Week 25- Art nouveau

 

The final traditional task of this term was by far the most challenging for me. The task combine a lot of the skills that we have been practising this term and combine them into one. Much like the previous task we had to draw a 3/4 human figure from life fully coloured on a toned paper. I was interested to try using coloured pencil on the tan paper to see what kind of tonal representation I could get when combing these elements. I did really enjoy doing the task with the colour and black values on the brown paper so I was interested to see how coloured pencils would look. In the lesson I started by laying out some of the initial tones using a light brown shade so that I could start adding in the main proportions of the figure. I think so far my tasks have been successful with the resemblance however with this task I did struggle quite a lot to keep accurate resemblance. I wish I had spent more time figuring out the proportions of the face before going in with my values as I think I needed to establish more of a solid base to start adding the tones onto. Some of the placement of the features does look a bit off however I think the overall proportions of the body have worked well.

The muscular structure in relation to the clothing was also a challenging part of my process as I had to add shade to the top after the lesson was over since I didn't have time to in the lecture I tried my best to consider how the muscles would effect the clothing. I am pleased with the colour pallet I chose for this and I did try and reflect the colours in other area such as the skin where the tones would be slightly reflecting off them. 

Week 24- Classism and neo classicism

 

This weeks task had a focus on classism and neo classicism and we had to draw a figure from life that featured clothing and holding an item. I really struggled initially with this to get the proportions accurate between all the features especially with the legs and the size of the head. I was not considering the perspective and how it would effect the sizes of the features in relation to each other. I wanted to make this piece look less stiff than some of my previous ones as I was enjoying doing a more artistic kind of approach to my work instead of looking things so stiff and literally. I really pushes myself to include a variety of tonal variation to show the changes in colour of the fabrics. I think next time I could have  gone lighter on the shirt and further knocked back some of the tones to highlight this. 

I actually started this piece off very small so later on in the lesson when I was adding in smaller details especially on the face I was struggling to keep the resemblance. I did not spend enough time on the format thumbnails so I ended up doing it the wrong size which did impact the final finished quality of the piece. I think there is some resemblance to the still life model however some notable inaccuracies would be the size of the hand sin relation to the legs and arms. I was happy with my representation of the hard and soft shadows I created in this piece especially on the folds of the fabric.

I think the reason I found this piece a lot more challenging than previous tasks was the fact that this pose was more dynamic than some of the previous ones plus I had not yet attempted a fully shaded figure yet so there was a lot to consider when sketching out the proportions particularly in the variation of line weight and value. I also tried to accurately establish the main prominent shapes in the piece specifically in the fabric of the clothing. 

Week 23- Muscle structure, combining colour and black media

 

I really enjoyed this weeks task a lot, I was not in the lesson this week however I did complete the task at home using a refence image from online after watching the provided video on blackboard. I was really excited to have a go at using chalk as this is a media that I am not familiar with. I had some artists chalks at home and used tan paper for the background as i really liked some of the examples on blackboard.

I found that using this media was a lot harder than I expected however the pigments were really easy to blend and I loved how unlike coloured pencils I could blend very opposing tones in nicely. I used mainly warm colours for the skin and used some very contrasting darker black tones for the harsh shadows. I tried to use a well thought out colour pallet for this since there was a great opportunity for me to experiment with the pastels. The tones were nice to blend together and as I had previously learnt from last weeks exercise it was better to draw with more fluidity rather than in a stiff and sharp way as it allows for better definition in the form of the human figure. I think it very easy for anatomical drawing to look stiff and therefore have a sense of inaccuracy and too much structure when the forms are supposed to look more natural.

Overall this weeks tasks was definitely one of my favourites that I have done as I think it has worked quite successfully. I enjoyed using the chalks and would like to further experiment with the medium. I think in order to push my skills even further I need to focus on the proportions and silhouette of the model in closer detail and pick up on some of the muscle structures a bit more clearly.

Week 21- Human body dynamics

This weeks task in class was to produce a series of 3 pieces all using ink and ink washes. We were painting from a model in still life and we had to consider the structure of the figure along with the line weight ad effect of the washes that we were using and how we could portray an artistic and accurate representation of the human figure. 

