Vehicle project

For my vehicle project I decided to design a high-end nightclub boat that would take its passengers up and down some of the most beautiful rivers in the world

I first started out by doing some quick sketches and photo shop design ideas using the silhouette method. Then came the process of designing ideas, joining those ideas and finally refinement.

After I chose my final idea I went into, and design ideas for the paint scheme and material choices.

Storyboarding helped my ideas developed and helped me identify some of the flaws within my design. One of the main issues was that I was going to have a glass back to the boat. This is not a good idea because you would be able to see all the cables and joining sections, which would then make it ugly and pointless.

I want to come back to this project to tighten and improve the design and to think more about how it would work and how it would be built.

Leicester city painting

This week I've been during scenes of buildings around Leicester.

I have drawn 12 prep sketches and have found a building I really like due to the lighting when I was there and the large panes of glass that surround the restaurant. Also the building from a certain angle reminded me of Edward Hopper's painting called nighthawks. So I decided to do a digital painting for my final.

The Nighthawks painting has influenced a lot of people, Ridley Scott has said “I was constantly waving a reproduction of this painting under the noses of the production team to illustrate the look and the mood I was after”. When he was directing the film Blade Runner. Also the painting was recreated in the style of The Simpsons for one of their episodes called Homer versus the 18th Amendment.

Here is the final outcome of my painting. the left-hand side of the image resembles the Nighthawks and is very empty, this forces the viewer’s eyes onto the focal point of the image. The focal point being the restaurant, I would like to add some characters into the scene as it would give the painting some life.

Task 15 - Visual composition

Visual composition is, at its most basic the arrangement of elements within an image according to established art principles. Understanding these principles and being able to use them correctly is a key element in developing your professional skill level. For this blog post about visual composition I am reviewing it as a result of a very helpful industry took/workshop.

Visual composition is a key principle that needs to be correct and present in every image that we create. In the past I would just point and click with my camera not thinking about how the image would look if I took the photo from another angle or position. Also when I used to draw seems I didn't think about the points of interest or even vanishing points.

Since being a university I have learned to think more about my sketches since learning the principles and the skills of drawing. The principles of organisation; as an artist I need to decide where my centre/focus points should be in my image. I have to decide where the eyes look around the image. I do this by placing objects in certain places: I can change the feel of an image with a simple change of the viewpoint.

Here is a list of some of the principles of organisation:

·         negative space

·         colour

·         cropping of an image

·         shape and proportion

·         positioning/orientation/balance

·         the contrast

·         lighting

·         perspective

·         lines

·         geometry

·         Harmony

·         Rhythm

The negative and positive space should balance each other out. Negative space is commonly seen as a black background like in this image.

The colour theory is very important in visual composition because if you get the colour wrong it can throw and overpower the overall image off.

The rules of thirds is where you divide the image into three sections wide and three sections in height using these guidelines you can create a pleasing image by moving the horizon line to one of the gridlines also meeting key aspects into the bottom left that creating spiral effect.

Being human we have a certain curiosity with other people. So in this photo everybody's eyes would go straight to the people. Faces and particularly the eyes will pull the viewer’s gaze in more.

Sharp areas will draw the viewer's eyes in over the out of focus areas. This is these same with diagonal lines as they are more of fierce than the horizontal lines. The diagonal line can be strong or weak, with a stronger line the image would be more dramatic and dynamic also the diagonal line takes the views I straight to a specific point of view. This is quite forceful and as I've said dynamic. Using a C or S line can take the viewers are you around an image deselected areas.

In mathematics and the arts, to quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci used the golden ratio in his paintings but there have not been any recorded evidence. When looking at the Mona Lisa it is being suggested that the proportions use the golden ratio.

Task 14 Planing and Concepting

I’m re-visiting some of my early blogs due to a very helpful industry talk/workshop.

During this blog I’m going to be talking about planning and concepting in this blog post and how I go from initial ideas to final products. I didn’t get taught that many techniques or methods to get to a final piece, until I came to university. I would sketch out lots of ideas really small and quick so I can combine and further my ideas till I would come up with a really solid design.

