Nearing the end of the design process

Completing my colour studies 


So after completing a little further image research and creating a collection of different usable gradients based of photographs of different environments and lighting, I felt confident enough to move onto working on my colour studies. I was previously shown a technique I could use by one of my fellow students who has spoken to my tutor Nigel about how to go about creating these studies. The idea was to grab one of the previous value studies we had produced for this Art Test and then over lay one of the gradients on top of our chosen thumbnail. This would allow us to pick out colours from the gradients we created to add different lighting to a final pieces we had to produce to help create a image that had more feeling and a scenic setting to it.

Baring this in mind I picked out a mixture of the different gradients and value studies I had completed and mashed them together, making sure it was thinking about the lighting and composition of the image. I also make sure I picked a variety of different lighting so that I could have a few images based at night and in the day. Below are the five different colour studies that I completed. Overall I think that my candidates for the three final designs are the top left thumbnail, the middle right thumbnail and the top right thumbnail. This way I will have a variety of location and and lighting in my scenes and this will hopefully allow me to create far more visually interesting final pieces.

Thinking about my colour studies

Creating gradients 

Once I had moved away from my value studies and had done a little bit of image research to help me feel inspired for citadel I would be designing, I started to think about what I would have to do to create my colour studies. I knew that they were going to be based off of the value studies I had completed recently but as I want so keen on these thumbnail designs I knew I had to think of a way to make then far more interesting and creative when I added colour. There was also something else I knew I had to bare in mind whilst creating these pieces and that is that a big chunk of this Art Test revolves around the feel and mood that the final pieces captures and also having to consider factors such as what time of year or day the 'screenshot' is from. 

I knew that light, composition and mood of the final pieces were all really important things that I had to to include in the design process so I had to make sure that I had variety in each image which meant including a different time of day and possibly season to make each environment stand out and not look to similar to the last. I was just about ready to start working on my colour studies when one of my fellow students, Grace, showed me a technique that our tutor had showed her in one of her lessons. It was a technique we could use to help us breakdown and understand the colours used in a scene and a way to get a far more interesting colour palette to work from. Basically the idea was that you grabbed a photo of google images with interesting lighting or colour and then made a gradient of it. This was done by using the gradient tool in Photoshop and then fiddling around with the colour wheel and sliders provided to match up the colours with the ones in the photo you had selected. I have to say that I actually really enjoyed doing this process as I was allowed to take a break from working in a rough style and do something detailed and accurate. 

Below are examples of the different gradients I used whilst using photographs of different lighting and environments for reference. Now that the gradient studies have been produce I can move onto creating a few colour studies using these new colour palettes to help created different moods for each image.

Stumbling upon perfect image references

Bonifacio in Corsica

I am now at the stage of the Art Test where I should starting to focus on creating my colour studies by working off of the value studies and thumbnails that I had created previously but I ended up coming to a little bit of a creative stand still. I knew exactly what was being asked off me for this next stage of the project but my work had seemed to have lost any design inspiration that I had thought of in the beginning of the process. The really rough value studies I ha produced didn't give a clear idea of what sort of environment I wanted to create as of my studies made the city I was designing look dull and moody where I actually wanted it to be far more colourful and vibrant. This was beginning to irritate me and I knew I needed to get a bit of inspiration back so I decided to do some brief image research into different cities layouts and architecture to hopefully help bring something more to my design ideas before I had to create my three final pieces. 

I knew exactly what type of design and setting I wanted to produce for the Fable inspired citadel and that was one which was located on a large sea cliff that lead down to harbours and beaches where the cities main trade took place. As this is the type of environment I was aiming to recreate I started to scroll through google images to see what sort of photos I could find of this type of scene. After a lot of scrolling I stumbled across an image of a small town that was crammed onto the side of a tall steep cliff face, buildings nearly toppling over the edge. This nearly mirrored the type of environment design I had in mine so I followed a trail of links to find out what the name of this place was and try to see more photos of it. I soon found out the town was called Bonifacio and was located in Corsica which is small island just off of Italy and is in the Corse-du-Sud department of France. Below is a mood board of the town and it's fantastic coast line and structure. I found these photos really inspiring as it is such a beautiful place with really lovely views and layout and I think that looking at this images will help me picture how I want to layout my final designs and get a better idea of perspective for this type of environment. 

Moving on with the design process

Completing my value studies 


After talking to my tutor recently about the technique I had been using previously, which consist of a cartoon style and bold outlines, he and I discussed what I would need to change it to be able to create rougher and sketchier value studies. This was needed to be done so that I would be able to get more ideas from just one image and come up with more creative designs and hopefully spend less time stressing over my pieces and trying to make them look perfect. Previously I created four value studies trying to stick to the technique that my tutor Nigel taught me which all seemed to turn out okay although I spent more time on them then I should of.

Baring this in mind I decided to produce eight more value studies, trying to keep the style used in the previous four but this time working on how quickly I drew them out. I made sure to work quickly when producing these value studies so I made sure that I only took 5 minutes on each one before moving onto the next panel and then not going back to edit them as I really wanted to keep these sketches as rough and imperfect as my Tutor had suggested. Honestly I am not to keen on how they turned out or look stylistically but I stuck to what my tutor told me to do and now I am can onto the next stage of the process which is colour studies.

Facing a challenge

Re thinking my designs and starting with the value studies


Once I had completed my sixteen thumbnail sketches, I knew that it was time to move onto my value studies but I was struggling to understand what they actually consisted of. I knew they were design images which shows the lighting of a scene but I wasn't too sure how detailed they were meant to be. Were they simply supposed to be made up of block colours or something more detailed with a larger amount of shading? As I didn't want to start them and end up doing the wrong thing, I thought it would be best to ask my tutor Nigel about it as he was the one supervising all the 2D Art Tests.

