Digital Art

Week 1

Introduction to the Brief:

In block 2's digital brief, we've been handed a variety of options to pursue appealing to both character and environment/prop artists. The overall theme consists of using the photo bashing process to create something using insectoid features and surfaces. The concept is super flexible and can be stretched based on our creative intuition, as long as we stick to the fundamental requirements, certain features don't even need to be insectoid to be photo-bashed in!

Significant Dates:

Start date: Week 9, Nov 27th
Formative feedback: Week 17, Jan 22nd
Submission: Week 18, Jan 30th

As a character artist, I had a choice between two briefs and gravitated towards "Bug Sports". I imagine that building upon the foundation of an existing sport and transforming it into something abstract and fantastical could be a great experience! I'd have lots of choices in terms of sport and the opportunity to observe its necessary gear and equipment would be convenient for me, thanks to online shops, etc.

This brief and the bug concept definitely brings up the opportunity for some slightly grotesque and sturdy, armoured designs but I want to convey the elegance of figure skating through the feminine, majestic appearance of bugs that utilise resplendent pigments on their bodies for survival. I believe I can translate the complexity of bug patterns into a graeful leotard that reflects the visual factor to performance sports such as figure skating; most of the design would be in the bug-made patterns, complemented by sleekness that emboldens the silhouette and highlights the elegance of the skater, and the way their body has adapted to the sport with strong legs and a toned body.

The sketch above was my very first idea put to paper before I explore the concepts and iterative designs with mood boards and other forms of idea generation; this doodle acts as my vision while I dive deeper into the function and extracted ideas in research.

I desired conveying this abstract concept through a clearly unnatural skin colour, as parts will be exposed in the sleek, lightweight outfit. I built contrast in values with a light, vibrant blue for the skin, almost fluorescent, with a deep and desaturated green which shows how bugs often display vibrant key colours that are emphasized with earthy tones surrounding it. This is reflected in how butterflies often have black bodies and outlined wings, with the vibrant colour within the wings.

I believe I could photo-bash the wings in with a smooth, fabric surface for the leotard, and heavily photo-bashed skating boots with mandibles or scepters as the skates themselves, and bug armour like beetleskin for the boots themselves to depict their sturdiness.

Analysis of professional ice skates to help me understand their function, material IDs, and how they're constructed.

Understanding the basic construction and purposes of a standard ice skate will help me to translate it into a fantasy design with unique features.

I've started my mood boards on Pure Ref, delving into the figure skating sport - I picked apart the design of professional ice skates with a few different examples, photography of female ice skaters in action to see their posture, bodily build, and how their leotards react in dance, along with analyses of different design choices of leotards.

Next, I started looking at typically considered "cute" bugs and elegant ones like butterflies and moths, I've got lots of species and variants to add to my mood board, but for now I only have the luna moth and its colour palette. I'll look into types of butterflies and what other bugs I can apply to photobashing the boots and mandible skates, like beetles and ants.

I also aim to find examples of this elegant design in games and film, immediately I think of the tooth fairy from Rise of the Guardians, but I'll add those next lesson.

Dev Log Evaluation:

When I first read our project brief, I was overwhelmed by choice and felt uncertain of which option to pursue, but once I knew I wanted to portray a graceful, feminine design, my vision became much clearer. Pursuing the sport brief meant I had lots of accessible references for whatever sport I chose, with photography and online gear/equipment shops.

My vision for this character is already relatively clear, but I do want to experiment with shape language, colour, etc more to reach the optimal design. I'll start with finishing my Pure Ref mood board with more bug examples, and artistic interpretations, and then begin the standard iterative process of character design - silhouettes, values, colour, etc.

Week 10

Developing Ideas:

Seeing as there's so much to iterate on with character design, I decided to start looking into anatomy and physical builds first before I start any characteristic silhouettes or colours/values. I want my character's moth/butterfly features to be primary and immediately palpable, clearly recognisable. Therefore, I want to exaggerate lots of physical features like elongating legs and thinning limbs out to be insectioid.

Kras Feedback:

Push the anatomy more - elongate limbs, create distortion and uncanny effects.
Play into the idea of the exoskeleton, this is an opportunity to create armour like knee pads and protective gear, along with decorative plates or showcasing how her leotard is a part of her.
Figure skaters tend to have lengthy necks, so perhaps elongate it.
Perhaps make the leotard design quite streamlined.

This is Kras' interpretation building upon my initial sketch to show how I can exaggerate the anatomy and build in the exoskeleton with a sleek leotard, along with armoured kneecaps. The elongated neck is even emphasized with the whimsical, almost theatrical collar.

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I made some custom adjustments to my original silhouette in my own attempt at attaining the insectoid appearance, achieving this through a large skull with a unified visor akin to dragonflies, geometric and slim limbs with thin parts breaking off to emulate the abundance of limbs bugs tend to have without concerning myself with that level of anatomy. I also portrayed the ice skates as part of their body, reflecting how this sport is vital to their life as its intertwined with their anatomy.

