BA1a Persian Character Silhouettes

After being given the brief to design a character from Hans Christian Anderson's "The Tinderbox" I chose the 'Shoemakers boy'. I began by creating interesting silhouettes. I'm not happy with this first set of silhouettes, I used alchemy to create an interesting shape and then added to and subtracted from it to form some 'interesting' iterations.

These worked a little better, I had decided at this point that I would be designing the "Shoemaker's boy" character from The Tinderbox story. These characters look a little more child like than my others.

I quite liked the first paint over of this silhouette, though it really didn't fit with my time period, being the Persian empire. The rightmost design could work quite well however.

These designs all appear a little too mature looking to become a child character. That is, assuming the shoemakers boy is a child.









Having found the designs on the far left the most interesting, I decided to develop them and add more character in the form of clothing.

BA1a Timepiece and Model Sheet

Above is my final representation of my timepiece. My timepiece casts light on the runestones surrounding it to signify important events taking place in the surrounding area. Each stone is individual (one for sacrifice, one for feasting, etc.)

Model sheet, this design is absent of colour other than a deep red glow and white veins on its roots.

BA1a Timepiece Development

When given the brief to design a timepiece, I first thought "I'll design a skeleton pocket watch!"... but that's already been done. I wanted to create something original, even if influenced by existing time measuring devices. On the left is a timepiece idea inspired by sundials and Stonehenge, I liked this idea but it was too simple. The stylised nature of this piece was inspired by Eytan Zana.



I started creating some silhouettes in Alchemy, just looking for interesting shapes and compositions. The design that looks reminiscent of a willow tree was by far the most interesting, looking both eerie and imposing. I decided I would create a totem to place in the middle of my stone circle.

Atop my totem I placed a deer skull, to further enhance the eerie-ness. This totem would be almost like an altar where tribal villagers would come to sacrifice small mammals or make other such offerings.

Trying to develop the totem further was a struggle at this point wasn't working. I was painting without any reference imagery.

The stones for my circle needed to be more interesting, I turned them into glowing runestones (because glowing stuff is cool).

This is a terrible, but an informative layout thing.

BA1a Insect in Environment

I started off by sketching out the basic composition I wanted to achieve with this piece. My horse sized insect sprinting into the foreground.

After I started adding colour to this piece I quickly realised I wasn't achieving the look I was going for. Though in hindsight I probably should have stuck with this piece.

This is where the problems started, after painting a reasonably successful background I started painting an awful mess of an insect atop it. I'd have thought working into it would have made it better, but it only got worse.

This piece could have been so much better if I had continued with the previous composition. Though I feel it does accurately represent my insect, there is no depth or emotion in this painting.

BA1a Insect Character Sheet

My character sheet for my insect. As you can see it displays horse-like qualities, whilst still retaining the exoskeleton, three body segments and six legs that many insects have. While I would like the insect to run like a horse would (rendering its middle legs useless), the insect still displays the jittery movements associated with its tiny counterparts.

BA1a Insect Bodies

Creating insect body silhouettes was interesting. Knowing that insects only have three body segments, six legs and can be pretty much any shape otherwise was interesting. I wanted to create something imposing, the sharp edged form suggests aggressive characteristics.

This first silhouette looked a little too ant-like, form not strong enough.

I liked the assertive qualities this form suggests, being that is it quite aerodynamically shaped. This would make the insect more maneuverable at high velocities.

Over-paint of the previous silhouette, I kept the same exo-skeleton style as used in the leg designs. I feel like this design lacks depth and interest.

Colour swatches of body design.

BA1a Insect Research / Inspirational Imagery

The contrast between the vibrant yellow and deep black on this insect is a similar colour scheme to what I had in mind for my designs.

The hair on this wasps legs would look great on my insect design.

Dragonfly - http://animalia-life.com/image.php?pic=/data_images/insect/insect4.jpg
Wasp - http://7-themes.com/data_images/out/72/7019479-bee-insect.jpg
Grasshopper - http://www.top10listland.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/grasshopper.jpg

BA1a Notes on Lighting

This is a photograph I took in Manchester recently. There's a lot going on in this image concerning lighting.
1. Reflection: The slightly warped reflection of the building opposite to the center building is being produced by light being reflected almost perfectly off the smooth glass.
2. Diffused reflection: This can be seen on the grey panels dotted about our subject building. The rough surfaces are reflecting light, but in to many directions to produce a clear reflected image.
3. Absorbtion: The dark surfaces under the subject buildings protuberances are both absorbing light.