I think this task is the one that I have found the most challenging yet as I am not used to painting at all and I really struggled to get used to the inks and how they should be built up. I kept adding too much wash and then  not letting it dry before building up value so my pieces ended up looking a little monotone and I have redone my first attempt at home because I was really unhappy with the outcome. it looked very stiff and I had not been able to capture the anatomy of the figure no create an artist sense to the piece therefore I did chose to redo it in my own time. The result was slightly better than my first attempt as I had gotten used to the washes a little more and was able to build up more of a range of tones. The first piece we had to do was with washes only and we had to focus on creating muscle definition by simply gradually building up the layers of pigment and blending them out with water. We were not to sue any line and weight for this piece. I struggled to keep the form and definition of the figure when doing this piece and I think I did loose some of the key muscle structures to the ink. 

My other 2 pieces were both with the use of link and weight. I had a hard time controlling the ink that I was putting on the page and was very nervous since we weren't allowed to do a sketch of the model beforehand. I think I need some more practise in this area but overall I was able to capture some key shapes through these attempts. If I was to do this task again  I would have been more relaxed with my strokes rather than less stiff and nervous. I think this would have helped me achieve better definition in the muscle contours. 

Week 22- Enhancement week contextual task

 

 (Xia Gui- https://www.comuseum.com/product/xia-gui-remote-view-of-streams-and-hills/ )

For this weeks blog task we were tasked with looking at a piece of work from the China Online museum website. I really enjoyed looking through all these pieces of artwork on there as I have a personal interest in east Asian artwork and have previously enjoyed doing some of my own inspired by these methods in the past. I have done some fine liner ink drawings which are very similar to this particular piece above. This piece is by Xia Gui and is called 'Remote view of streams and hills' I chose to look at this particular piece because I really love the  way the artist has used negative space in this piece to show an atmosphere of seclusion and peace. It is clear from this that the setting is quiet and sombre with the negative space taking up most of the top portion of the images we can see that the trees hang either side of the main focal point which looks like a little bridge in the centre.

Some of the ink techniques which have been sued in this piece include the 'axe stroke' method which is said to resemble that of chopped wood. Furthermore the artist has used a mixture of dry brush strokes and washes to create the lines and tones within this piece with darker dry brush strokes for trees that are close to the front and more diluted blended out ink for the leaves behind.  As you can see the cliff edge in the background of the image if a lot lighter with less strong details compared to the heavily outlined shapes of the rocks at the front, this has created a sense of depth to the piece.  You can really get a feel for the atmosphere of the piece even though there is not much detail in the background, the very light wash at the top of the page looks like it could be land on the other side of a very large lake.

Overall I really love how the artist has been able to create a clear atmosphere by just using negative space and a use of dynamic line and tonal values with the ink strokes and washes. 

Week 20- Nude figure on black paper

 

This was definitely one of the most challenging tasks I have done this year and I had to redo do it a few times to get it to a standard that I was happy with. I found it very difficult to visualise the light and shadows of the model when drawing from life and them relay them in black and white values. My first attempt at this weeks task was in the lesson and I really was not happy with it. I really overworked it and then it became really monochromatic with the chalk as I kept adding too much white to it instead of focusing on the areas of tonal variation and how I could portray those using less white value.

Since the task had  primary focus on human anatomy I paid careful attention to how the light was reacting to the muscular definition in the female figure and how this could be represented on the black paper with the white medium. I actually ended up focusing a lot on line and weight was well particularly on the fabric of the shirt draped around the model as the fabric itself was white and I wanted to emphasise it being a separate part to the figure as I was worried all the details and fold would get lost. The light portrayed on the fabric is a lot more static and sharp than that of the skin which I have done with more gradual soft tones other than any harsh shadows cast by bone or harsh lighting. 

My first attempt looked very flat and static in comparison to this one which I did with a much more artistically appealing mindset. I also found that the task is easiest when the lighting set up is harsher as it does add more clear definition to the muscle forms allowing me to recreate them with the white coloured medium. Overall I am actually really pleased with how this has turned out and it was a vast improvement to my first attempt where I learn the importance of using tonal range to show muscle definition and how not overworking a piece will give better results. I think it is far more refined in this instance. I think it would be interesting to try this task but with coloured pencils on a black background as well. 

