Bi-weekly (ish) update - Progress and directions

 Another blog post to inform on where my current projects are at and what directions I am heading in with moving forward with designs, game projects, and final deliverables alongside reacting to feedback and discussions from tutors, peers, and industry professionals as well as specific research and observations made in line with the subject matter and audience tied to my learning agreements and projects as a whole.

Teaching and Peer Reviews

Whilst developing work for this MA degree I have also started a position as a volunteer assistant lecturer, helping assist with two separate classes on the undergraduate degree both dealing with concept art in some capacity. A first-year class that initially taught the fundamentals of concept art design looking at topics such as; shape and form, light and shadow, and textures. Now moving onto modules that rely on knowledge of these fundamentals to develop work within a particular brief with an example being the production of a series of potion bottles with a relatable theme (i.e healing/poison/health extending or water-breathing/amphibious transformation/water control). Also a second-year class with the aim of creating a character design sheet for a new character that can visually fit into an already existing IP, the sheet consisting of a dynamically posed character, a front/side/back orthographic view, and a set of props or artifacts that clearly identify the role of the character within the game of the IP. This new position has increased my own development of critical analysis within my own work as well as allowing me to receive informed constructive criticism from the professionals who lead these lessons, through observations and discussions of my project and sketchbook offering me possible leads for further research. One idea was to hold semi-structured interviews with neurodivergent students and staff to ascertain new more informed perspectives when it comes to viewing cognitive disorders from those who suffer or care for such an individual to strengthen my own knowledge from just medical journals and documentation. I was also offered already published artbooks and concept artists that produced work in line with monster and creature design that could potentially answer some questions I may have about my own process and production of designs and final deliverables. 

           

The first book example I wish to display is the 'Sticky Monsters' by John Kenn Mortensen. The simple piece of text can offer insight into the potential audience and subject matter of these particular creatures. Having worked in kids' television and as a father to twins it can be inferred that if there were a set target audience for these concepts it would be a project for a younger audience and therefore no deep hidden message or subject matter would be attached, further evidenced by the canvas of sticky notes for the illustrations with Mortensen noting that they were produced with what little spare time and available supplies they had. However, the tone of the work and linework implemented showcase a darker style similar to some of my older work and a potential avenue for my own final pieces of this project though it may not be as easily translatable with my own shape, form, and necessity for realistic detail. Especially when paired with later notes from discussions during my lectures about the style and aesthetic of my creatures.

A second art book dealing with creature design is "The Bird King and Other Sketches" by Shaun Tan. Again the form and use of curved lines, and circular round shapes suggest a younger audience or at the very least less malicious creatures. There is a dream-like quality to the concepts too (I feel this style is reminiscent of the work of Jean James), which is relevant for fictional creatures based on non-realistic thoughts and functions and would not be viable as a form of visual research for my own project with its sensitive subject matter and my own preference for realism, the sketchy quality to the art does allow me the permission to have this level of finish present within my own book to some extent - the concept art book I aim to produce is supposed to be for a video game so perhaps a higher level of finish and quality for final creature designs is necessary to fit to the criteria of being a believable end product.

The final book I was informed of was "The Hidden World of Creatura" by Stephanie Brookes. This is much more in line with what I believe the process of creature design should be when envisioning fictional beasts that have a design informed by real-world animals and similar to an already researched set of books by Terryl Whitlatch, the understanding of anatomy and musculature as well as the transparency of displaying the process of design and iterative artworks, a nice mixture of sketch work and thumbnails processed up to a high level of digital finished quality. The only separation from my own project and this is the end product with which the book is paired and the subject matter of said product is a guideline with which my artwork is tailored.

All of these books were welcome pieces of reference that allowed me a greater understanding of where I wanted my work to sit within a plethora of possibilities when it comes to producing a book containing creature designs and concepts, and an advantage of working within a team of creatives that has allowed me to observe the possible discussions that take place within a concept art team.

Through this position, I was also able to attend a conference talk held by the screenwriting course leader Tom O'Boyle with the guest speaker being Col Price, a renowned concept artist who has worked in both film, television, and games industries on projects such as; Alien: Romulus, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Dune II, The Meg 2, and Master of the Air. In Contrast to observing concept art books and social media platforms designed around the dissemination of artworks and methodologies, this talk enabled me to gain an understanding of what pathways are attainable through concept art as well as where the industry is at right now. Price detailed his own timeline of professional development, highlighting projects and studios he worked with, showcasing his process of digital art painting over 3D-constructed scenes to efficiently produce high-quality concepts to directors and producers with the caveat of being easily editable and tailored to the constructive criticism received. The key takeaways for me as a predominantly traditional artist were; the necessity to gain further knowledge and experience with digital software not to overtake my traditional style but to complement and speed up my processes, make myself visible on as many forms of outreach as possible (via multiple social media platforms, postal work to professional studios and artists) ignoring the number of interactions as ego inflation but intending to make my work seen by larger numbers to open more doors, and finally the importance of how you portray yourself and your artwork to others by contribution and professionalism being key to having your name and work shown in conversations your not involved in allowing you to gain a positive reputation followed by more opportunities but not to let go of what your entitled to as a human such as the need for a good work/life balance since a happy human makes their best work.

