What to do
So, this is one of the mandatory assignments at school. Below you see the criterias for completing this.
So, this is one of the mandatory assignments at school. Below you see the criterias for completing this.
"Find a piece of text from a pre-1960 story about gangs.
Be influenced by this chosen text to design a character that looks part of a 'gang' of other characters.
Present your final character design in a model sheet.
Model a minimum of three accesories from your character design. One accessory must be footwear (or barefoot).
In the model sheet include renders of accesories ( 2d and 3d elements) and visualization of character analysis.
Complete a minimum of one (1) full colour hyper-linked reflective journal post with criteria outlined number 4 below and here."
Be influenced by this chosen text to design a character that looks part of a 'gang' of other characters.
Present your final character design in a model sheet.
Model a minimum of three accesories from your character design. One accessory must be footwear (or barefoot).
In the model sheet include renders of accesories ( 2d and 3d elements) and visualization of character analysis.
Complete a minimum of one (1) full colour hyper-linked reflective journal post with criteria outlined number 4 below and here."
Getting Started - The reference
Okay, it took me a while to get my ass in gear, lots of things to do, so little time to do it. So after realizing we were not to find a 1960's story but PRE-1960's story, I quickly searced around the wide web to find myself some decent reference material and text search. After a while I found a piece of text from the Eyrbyggje Saga, about a man called Ketil Flatnose. It appears this man was a Viking-Samii, or so it is believed. I found this a quite intriguing feature which I wanted to somehow have in my character. Ketil was also a great viking chieftain, whom had great victories in his time.
I also deciphered the project text in a perhaps a bit diffuse manner, in the way that we were to find a relation to a "gang". I interpreted this gang term in the way that allows for a bit broader view. Gang = A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. Which in my mind fits well for a bunch of vikings rampaging the seas.
This also triggered a small feeling that I perhaps wanted to have my character beeing the Unnamed source of these great victories, the reason why Ketil had the Gods on his side, or something in that direction. So from there on, it was decided he would be a Shaman of some kind.
Yeah... A VIKING-SAMII SHAMAN! And on top of that, make it anthromorphoric! Now theres a character for ya!
Biting off to much, you say...?
I have to admit, yes, I did. Anthro is HARD to get right. Especially added my slowness in getting started on this. I have drawn a lot, but not so much this kind of anthro stylized stile. I would have usually spent a lot more time researching into it, drawn the skeleton of it, figuring out better how this character would actually move, and how things should relate.
Okay, it took me a while to get my ass in gear, lots of things to do, so little time to do it. So after realizing we were not to find a 1960's story but PRE-1960's story, I quickly searced around the wide web to find myself some decent reference material and text search. After a while I found a piece of text from the Eyrbyggje Saga, about a man called Ketil Flatnose. It appears this man was a Viking-Samii, or so it is believed. I found this a quite intriguing feature which I wanted to somehow have in my character. Ketil was also a great viking chieftain, whom had great victories in his time.
I also deciphered the project text in a perhaps a bit diffuse manner, in the way that we were to find a relation to a "gang". I interpreted this gang term in the way that allows for a bit broader view. Gang = A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. Which in my mind fits well for a bunch of vikings rampaging the seas.
This also triggered a small feeling that I perhaps wanted to have my character beeing the Unnamed source of these great victories, the reason why Ketil had the Gods on his side, or something in that direction. So from there on, it was decided he would be a Shaman of some kind.
Yeah... A VIKING-SAMII SHAMAN! And on top of that, make it anthromorphoric! Now theres a character for ya!
Biting off to much, you say...?
I have to admit, yes, I did. Anthro is HARD to get right. Especially added my slowness in getting started on this. I have drawn a lot, but not so much this kind of anthro stylized stile. I would have usually spent a lot more time researching into it, drawn the skeleton of it, figuring out better how this character would actually move, and how things should relate.
Sketching
So after the research comes the sketching.
And sketching it was done.
This is two of the first tests to check my direction as to where I wanted to take this. I knew I wanted this Anthro Viking-Samii Shaman, the next issue was to decide what animal to go for. And for this, I "naturally" decided upon the Norwegian reindeer. Could have gone for something like a wolf or a weasel or something, but I felt the reindeer look would be more cool and apropriate. I wanted to have a dark and mysterious feel to him, an aged look if you will. This did not translate to well to the final piece, as he looks much younger than I wanted to.
Regarding the first sketch there you can see the kind of darkend eye area/glowy eyes and bent over hunchy back, I kinda liked. Wanted to keep this feel, though it did not make it all the way.
So after the research comes the sketching.
And sketching it was done.
This is two of the first tests to check my direction as to where I wanted to take this. I knew I wanted this Anthro Viking-Samii Shaman, the next issue was to decide what animal to go for. And for this, I "naturally" decided upon the Norwegian reindeer. Could have gone for something like a wolf or a weasel or something, but I felt the reindeer look would be more cool and apropriate. I wanted to have a dark and mysterious feel to him, an aged look if you will. This did not translate to well to the final piece, as he looks much younger than I wanted to.
Regarding the first sketch there you can see the kind of darkend eye area/glowy eyes and bent over hunchy back, I kinda liked. Wanted to keep this feel, though it did not make it all the way.
I had a few more like this, but seeing as it is just more of the same they have been deleted and drawn over and cropped out and such.
