“THE REMAINING” CONCEPT ART BOOK

DAVID KIRK BA HONS ANIMATION

YEAR 3

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

PROJECT INTRODUCTION

For my Final Major Project I created a concept art book, this is based in a

post-apocalyptic future. For the project I created a book that was set out

into chapters and containing silhouettes, speed paints and final concept

images on the following criteria’s:

• Humans characters – Hero and Soldier character

• Alien characters – featuring different variations

• Environments – set throughout the different timelines of the story.

Below shows a brief synopsis of the project:

The elements contained in the story allowed me to create a wide range of differing environment types, as the story develops over a long period of time during this allows for many different landscapes, the ones featured in the book range from tsunami, a city being attacked, dried up oceans and alien worlds.

CONCEPT ART BOOK RESEARCH

Before I started on any actual design or finished work for the project the first thing that I did was research concept art books. I looked at other artists and tried to find out what books they thought were the best examples. I found numerous websites and blogs that list “the top ten concept art books”. I purchased many of these as e-books and studied both the aesthetics and the content of the books. I paid particular interest to the books that were in a similar genre to mine. This included:

• The Last of Us • The Skillful Huntsman • Tomb Raider • Elysium • The Book of Eli

I then begin to create moodboards and reference folders from these books plus many more for the following categories:

• Environments – containing a mixture of post-apocalyptic and alien • Characters – containing survivor, soldier and alien • Weapons and vehicles – although work from this category did not

get used in the final art book.

ENVIRONMENT ART

“BIRD”

This was the first environment piece that I created for the project, I decided that I wanted to create something that immediately demonstrated the changes to the envirorment. Here a river/canal has become dry leaving a decaying boats in this boat graveyard, I also wanted to highlight some of the dangers of the environment to and so added a hyena, an animal notorious for it’s viciousness.

Technically this image was created in the following method:

• I created a rough thumbnail, experimenting with the composition until I had something where the focal points laid on the “rule of thirds” points.

• I combined numerous photographs together to create a photobase* • I then used a combination of photobash, overpainting and digital

painting to add the numerous elements to the image,. • I then painted a new colour palette into the image, using strong and

saturated yellows, oranges and browns • I used a very desaturated green for the plant life, this helps

emphasis how dry it is. • Refined and detailed until I had the completed image below.

“TSUNAMI”

This was the second environment image that I created for the project, whereas the previous had a very strong yellow colour palette I wanted to create something which contrasted. Here I created something that was very aqua blue in colour. In deciding the theme/content of the piece I imagined in what ways the earth might be inflicted with devastation when invaded. I had mentioned in the concept art book that the alien forces have technology to effect the environment; here they have created a tsunami. This image was created using a very similar process to the previous piece of artwork. The fire and the male character were late additions to the piece as I felt that it needed more interest points. The red/yellow of the fire adds a really nice contrast to the piece and makes the fire a strong focal point.

“SAFE HOUSE”

After creating the tsunami piece I pondered on where the hero character may live after the devastation had settled, I imagine that he would create some sort of safe house in the aftermath. Here the character has found one of the few remaining houses on the outskirts of the city. I included old cars, tyres etc. to show that the character has been collecting things to aid his survival.

This piece was created much in the same way as the previous; here I experimented with atmospheric fog to create a sense of distance between the house and the buildings in the background. This also served the dual purpose of “bringing out” the house and making it more of a focal point.

Finally I worked on the colour palette until I thought that it looked like an evolution of the previous piece. I then added the “help” sign in the distance to provide a further point of interest; I placed this on one of the “rule of third” points so that the audience were drawn to it. I added help signs and other elements suggesting other survivors in other pieces of art I created, this additional creates a theme that runs through the art.

“THE DEEP”

This piece served a dual purpose, initally I was considering what would be a good subject to create a desert piece around and I thought about the Deep. The Deep is so heavily associated with water, the sea and aquatic life that I thought that would contrast really effectively with the desert setting. I also created this piece as I thought it would engage my local audience using a distinct local landmark.

I started this piece by taking a photograph of the Deep, then in the same process as the majority of the environments that I create I began photobashing and overpainting. I used several elements that I had used on the previous desert style image, this helps imply that they are part of the same environment and timeline.

For anyone unfamilair with The Deep I also decided to add a few boats in the backrground, this would help demonstrate that this was once an area surrounded by water. Finally I added a decaying animal corpse into the bottom right corner, not only was this to provide another point of interest but also highlighting the harshness of the world.