Week 19- Focus on anatomy

 

I really enjoyed this weeks task as it gave me an opportunity to practise full human figure anatomy which I had not had a go at in ages. We had to do 3 drawings within the 2 hours of the still life model standing and sitting in different poses. The main focus of the task was to capture the proportions and muscles accurately through the use of line and weight. I think this was quite a challenging task as there are lots of technical elements to drawing an accurate human figure and when you get things out of proportion the whole piece starts to look very wrong and it is quite noticeable. 

One of the things I found most challenging with this task was the legs. I kept drawing them much too long and not fully understanding the muscles and how they were structured in relation to the pose and the other muscles around it. I think I would like to learn more about how the muscles overlap each other and work around the joints and muscles as I think this is where I have particularly struggled with this piece of work. I also think maybe doing some full shaded anatomical figures after this task would help me further my knowledge in how the muscles look in relation to each other. I would like to have a look at some of divincis work to help with my extra studying on this. 

Originally my use of line and weight was quite messy and rough so after the lecture I went back in and corrected  them along with the use of some other refences of the male anatomical figure. I tried to use darker and more heavier likes for areas of depth and shadow with muscles that had more prominent and defined shape to them in contrast to more softer edges where I used lighter line weight. I added some very basic shading definition using some hatching just to get some further definition on prominent shadows on the figure. I found this task quite challenging due to the complexity of the human figure and how all parts must tie in well with each other to achieve a convincing drawing. 

Week 18- impressionism

 

For this weeks traditional task we had to do another coloured pencil portrait from life but this time we had to use a mixture of both warm and cool colours. I thought carefully about here the different shades would be on the face whilst also carefully picking out the key tones from the still life model. The coolest shades were around areas that were lower down on the face around the chin area. the warmest areas were around the eyes and cheeks as there is a lot more blood vessels on a human face in those parts. Yellow tones were more prominent around areas of thinner skin such as the forehead. 

Again since this piece was in coloured pencil I wasn't able to do a pencil sketch beforehand and therefore I started by sketching out the face using some yellow and skin tones and blocked in some of the most prominent shadows. I had to finish this piece at home because I ran out of time hence why some of the darker areas do look a bit  wrong. I am pleased with the resemblance of the piece however I wish I had been able to finish this in the lecture using the model as a refence the whole time. I used an image online o a similar model and lighting setup to influence my finishing touches to the piece.

As expected I was quite challenging blending in the warm and cool tones together and there are some areas in which this wasn't as successful due to my limited time. I think next time I could like to include more lighter blue shades around the nose and mouth and anywhere that has some veins nearer the surface of the skin. The cooler tones I picked were more cool purples and browns rather than blue which is what I usually use for colour pencil portraits. The hair was not as successful as I would have liked as this was one of the areas that I had to do with no refence I was struggling to work out where the shadows and highlights would tie into the actual position of the hair strands. 

Overall I am pleased with some elements of this piece however I would like to further develop my use of coloured pencils to create light and dark tones based on a warm and cool colour pallet. I think the facial anatomy for this could have been better represented through the shades too. 

Contextual task

This weeks contextual task I had to choose an impressionist portrait and discuss some of the features of it. I have chosen to look at this painting by Manet in 1872 it is called 'Bethe Morisot with a bouquet of violets'. I chose to look at this piece as I was immediately drawn in by the colour pallet that the artist has chosen. I find the very dull and muted tones of the browns and harsh black really impactful and it definitely creates a dull and serious atmosphere. The woman herself looks quite pleased with a resting normal expression in contrast to the almost sad looking colour pallet that has been used. There is a strong light coming from one side of the face make the colours loom slightly more saturated than those on the right side. 

