eye can see. so this will eventually become a courtyard of some sort. Ive really enjoyed the process in creating environments so expect more!

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) MASK

Here's a close up of the Mask I promised, you decide which one feels darker? as I said I had to make changes because I made changes in maquette, so in that respect I had to make the neccesary tweaks to the original (top) so that both the character poses and the maquette matched up.

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) Vehicle

In addition to everything else a vehicle was required as well, so to push that realm further I whipped up a simple tech vehicle, I kinda like these! still needs some color so I'm gonna play around with that and see what results I get, in the mean time here was the simple line drawing done at the classic 3 quarter view and then the tweaks I made to change things up a bit. obviously inspired by speeders and such, I labeled this as your standard Hawthorne City (where the story takes place) hover car. Just imagine him hopping into this and giving chase to a big alien nasty! yeah...cool.

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) values Dark Being

Here is the more mysterious character who I am also still exploring, and letting my imagination run wild when deciding what it might look like underneath the draping, although his skeletal structure hints at it we're still not sure what it could be, Especially since he can consume a person whole, but how? stay tuned to find out! The mask on his face was inspired by some tribal mask I did some research on with a little twist. I thought it would be interesting to have a somewhat demented look to the mask like an almost smiling face that sits on top of this dark silhouette that we cant see adding more mystery the character, in the end I had to make slight changes so that the render reflected the maquette which I also had to build ( post images soon!!) so I'll post that up, just to show the subtle differences.

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) values MARSHALL

Here are the finals, no color just values. Some good insight into what the characters of his rough and tough universe would look like. coming up next Detective Marshalls vehicle

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) 2nd stage roughs

I'm getting ready to post the full values, but in the mean time here's the rough process. I decided some where along the way that this dark being could have something or someone to lure in his victims and its through this little his victims become the pray, the cool thing is imagining what might actually be underneath this huge shawl especially since the tentacles hint at something menacing! still contemplating what weapon would be present, when the former detective when on a crime smashing spree I decided on this sub-machine slaughter-fest of a weapon. Basically if he grenades hes got it, if he needs semi automatic or single shot he got it. and it sits comfortably on his back as well so hes an all around trooper in this instance.

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts) sketches

Quick sketches, done by hand, scanned then I hit them up with the intuos stylus. just a loose idea of what these guys are gonna look like.

PROJECT: MARSHALL (Concepts)

In this line up were including character poses, a vehicle, and an environment all still in progress but, still telling one cohesive story and giving you a sense of what the realm must be like in this futuristic world Detective Marshall lives in. #1 Marshall and character #2 The dark being, One of the many enemies who he faces off against Marshall in the story.

ENVIRONTMENTS - colors (inhabited city)

Here I dropped in some color as well and really tried playing with the depth and with the mood and ambiance of the environment to help tell story and to tie the two together. I also wanted to give the water a misty type feeling, along with the lanterns and again fireflies, I also tried toggling with the background dropping in waterfall that would hint at the spout not too far from the bridge. Overall I thought it turned out kinda cool but I think this environment will be fun to take another crack at and shift things around. color is a heck weapon to have in ones arsenal, so its something I'll keep practicing! All in all a city on the sea. wait.....where are the people.?

ENVIRONTMENTS - Colors (uninhabited )

Dropped in some color loosely, there needs to be more contrast , but I tried a thing or two, I'll come back around on this one, but in the meantime I thought that maybe adding some fireflies would spruce it up add a little more depth and tell a little story, along with this whole glow worm effect. A little moss closer to the water line as well. I figured glow worms could be one interesting light source for these underground dwellers.

ENVIRONTMENTS - Values (uninhabited ) 02

I should've stuck with fortress idea, but I went ahead and tried to see what a waterfall might look like. so I dialed back the rocks and beefed up the water. So in the end kinda has a different feel to it...less structure more rubble.

ENVIRONTMENTS - Values (uninhabited ) 01

Sketch of the Fortress Flat Values and then a tighter render. Again how the Uninhabited idea started with some form of architecture. after doing research on cave openings and such I thought this type of entry into the cave would be kinda cool. A dark and foreboding situation, revealing the great monument.

ENVIRONTMENTS - Values (uninhabited )

This location started out rough....real rough.. but I thought if it were more like ruins maybe that could tell some sort of story, again I'm gonna take another crack at this one too and see if I can expand on the idea, cause technically ruins could have mean they were inhabited at some point which defeats the purpose. None the less I thought about having water be a dominant character, along with rocks because once inhabited these people built into their environment, they didn't wipe it out, but take a look at what did and didn't make it.

ENVIRONTMENTS - Values (inhabited city)

Not too long after getting into adding more details my dry cave dwellings became an underground boat city obviously needing water...just something I really wanted to try out and get a good feel for. More than likely I'm going hit the drawing board again for this one but in the mean time these were the results. I tried giving a sense of reflection from the water onto the walls and such. I'm still wrapping my head around the importance of value and trying to push my darks and my lights.

