Traditional Art

Material & Surface Texture

Submission Pieces

I might be a bit too critical on my outcomes when I am looking too close to my pieces and although this is good for growth, this can feel exhausting when I never give myself a break to celebrate the small wins. Despite not loving how the details have been executed and I have felt like my outcomes have been void of the clean, sharp edges and meticulous rendering that I am used to, I do like how the pieces look from afar. They read well and look far more exciting than the works I produced last year so it does show growth despite it not being linear. And I absolutely LOVE 12B pencils now. I didn't even know they existed. I will not be going back.

The Impact of Traditional Art aesthetics on Game art

BLOG TASK

ElvenRoad Town by Pablo Dominguez

After listening to 'The Impact of Traditional Art Aesthetics on Game Art' lecture, I chose to analyse this piece by concept artist Pablo Dominguez.

Starting off with first impressions, this environment looks incredibly inviting. The subtle golden glow radiating off of everything makes this town look rich and full of potential. If this were a setting in a game, players would definitely want to walk amidst these elegant buildings and interact with all the vehicles, animals, and shops nearby, so lets see how Dominguez did this by looking into his use of composition, texture, colour, contrast, and everything in between!

Pablo Dominguez' ArtStation: https://pablodominguez.artstation.com/

Artwork location: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/elLaZw

COMPOSITION + SHAPES

The first thing that stood out to me about this piece was the arrangement of the subjects. Unlike flashy splash art or dynamic promotional illustrations, this work uses a still, structured approach with a square / rectangular composition. As for framing the point of interest, this is not done using a rectangular composition, but rather a triangle. This triangular formation not only frames the character but also draws us deeper into the environment. It's like a massive arrow that points up, leading the viewer straight through the alleyway behind him. I believe this effect wouldn’t have been as successful if the character were looking directly at us. That would diminish the sense of mystery the piece builds, pulling our attention back to the figure instead of inviting us to explore what lies behind them. By avoiding direct eye contact, the piece keeps the focus on the world around the character, providing us with a longing to explore the scene

This has got to be the most dynamic one-point perspective piece I have ever seen! Despite the distant 'lens' - which keeps distortion and foreshortening to a minimum - the scene feels full of motion. The square, stable composition contrasts beautifully with the reoccurring circular shape language seen in all the assets of the scene. And on top of all that, a singular striking protagonist is drawn using only sharp triangles which clearly indicates the focus point of this piece. The motion of the dirt and the leading lines - drawn using the animals, vehicles and architecture - bring a sense of hustle and bustle to this scene which makes it difficult to not envision this still image in motion.

The recurring circular shapes are everywhere in this piece -- seen in the carriage wheels, the architectural curves of the roofs, and even the negative space formed by the horses. Everything builds into these soft, round shapes, except for the main character! He’s the only sharp, triangular figure in the scene, which makes him stand out so powerfully!!! I absolutely love this contrast! The use of geometry here is amazinggg, making him the clear focal point amidst all the organic forms

The point of interest (character & distant background) ONLY uses vertical lines. The foreground ONLY uses horizontal lines, and the midground uses a combination of the two to help transition between the spaces.

The use of horizontal and vertical lines help establish focal hierarchy and define spatial positioning.

On the right -> You can see a brief breakdown of the layers:

Peach: only uses vertical lines

Orange: only uses horizontal lines

White: uses both horizontal & vertical lines

This approach is very methodical and it aids in giving the protagonist even MORE contrast to it's surroundings

CONTRAST

Contrast! The protagonist elf holds the highest contrast in this piece (if you ignore that gorgeous bounce light radiating off of the cart on the right). His long coat captures some of the brightest highlights and casts the darkest shadows, creating the steepest transitions in value. This dark mass formed by his coat draws our eyes upward, leading directly to his arm, which then guides us to his face. Even his hairline and ears form an arrow that subtly points downwards, emphasizing his face as the focal point

COLOUR

^ Turned the illustration into a colour blend mode and had the layer under it be a grey canvas to only reveal the colours present.

