Statement of Intent

Statement of Intent

Pathway Specialism: Concept Art

Working Title/Theme: Fleshing out the Narrative

Word Count: 500 words

The title of my project is ‘Fleshing out the Narrative’. I will work towards creating a fantasy/sci-fi world through a narrative and illustrating/designing as many aspects of that world as I can. From characters and creatures to clothes and inanimate objects. This links to my work with The British Landscape from the creature design standpoint and also adding character to the things I design. My Colours project also links well because that was about telling a narrative through a series of images and making an interesting character design. Finally my Curate project would help influence my design choices, all the artists I researched and my own work had a story behind them as well as thought provoking themes. Fleshing out the Narrative will help me in my future goals of becoming a Concept Artist, it forces me to go out of my comfort zone and design things I probably have never even drawn before as well as strengthen my character/creature designs.

I have several books full of concept art for games and films that I have loved for a long time and I have selected 8 artists from the books whose work I feel influence my own in a large way. These books also have a unique insight into the artists thought processes and design ideas so I will read them thoroughly and take notes. I will also research the book series ‘Gormenghast’ by Mervyn Peake as it has an interesting narrative as well as original illustrations from the author. I would also like to visit The National Gallery in London as it is full of paintings from artists that are illustrating old myths and legends.

I would like to focus on digital art, at least for the design and development part of this project, using software like Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI with my own Graphics Tablet. However I would like to venture down more traditional mediums such as acrylic and watercolour paints as well as pen and ink to give my work more texture and physicality. I will be spending the first week or two researching my artists and developing/finding a narrative. My brother is a writer and he has offered to write a story for me, but in case he cannot finish it in time, I’ll be also looking for other narratives. The next few weeks would be spent designing and creating the world that the narrative takes place, as well as coming up with interesting character/creature designs. For a final piece I’m hoping to fully illustrate the story by showing major scenes next to the text, either as a finished book or series of works.

As I am working through my sketchbook and blog I will write a journal of my thoughts and reflect on the work I have done as well as constantly referring to the artists and narratives that inspire me. I will also ask my peers for their criticisms and ask them to evaluate my work, to see if it fits each criteria.

Time-plan:

Weeks 1-2: (1) Researching artists and movements as well as finding or writing a narrative.  (2) Experiment with Acrylic and watercolour paints as well as begin initial character concepts.

Weeks 3-4: (3) Design and illustrate major characters/creatures and plot specific items or places. (4) Design minor characters, items, fashion and environment.

Weeks 5-6: Illustrate plot points and memorable scenes.

Weeks 7-8: Create or fill out a book with illustrations and the story, make it look professional.

Bibliography:

The Art of Bioshock Infinite: 1. Chelsea Douglas 2. Claire Hummal
Star Wars Art – Concept: 1. Ralph McQuarrie 2. Doug Chiang
Harry Potter – The Creature Vault: 1. Paul Catling
Skyrim Concept Art: 1. Adam Adamowicz 2. Ray Lederer
The Art of Fallout 4: 1. Adam Adamwicz 2. Istvan Pely

The Gormenghast - www.mervynpeake.org/gormenghast/index.html
The National Gallery - www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Colour Final Pieces

For these final pieces I drew on inspiration from two artists I researched, Nick Sheehys for his use of a single colour in his pieces and Lina Hsaio for adding texture to my pieces, instead of making just a plain block colour.

I was aiming to create more than these three pieces, but time caught up with me and I managed to only finish these, another three were in development but I am still happy with how these came out. This is a different style to what I'm used to, this was an interesting experiment. If I were to do them again then I would definitely shade the by hatching, like I usually do. I wanted to see how they would look without shading this time and I believe they look far too flat. I do like the effect that the brown textured colour has, I thought it would be far too boring to just have a plain block colour. Although I think this experiment was mostly a success I think I will stick to digital drawing for my FMP, it suites perfectly with what I want to be doing in the future and I could always do with more digital pieces in my portfolio.

Golem Sculpture with original sketch and drawing

I originally intended to create a full figure, however I started a little too ambitiously, creating the head too big, so that if I were to make a full figure, it would have taken too long and been too big. Plus I did not have enough plasticine to finish, so I stuck with just a bust instead. Even though I do not have much practice with sculpting I think this came out very well. If I had more time I'd smooth it out more, try to give the skin more texture and make his head a little more interesting.

One Week Response to Colours and Artist Research

I tried a new technique with this drawing, I went straight into the painting, I did not sketch it first, I went with my instincts and drew what came to mind, trying to improve my digital painting skills.

After drawing the above image I realised that choosing to design creatures similar to the Bobbit Worm would limit myself too much, plus I wanted a narrative to work from, so I decided to explore my other idea of Golems, Which lead me to the next few artists.