I added onto this new silhouette with some characteristic changes, showing how I can go the floral route with butterflies' attraction to flowers with petals making up the whimsical collar, puffy sleeves, and dainty, feminine lashes that match the antennae.

I also iterated a little on the skates themselves, the first showing the traditional real-life ice skates, and the other being skin-tight, bound to the legs skates (or the idea of them since the skates themselves aren't there). This shows how I can take the skates in two directions, with either bulky and techy shoes, or built-in sleek and streamlined skates that echo bug anatomy.

Here are some diagrams I found that showcase the major anatomy of butterflies/moths which point out their distinct features with a side and front angle.

Iwan Pruvic (2014). Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2680542/The-aliens-garden-Stunning-close-photography-reveals-vibrant-colours-exotic-beauty-butterflies.html, accessed December 2025.

This photographer Iwan Pruvic takes brilliant up-close shots of butterflies which perfectly showcase their appearance - this is a great opportunity for me to learn how to replicate their designs and apply it to my character. I could even use heads like this to photobash in my design depending on how entirely insectoid the character is.

I also appreciate how well presented butterflies' fur is in these photos as they play a vital part in their survival, acting as a thermal layer which shows how I can adapt this to my design. If the character does skate on ice and not another surface, I could play into fur being worn to protect them from the cold.

Some different footwear designs in Overwatch; their design philosophy tends to favour stylised, but practical and believable gear and these skins reflect my desires for this character. Bulky ice skates with armour plating and fur, bug-reminiscent limbs, and fur-lined, graceful and elegant heels.

Dev Log Evaluation:

After this session, I had a rough idea of how the anatomy would appear for this character thanks to experimenting with its silhouette, although I still feel very vague about the final design and I believe my main priority is definitely to find clarity on the design through iteration, starting with silhouettes. Therefore, my main goal for next week is to work on said silhouettes.

Week 2

Face Off Documentary & Silhouettes:

My focus for this week was to develop some silhouettes to iterate on the different routes I can go for this design including floral and whimsical, elegant and graceful, bulky and armoured, fluffy and protected, techy and sleek, streamlined, etc. I'd like at least one silhouette per concept and to iterate on those separate ideas.

In this session, we will be watching an episode of the documentary show "Face Off" in which multiple artists work towards a goal of creating a physical character based on a prompt, using prosthetic makeup and their ability to iterate on designs. This will be a great show to watch and learn from as we see how professionals go about design contemplation and problem solving to achieve their best design.

Face Off Notes:

The artists' prompt is to make a character based on the prompt - Bioluminescence.
Consideration of angles like profile, 3/4, specific anatomy like flared valves, octopus-like head and catfish-like muzzle and whiskers, muscle form is all taken.
Fins, dorsal, hand iterations like lobster claw or webbed fingers with froggy tips. Essentially iteration is carried out on multiple features for the best design, not just to ascertain the bigger picture.
When entering the sculpting stage, they start by blocking out major forms like dorsal fins or face prosthetics like a flatter nose to replicate a fish's face - they don't need nostrils...
Bioluminescence where you can see bone structure glowing, I feel like this really demonstrates the unique aquatic anatomy with it on full display and emphasized.
Photography of landscape taken for inspiration, incorporating the textures of seascape rocks to create cohesion with their habitat, rock formation sparking inspiration in an artist by seeing a face, adapting it to their design with a prominent brow. Inspiration doesn't need to be taken from conventional means like other artist renditions! It can come from ANYTHING.
As we learnt with Zbrush in year 1, always make sure to spin your model - ensure angles are all consistent with the anatomy and unique features, the front could look great but side could completely fall flat from a lack of attention and cause the whole model to fall apart.
Even if you're sick and life gets in the way, a solid concept with thorough understanding will get you somewhere. Going in with no concept or even thumbnail sketches will make the creation process so difficult. ALWAYS have a plan!
Quick design methods like silhouettes that return value from small time investments can be helpful, you spend little time but are refining your ideas even if they go poorly.
The big industry guy on the show said MAKE IT POP, really hone in on those major features by exaggerating and ensure the recognisable forms are there.
Allocate your time well - if you know one part is important, make sure you manage your time well so you can succeed in that area. Test things for it early on so you know going into it you will succeed.
Committing way too much to one stage compromises the later stages - we must balance each part of the process since you can always go back and tweak. Just make sure to dedicate time for every part so the project is well rounded!
Leave the tertiary detail for last. That's like pudding after dinner, its your treat after laying the groundwork and adding garnish, you need to solidify the primary and secondary form first.
Who is my winner?!?!?! House is cool, the clothing is distinct from the skin in the paint job. For Eric I like the flatter face as it echoes aquatic life and creates plausibility, the bioluminescence is very subtle and small with thin marks and the prominent ones are on the face up-close. For Anthony, there's a very aquatic head with a major bioluminescent paintjob which accomplishes the task wonderfully, incredible spine patterns. For Kris, the biolum changes on the chest, I love the glowing fingertips which highlights the claws and suggest the character is something of a hunter. With Meagan I do like how the biolum is put on the major rocky parts as it feels environmental, lots of tertiary detail but it's structurally weak with no silhouette - doesn't feel aquatic, more like a gargle of environmental details. Wayne has such a strong silhouette with the head being reminiscent of a crab and the fins on the arms entirely glow, the headdress lined with bioluminescence which accentuates the crab head silhouette even further, playing into the prompt and a believable design. Eric F had a great overall design but it fell flat with the face - it was supposed to echo a jellyfish but it just looked uncanny like a Dr Who enemy, otherwise the sheer cloth and skeletal markings were a lovely sight. It's a great design but the face really throws me off.
Judges declare the winner as Anthony which feels totally deserved, the stripes were incredibly done and the torso was very highkey and draws focus immediately using the bioluminescence prompt, it catches you by surprise when the UV lights turn on, the head's silhouette felt immediately reminiscent of a cuttlefish which is proof that a strong silhouette goes a long way.
Sadly Meagan was eliminated but it was predictable seeing as she had no cohesive plan going into the competition which caused her design to have a lack of compelling features, silhouette or even just consistency. This is evidence that a plan is VITAL in any form of design. No plan means no direction, be sensible and consider your deliverables - winging it will lead to a messy and unsure result.
In terms of graphic read, Anthony had that highkey chest and gradient stripes but Meagan had no focal points utilising value OR colour, it was just all over the place.
This documentary was incredible proof of how far planning and iteration can take you, time management and research all play vital roles in the design process and it's something we all have seen in action with this documentary and is therefore something we must always keep in mind!