I was really drawn in my how dark and big the eyes of the subject are and how this really utilises the contrast of the very dark shades against the muted greyish browns of the hair and skin. the sombre atmosphere maybe suggest that the subject could have been going to a funeral. The background of the pieces heavily contrasts that of the foreground since it has been done with a light greyish and cream colour making the sharp black figure in front stand out considerably. The brush strokes are quite big and loose using only sharp bold strokes to create details such as the hair and the shape of the hat. The artist has very cleverly been able to captuer a lot of expression and features using less detail and more broad movements. 

Week 17- Composition in portraits

 

Warm tones

Cool tones

This week I was quite nervous for as even thought I love using coloured pencils I usually spend a really long time on drawings as the best way to use coloured pencils is to build up tonal values slowly so that you can get very opposing tones to blend nicely together. We had to do 2 pieces one with the us of warm tones and one with the use of cooler tones. As expected during the drawing session I was finding it very hard to finish and I ended up having to do my cooler ton piece from home from a reference online which i would rather have not done as I wanted to be able to have ago at the task from still life. As I was under time pressure I had to be quite efficient with how long I was spending on the construction of the face. As pencil does not blend well with coloured pencil I was not able to sketch out the face before hand and instead blocked out the features using some warm/ cool tones with coloured pencil. I tried my best to get resemblance of both models. Even though there are some inaccuracies with the placement of the features such as the nose and mouth I think I did quite well. 

For my warm tones piece I chose to use oranges and reds with reds being used for areas of show and yellows being used for highlights and lighter areas. I am not happy with my final colour pallet as I kind of wished i had gone about this task in a bit of a different way. I wish that I would have used quite realistic skin tones but done all the undertone using warmer colours instead of doing the whole piece using saturated warm tones. For my cooler piece I did correct this slightly by adding in some more normal skin shades along with the cooler undertones. I think the outcome for the cooler piece was much more successful and even thought it is not as good as some of my previous coloured pencil portraits I am more happy with this result. For both pieces I set myself a time limit of about an 2/3 hours per drawing.

In terms of how using warm and cool colours effects the outcome of a piece of work I find that using cooler tones creates a more sombre dull atmosphere in relation to the warmer tones which suggest a more impactful and upbeat atmosphere. The use of colours  has an impact on how a piece may be viewed and colour pallets should be chosen in regards to what atmosphere the artist is trying to create. I do like  how the cooler tones give the piece a more refreshing look in comparison to the almost harsh and suffocating warmer tones. 

I had to finish my warmer tones piece at home as I wasn't able to fully finish it in the lesson so some of my areas of shadow look a bit off as I had to do the piece from my head so things ended up not working particularly well together. I was thinking about re doing this piece of work but I wanted to include it in my portfolio for this term as it was done mostly from still life and highlights areas in which I need to improve. 

Week 16- Renaissance and the golden age

 

For this weeks task we had to do a still life study of a model using charcoal. I don't have much experience using charcoal so this was quite challenging for me as I was quite unsure of how the medium would be best utilised to create a piece of portraiture. I wanted to make this piece as contrast as I could  in order to utilise the charcoal as much as possible. it was also important to capture a sense of resemblance within the piece so I spent a lot of time in the initial stages measuring out the features of the face in relation to each other. 

I found building up the values challenging for this as the charcoal was very pigmented and I wasn't good at controlling the tonal values. I'm worried my piece was looking a little too monotone and I wasn't getting enough variations in tone. I kept trying to build up darker values in some areas and using a putty rubber to knock back some of the values I was progressing with the piece. I still think the outcome could have had a better tonal variation if I had started building the tones better and more accurately. I find drawing from life a lot more challenging as we were given a very limited time frame in which to complete the task. I like spending a long-time on things. 

I think I was able to capture a lot of good resemblance within the outcome of the drawing however I need to focus more on the tonal variation with the us of charcoal. I did enjoy using the medium as I really liked how easily I was able to build up black tones and create a highly contrast effect. I think it would be interesting to experiment with the use of use with very dynamic lighting set ups where there are strong differences between areas of light and shadow. The construction of the face is not perfect but since I measured the model using my pencil and constructed a thumbnail before completing the task I think it helped considerably with the outcome of the drawing. 

