Task 6: Heroes and Villains

This task was to practice aesthetic, posture and colour to differentiate antagonists and protagonists.

I was unable to attend this lesson, so I didn't learn everything, but used my own understanding of the differences to influence my design.

My protagonist is a cyborg named Aaron who was abducted by the antagonist Doctor Mandeleev to prototype an army that could be controlled by him in secret. He was surgically fused into his armour, which gave him not only the ability to take a large amount of punishment, but allowed him to defy gravity and camouflage himself. He was meant to be desensitised to the outside world so that he wasn't aware of what he was doing or act on his own judgement. He woke up and escaped, crippling Mendeleev. Because he was exiled, he spent his days awakening or destroying the ungraded humans.

Doctor Mendeleev was a partly robotic scientist who believed that people like him were superior, and intended to create an army of robotic soldiers that couldn't act on their own judgement. These were to be distributed to countries to replace the state army and security forces. He would then throw a killswitch that would turn them all to his control rather than the countries who bought into the program.

Aaron was abducted and upon realising Mendeleev's intentions escaped, destroying the doctor's organic arm. He would go on to create more prototypes, each more powerful than the previous to disable Aaron.

Task 5: Sculpture

We were tasked to make a sculpture out of polymer clay, tinfoil and wire.

For this, I chose to do the mech I designed for the silhouette task, but for someone who is unskilled at sculpting, this would be difficult.

Whilst attempting this, I started to make a humanoid sculpture. I made a basic skeleton out of braided wire and then layered tin foil around it to create a base for the digital design. However, the foil was layering itself in such a way as to design itself for me.

 

This design would take advantage of the unique properties of the clay, where the clay will overlap over itself and make a bulky shape. The face parts were made with a piece of braided wire. When enough clay was applied, it started to look like my design. 

I thought that it lacked anything unique, so I added a top hat and bowtie.

Task 4: Silhouettes

This task was to test making a character with a silhouette and how basic shapes can define the disposition of a character.

We were taught that triangles show strength and are suited for a tall powerful character. Circles are suited for larger characters, and squares were for characters with a hunched posture or a shorter proportion.

This an opposing method to forming the skeleton we were taught earlier, where the shapes can be layered in a faster process.

I experimented with various starting ideas, and settled on quadrupedal robot tank.

This design was based on various conventions of mecha; pronounced armour plating, stocky posture and pronounced external weaponry.

My second silhouette was an organic person, with another image used as a skeletal reference. 

Task 3: Introduction to shading

This task was to practice lighting techniques and shading.

After an introduction to shading techniques and a tutorial on identifying light sources, I set to work on finding something that I could draw.

I drew a radiation suit, as it was a bright colour that allowed me to practice my shading technique. However, I followed the reference picture too much and felt it was unusable.

After brainstorming designs, I thought of something a little different from what I've drawn. Drawing something like this robot furnace was a good way for me to get used to how different shades can make a shape appear to be different.

                                           

Task 2: Introduction to Photoshop

Shortly after trying to draw myself on paper, I was introduced to the artistic side of Photoshop.

Whilst I have been acquainted with Photoshop in the past, I had never had the opportunity to use it to make artwork from the line art level, only manipulating images. If I was ever to create images, it was filling in colours with a mouse, which is of course difficult.

After brainstorming potential subject matters, I settled on a security guard. I looked at various style of security guard, playing games like Half-Life, Black Mesa (A Source Engine mod of Half-Life that changed the aesthetic enough to warrant researching) and Fallout New Vegas to name a few.

The two security armour sets shown above show roughly the same equipment, but both have different styles. The Black Mesa armour is representative of the general aesthetic, where they were anticipating an attack from military forces or alien life and thick plating would be needed to fend from attacks. The Fallout New Vegas armour has a thinner vest and hides the facial features and skin from view. This is more suited to the security staff of a casino, where there is a benefit to hiding facial features.

I took various aspects from all the armour sets and after plenty of trail and error with perspective and hands, created this: 

                                         

For a first attempt at a drawing in Photoshop, I think I did pretty well.

Self as a character

Our first assignment was to create ourselves in the style of a character from a game.

For a first assignment, I've been hesitant to find a title that I not only like, but that I could see myself in.
I was starting out, trying different franchises like Deus Ex, Metal Gear Solid and Half-Life. However, these were too typical, so after getting used to drawing in Photoshop, I went in a more stylised
direction:

Bastion is an isometric Action RPG where the protagonist is a young man (Or teenager, the character's age is never disclosed).

                                     

Not only is the character well designed, but the aesthetic is something I want to be able to do in time. After changing the skeleton, colour scheme and constantly making mistakes with the hands, I've finished the front drawing.

I'm not an organic artist; drawing living breathing things is not something I feel I am good at, mechanical constructs are something I prefer to draw. Considering this, I think I have done very well with the above drawing!