Something I took away from today's lecture was the analysis of colour - specifically the symbolism of the colour brown. Before this lecture I hadn't really thought about the significance of brown, I had almost forgot that it was a colour choice at all. We’re often taught to think in terms of the colour wheel, which typically highlights only the most saturated forms of colour. For me, brown was always just a practical colour — something to use for hair, skin, or leather, not to drive an entire visual direction!

Of course, this piece doesn’t rely solely on brown; there are subtle uses of complementary colour combinations too — red and green, orange and blue — that help distinguish different material properties and define spatial positioning. For example, the red roof tiles contrast with the green foliage, while the blue aerial diffusion complements the orange tones of the ground. Despite this, these are still extremely subtle and dulled down and allows the earthy brown to do most of the heavy lifting.

This was incredibly insightful and made me realize just how focused I tend to be on saturated colours when choosing palettes for my own work. Saturated, bright colours aren't necessary to create a lively and vibrant atmosphere. In fact, the lack of saturation actually helps to make any vibrant colour look more impactful. Not only that, but using neutral colour palettes help ground fantastical scenes like these to provide a believable foundation. Once audiences connect with this relatable aspect of the world, they can then become more lenient to the crazy, fantastical ideas we want to present them with.

TEXTURE + PHOTOBASHING

I'm completely obsessed with the details and textures of these wheels with the subtle changes in hue. Makes it look almost like chocolate...

You can spot some photo-bashing techniques being used on this cart's textile roof cover. Photo-bashing has also probably been used for the wood textures and foliage - though these have been done incredibly well and seamlessly blends in with the artwork.

VISUAL STORYTELLING

This place is clearly well off, despite the layer of spraying dirt and a few entitled personalities. Something probably isn't all too well under the dusty shadows but this is exactly the kind of story telling visual works like these succeed with.... In terms of set dressing, .. they show enough of the beautiful architecture and inhabitants but they hide just enough for the viewer to want to explore more and get curious

the comedic use of the iconic carrot on a stick to incentivise a donkey to move forward. This is obviously not anywhere close to interesting the horses but it could be an indicator of what kind of vehicle they are on (sort of like a 'taxi' sign for travellers?)

More travellers?

This place is clearly well off with such advanced and decorative architecture. Feels almost like a combination between Art Nouveau and Brutalist architecture because of the use of organic shapes, lack of windows and the up-tight rustic materials.

Despite such advanced architecture, all the people shown in the scene look like nomads; either travelling or trading.

Line & Line-Weight

week 1 - Submission Piece

The goal for this task is to effectively depict three-dimensional form, distance, and perspective through the use of shapes, patterns and line weight. I chose this setup because I really liked the textures and patterns I could see here. Unfortunately, this lead me to ignore the composition.

I had a tendency of over scaling my subject. I often want to make it big enough to focus on the details and use long gestural strokes across the page but this was made difficult because of such a larger arrangement of items. Looking back at this piece after the session, I am wondering whether I made a good decision because the horizon line doesn't allow much interesting perspective to surface for me to make the most of. I probably chose the piece with the least perspective visibility. But I hadn't noticed this because all i was thinking about was which arrangement could be the most enjoyable to replicate abstractly. This was really tough. I was constantly having to prevent myself from rendering it normally to make way for abstraction and mark making. I didn't want to make any random lines without considering the form, lighting , and texture / material of the items so it was a very slow process where I had to think about the most fun ways I could visually represent material textures.

I was hesitant to start the 'rendering' because I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it. My lecturer helped by showing me some interesting ways to use pattern and line weight (seen on the left). I really liked how these look - they deviate from traditional rendering styles but still effectively convey texture and material.