Contextual task

For my contextual task this week I have chosen to look at a very famous painting by Johannes Vermeer as it is a piece of work that I have liked for years. The painting 'Girl with a pearl earring' was done in 1665 and is not actually a portrait it is a 'tronie' which is a painting from the imagination. I chose this piece in particular because this concept was really fascinating to me. The painter himself was a master at lighting and it is clearly showcased in this famous piece the lighting coming from the left hand side of the piece shines onto the girls face highlighting areas such as her face and the bold large pearl earring that the painting is known for. By adding just a few simple strong highlights the piece turns into a dynamic and interesting paining of the girl. The colour pallet that has been used my vermeer is also eye-catching and features 2 opposing colours on the colour wheel being yellow and blue. the blue is eye-catching and draws your attention in and the yellow of the fabric creates a calm and peaceful setting. I think the piece itself looks almost peal like as a whole. The slight glimmers in the features and the blue and yellow colour pallet along with the hazy glow of the skin remind me of peals found in the sea. The artist has chosen to do an all black background which was not as unusual thing for him to do. The figure really pops forwards and the lighting on the face is very much accentuated because of this.  The actual paintbrush stokes also really help with the direction and flow of the piece particularly on the fabric and the angle of the face.

Week 15- Human head construction

 

This week out traditional task had a focus on the structure of a human head. Since I was not in the lesson I found a model online to draw an observational study from. Before attempting this task I looked through the resource's that my lecturer had uploaded for us as I knew that I was going to struggle with the composition accuracy of the drawing. For this pieces I tried hard to pay clear attention to the horizontal and vertical distances between the features of the face. When sketching out I used lots of straight lines to try and accurately relay the features in order to get good structure and form. I wanted the face to look as convincing as possible therefore I did spend quite awhile trying to get the eyes right. I found that it was very important to start with the eyes as this would make it a lot easier to start drawing in the features around them using horizontals and verticals also thought about the different planes of the face in relation to the lighting and features themselves. I picked a refence image with quite a lot of complex and dynamic lighting so trying to add this into the overall structure of the face was hard. For this particular model some key features of his face are his sharp nose and eyes and his smaller mouth in relation.

As I was finding it hard to confidently build up dynamic tones because I was nervous about ruining the structure of the features therefore when adding tone to the piece I was building it up very gradually with higher graded pencils. After some feedback I was told to add more of a tonal variation overall to stop the piece looking too monotone. 

I tried to capture both a good composition and expression within the format and I think one of the things that has gone well about this piece is how I have been able to capture his expression well. I think in terms of things I will need to work on I think the overall structure of the nose could have been  better in relation to the eyes. I would have liked to have added in some context by doing a quick rough background to the piece however I didn't have time to do so. I think overall I have decent resemblance to the model though I will just need to consider how the features work with the lighting scenario to confidently render this. 

I think to further my understanding of human head composition I will look at some anatomical breakdowns as this will help me be more efficient in achieving a realistic look. 

Boss project- Princess Akila

 To start off this part of my digital project I collected some images that would help give me a solid starting point to come up with some interesting silhouettes and concepts. Since I have already finished rendering my battle arena concept I have a good idea of what I want to do for the boss as it fits in with my specific arena concept. I am going to do a quick draw over of my arena to show i plan on making my boss fit into it and give it some kind of narrative in relation to it. The boss will be a flying human monster type thing with an interesting and dynamic silhouette as I want it to really stand out with the sunset shining behind it. I have a pretty good idea of how the boss will work with my arena and specific elements to include. After collecting the images on this mood board there are some features which I am particularly keen on developing. These include the wings from the god Isis, I will be using Isis as a close refence for my boss design as I particuly like the look of some of her key points and think it will work well in my overall outlook. I have included some different viewpoints of some statues, I love how the wings are shaped in these and the unique textures on the fabric of her dress and feathers. I can also collect some refences of real animals to support my ideas further and it will give me a good look at anatomically correct structures. 