Sketchbook work and progress

After struggling through decisions and processes during the development of the Kleptomania disorder creature, the features representing symptoms whilst also being derivative of real-world animal anatomy/features I have continued to push forward with the design through my sketchbook. Some days I feel less restricted and give myself permission to have more fun with the design process, informed by previous research which can lead to great design work and thorough progress yet other times the design becomes less realistically based and I have to reign myself in and this restrictive treatment can block progress from being as fast-paced. I have to continue to reiterate the notion of function-leading form and attentive decision-making for the process to work with such a subject matter to craft successful results.

After moving from enlarged octopus and squid ideas to an arachnid/hermit crab hybrid I began to imagine the creature without a shell - still with the previously blogged idea of limbs grafted onto itself so joints would be unusually attached in a grotesque manner, I particularly enjoyed observing howler monkeys and other primates that extended gums beyond the lips when baring their fangs in a show of aggression. The reason they do this is not a representation I wish the design to align with since Kleptomaniacs never act out of this emotion but merely an anatomical expulsion of disgust with themselves and the part of them that gives in to the disorder - hence a tentacle within the mouth not used to feed as this would imply that eating was theft, food being a need and Kleptomaniacs do not steal things they desire or need. Think more of this action like the vomiting of poison/foreign bodies similar to how some sharks can do to avoid the ill effects of the objects ingested. On this page, I also experimented with various tones of red my initially attributed colour to this creature though nothing is set in stone.

To take my mind away from the struggles I was having with this design, whilst also progressing with the project I began to look at the production of the concept art book specifically the format and composition of pages and creature sections. Since deciding on the format of my final deliverable I have envisioned the pages with an affinity for Greek themes and patterns, not to inform any of the design processes of the creatures as there are already enough variables when it comes to that process, but simply to have a definitive concept with which to brand the project throughout the final deliverable, it will allow me to keep a consistent theme and sense of unity throughout all the creatures within the book as well as possibly give some sense of background to the narrative designs for the text and story of the character creating this work if I am to continue with the idea of this being an artist journal for a character observing these characters in their natural habitat. I initially chose this particular style and theme due to my knowledge of a lot of psychology and philosophy stemming from the writings of historical professionals such as Plato and Aristotle alongside the narrative myths describing fantastical creatures such as the cyclops, sirens, and Kraken coming from Greek lore such as the Odessy and Iliad by Homer.

I continued to develop this creature in line with primate features whilst pushing the design into sinister aesthetics to display the monstrous qualities of the symptoms upon the individual, swapping the shell for an enlarged parasitic fungus that grows from being fed all sorts of compostable debris picked up by the tentacled limbs as the creature traverses its environment as a form of hoarding. The growth of the fungus would display how large the problem of the disorder has become for each creature as well as being a common theme for all disorders within the field of compulsive behaviours - a symbiotic relationship between a host and its parasitic companion. However, there were some concerns over my designs and styles within this creature design process that were brought up during my most recent lecture.

Lectures and tutor discussions

Several concerns over my designs were voiced during my latest meeting with my tutors on this course, though I am not entirely sure how they came to be after I assumed previous meetings had resolved these, though a plan has been laid out to quell these concerns going forward for all future designs. 

The first concern was that my designs were too cute in form, not appearing sinister enough for the player to easily distinguish them as an opponent let alone a formidable adversary. Also, there was a fear that there was no separation between symptoms and perceptions. Though most recent designs have alleviated these fears to some extent. I reiterated that this was an issue we had discussed already, and so as to not repeat this issue, I had integrated the research of symptoms and perceptions as two separate lists as a preliminary step in the design process so as to not include any representative features from perceptions into the design. The only reason that I had kept the 'cute' variant of generalised anxiety disorder was to showcase the human impact on the creatures to represent the negative outcomes from relying on human perceptions of disorder sufferers to form a view rather than separating the symptoms from the individual. A domesticated version of the creature is forced to fit the humans' needs rather than allowing them to understand the horrific monsters the creatures/symptoms are once separated from the individual which would allow for more empathy toward the individual.