Despite this, however, I eventually had to erase these parts from my piece because I struggled to replicate the techniques consistently, so the contrast between my lecturer’s feedback and my own rendering felt too jarring. Even so, I drew inspiration from these ideas, which influenced how I rendered the broccoli and fuzzy plants. I wish my work felt as confident as these examples but I’m glad I was able to incorporate some of their essence.

Reflection

First of all, I don’t think my composition is as appealing as I would have liked. There’s no convincing impression of lighting, and I failed to create a clear area of interest. Everything seems to share the same line weight and level of detail - which makes the piece feel too uniform and lack focus.

Did I enhance the shape of the objects? I think I partially achieved this - particularly with the leaves and the teapot - but I definitely didn’t succeed with the broccoli. The positioning of the items are too close to the bottom of the page, which diminishes any sense of distance, leaving the composition feeling flat. The patterns I used are also not dynamic and interesting.

Rendering the broccoli was especially frustrating, and I believe I could have done better with it and the tall vase. Overall, I’m not satisfied with the outcome. I struggled to continue this piece throughout the block because I didn’t enjoy the task. While I understand the value of practicing line weight and experimenting with rendering techniques, I just wasn’t interested in the subject matter I chose. This was partly due to the absence of perspective in the setup, as I was working at eye level, which limited opportunities for dynamic angles.

That said, there are aspects I like about this piece. For example, the leaves at the top left of the page are simple yet figurative, and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I also like the teapot, though I could have pushed the shadows and highlights further to make it feel more three-dimensional and believable.

In the future, I should revisit the task objectives more often throughout the process to remind myself of the key aspects to focus on - such as lighting, three-dimensionality, distance, and form. Writing these down as bullet points and keeping them somewhere I can easily access - like post-it notes - would help me stay on track and ensure I address them before calling a piece finished. This would also help keep momentum and not get stuck on wondering what to work on next.

If I were to redo this piece, firstly I would move the setup lower so that there is some foreshortening. I think that cutting out the long plants wasn't a bad decision because it keeps the viewer's eyes in the loop of the stocky items and the drooping tendril. The patterns on the vase and broccoli would also be a key area I would want to focus on.

Shape & Pattern

week 2 - Practice Session

Took a picture side by side because I just loved the colours in the setup. Very autumn-like. I think it would have been more fun to paint in colour that keep it in greyscale.

As you can see by comparing my study to the reference, I chose to group the scattered fruits closer together so that they would fit into the page better. I think this was the wrong decision, however, because The physical layout of these fruits are too separate, and different to easily identify what fruit is closer. Now that I'm looking at this again, I may have drawn the orange too close to the apple and pear and may want to edit this so that I extend the sense of dimension in the piece by having something further back than the large vase.

I cut off the dead bonsai's curled twig (which overlayed the vase) because I felt that it was distracting from the highlights of the vase and because I wasn't liking the line of action it was creating. I wanted the tree to have a strong 'line of action' so that my audience's attention isn't trapped within that tight loop.

Shape & Pattern

week 3 - Submission Piece

Thumbnail

Still Life

This assessable piece will be focusing on capturing the patterns of items. In the setup I am drawing, this should mean an effective execution and focus on the wicker basket pattern, painted pattern on the vase, and textures of all the flowers, fruits, bark, and cloth in the background.

Worked on the wicker weave, focusing on how each strand worked. Built rough values to the darkest pieces using the blunt side of my pencil. This lays down grain and noise which isn't always something I want for materials like the shiny surfaced vase, but this texture helps for the bark and the porous orange.

I would love to add a latger pot behined the one i have right now... the empty space leaves too much up for interpretation and makes it a little difficult to recognise depth.

I enjoyed working on the items on the ground. The leaf was quite fun to render as well but I was having difficulty with separating it from the bark because I wanted the leaf to be darker than the bark but it also had to cast shadow on the bark and cloth so the values where bleeding into one another. My lecturer showed me that I could simply make a gradient of values where on one side the bark was darker - the area in shadow - and on the other side, the leaf was darker. This is such a simple yet effective way of creating contrast and readability and I'm surprised I had forgotten that an Item doesn't have to have one distinct value all the way through, they can dip in and out, have imperfections etc.