To further my contextual knowledge I decided to collect some more specific images on subjects I thought were most relevant. Since flying is the key part of my boss I decided to collect some images of Egyptian birds. I found some really good pictures of them flying showcasing the striking wingspans. I will definitely be including this in my designs as i think it is such a classic and obvious point of isis and Egyptian history. Since my boss will be a humanoid it will feature some parts form birds and possibly some other animals which I will later research if needed. On the board there are also some pictures of Egyptian women both from fictional context and a non fiction historical context through statues. I can take features from these and refine them to fit my character. Since there is a lot of reference for this topic I should be able to make a convincing and authentic boss with a twist of fantasy and creativity. I am keen to start experimenting with different textures to see how I can incorporate some typical Egyptian patterns and symbols into the design and silhouette. My next step in this project will to sketch down  range of interesting silhouette ideas in black or minimal greyscale values so that I can establish some kind of interesting shape language that lends itself to both he brief and the context. For this I think it would be interesting to look at some Egyptian artwork and see what kind of shape language is expressed through this. Furthermore birds of prey seem to be a recurring theme in Egyptian historic symbolism therefore I will look closely at this. 

I decided to do a little bit of research on existing Egyptian styled characters. There is a line of skins in league of legends that I was particularly interested in called 'Guardian of the sands'. I wanted to collect some images of this skin line as they are something that stands out to my personally within the game due to the striking colour pallets and clear Egyptian concepts and shape language. I really love how they were able to take characters which did not reflect Egyptian history in any way and turn them into really convincing and well thought out skins. Some key points in which i have picked out from these skins is there shape language that has been used. Something I have  noticed is that a lot of Egyptian artwork has very clear either round circular shapes or very vertical shapes. I think the idea of having round circular shape language comes from the idea of the sun and the god of sun being such an important part of the history and culture. This was something I considered when doing my battle arena as i included a lot of circular and vertical shape language. For my character I want to include bold round shapes such as disks and weapons which reflect this. Another thing I particular like on these skins is the contrasting yellow and teal colour pallet it really pushes these skins to fit nicely in to the Egyptian concept and adds a bold and eye-catching vibe to them. I really like this combination of colours as they opposite on the colour wheel and look very pleasant together. Since my boss will obviously be a key part to the game I want it to stand out against the arena which I have mainly done in a golden yellow pallet as it is made of sandstone. Having a more teal colour pallet will contrast nicely against this. I also plan to use very light and flowing cotton fabrics as seen in some of jannas images. Not only does this reflect authenticity it also adds context. 

Today I decided to sketch out some brief sillouhete experimentation I used my mood boards as refence for these designs. Since I am basing my arena and boss off a real historical theme I didn't want to stray too far away from this I am really enjoying  mixing up my own ideas with convincing historical ideas using artwork and statues I have collected imagery of. I'm already quite happy with how my ideas have been coming along. Each design does feature a set of wings based on Egyptian birds of prey as I have already established that my boss will be a flying woman as the arena is in a big bird cage. The wings of the character are the primary focus of the silhouette of the character and therefore I iterated different ways in which I could incorporate them into designs. For the clothing I looked up classic Egyptian clothing for women and sketched out briefly using different tonal values to give an initial idea of the greyscale values. It is important to me that I use a wide range of tones in my work as this will make for an interesting and engaging overall concept. I'm am consistently thinking about how my work will be able to develop as the process continues. I really like the wings on idea 1 in particular they have a striking and bold shape to them which suggests and element of beauty and gracefulness. At first I was going to make my concept quite gory however now I think I will make my boss a more graceful type rather than the generic evil that comes with the idea of a boss. I have an idea of her backstory and narrative already so as I develop the specific design I will add to it. I like the shape of the horizonal type wings. This was a common shape in the statues I had collected images of and in the wingspans of the Egyptian birds of prey. I have considered some basic weapons and will focus on this more in later stages. I may do some more concepts just to refine some of the ideas that I currently have into more relevent and interesting ones. 

These designs were done by refining some of the ideas I liked from my previous concepts and picking apart elements I liked most about them and combing them together, As you can see I also collected some more references to help this stage and make sure I was including creative yet authentic. I want to include more than 1 set of wings as flying is a key point to my boss project therefore I was combing multiple different sets of wings together to see what looks best. I'm am not entirely happy with the design yet so I can going to do a couple more before I start thinking about making a final piece. 

