For this unit we were given a wide choice in what our final peice could be: environment, character or a mix and whether it's digitally rendered or hand rendered. This left me with many options but I decided that creating an environment would be the best option as it's what I have the most interest in.
Starting off with a brainstorm I wrote down varies different ideas and tried to link them together to create an interesting environment. In the my original concept was of a dome like building built upon the canopy of trees as the final bastion of humanity. This part of the project proved to be quite problematic as it took me a while to settle down on an idea to proceed with as I originally kept proceeding with brainstorming with very little progression, this could easily be rectified if i was more decisive and choose an idea faster.
A bit more brainstorming on the idea of a building built upon the canopy with a little sketch of a character which may be surviving on land. This was a quick process which I quickly moved on from as I realised i had stopped progressing again.
This was my initial set of reference images which I used at the beginning of the project. I included many aspects that I wanted to add but only a few would end up being used thanks to a change in my idea. This could be improved by gathering a larger range of images instead of limiting myself to this A4 sheet.
First sketch of what the building may look like, which in hindsight looks like a mushroom, but a vital part that my lecturer talked to me about was that this is "too finished" meaning I spent more time than I needed to at this stage of the project on drawing. This made sense as this was still a sketch that i would further develop my idea from. So in my next drawing I corrected this by placing many ideas on a very quick sketch of another view of the city.
These next two images are the improvements I made upon the initial image create a city scape upon the canopy. This drawing took a significant less amount of time to create as this was still in the development process.
The next part of the designing process was that I begin to take the components and detail them out and later re-assemble them in the final piece. During this part of the project I started to drift away from my original idea and placed a lot of emphasis on the lighthouse component creating multiple designs for it, which later becomes the center peice of me final desgin. This part of the project went really smoothly as I continued to produce varied designs.
Again I began to run into problems as I started to stagnate and not continue any progression in the project, this was mainly because i couldn't create a composition which suited my idea, which begain a cycle of sketches which would all leave to dead ends. As I cleared my mind I remembered an artist that I took inspiration from: Roger Dean, his work will again provide me more inspiration.
Roger Dean worked a lot with fantasy environments which I find immensely interesting, he used a lot of floating rocks, this is an idea i took on board and starting creating sketches for, this is the point where I started feeling like I was advancing again.
These quick drawins were done with inspiration taken from Roger Dean. These drawings took less than 1 hour to complete as I needed to make up for lost time spent stagnate earlier. This part of the project felt like the most important part for me as it allowed me to progess onto my final piece instead of continue on with compositions that I didn't feel were right.
My hand rendered piece which would later be taken to be enhanced digitally. This is a steppng stone to move onto digital as I didn't feel confident in starting with a black canvas.
These two images where create with Photoshop as the first time I tried digital painting and I feel the end result was better than I had anticipated, although with feed back from peers the "beam of light" wasn't what it looked like at all. So I used a new set of reference images to complete my piece.
A quick change to the light made the lighthouse feel a lot more akin to a lighthouse.
Throughout this project I have learnt many things from pratical skills to the way I approach these projects and how easily I can become lost. It seems that I need really concentrate and focus on a specific set of goals and push for it rather than focusing on the details, overall as soon as I took a step back and examined my work, found inspiration and worked towards that goal meant that my work would improve greatly, something I need to take into other projects.
Throughout this project I have learnt many things from pratical skills to the way I approach these projects and how easily I can become lost. It seems that I need really concentrate and focus on a specific set of goals and push for it rather than focusing on the details, overall as soon as I took a step back and examined my work, found inspiration and worked towards that goal meant that my work would improve greatly, something I need to take into other projects.