The flowers were so intimidating. I didn't spend much time on them and relied solely on soft values and faint outlines for the petals. I darkened the background to get the white flowers to look paler and this worked but this still left the shading within the petals to be done. I went over them with light shading and outlines to give some indication of height in them but I think these could have been improved. As for the darker plants, I went over them so that they would be darker than the background. This made them look more like silhouettes of the plants. I'm not so happy with how they turned out but I was more interested in the white flowers and felt they should be more of the focus point of the piece so the dark plants can take a back seat.

Reflection

I have mixed feelings about this piece. I am quite happy with how I approached the textures of the items on the bottom of the page but I really dislike the way I rendered the flowers. Since this piece is meant to focus on pattern, I think the patterns seen on the vase and wicker basket are done quite well because it bends with the form and the patterns are quite consistent throughout. As for the fruits, I like how the bell pepper skin reads because the rendering suggests a uniform texture which bends light in interesting ways due to its organic, round body. I think the corn could have been executed better because there isn't any shiny surfaces suggested in my rendering, and the orange doesn't look like an orange because I lost the freckled spots when I tried to darken the shadows using cross hatching.

Material Properties

week 4 - Practice Session

I'm honestly not too proud of the work I produced in this lesson because I was fumbling over the ellipses and values and shadows. I was really interested in the sewing machine's handle and wheel and this shows because it is more confident than the rest of the study. As for the item above, I was fascinated with the reflective metal and the mesh texture in front of the blades but it was difficult to gauge out the mesh texture without a stiff, thin eraser. The reflective material could have also been improved with darker values.

Material Properties

week 5 - Submission Piece

In my practice session last week I was particularly intrigued by the sewing machine's spinning wheel mechanism and the handle. Because of this - and the fact that I had practice a part of it last week - I was really set on drawing the sewing machine for my submission piece this week to hopeful tackle the wheels successfully this time because I was unsatisfied with my last attempt. The second I arrived in class, however, all my attention was drawn to the new shinny item on the table: the scissors!!!!!! I was so happy to see these beautiful scissors in this setup so I knew I really wanted to get these right too.

Started off with volumetric boxes, trying to get the composition and perspective correct. I still have problems with over scaling because I want to give myself room to develop details but this sometimes gets too large and I end up going too close to the boarders. I then went over it all to refine the line art which describes the forms far better. I was mainly worried about getting the scissors and the wheels done well because they were my favourite point of interest in this setup.

I jumped straight into rendering the scissors. I lightly shaded everything in to make the workload look less intimidating, and started jumping around the page, rendering aspects I felt I could accomplish rather easily. The thread spool looked quite easy to accomplish because it can be rendered similar to hair.

Here I worked on the pattern of the sewing machine and the spinning wheels.

The amount of space I had to render the shiny reflections the scissors where casting on the table where cut short because I drew my study too large. This wasn't too much of a problem but I increased the amount of breathing room on by putting the photo through photoshop and enlarging the canvas.

Reflection

I'm quite satisfied with my outcome. I really enjoyed creating this piece because I loved the composition, perspective, items, patterns, textures, pretty much everything. So much so that I finished this piece before the other two submission pieces. The fact that the items also relate to one another makes this piece feel more significant that the last two pieces I did in this block. I barely used my mechanical pencils to finish this piece because I was either trying to get really dark tones down or really soft transitions - both of which a mechanical pencil fails to create easily. Because of this, edges seen in places like the sewing machine is quite fuzzy.

The easiest areas of this piece to complete where the thread spool, and scissors, whilst the most difficult areas where the odd screws and bolts seen at the foot of the sewing machine (which are tiny and insignificant but that is why they were difficult... mentally.. to focus on them)

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