Before I do some more ideas I put a gradient map on these more refined ideas to try and establish a brief colour pallet using some Egyptian artwork I found online. I am really pleased with how the middle colour pallet is looking and I think I will sticking to this when I come to rendering my final boss. I think it will contrast nicely against the colour pallet of the arena. I like the idea of going with a gold and blue pallet as this really fits in with the typical Egyptian colour pallet that can be seen in clothing and jewellery. I think the blue will also contrast well against my battle arena. 

Before I started constructing my final boss design I wanted to mess round with some further ideas just to see if I could come up with some iterations to possibly include when constructing my finished piece. I did some research on Egyptian birds of prey and thought about including this as part of my final idea however I don't really like the look of this idea. I think I am going to stick with her as being a normal human with wings rather than having a birds head. I think my strongest design ideas are definitely on the page above as I have selected all the parts of the designs I previously liked.  

The way I have gone about making my final front and back 3/4 concept is I have started off with a 3D model that I made on zbrush and posed into a position I think will be appropriate to use in order to present a clear character design which could then be made by 3D artists. I made such that one arm was posed outwards and the body was at an angle so a good view could be shown. I was thinking about zcompositing this however I decided that I was going to take a screenshot and then paint over it directly in photoshop as I think for this particular brief I would be more confident doing this. Some areas haven't been sculpted really accurate as this will be covered up.

Here is the back 3/4 view of my character.

I started off by cutting out the 3D model and placing it onto a grey background so that I could see any colour pallets more clearly. To start of the process of adding elements I found and cut out some pieces of clothing and parts of an Egyptian bird of pretty to start blocking out my idea. I really like how these wings were looking it gives a really striking silhouette to my character. Of course I will be massively editing these and only using the initial cut out photo as a starting point. I was thinking about having the wings singed at the bottom as I had planned out in some of my iterations previously. I am currently not a massive fan of the colour pallet so again I will be editing the elements I have cut up and painting over them a lot to weave everything together to make a fitting concept that works well with my arena, As this was only my starting point I will be adding and editing this a lot as I progress through the next stages.  

here are all the images I used either as refences or I cut out and edited in order to photo bash elements onto my design. I was really running out of time to do my boss since I did spend quite a long time on my arena therefore photo bashing was a good way for me too quickly get shapes and forms down instead of drawing out each one with the correct perspective. I did get a lot of inspiration from high fashion and catwalks. I especially liked some of the more ornate designs that these fabrics included this is why I chose to photo bash some of these gold textures onto my work. I chose to add a very ornate an distinctive headpiece not only to relate back to some of the ideas form my iterations but also to help support the overall silhouette of the character as I wanted her to be clearly identifiable. The images I chose and photo bashed I also hand painted over with a multiply layer in order to correct some of the shadows. Due to my time being very pressed I forgot to take some screenshots of my process step by step but I hope that my first screenshot shows how i went about doing this. I will need to better time manage in the future as I did get off to a shaky start with both the arena and the boss and I struggled coming up with ideas that I was happy with therefore I didn't have any string or clear images of what I wanted my aim to be until oi actually started constructing the final pieces. 

Here is my finished front and back 3/4 character design. this isn't my most favourite project I have ever done but I did spend a long time on it considering I didn't have much time left after spending so long on the arena part of my project. I am really pleased with some of the textures that are present on the fabrics as it does make my character look somewhat god like and ornate. I didn't want to make a scary boss but more of a beautiful one with a captivating back story as can be red in the little paragraph on the image above or on the PowerPoint. I think if I were to do this project again I would definitely add some more detailed drawings of the staff and maybe a direct back and side view just to make sure that the design was conveyed to a 3d artist clearly and accurately. I particularly like how the wings ended up looking. I played around quite a bit with layer effects and was able to paint on this molten looking effect using these layer types. I did really enjoy this project as I love coming up with concepts and narratives for characters and trying to work them into a possible game concept a long side. Overall I do think the character is relatively simplistic so maybe I could have incorporated more elements of the birds of prey that I researched into it.