Ruxandra's: October 2016

Monday 31 October 2016

Pumpkin contest

My entry for the Blizzard pumpkin contest.

It was a great tonality exercise

UPDATE:

I'm one of the 5 winners and I can't believe it!

So much excitement, definitely no sleep for me tonight!

Blizzard pumpkin contest winners

Saturday 22 October 2016

Mother nature - Shadow world: inspiration/research

It seems logical that in a world in which shadows can become dangerous, all bioluminescent life forms are greatly treasured. They must learn to work together with the tree creatures in order to survive.

Note: tree creatures are not the only ones affected by the wave of new life, but most plants and other beings too.

Inspiration for the new plant forms

Waitomo glow worm caves - New Zealand

Swee Cheng's luminous mushrooms

Glowing mushrooms

(thee creatures could grow them on their backs/arms)

Red Sea living polyps

Bioluminescent Jellyfish

(modified into a land life form and kept as pets by the tree creatures)

UPDATE:

Based on Caitlin's idea of a ram shaped earth golem I looked at golems everywhere (ex below) and could not think of a new way of making it different from all the ones I've seen. The group eventually decided to drop the idea, which I agreed with even though I was very fond of having an entire civilisation live on a moving city. The golem would take 1 step a day (due to its size), thus there was going to be an entire culture developed around that time of day when the creatures Caitlin wanted to introduce would have to follow a daily routine of preparing themselves for the "step earthquake".

Mother nature - Shadow World: tonality week

Given the task to draw out our characters in the environment they inhabit got me thinking of Caravaggio's theatrical paintings and the thing they were most famous for: use of chiaroscuro, which not only seems appropriate for the project, but necessary considering the shadow creatures.

My suggested story/ explanation:

The group liked the idea of the souls coming back themselves through the rip and spreading across Earth so I started working on it. I'm thinking of it as a gradual expansion of the shadows.

(Above - using Beata's tree designs)

(Below - using mine's)

As opposed to the traditional painting techniques of making the furthest points the darkest, I personally prefer the darkest elements in the foreground. I feel that it gives the scene a certain dramatic effect because the viewer seems to be placed in the shadows as well, creating tension, a creepy feeling of something lurking, prowling.

Example of dark foreground technique found across multiple mediums

Thomas Gainsborough

John Poon

Johannes Vermeer

(here we can clearly see the dark foreground framing the point of interest and guiding the eye towards it)

Dragon Ball Z

(here we have the darkest and brightest points in the foreground)

Samurai Jack

Slawek Fedorczuk
(artist recommended by Beata)

UPDATE 22/10/2016

More tonality work - details/ environment

Mother nature - Shadow World: more character design

In the end we decided to go with Beata's dynamic designs for tree creatures (above) and I insisted we do so because they are good shapes to work with.

Developing on her "bouncing tree concept" I made a few variations, starting with

dancing tree

Working on these short, stoutly trees got me thinking of opposite, the tall and gracious Baobabs of Africa, thus:

but then I wondered how such creatures would carry themselves and

what specific behavioural traits they would have

which got me thinking: how would they interact with the short trees?

and ended up with a musical sort of movement.

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Little exercise

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

Only after putting the images together I was able to observe the mistakes.

Note for self: Continue these exercises

Sunday 16 October 2016

Mother nature - Shadow World: making the characters

After numerous disastrous sketches I ended up with a couple of new tree-people concepts that carried out my initial suggestion of grassy legs/body parts that the group seemed to gladly want to add to our future designs:

Also, following Beata's impressive charcoal drawings for the shadow creatures, I tried out a few watercolour versions with the intention of finding a good dynamic shape

Beata's designs:

My take on her beautiful concepts

Cut-outs and ink

I chose watercolours for their versatile properties and the cut-outs for a different approach.
The shadows have no arms, but the ability to grow them when necessary.

UPDATE:
Picture of our latest chosen designs put together by Beata:

Corner-right Veronica's skecth, left side Beata's

Mother Nature - Shadow World: continuation

Upon taking inspiration from the realistic human looking designs of Maggie and Lauren, I sketched out a couple of different versions, adding my own take on it + grassy bodyparts for an element of quirkiness

Lauren's design

Maggie's design↓

My versions and development↓

I always believed that the Kazon from Star Trek looked like they had leafy heads, so I sketched it as an alternative to Lauren's sketch then made a few more humanoid versions

I looked at things like Z Nation zombies , fictional forest creatures by Aaron Blaise (elf and Forest Man ) and creatures from the amazing World of Warcraft game in which an entire zone is populated by zombie plant-creatures ( The Botani , Zombie Plant Orc , Thistleleaf Adventurer and the druid Tree Form)