Okay, so to launch this blogsite I started off by developing
a personal project I called ‘REVAMP’, I had a hard drive filled with older
projects and unfinished pieces, some were just general ideas, some old uni
assignments and others were those beautiful concepts you had in mind and just
wanted to see completed – but had no idea where to start! *BTW – ‘The Urban Ninja’ was also one of those dreams which
I decided to just run with...!
After coming to an end of university I started thinking of
the opportunity I now had to revisit these old pieces and see what could be
done with them.
It hasn’t been till recently that I chosen to get into the
visual effects/design part of the industry, trying to pick up real skills in 3D
modelling and visual effects animation. Before then however, my skills were in
character design and concept art. Here are some of the developments I’ve got so
far from aiming to complete these pieces.
Trent Nova: intergalactic Space Marine
This character was a product of my imagination from my
cartoonist phase. Trent Nova is a rough and tough space marine and part of an intergalactic
space corp. Exploring the universe and building rations between alien civilizations
Armed with his gadgets and his wits Trent Nova faces the perils of the galaxy,
and battle evil forces head on. I intended this character to originally be
developed into a comedy cartoon sketch as he travels the universe and boldly
went where no-one wanted to go!
*A quick concept sketch layout of the BG scene.
*I still might develop this further in the future.
The Art of the Samurai
This is a very outlandish character deign I had. Trying
stylistic approaches to characters at the time this was a samurai type figure
that I sketched a while back, I thought that this character was pretty funny
and deserved to be returned to and sketched over. Eventually I’m hoping to play
around with painting styles and colour theory on this design as well as paint a
concept scene behind him.
Barb the Butcher
This was a hilarious figure I designed a while ago as well,
based on all those stereotypical “fat lady” characters you see on TV (...think
of the creepy mother from Goonies, etc.) When I drew her all I kept seeing was “Barb”
as a butcher, wielding a massive meat cleaver which she would wave around as she
chased you with it. The character is so exaggerated from everything down to
rollers in her hair and the horrid wart on her face. Again this character/design
was intended for exploring both character design and painting techniques. I’m
aiming to go back to these characters soon and paint them with a style which is
unique to me and my humour.
Set Share
This was a project I worked on during the summer of last
year, developing a web brand for a friend and his music launch site. Set Share aimed
at bringing and promoting new and upcoming musicians to the spotlight. Targeted
at people all over the world and designed with the idea of being a new type of
social networking site. When designing this logo my friend had a very ‘unique’
style of describing the notion and a very clear and set out idea of how he saw
it, his main thought was on the iconic speaker in the middle as it circled the
globe. This was an interesting project because it allowed me to get into using
my designs and mixing them with visual effects, as I constructed the space/globe
scene using Adobe After Effects, a program I love to use. It also helped me
listen and build dialogue with people I worked with and understand their ideas
better to explore my artistic style.
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Blues Night
Blues night was probably one of my biggest projects I
developed. Back in 2008 I was asked to develop a mural for a friend’s father,
he had a pub and wanted something for his back room, which would draw people in
and bring to their attention his rhythm and blues nights that he promoted. We
designed the theme of a band of performers all playing and enveloping the room
and it’s four walls, like a stage standing over the customers. Each character
held a personified strength of the iconic ideas of Blues, i.e. the sexy singer
with a beautiful voice, the veteran old man guitarist and the rhythmic pianist
etc.
I eventually went back to this design and chose to ‘REVAMP’
it, to do all the characters and instruments in high detail. The piece is HUGE
and took a high level of detail and attention over that summer, and ventured
further as I tried to add character to my characters.
I’ll probably complete the mural and paint it over this
summer, as my painting style aims to improve.
*Lined mural piece - A3 size page, I imagine this with loads of colours in it!.
***
This is just a little taster of how I wasted my time all
year and where I hope to go next with my designs. Thanks guys!
Keep watching this
space, to see how I progress and what I post next.
--Un313--