Silhouettes:

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Forgot to add this one but I talk about it literally right after this paragraph.

Going left to right, the first silhouette is a revised version of last week's anatomical silhouette that I'm using as a template for the rest of the designs. The second shows the idea of blocky shapes working in tandem with contrasted shapes like thin lines - this is seen with the insectoid limbs and fluffy hand cuffs, leg warmers and cloak that is unified with long, but smooth and curved wings.

For the next two, I tried going the whimsical and floral route by portraying the idea of butterflies' attraction to flowers, their hair acting as a budding flower with vine-like antennae, the same vines running across their limbs with a tall collar, likely a long wrapped petal curving around their lanky neck which gets emphasised by said collar. The leotard's trail is a large petal, or a combination of three that form to make a drooping shape that is bind to their waist. Flowers adorn their sleeves and ankles to create a transition between soft clothing and sharp skating gear and insectoid limb. I adjusted this silhouette to achieve a more playful outcome, with a shorter child-like stature, poofy clothing that repeat the flower bud motif and utilise soft and round shape language to create a very, delicate faerie-like character. Perhaps instead of ice, they skate on pollen?!?! I imagine this character would have premature wings that are still growing, fluttering rapidly like small infantile wings would - they're not the best at their sport just yet!

In the fourth iteration, I wanted to evoke the sense of elegance and eloquent grace, with a tall stature, long legs that flexibly execute impressive jumps that create the impression of floating; this silhouette is primarily inspired by luna moths with their longer, twisted wings which show in their antennae and sheer skirt with trails at the end. The sheer clothing is repeated in flowy leg warmers that still show off the silhouette of the skates.

On the bottom row, the fifth design aims towards a pompous theme that exudes royal splendour featuring asymmetrical petals lining their leotard, framing their face to indicate a sense of narcissism and puffy monarchal sleeves.

The final silhouette represents a traditional moth greatly, along with the concept of barring from the cold - lots of fluffy gear that builds up their silhouette in a bulky way, with perhaps stronger limbs like thicker thighs to show their strength in jumping during skating, with large leg warmers that accentuate the form of the skates. The large square-like wings really round off this silhouette, framing it with sturdiness through strong shape language.

Craig Feedback:

3/4 have playful and floral designs, 5 shows a graceful, slender build with specific luna moth motifs, 6 displays a floral, elegant but pompous design - alluring but softer and slender. 7 has a strong emphasis on the cold nature of the sport, feeling fluffy and broad, very strong and recognisable shape language-wise but could try differentiate skates and leg warmer fluff with value. Finally 8 has a distinct alternative tech look with bulky gear and a sleek, geometric, slightly intimidating anatomical build.
These are the ones that stood out to Craig which I should take note of moving forward.

lalalala

On 3/4, balance out the triangular form as the arms feel a little limp and noodle-like due to soft shoulders, so maybe play into some triangular form; his sketch brings out the arms more, flaring them out to emphasize the playful nature of this silhouette. The triangular collar helps balance out the slope this character was having that was just a little too extreme!