“ALIEN CITY”

I wanted to make sure that my concept art book demonstrated a range of artwork and also showcased different skills, I decided that this could be best demonstrated by creating something totally contrasting to the previous pieces. I also decided to create this piece in a way different to the previous; this piece was developed by first using silhouettes. I made several custom brushes based on industrial looking shapes. I built up the environment using these silhouettes and then altered the values to give the piece some depth. I wanted a colour palette that was again different to the previous pieces further contrasting the different worlds. I used pinks and purples and created a starry sky, hinting at the fact that it is in space/alien. Once I was happy with the composition I rendered the image to the point you see below. I added the lights and the spacecraft to make the world look populated. I also added smoke to not only make the world look populated and “alive” but also separate the different layers of the city and add depth to the piece.

“ALIEN PYRAMIDS”

This piece was created as a way to explain the Aliens need to come to our planet, the reason being these pyramids utilize the power of the core of their planet, this becomes depleted and the planet “dies”. I created several rough versions of this piece before deciding on the version below, I have read numerous articles suggesting that ancient civilisations used pyramids as a form of energy producer, I felt like this was a good nod to that. I tried numerous colours for the beams of energy seen coming from the pyramids before deciding on pink as this links it to the previous alien image.

“HELP”

I wanted to create a piece where I had a character overlooking the desert environment, I had seen numerous pieces of art in which a character is stood on a cliff edge and so I decided to do my own version. This was another piece that went through numerous iterations before the final piece was created. Originally there was a UFO coming through the clouds before I decided that a shipwreck would better tie this to the previous desert piece. This has the dual effect of hinting that this was also once an ocean.

Finally the “help” was adding to provide another element of narrative, suggesting that there are other survivors in the world.

“SHIPWRECK”

When I created this I wanted to make something that was an extreme widescreen camera view, I have seen other concept artists create pieces in this format and I really like the aesthetic. This piece was created to be a “brother” of the previous one; it may even be the same ship. It was created in the same way as many of the other pieces so I won’t explain the process. In terms of adding a narrative to the image which is something I have been trying to do, the water near the ship suggests that this dried up ocean may be one of the few sources of water in this world and that makes this one of the central environments of the story. Also with the character stood on the car (possibly as a vantage point) suggesting that he has newly discovered it.

“ATTACKED”

I wanted to create something that linked the different parts of the narrative together, other than the tsunami there is little art showing the devastation in progress. Here the military are responding to some kind of attack by the enemy, here I researched tutorials on how to paint fire and smoke as the previous painting containing these I consider that element quite weak.

The piece was created in the same way as previous environments but with the smoke and fire all being painted with no textures. I also experimented with the motion blur tool to make the helicopter look as though they are flying away from the screen.

“PARK”

This was the penultimate environment created for the book; this was created with “The Last of Us” artwork as inspiration. I wanted this environment to be more narrative driven and so added a character searching with a torch as the focal point. For this piece I created several custom brushes that were used to create the foliage. Using a colour palette that is very similar to the “safe house” piece I tried to suggest that this is based in the same point of the timeline, also with their being lots of plant life it demonstrates that this definitely occurs before the “desert” images.

“CAR PARK”

As I mentioned in the comments about the previous piece I have really been inspired by the concept art of “The last of us”, I decided once again to create an environment that could be situated in both my story and also in “The last of us” world to.

Once again this was created in the same way as the other environments but I decided to use a more realistic colour palette. To link this image to the other story elements I added the words to the sign and also the graffiti, this implies that there are other survivors in this world and particularly this environment.

CHARACTER DESIGN

In the story the character gets ill from radiation poisoning, I decided that I wanted to demonstrate that decline within the character design. Below you can see how the character’s face slowly changes throughout the story.

I had previously relied heavily on my photobashing skills to create the environment art, with the character designs I decided that I would create these using far more digital painting and keeping photo textures to a minimum. To create the design below I painted a ruggedly handsome male face and then using reference painted it until it looked more ill. I made the skin more and more pale/grey, made the circles under the eyes gradually darker, the hair obviously slowly falls out and finally deep purple veins appear on the final design.

The most important part of this design was to effectively paint the skin, this required a lot of research and studying of tutorial videos.

CHARACTER EVOLUTION

During the story the characters appearance changes as the environment becomes more harsh, other survivors more violent and the radiation more deadly. I decided to create numerous versions of the character demonstrating this change. I used the moodboards that I had created previously and imagined what clothing and props he may wear as the story progesses.

