James Gurney
James Gurney's work has been a huge influence to me over both my Major and Research projects. For my major project his fantasy world building in the Dinotopia series has been particularly inspirational. His article on world building and map drawing in issue 79 of ImagineFX was also helpful in building my fictional world.
Justin Gerard's Cover for ImagineFX Issue 56
Justin Gerard's cover for ImagineFX 56, and the fantasy creature issue in general, rekindled my interest in fantasy illustration. This cover art was most definitely the inspiration for using fauns as the characters in my Major Project.
Dan Luvisi's Last Man Standing: Killbook of a Bounty Hunter
Dan Luvisi's book "Last Man Standing: Killbook of a Bounty Hunter", a publication that I read about through ImagineFX, was the main inspiration behind producing an art book that establishes the characters and setting of the author's own intellectual property. Dan Luvisi's publication is the starting point of a whole slew of media to follow.
Richard Anderson and Daniel Dociu
The concept art of Richard Anderson and Daniel Dociu of AreaNet has influenced my art style with their use of the lasso tool in Photoshop to create hard edges in their art.
Late 19th Century Painters
The work of painters during the late 19th Century, particularly those surrounding the Impressionist movement are an enduring source of inspiration for me. In particular Monet, Van Gogh, and Sargent are some of my favourite painters of the time, although quite different in their respective styles, I find their use of colour and brush strokes to be of great effect. These are the kinds of paintings I try to keep in mind when I work on a piece.
Final Major Project Evaluation
For my final major project the intention was to create a
book of concept art establishing my original idea based around a fictional town
populated by fauns from classical mythology, separated from human society, of
which they are largely ignorant. The final outcome was envisioned as a small
book of artwork, with 9 spreads and a front and back cover, giving an overview
of some of the key characters and situations involved in my concept. Unfortunately
I did not manage to achieve this outcome and in the end I produced six pieces
of artwork, three spreads and a front cover.
The
motivation behind this project was to develop my image making skills,
particularly within the field of concept art and the use of digital image making
software as these are areas I wish to concentrate on upon completion of my
degree. The project has also been an exercise in world building and character
design, genres within concept art that interest me in particular. Moreover, the
project has been a foray back into fantasy illustration, a specialism which I had
not explored a great deal previously, but would like to continue in.
My process
began by establishing the limits of this world I was going to create and the
situations that could exist in this world, key in deciding the content and
direction of the artwork that I was going to produce. I first considered the back-story
which I could imply through my illustrations, this would dictate a great deal
of my design choices such as the architecture, the weather and the manner in which
the characters were clothed. I then went on to look at how my faun characters
were anatomically constructed. For this I did studies of goats and looked at pre-existing
examples of fauns in art to inform my designs. I looked at practical
considerations of my fauns’ anatomy and how necessary features would limit the
situations I could present the characters in. Upon deciding the back-story to
my world I did studies of appropriate real-world architecture to inform the
designs in my fictional town.
The target
audience for my final outcome is something that I have been uncertain of
throughout much of the process. I feel that my work could appeal to both males
and females and I would suggest this particular concept would target though
between the ages of 15 and 25. On evaluating my work I believe that my work is
not quite mature enough stylistically for this market, but my ideas would not
suit a much younger audience. Given time, and looking into other artists and
illustrators in the genre and a greater study of anatomy and colour I believe I
could approach a style that is less naive and more suited to my target market.
Overall I
have learnt from this process that I need to study drawing to a greater degree
in order to attain a higher finish and more mature style. I also need to be
more structured and disciplined in my working schedule in order to produce the
volume and quality of work that I set out to do at the beginning of a project.
Having said this, I feel that I am better suited to working on shorter projects
and more individual pieces, where there is less scope to delay working on
pieces, or rationalise a slow working pace.
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