Another idea he gave was to attach wings TO the arms so they flow as she skates, along with being used to fly without obscuring the details of the back!

Craig likes the techy, alternative form of this iteration - it's not graceful like most of the others but it's a good change of pace and personality to consider. He suggested bringing out the sloping gesture the large mask-collar with much longer arms which would be used for expressive poses in the skating as these arms feel minor in comparison to the rest of the body throwing off its balance - just more strength will give it cohesion!

Alternatively, the sport could be customised seeing as this iteration is techy and protective which could suggest something of a skating obstacle course, avoiding explosions and falling hazards - the large arms can be used as extra pivotal tools in dodging danger. The breather can be something to keep their face warm so their hot breath would be exhaled in the cold fog, giving a more intimidating appearance, very Vader like...

Dev Log Evaluation:

Ultimately, the conclusion of this feedback was to decide on a direction to take this character since there's lots of viable options in these silhouettes and then iterate lots, practicing with secondary form using values/colours, and iterate on the wing arms idea, ice skates, outfits, and maybe antennae.

With the end of the session, I found myself excited by the range of designs but still no closer to a decided version... I think I've got a lot more iteration cut out for me to gain some actual clarity on how to approach this. For week 12, I will finish off with some last silhouettes that perhaps include combinations of previous silhouette strengths and then I'll hopefully decide!!

Week 3

Finalising the Concept:

Coming back from the Christmas break, I felt no less clarified about where I'm taking this project - it's due to having such range of design and concept in the silhouettes with no proper preference or pull to any specific one. As we're halfway through this block, I really need to make a decision and commit; getting feedback from the tutors will help me make this decision as they observe the strongest elements and develop the concept with me.

Lecture Notes:

Readability is vital in character design (or anything), ensuring that each element in your work is recgonisable in terms of material and distinct from other components.
Try to incorporate high-key and low-key values in your design as the experimentation with the spectrum of light/dark can drastically shift the connotations. Lots of dark can be intimidating, whereas light can be perceived as holy or pure.
Apply colour theory and their cultural/national/emotional implications to build a narrative for the character, it causes them feel more real and believeable as their personality is developed through visual motifs.
Above all, experiment and mix things up, it's always best to iterate on certain areas like colour/value/silhouette to attain the optimal design. You may end up with a strong result without experimentation, but having those variations can lead to much more compelling outcomes.

Feedback:

Kras's Sketch-over:

Referencing an upclose butterfly head, he incorporated the long proboscis and huge wide-set eyes. The proboscis' end feel whimsical due to the swirl which fits the playful look of this design, along with potential motif repetition in the antennae!
Lengthened the waist like the other fairy silhouette for better proportions.
Bring arms out further to better replicate butterflies.
- Fur coat collar echoes the neck fluff of moths - this will help with transitioning into the wings.
Bloomer shorts extruding from the leotard so I can do both clothing options, it also resembles a blooming flower this way!
The collar becomes coat-like as it folds into the leotard.
Add the vines.
Ultimately, keep it proportional and make the clothing feel believable and recognisable - otherwise I'm good to go!!

Photo-bash Clarification:

For the body, extract bug anatomy and create a body, I can paint over to customise the features.
I could add the trunk if I want or do the humanoid smile, but it's not off the table to do both! I like the idea of the smile showing under the trunk.
Kras showed how to start it off with a butterfly head and just paint my own details as seen above.
Petals and floral imagery can be applied to clothing, I can also overlay fabric textures to mix it up and create some extra realism.

Since I felt so torn on which route to take the character based on my silhouettes, I started by doing an expressive sketch of the faerie/whimsical choice to envision it stronger. I was going to repeat this for the other silhouettes but I was advised against it based on time, encouraged to just slim down my choices for now so I can get to photo-bashing as soon as possible.

Kras liked the viney parts of the limbs on the silhouette which I can transfer to this design.

He also liked the alt-tech silhouette but said it was based on personal preference, assuring me that the other silhouettes are viable options too - especially including this one.
When Craig came over, they both agreed on liking the pink-green hue shift along with the tapered clothing, cinching the waist reinforces this blooming silhouette in the clothing and displays the heavy bug anatomy.
I wanted to incorporate wooden textures to follow the woodland faerie theme and Kras suggested wooden jewellry/charms. This is a great idea for tertiary detail, along with adding an accent hue to the design which is primarily pink and green.
The skates COULD be wooden, as Craig said really old skis were made from wood.
On the silhouette the midsection was very poofy and short, but I cinched it in the drawing which gave it a proportional, therefore realistic, effect - she still has unique anatomy but it feels plausible and not BROKEN.