The second concern was how well-styled some versions of the creatures are in contrast to others in particular the following two images;

The main goal for this image was to show energy in movement, the rapid removal of the tentacle from the mouth to the point that the teeth are forced beyond the lips to an almost alien extent.

Less referential material is used here and not only does it show but I also annotate how I am veering away from realism with this design, I was attempting to experiment with stitched-together limbs with even more eyes upon a leech-like creature even going as far as having multiple bicep/tricep structures attached between the elbow and deltoid joints. It illustrates my own mistakes as a concept artist and creature designer.

The top image has a higher quality of line and form, looks more sinister, and is less cartoony than the bottom one. My own personal reasoning for this is one of the images was produced with reference material on hand to make an accurate observational form, had more time spent on it to reach a higher quality, and was produced with the intent for it to be a piece of art towards the end of a disorder creature section. By this, I mean in the book each section will move from thumbnail sketches through experimental processes to final high-quality end designs. The narrative to go alongside this is that the fictional author of the book will be producing thumbnails based solely on word of mouth or rumors as to what the appearance of the creature is, as they gain more informed descriptions and eventually witness the creature the artwork will grow in both quality and accuracy - this was a purposeful choice when it came to incorporating as much of my sketchbook work in the final deliverable as possible to produce a concept art book that blended the styles of both 'The Skillful Huntsman' and 'The Elder Scrolls Online Art Book'. It allows me to produce a book with the transparency I desire to inform potential concept artists of my methodology, gives depth of informed design practice to fans of the potential game, and details how gaining knowledge on the symptoms allows for a deeper informed perspective on the disorders and the pitfalls of relying on secondary or tertiary sources of information when it comes to cognitive disorders through the narrative design. The weaker images are simply part of the refining process, as well as showcasing my own mistakes of designing without enough reference imagery and should be, in my own opinion, showcased equally to the final artwork to display the process. An agreed-upon plan to fully realise this idea and format to my tutors is to fully realise the pages for one of these creatures (I have chosen to finalise Dermatillomania as it is near completion and doesn't have a 'cute' domesticated variant)  to allow my tutors to observe how my process would be showcased through this unique format whilst also assisting me with the development of more successful creature designs in a more efficient method. I was reminded that developing 20 creatures by August is going to be a big ask, I agree and don't intend to produce that many unless the method is improved to such an efficient way that this is a plausible result, I may not have continued to inform my lecturers of the extra artifacts that will be presented within the concept art books such as objects produced from materials gained from defeated creatures - these would increase the page count per creature to a point unachievable by the Bookwright standards on their project page or financially viable to publish for a final deliverable or conceivable audience to buy. My original concept of page count per creature when experimenting with book structure and format is anywhere between 10-20 pages per creature, if I pushed myself to 20 creatures the outcome would be a book consisting of 200-400 pages. Again developing the fully realised pages for the Dermatillomania creature would showcase this issue to my lecturers as well as allow me to formulate further plans to resolve this potential issue.

A final conversation was had about my most recent marks, particularly detailing avenues to explore to potentially increase them for next time, not my initial intent for the conversation as I was seeking information on how I had achieved a score as high as I did though definitely welcome as I will always welcome information on areas for improvement. I was informed that during my research I could objectively look at research that suggests the negative impacts of developing such a project rather than solely understanding the potential positive aspects of it if there are negative possibilities then how can they be remedied, resolved, or avoided entirely.

Concept art book development progress

This is another avenue of creative development that can be interspersed between creature designs when I need to step away from the process for one reason or another, as displayed previously to remove myself from a struggling moment to allow me to maintain momentum. I have already shown my initial experimentation of themes and symbology/patterns that could be included within the branding format for the book and now I can push these forward with further experimentation and digital editing. If I am to continue with a Greek style, the pages should emulate this with a papyrus quality to the appearance. This isn't an exact texture I can replicate through publishing with Bookwright, the hand-pressed paper has a lovely texture and quality to it but unless I were to make the book myself this isn't feasible so I will experiment with methods to give an appearance of this texture as if the fictional author of the book was producing the artwork on this sort of parchment - not to make the theme seem mythological (the symptoms are very much real) but to add a sense of history and aged knowledge as a foundation with which this project is built upon akin to the aged tomes of law books from years prior. I intend on replicating some of the patterns already sketched out in previous experimentation with linocuts to also allude to this traditional printmaking method - these purposefully chosen methods of format and design will lend themselves to my own traditional mediums and art-making processes as opposed to more digital options.