I manages to chat to him during one of our most recent classes and showed him what I had been working on so far and that I was thinking about moving onto my value studies. He immediately explained to me why I have probably been struggling and this was because my thumbnail designs were just far too detailed. They are meant to be quick, rough and loosely drawn sketches which give a very brief example of what you are trying to portray in a scene. None of them are meant to be highly polished as they are only a starting concept and artists only add detailed when it comes to a final design or painting. For me, the thumbnails I did were very rough as they were each done in five minutes and drawn straight onto Photoshop using a tablet which to be honest, I really didn't enjoy doing as I am very used to doing hand draw designs and taking my time on pieces, making sure that they line art is correct. I had even decided to re do my thumbnails with neater line work so that they looked far more appealing and so I would feel more comfortable with creating the three final pieces a the end of the process (an example of the neater thumbnail sketch can been seen on the first panel of the second image below.) I has also been sketching out a house in Fables art style, which can be seen in the image below, so that I could improve my drawings and keep the style following through my designs.

Unfortunately Nigel told me to shoot down my preferred art style for this Art Test, which meant losing the time I spend on my work and the use of line art, so that I could focus on getting the thumbnails done quickly and roughly as they aren't supposed to be highly detailed designs that we spend a lot of time on. This proposition immediately made me feel worried as not only would I be working on environment art which I know isn't one of my strong points but now I would have to completely change my art style and technique to something that I am not to comfortable of knowledgeable about. Nigel gave me a gentle push and told me to start working on my value studies in class so that he would be able to see them and see if I was going down the right path. After drawing out a brief study which can seen in the second panel of the image below, I was soon told that it still wasn't what I was supposed to be producing and I should be far more lose and rough with my design work. He drew out a quick example of what my value studies should be looking like and that is what I needed to aim for. It was very rough and lacking in detail but he explained that it is like that so that you can pick out shapes that are very exaggerated and obviously there. This way you will get far more design ideas out of just one concept.

After I saw Nigel sketch and he showed me what brushes I could use after a little tweaking in Photoshop I began working on my value studies which are the six final images which can be seen in the image below. To be honest I only really like one of them which is the second one on the right hand side but apart from that one I think they look a little stodgy. Although Nigel said they are a lot better than what I had been doing before so it seems that this is the style I will have to continue to use when I move onto my colour studies. I will hopefully be able to use the advice my tutor gave me and make sure they remain quick and rough so that I don't spend too much time on each one.

Moving onto drawing

Completing the thumbnails

After my most recent session where I received feedback from my tutors, I started to focus and push forward with the more artistic side of the Art Test. I could have done a much larger amount of research into the subject of environments and districts but as I was starting to fall behind a little when it came to work load, I decided to press on. I moved away from research into Fable and starting thinking about my thumbnail designs, where is the citadel located? What season will be depicted? What is the layout of the city? These where all things that I needed to consider as I sketched out my concepts as thinking about the location was a big part of the test.

I knew to keep my work flow going and the quicken my drawing speed, I was going to use my tutor Nigel's technique of taking 5 minutes on each sketch, so that I don't spend far too much time on one and neglect the others. Whilst I was thinking about my thumbnails designs, I was also considering that fact that I am working on an area which I am not particularly used to and that I should keep this theme going. I was originally planning to hand draw all of my thumbnails in a sketch book which is what I am comfortable with but for this Art Test, as I was testing myself already, I thought I should try drawing them digitally with my tablet instead.  Using this medium mixed with Nigel's technique, helped my to produce sixteen quick designs which can be seen below.

Over all I am not too keen on how these turned out which may be due to the fact that I am used to drawing concepts with pencil to paper or the fact that environments are not my strong point but I do have something to work with here so I am now able to move onto my value and colour studies and keep progressing with the project.  

The feedback i recieved

Moving away from research

Recently we had a fairly simple session where we were allowed to work on our Art Test in class and also receive any feedback from our fellow students or our tutors, George and Nigel. As I had been ill for the past five days, I had fallen behind on a bit of my work and had missed out on similar sessions so I wanted to take this chance to be able to talk to my tutors about my progress and to make sure I was on the right track. I got the opportunity to talk to my tutor Nigel, who specialise in 2D artwork, which is relevant to the Art Test I am doing so I am pleased that I managed to grab him for a few minutes.

I was able to show him my blog so that he could see what I had been working on over the past week and explained where I was planning to go from there. He immediately told me that I had done plenty of research and did not need to expand in this area, even though I did want to look up some image inspiration for different fractions but he said this wasn't necessary so that saved me doing some extra work which, in the end, would have been time wasting. He said the most important thing for me to do now is to move onto my thumbnails otherwise I would end up getting swept up in the research side of things and neglect the actual art side of the test. I was then able to ask him a few questions about the thumbnails we needed to produce and whether he had any techniques for drawing them. He told me that I should draw out nine boxes in rows of three and then spend five minutes drawing out a environment concept in each one, timing myself as I went along. Once I had completed this the first time, I was to repeat the process again and again, going over the same sketches each time and adding more detail every time I did. This way I would end up with nine detailed looking designs which I had spent a good amount of time on. 

I really like the sound of this technique as I think it would help me to push myself to work a little quicker and rougher so that I am not spending unnecessarily long on just one thumbnail, giving it to much detail on the first go. I think I will start off by trying this method on paper first and then completing a further nine thumbnails on Photoshop so that I have used a mixture of methods and, hopefully, will end up with some different results.