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Taking all my notes from feedback into consideration, I made a new 3/4 appropriate sketch that develops the concept and I can use for my colour and value iterations - I do still have elements I want to change such as the clothing to give it a little extra grace and evidence of figure skating uniform, along with strengthening the swirly motif seen in the antennae, proboscis, and skate ends. However, these elements can be adapted later on once I have solid photo-bashing done.

Dev Log Evaluation:

Leaving this session, I felt much more confident about this project; I was content with my concepts previously, but I had no clarification on what I wanted to pursue. Now that I've discussed with the lecturers the best route and what's most compelling, I feel as though I've really progressed and I've been motivated to move forward.

So far, I find the whimsical and playful, child-like faerie concept to work great with figure skating as their graceful jumps coincide with the carefree glides of fairies with the cheerful fluttering of their wings. I believe I can effectively apply bug elements to this design as the large visors of butterflies overlap with the doe-y eyes of young, innocent characters - not to mention the soft fluff of moths can build the soft, approachable shape language!

My next goal for this project is to work through the last of the iterations as soon as possible so I can jump straight into photobashing and get closer to the final product, therefore that'll be my goal for next week. I don't believe it'll be a challenge as the colour schemes can be extracted from flowers that butterflies are attracted to, or the varying species of butterflies/moths. As long as I have my reference board visible, this should be a breeze.

Week 4

Value/Colour Iterations:

With my design generally decided, I needed to iterate on value and then colour so I could complete the iterative process and move onto the final design, starting photo bashing. Before iterating, I gathered some interesting butterfly species that I could extract the palettes from to use in my colour iterations.

Lecture Notes - Face Off & Teamwork Cooperation:

Wizard of Oz characters as if they've fallen down the rabbit hole to the world of Alice in Wonderland - a mashup of IPs.
Teams of two per character.
Drew and George - Elphaba, spiral hairstyle so hat or not she has that extreme pointy silhouette.
Cig and Damien - Scarecrow. Mushrooms, little bit mad hatter, burlap and patchwork quilt. Cards and top hat.
Stella and DIna - Winged Monkey CHISTERYYYY. Cheeky, trickster, joker jester for queen of hearts.
Keaghlan and Rachael - Tin Woodsman. Executioner for queen of hearts, heartless guy, AXE.
Sasha and Jason - Cowardly Lion. Beaten and lacerated by queen of hearts, creepy lion. Disagreement between the two, Jason doesn't wanna go for whimsical nature of wonderland so it's not giving cohesive and matching theme. Soldier of the queen but his cowardice gets him beaten.
Sharing ideas and disagreeing isn't confrontation, it won't become one in voicing opinions if everyone cooperates.
Starting with clay blockout, discussing shapes.
Monkey jesyer mixing organic and inorganic, hat melds with skins.
Drew doesn't have trouble voicing his opinions and issues so they're working out a concept really well and solving problems together.
Sasha isn't communicating to Jason what she dislikes so even if he weren't to cooperate and improve the idea, regardless they're stuck in this weak idea because of inaction. He does seem pretty stubborn though.
Scarecrow they're sewing fabric onto sculpt. They've already started molding to make time for fabric work.
Tinman needs more planes to get metal idea. Monkey can hae a bit of fur even just a little like ana wesome goatee very whimsy. Lion needs to be bolder, get whimiscal!! Even though Sasha has the right idea, she's not voicing it to help her team. Jason is jeopardizing the team with his irrelevant ideas but Sasah isn't taking accountability for not voicing her disagreement.
In a group project, regularly check and integrate work so know they're cohesive and strong as a group.
Monkey smirk - Stella/Dina were like hmm it needs more of a smirk to Stella/Dina they moved the clay and both ended up happier w result.
Ideas aren't formed ina vacuum, let em bounce around
Yeah Jason it's frustrating to change what you spent time on but it;'s for the BETTER! It's not instructed to change out of spite, it's to improve the concept.
Communication bro.
Took mentor advice to improve the concept, giing monkey a goatee! They're receptive to feedback.
It's Sasha's dream project and her disagreement with Jason's scary idea tainted it for her; she didn't cooperate and communicate how to improve it so they're stuck in this rut, she's acting immaturely by disassociating from it and not engaging.
Wrinkly skin for witch.
She asked for feedback on face from her teammate, needing symmetry for the tinman and getting her teammates opinion helps greatly - fresh pair of eyes helps spot what you may have glossed over or missed.
Keepong the contempt in your head blows feelings out of proportion when a simple chat can defuse those anxieties.
BRIEF REQUIREMENT IS MOVABLE FACE.
For clay-made prosthetics, don't make a MASK! Emotions are obscured and it's super stiff - scarecrow.
Dina comes back from molding to check STella's card wings and helped her out by changing silhouette and card assembly they ended up with much stronger shape.
Spiral sticks on the broom end which strengthens the swirly motif of her design with the hair.
Lion failed on a fundamental level in special effects makeup where they're caught not to mold an underhang as it sticks base to the clay (??) which caused large waste of time for Jason as he had to pull it out. Sabotage..?
Lion team got the best model.
Jason didn't come up with a plan for painting, but neither did she..
Witch's swirly is cool but it reminiscent of the tornado from Oz.. more Oz than Wonderland.