ENVIRONTMENTS - plan sketch

So here is when I settled on what my first official environment would look like. Using perspective to tell a small story..... still lacking value and color I thought it was pretty solid for the most part. I got a feel for some type of dwellings here.

ENVIRONTMENTS - Thumbs

The initial thumbnails for the project. Using flat shapes to create depth and one or two value test, to decide what would work best for the scene.

VEHICLES AND ENVIRONTMENTS ROUND 1

The next step further down the road, was Environments. Inhabited and uninhabited but they had to be on the same planet and if anything some type of progression from one to the other. Naturally a lot of factors have to be considered when putting together a concept for an environment, but not to the point where you don't want to think anymore. So I decided my concept would involve a city maybe underground. Initially I did a ton of research on what a city in the furthest layers of the rain forest would look like so the thumb lean in that direction....but in the process I had an idea to flip that entirely, and make these people underground dwellers. so check out those thumbs!

VEHICLES AND ENVIRONTMENTS ROUND 1

As the title says, creating vehicles and environments. Form vs Function. These were done a while back but none the less were one step forward. so the plan was to create an organic and a technological vehicle set. The organic vehicle after much pondering I decided to hit the drawing board again with that one but in the meantime here is small insight into how the technological came to be. It still needs work but I pulled some cool knowledge from it. The bottom thumbnail was a first timer process, but apparently it is a favored approach when figuring out a solid clean vehicle design. so silhouettes then a fleshed out 3 quarter gray marker technique( seen at bottom) scanned and then painted in Photoshop. yeah.......it was a long night. Obviously inspired by what a lot of us are , the genius of hover vehicles and pod racers, and the ocasional floating motorcylce, just straight conceptualizing for a fantasy type realm. in this case who cares how it works.......it has to look cool!

PROJECT: MARSHALL

OK, OK so basically I have a few items to post up, and I haven't had a chance to because I lacked the software now that I'm home, but after getting my hands on it, I can post up some stuff on my own terms! but I figured I'd start with The Detective Marshall story done as a digitally colored comic. As I previously stated a 3 page story. Now I have the entire story drawn inked colored and lettered. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to get the finished, finished version on here so I might just have to put the colored versions without the lettering. In the meantime a foot in the door for a cool story telling opportunity.

This character however I decided to use to wrap things up for the semester, so I also re-created him for the concept realm. I would honestly like to push everything much further but I made some interesting discoveries when creating this entire plot-line, especially as far as the digital realm was concerned. First time for everything!

DET.MaRSHaLL

A page from the DEt. MarSHaLL story, and digital coloring project...it's Me making an attempt at story telling and diving into the mind of one of my characters...A cool miniseries I'd like to flesh out and and see how far I can take it....Prologue coming soon!

QUICK-Character SKetches

These sketches are for a final project I am currently working on in my digital coloring class, and these were just some quick character sketches,I was trying to figure out what shapes worked best for these characters and what told a small story about their personalty while still keeping the look simple. With the main character, I thought it be kind of cool to go about creating a mini-series with a clear plot line that showed personal growth within the character among other things. Telling short stories as finished digital comics I think would be a cool project to work on!

Shape Test and Value studies.

Step-2: This next step, is designing the character based on a selection you've made from your silhouettes and then fleshing it out some more, this is where basic design aesthetics come in handy and saying to yourself, "yeah these shapes might work" or.....nope..next!

Concepts

Currently attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, I recently joined a conceptual illustration class and since the beginning of the semester I've been learning more and more about the creative process behind creating characters, vehicles, and environments all quintessential elements to story telling, which is why concept artist.....well do what what they do! Design books of that same category are always fun to read and provide a wealth of knowledge for the hungry reader, the aspiring artist, or the dude that just wants to see cool stuff! But for those of us who just want to learn a bit more and expand... one book I highly recommend is THE SKILLFUL HUNTSMAN, a great read for those learning even the most basic conceptual approaches.

Step 1- Silhouettes : when creating a character one likes to think of it as ICONIC, believe it or not figuring out what shapes work and automatically say what the character (vehicle, environment, etc. is about before even glancing the detail makes for an ICONIC character! which is something stressed in my courses....and believe it or not it's more important than one might think....shapes shapes shapes!! what says this characters a bad guy or an advocate of pure good! so here are some of the silhouettes and shapes I started out with originally when coming up with two combatants( that was the objective of the project)

CHAPTER 1 the story

The beginning as always is the hardest part. because nothing is as important to me than growing as an individual and as artist." " I'm an aspiring conceptual artist who knows that there's no better place to start than with an idea..because without ideas then we just wouldn't function. In the this day and age there is nothing but the fiercest and toughest of competition out there in the industry, in the world for that matter, so one would not be doing himself justice by sitting around and waiting for an opportunity to drop in his lap....Knowing that, the best mentality to have is to go out there and get what it is you want...and that ladies and gentlemen is just the idea!