I used to take life drawing classes out of school and I used to draw blind and also draw whilst not looking at the paper this helps you with hand to eye co-ordination and also can then further the speed of you jotting your ideas onto paper.

Since being at university I have learnt a number of different methods. This past week I have learnt a number of small tricks as well, due to a great workshop from a lead concept artist and a senior concept artist. Most of the techniques I have seen or used before but forgotten how helpful they are. One of these methods is called the silhouette method here is what it looks like.

    

I have used this method because it is very quick and you can jot your ideas down straight away. Also you can then use a layer mask to add detail to the specififc ideas that you will then choose to futher concept.

Here are five enhanced versions of my very simple designs for my reef characters project. As you can see it is very rough but its not supposed to be a polished piece yet at this point as im still working on the outfits and I might have a change of heart and decide to blend to outfits.

I would then complete a final design and put my final idea into storyboards so I could show how my idea would look in certain environments. Before going into photoshop I would do really quick tumbnail sketches that would literally be only for my eyes just to understand some quick compositions and where certain main objects should be in the scene. After this I will do a larger thumbnail and using markers and biros to produce some tonal values and some simply lighting. Then I would choose to do some quick black and white scenes as you can set your tones and values really quickly and have an overall working image. Also a good tip I have picked up is only to use stock brushes and mainly the round brush for doing quick photoshop paints.

I find if you do not plan or go through cerntain thought proceses and methods you will not reach a consise and well thought out final product. So I tend to set myself a certain amount of time for each process so I can spend my time the most afficiantly.

For some quick environment work we got taught to use 3dsmax to create a 3d alley way, we then took certain renders i.e. z depth and group mask to help with our digital painting in photoshop. We used a mixture of textures and handpainting to create a dark mysterious alley. The talk/ workshop was very helpful and im glad we had it and its thanks to our course that we have been given all these opportunities to meet industry workers and gain valuable knowledge.

Task 13 Personal reveiw 2

Last year I didn’t have a plan for my work, I managed to complete all my work on time but I felt with a schedule I could have produced more work or refined my final pieces more. So this year my aim is to have a schedule or plan so that I can a lot my time wisely and produce work of my highest standard. I am going to make a diary of my week so I can see where I am loosing hours where I could be making use of them, I will then make my schedule based on the diary.

I am planning to learn how to use Z brush properly as I have only just got it and need to wrap my head around the new programme. I would like to become proficient at Z brush because I have seen a lot of very nice models when other students have used the software and I think it will enhance my models.

Another ambition of mine is too work more in the set holidays we have. I know I lacked the insight of how it could have helped me and over the holidays I wasn’t working every day. Whereas now I’m setting myself an aim to do work over the holidays.

This week I have used my time well and managed to produce 5 acrylic paints that I’m really proud of I sat and painted for over 5 hours it was great to do as I am and have been a very fidgety person. I find it hard to focus on certain things (like writing my blogs) and I get distracted very easily so I am trying to find ways around these issues. One way is listening to music this sounds weird but I find I focus more with music noise in the background my dad is this way to but my mum is the opposite she has to work in complete silence. I will tend to listen to music of this nature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnAWn8dHvAc&feature=BFa&list=FLydWEz-paO64ujojyHqxNUg&lf=mh_lolz . Another way is that I’m having help from the 1:1 support at dmu, hopefully they can help me concentrate and help me think of new strategies when I’m writing my blogs.

 Purposeful learning is learning from experience, whether that is the experience of a meeting, a project, a disaster, a success, or any other internal or external event.

Academic foundations helps the student get ready for the next phase of learning and also progresses’ what they have learnt from the first phase.

Autonomous learning helps the student develop their self-consciousness, vision, practicality and freedom of discussion.

The first year was all about learning the basics of 3ds max, Photoshop and traditional skills now as we progress into the second year we will put the skills into practice and find out new process and techniques to complete the briefs we get given. We will also have to learn to work within a group as we will have a group project towards the end of the year.