Jester monkey has fluid face movement, wings are awesome, love the hunched posture, very strong shapes and love the card wings. A strong feature is the mashup of both IPs.
Lion is.. doesn't even look like a lion first of all, more wolf-like? It's got some card motifs on the clothing with spades n whatnot but ultimately it's just a lion in rags..?
Witch silhouette is great but to me this just feels like.. anothe rendition of the wicked witch.
OMG THE TINMSAN DANG - the metal elements are great, the swirly ear areas feel bery wonderland. his uniform is reminiscent of queen of hearts guard, checker like chess board the colours good.
Scarecrow is very cool and whimiscal very wonderlandy mushrooms growing and cards and top hat very mad hatter. Visually lovely but the face is stiff. The scarecrow is comical and expressive usually, but it's not moving at all - feeling stoic and taking away from the whimsical nature.
Judges like the movement of the face of monkey, freaky and strong theme. Lion they recognise lots of sculpting but they don't like the makeup, I can tell they arent amazed, face is stiff, theyre SEARCHING for the ears. Witch, they like the profile view. Tinman they love symmetry ofthe face. Fabrics of scarecrow makes it too busy they ca't tell where its sculpted which is the brief..
Witch - feels very Oz not very Wonderland. Great technique in clay. Could've felt wonderland if not painted green, too Oz. If they kept swirly hair wouldv ebeen better, couldve turned it to heart or crrown shape for storytelling visually.
Scarecrow - dont need brain just magic, face so dark they cant find makeup job or clay. Liked the colours but the face has no focal point, noisy. Metal niec and pops out, great idea but hidden under hat. Just no focal points or distinguishable features.
Monkey - kept warm colour in face with skin, accents of purple and green with edges of ears and collar draw towards face. Clothing is cool for contrast. Best realised fusion of two worlds, feels hypnotised, joint concept creation, they found their focus with organic/inorganic strenght. Colours good choice, devilish and mesmerising.
Lion - wouldve been better with more face work, stiff and mask-like, doesn't feel living. Should've pursued cheshire cat more. Sasha's avoiding accountability. Too realistic and plain.
Tinman - judges like it. Super clean work, rust marks great for variation, great symmetry and achieved with teamwork and feedback. The spirals are great. Industrial but whimsical.
Stella n Dina - nailed the mixing ofo worlds, flesh great, sculpt great n memorable. Raechel n them, worked with each others weak n strengths, looked like metal and well sculpted and symmetry too. drew n george, witch shouldve been different colour, sculpt is great just no strong wonder concept. sarecrow too damn busy. sasha jason they tell theres no direction or relevancy to concept, sasho had no courage to speak up and jason was misdirected in brief.
Top team - stellla n dina, love organic inorganic fuse, tinman beautifull painted n balanced makeup, the TOPPPPP is STELLA AND DINA!!!! JESTER MONKAYYYY perfect synthesis of oz n wonderland who wins in the team DINAAAAA way ears floated to a jester hat is awesome and give her credit for that win frrrr.
Who may be eliminated. Jason, Sasha, Cig and Damien. scarecrow let the concept overhwlem their deciison, lion. who go home JASON oufffff. he undermined makeup from the start, he took credit for the concept which was so weak that it warrranted elim. but sashsa had a part to play.

Pink glasswing - could play with translucency, sort of like sheer clothing of figure skaters.

Available at: https://www.notesfromtheroad.com/about/butterflies.html

Most images on here are from this website.

Another breed of glasswing, blue and orange complementary scheme!

Northern Pearly Eye.

Malachite Butterfly.

Atlas moth - Cezary Wotjkowski/getty images.

Clouded yellow - midtone is the chartreuse yellow and pops of colour are green and pink with dark accents of brown.

Pink edged sulphur.

Creon skipper.

Agrias butterfly (animal crossing).

Queen alexandras birdwing - no photo credit, website https://learnbutterflies.com/queen-alexandras-birdwing/

Tithonus birdwing - same website

Reakirt's blue - I like the twilighty scheme.

Acmon Blue.

Values:

It was necessary that I experiment with the values to understand how I'd be using highkey and lowkey tones in my design to depict personality and narrative; it's also an effective way to place emphasis on certains elements of design.