The character gradually becomes dirtier, bloodier, and better prepared, collecting weapons and protective gear.

These designs where achieved mainly through digital painting and using photobash and photo textures as little as possible, to create the look of realistic skin and clothing I utilised several custom brushes and painting from reference.

ALIEN DESIGN

With the previous artwork I had utilised my favoured design process of designing/refining/creating spontaneously into Photoshop, Photoshop is such a versatile program and so it is incredibly easy to alter/amend and add to. This process worked very effectively for the previous work but with this subject matter I was far less confident and so decided to use a technique where the design was developed gradually and with more forethought. This process began with the silhouettes below.

I next took all my favourite elements from the different silhouettes and combined them into the one below. I also designed it in a three quarter view as this is more widely used in concept art as it communicates more about the design.

With this creature design I decided to concentrate purely on digital painting, unlike the environment art I intended to create this with no photos. I used a combination of custom brushes to slowly define the values and the forms of the character, then I used reference material of:

• Primates for muscles • Insects for face and exoskeleton style areas • Rhino, elephants as reference for the skin and skin folds.

I rendered the character until the level you see above, because in the story the aliens quickly evolve to the surroundings I decided that I would create several variations each with their own themes.

The first character below was based on a jungle/forest type setting, I wanted to make sure that all the creatures not only were different in colour but also had specific characteristics that had evolved. Here I used lizard reference to paint the sky of character one, I liked the idea of the alien becoming more lizard like and so I painted a large muscular tail, I created the tail in the same aesthetic as the arm and abdomen area so it looks so though the tail grew/evolved rather than appearing “stuck on”.

With the second character I wanted to create something that looked like it had evolved in the desert. I looked at reference of desert rocks and landscapes and painted it accordingly.

Finally the third character below was based on the idea of the alien living underground, here it no longer needs it eyes to see and relies on heightened other senses, thus the eyes have done and the horns on the face are so kind of sonar maker. When it came to colouring the character I wanted something that was different to the other two, I decided that in the dark it would not need colour and so decided to make it black, to add some interest I added a “lava” type pattern, not only does this make the character look far more interesting but it implies it can live very deep in the earths crust, near the lava.

Finally I created a version of the alien that contained my favourite parts of all the aliens.

CREATING THE BOOK

Once all the artwork for the book had been created I moved onto creating the front and back cover. I consider myself quite competent at creating good artwork and concept art but I am unfamiliar with creating book covers, I decided that before I even attempted this I would research the front covers of some popular concept art and “art of” books.

I noticed studying these covers that most (if not all) share some of the

following traits:

• A main character in the foreground, ranging from approximately a

quarter to half the space on the cover.

• The covers that contain a character in the foreground often have a

environment background, this is often desaturated and has some

atmospheric fog to separate the foreground and background

elements.

• The characters are typically in some kind of pose and not in the

middle of action.

• The title is simple and covers less than a quarter of the cover.

With these design elements in mind I decided to create my front cover, first I looked through my artwork to see if I had something in the same format (character foreground with an environment background), I had several but nothing that I thought would look be effective enough in what I was trying to achieve.

I decided to the most effective way to replicate what I saw on the front covers was to take several of my images and merge them together (below you can see the finished covers).

INSIDE PAGES

When creating the inner book I wanted to create the appearance of a book or a journal that one of the characters may have had, inside it he would have collected photos and made drawings, also included written notes of what he made have seen, I felt that this would be a great way to present the contents of the project.

To ensure that the pages didn’t look like “copy and paste” versions of each other I collect numerous different paper textures, made several different torn paper layer masks and finally collected many different shapes and sizes of ink splatter. You can see in the couple of images below that this creates some variety in the pages which I think is a more effective way of presenting them than having an identical background for each page.

Finally to complete the pages I needed to find an appropriate font, I wanted something that would match the rest of the aesthetic. I at first tried “grunge” textures however they proved too difficult to read and were often distracting, I then remember that I wanted to create the impression of a journal or diary by one of the characters. With this in mind I considered “handwritten” style fonts but decided that they would suffer from the same things as the grunge ones. After some pondering I came

up with the idea of typewriter fonts, they would be very legible, not too distracting and would also match the aesthetic that I was aiming for. I experimented with several different typewriting fonts before deciding on a military inspired one.