Now, after a 4k x 4k sketching round, drawing sillouettes in different poses, this one here was the one that stuck out a bit and required further investigation. So a little light here, and a little dark there, voila, the second workable sketch is done.
Further refining of the body. Trying to decide what to put in his hands, if any. What should he be wielding? A big axe, a drum and drumstick, like shamans have. Or sumthing else?
At this point in the drawing I felt I was doing pretty good.
At this point in the drawing I felt I was doing pretty good.
Then Fusdahl did this, and I had to rethink my design a little. I have to thank him for going very far to show the things he ment could be better, and so they did.
So after combining my own and Fusdahl's redlining and lightshading, the above image is what resulted.
Now, after many an hour, and way too much time spent shading JUST the body itself, I came to this result. I think it looks pretty damn cool, though it still needs much more work, and it will be taken a step further to full completion after ended Project.
So the time came to figure out what type of clothing to give him, something I should have started out with in the first place, but hey.. I kinda got cought up in the rendering of the main body :)
In the first picture you can se the more of a shaman type of an outfit, which also was my intended first choise. I really liked a lot of the reference I found for this, and especially this outfit, of a traditional Noaidi samii-shaman. The amount of detail is amazing and I just love it.
The second picture shows more of a armour kinda setup. I like to try find different clothing setups for my drawings, and doing small sketch overlays like this can be really fun. I did not feel the armour feel would be suitable though, for this character.
The third picture represents more the traditional samii outfit, not sure how old this style of clothing is though, but I felt I needed to try it out, just ot see.
All in all, the one with the better feel was the first one, and below you can see my progress after many more hours fiddelling in the clothing layer.
In the first picture you can se the more of a shaman type of an outfit, which also was my intended first choise. I really liked a lot of the reference I found for this, and especially this outfit, of a traditional Noaidi samii-shaman. The amount of detail is amazing and I just love it.
The second picture shows more of a armour kinda setup. I like to try find different clothing setups for my drawings, and doing small sketch overlays like this can be really fun. I did not feel the armour feel would be suitable though, for this character.
The third picture represents more the traditional samii outfit, not sure how old this style of clothing is though, but I felt I needed to try it out, just ot see.
All in all, the one with the better feel was the first one, and below you can see my progress after many more hours fiddelling in the clothing layer.
Starting to see some clothing coming to life here. Though this style of going forward as I have chosen, is kinda a pain in the ass, as you have to design your clothing over something you may have spent way more hours on than you should... Nevertheless, this way is great if you have lots of time to spend, as you get a better idea of what is underlying the clothes, and how things should shape because of it.
So there you are, above you see the finished piece, well, atleast as finished as I can say I am for this projects deadline.
First one is the "nude".
Second is the "nude" with clothes sketch overlayed.
Third is the finished piece.
Fourth is the finished with clothes sketch overlayed.
As is obvious from looking on it, there is no colour on this piece. Also the side and front looks terrible (imo). But they are there, though I see I should have made a back view too...
First one is the "nude".
Second is the "nude" with clothes sketch overlayed.
Third is the finished piece.
Fourth is the finished with clothes sketch overlayed.
As is obvious from looking on it, there is no colour on this piece. Also the side and front looks terrible (imo). But they are there, though I see I should have made a back view too...
I realize there is missing a few elements to this project, that I never got to start, and thats the 3D elements of it. I just want to say that these elements were thought of, and not forgotten. I had a few ideas for what to make, and amongst those were the traditional drum and drumstick of shaman practitioners. Also some weaponry like sword/axe variations, pouches and more.
Conclusion:
To conclude this journal entry, I am going to reflect a bit upon my work here. Which is going to be short and clear.
I failed. I failed to finish the required amount of work needed to pass. I have learned not to overestimate my own speed of drawing. And I have learned that I still have much more to learn..
In the end, I must say I have worked hard on getting this this far, I would estimate a good 50 - 60 hours labour has been put into it in total, counting research and sketching/rendering and so forth. But due to my own misjudgement of time, it seems this was not enough.
I probably should have gone for a much cleaner and "easier" way of drawing this, but whats done is done, and what has been done I am pretty pleased with, and something I will continue work on for a while to come. It may also be that this creature may see itself turn 3D one day, as I think he could become a very cool character done in 3 dimensions.
Im not sure what more I can say about this subject now, been a few days of sleepdeprevation, so therefore I call it done here, move on and say bring on the next assignment!
To conclude this journal entry, I am going to reflect a bit upon my work here. Which is going to be short and clear.
I failed. I failed to finish the required amount of work needed to pass. I have learned not to overestimate my own speed of drawing. And I have learned that I still have much more to learn..
In the end, I must say I have worked hard on getting this this far, I would estimate a good 50 - 60 hours labour has been put into it in total, counting research and sketching/rendering and so forth. But due to my own misjudgement of time, it seems this was not enough.
I probably should have gone for a much cleaner and "easier" way of drawing this, but whats done is done, and what has been done I am pretty pleased with, and something I will continue work on for a while to come. It may also be that this creature may see itself turn 3D one day, as I think he could become a very cool character done in 3 dimensions.
Im not sure what more I can say about this subject now, been a few days of sleepdeprevation, so therefore I call it done here, move on and say bring on the next assignment!