From left to right:

I wanted to include a version that had rather dark skin with a contrast of light clothing and wings, almost to showcase the wings as luminous and mystical. The brightness of the wings will frame the limbs and overall silhouette well, with the clothing acting as a transitional midtone.
I tried out a much lighter skin tone as I wanted my design to reflect the cheery and whimsical nature of my character, with dark tones covering the floral areas like the frilly cuffs and flower bud hair to balance out the range of values.
This next iteration was an attempt of much brighter clothing on a dark skinned character, with the deepest values placed on the wings which could bring out a very vivid hue in the colour stage.
As cool as this version is, it wasn't the direction I wanted to take my character - the mostly dark scheme is contrasted by the ghostly white of the body which almost appears as costume paint, reflecting the idea of a theatrical performer.
The final design was a mix of my desires for this character with a generally lighter value range, with almost glowing tones due to their sheer brightness. I chose to create a gradient on the legs to imitate the tights that figure skaters wear, with gradients on the clothing too to match this idea. The deepest value would be the collar to really frame the face, with the lightest featuring on the wings and hair to significantly emphasize the silhouette, choosing this design as my favoured one.

These were my original colour iterations, using the previously shown butterfly species photography as references along with floral concepts, and even a frosty fairy idea. These were mostly monochromatic except for the ideas I already favoured and had a vision for (1 and 3) so Kras gave me some feedback on how to improve them.

Kras Feedback:

In giving me feedback, Kras pointed out that I had a very muted, pastel range which I was able to see as an improvement to make in my art. I had a bad habit of being scared of using bright colours, believing that it's better to have something muted and more realistic than something that hurts your eyes. In the end, this is to my detriment as it's okay to use desaturated, ugly tones because they're necessary to make the vibrant colours pop! Both are necessary to a piece of art, and it's okay to not be afraid of going a little crazy with colour - especially in iteration!
He also suggested to try some bolder colours and extract from references that I like the palettes of.

I don't even know where I saw this costume online, but I adore the pink and greens working together with its puffy shapes that help to showcase a cheerful character which is reminiscent of the rounder, less sleek costume I gave my character.

https://miscelana.com/2024/12/14/fun-facts-about-tchaikovskys-waltz-of-the-flowers/#jp-carousel-136212

I found this image of flowers amongst a ballerina which echoed the idea of their unison in dynamic, graceful form which I felt could translate to my figure skater character. Her vibrant youth blooms like that of a budding flower, as she glides along the pollen-coated floor, carving patterns and floating through her skillful jumps with aid of her wings.

In looking for references like Kras suggested, I found these artworks and others like it on pinterest (sadly but unsurprisingly uncredited).

After revising my colour iterations with the help of feedback, reflection on my habits as an artist, and references online, I had this outcome.

From left to right:

This was the version that's been in my mind since day 1 of the project, featuring earthy greens with a pop of pink and browns acting as a midtone. The use of brown meant the possibility for incorporating wooden textures into my photo bashing which reinforces the idea of this character residing in a woodland space, much like a faerie.
I had full independence in creating iterations from here, which hopefully shows how I'm trying to adapt to my feedback in using brighter colours. I have a range of warm and cool tones, with cooler tones on the clothing, and warmer tones in the natural components like the hair and wings. Craig said he liked how the deep green framed the body and costume. I imagine there to be lots of gradients and transitional areas, like with the yellow to pink in the face to hair, and from the top to bottom of the wings.
I went for an overall cooler toned concept for this iteration with more of a twilight theme, showing how figure skating tends to be quite a serne sport shrouded in darkness when performing, with harsh spotlights on the skater. This is reflected in the use of cool blues, and mellow purples, with a kick of blazing yellow for the flora adorning the faerie.
This iteration is something of a variation on the 2nd one, with an overall warmer colour palette that features less extreme ranges in colour, with reds on the end of the legs instead of a deeper green.
The final iteration actually stayed from the previous set, as it felt varied enough from the new versions and bold enough to keep its spot here. I envisioned the echo of the frosty nature of the sport, surrounded by ice and frost as you skate along - I communicated this through the use of minty greens and cool blues that call upon winter time and the gelid ice of the season.

laalala

Dev Log Evaluation:

I'm glad to be leaving this session knowing I can start on the photo bashing, I feel as though some progress is being made. I also feel as though I've learnt a vital lesson in using colour, not to be so afraid of the brighter tones as they're necessary to making a piece pop.

In the end, I made my choices for the value and colour schemes of this character meaning I felt ready to tackle the next stage. The value's choice was for the emphasis in the brightness of the hair and wings, which frame the silhouette well with their vibrance, followed by the deeper tones of the clothing, especially the collar to bring attention to the face - as is often necessary in character art. For the colours, I made the choice of including green to represent the woodlands area this character resides in with contrasts of pink as rough complementary colours which makes for a natural pleasing design choice. Pink often symbolises amour, youth, and compassion which reflects my character effectively with her upbeat joy, so the inclusion was necessary, along with the tinges of orange and yellow to ease the transition between the two distinct hues.

