Final piece evaluation,
I have mixed feelings about my final pieces. The Gecko vehicle design I think was quite good yet I do not think I execurted it quite well enough. The model and character sheets are good but the final piece I think it needed a bit more time and patience. The Ring Tailed Malverix however I think is one of my best pieces of digital art. I am extremelt pleased with the lighting, composition and colour choice of this piece. Though the colours are "abstract", this connotes the fact it is an alien planet, and if you look past this, they merga to create a realistic setting.

In the end I went with a sleek agile predator. I have collected some animal reference images to try and create a unique anatomy for my creature.

Now That I have designed and developed my vehicle its on to my character. I have chosen to design a creature so hear are the silhouettes.

After doing the silhouettes I have decided to go down the line of a 2 wheeled front driven off road buggy with some kind of hover system at the rear to keep it up. To get more of an idea I am going to gather some desert buggy images for reference.

So..... Now that I have got the study tasks over with I cam move on to my personal designs. I decided to do a vehicle and a character/creature. We had the choice to do 3D or 2D for our final designs. Seems as I am a traditional artists I stuck to 2D.
To start with we had to do 100 thumbnail silhouettes each of vehicle and character. So the next few posts will be my concept sheets. The silhouettes that are circled are my chosen ones which I will develop further on.

This Portrait is by Wesley Burt. I thought I would have a go at analyzing an image which had no saturation at all and just discuss the toes and lighting. Through this, I am able to further understand how light can be used to suggest texture. If you look at the hair you can see that the reflection is sharper and more focus than that on her skin.
Reflection can also be used the show shape. For example, the definite line of light which reveals the bridge of her nose. This image also creates a focal point around the face sharpening that area an getting softer and less defined as you move away.

Like I talked about in the previous image, the use of fading colour and increasing value to create depth is proven in this image by Richard Anderson. Not much detail is used in this piece, mainly silhouettes and colour. Another way Anderson has created depth in this image is through contrast. The colours in the fore ground are all definite and hard edged. Further into the image however the colours begin to blur and not be so different to each other.

My second lecture was on lighting and colour. Yet again our task was to analyze three images using the knowledge we gained. My first image is this one by Joe Madureira, a highly successful comic book artist. This image uses colour extremely effectively. It is most intense around the hands on the girl and slowly diffuses as you move further out into the image. Not only does this create a focal point but with the use of yellow and white it creates a sense of heat.
Light is also well used in this image to determine surface and texture. For example the wolves claws have sharp glints of light on them, showing they are shiny whereas the girls face has a soft diffused shading suggesting a smooth surface.
A sense of depth is created by the an increase in value and a decrease in saturation. You can see this with the wolf in the Back ground compared to those in the foreground.

This photograph was taken by a photographer I know, Marianne Manfredi. This piece is extremely well composed. Firstly my eye is drawn towards the bike, then to the break reflector. This sounds odd but it has the most contrasting colour and tone in the image. Not only is the bike well placed considering the rule of thirds but the reflector is practically bang on the top left focal point according to divine proportions.
If you also notice the top rail of the barrier is practically horizontal (in a 2D aspect) and its perpendicularity to the closest post, it creates an L. Understanding the "L" rule, then this also draws the eye to the bike, enhancing the focal point.

This is a piece of art by Jason Chan. The composition in this is brilliant. Using the vertical line in the cross rule Chan has split the image into to defining halves. and then using the rule of divine proportions you can see that the two children lie on opposite focal points, one in the top right and one in the bottom left.

Hear is fantasy piece by the highly successful artist Kekai Kotaki. Firstly you will see that the figure in the image is bang on with the rule of thirds. The entire length of his body lies on the left hand guide line to this rule.
I also noticed The lighter distanced landscape follows the "L" rule around the top right hand corner, drawing more focus on the figure. I could say that it follows the vertical line in the cross rule, as there seems to be a definite change in colour intensity and light from left to right.

The first lecture I had was on composition. This was to develop our key skills in presenting our work in an aesthetically pleasing way. I learned 5 easy loose guides lines to do this. Divine proportions, Rule of thirds, "L", Coss and Iconic. The nest few posts are three images I chose to break down and evaluate using these theories.

Lets get started

So hear is the start of my study and reflective journal. My two briefs which have the same dead line are 'vehicle or environment' and 'character or assets'. I have chosen to do a vehicle and a character (in this case an animal). Before I Go into my development and design however I am going to give some feed back on the recent lectures I have had. The next few Posts will explain what I have learnt and the tasks which I have completed.