Week 7-8

Photo-bashing:

My idea generation and iterative design process was fully complete and I had a thorough vision for my character's concept in mind, which meant it was time to tackle the photo-bashing to establish the appearance and material reads of this character.

For the head, I extracted a closeup of a butterfly photo and painted over the removed snoot with content-aware fill for a seamless result as I desired to hand-paint the snoot.

I used a color blending mode layer clipped to the flower bud hair to shift the hue to yellow, softening the transition from the face, and hand-painted the end tufts for extra silhouette distinction.

For the top, I used a blooming flower with a strong sense of curvature as this would already match the sketch's shape. I lasso'd the right areas and shifted the hue in adjustments to green.

To prep for rendering, I removed the strong impression of lighting with a multiply layer so it's a little more neutral, followed by erasing unnecessary areas.

I pasted a petal onto the general area of the shorts, using the puppet warp tool with a generous amount of pins to adjust the shape carefully without having to remove any of the edges that already have light information.

I repeated this process for the other side and went into adjustments again to shift the hue to green.

For the collar, I wanted to evoke a fluffy texture like that of a coat with a fur hood. I used an image of artificial moss to establish the base texture and placed it onto the collar area.

Once again, I used floral imagery to build up the smaller details, such as the ends of budding flowers, and hanging ones to achieve the sense of droop that would be present in the flowy cuffs of the hands and legs.

I felt as though my use of floral imagery was pretty strong, but I wanted to incorporate some bug features too to remind you that this character is a BUG; I did this by making the torso with a millipede's body, cutting it off at a certain point to place the highlight in the correct area, just slightly towards the right.

Treehoppers had the general shape I was going for with the skates, so I applied those to that area, using the perspective warp tool to ensure that the side view was longer, and the front-facing foot was foreshortened.

Next, I connected the skate to the leg with a wooden chunk which I used an overlay layer on to colour it brown, upping the saturation and hand-painting the roots growing onto the skates.

With the addition of some emperor butterfly wings and some mantis legs for the ideal shape fitting my character's limbs, the photo-bashing stage was complete!! This meant I could start establishing lighting, 3D form, and refined material reads with rendering.

Rendering & Hand-Painting:

Starting with the puffy top, I created a multiply layer and used a seafoam green to build up the shadows, making sure they were relatively soft as this clothing is round and curvy, with not many harsh edges. I created the leafy material impression using a fur brush with a light yellow to add some hue variation and sense of lighting.

To start the collar, I adjusted the photobashed moss by adding a gaussian blur and some noise so it wasn't overly-realistic.

Removing the moss image demonstrates how I painted in the shadows and highlights with a noisy brush.

For the highlights, I made their layer into a Linear Add blend mode so that the moss was slightly illuminated and warmed with a yellow hue. It wouldn't appear lifelike and natural without its breath of warmth.

The neck/chest was entirely hand painted, starting with some browner shadows further up and some greener tones downward to show the colour shift from head to body in the character.

Next, I layered up relevant colours with a fur brush with brighter tones for a highlight to depict the slight fuzzy nature of the body.

The flat image of the photo-bashed head.

I used a large stroke on a multiply layer to attain the general shadow on this area, followed by deepening the curves of the eyes.

Next, I used some pink tones on an add layer to paint in the highlights and reflection in the eyes, using a nature brush for interesting shapes.

The shorts caused a degree of difficulty as I couldn't manage to make them appear 3D like the top, especially as the largest and poofiest area on this drawing. Later on, I found that harsher brush strokes and more painterly applications helped this out as it almost makes the leafy shorts seem to crumple a little, especially with the added brushes of yellow for stronger highlights.

For the wings, I started by shifting the hue to change the dark blue of the wings' edges to green and then deepening this to get my base. Following this, I used a color layer to change the hues of the blue to a transition of chartreuse to salmon pink.

At this point, I'd individually rendered each area with the mindset of implementing a shadow and highlight, so I began inserting cast shadows to show objects in this character interacting with one another based on lighting, along with deepening any shadows that didn't appear strongly from a further glance.

And with that, I added a little cast shadow for some extra spots of realism and was complete!! Wahoooo!!!

lelelealalala

Post Mortem:

Overall, I found this project super enjoyable. I'm not really into sports, but the ones theatrical in nature tend to allure me which I wanted to translate to my concept. Photo-bashing bugs was even more interesting to tackle as we compounded natural forms and it was pretty flexible what was able to be applied, given that it suited the concept. This technique felt even more fun to use this time around in its range of use for insectoid characters.

I'm definitely proud of my outcome for this block, I believe my skills in rendering and creating a life-like image have improved. My sense of 3D form is definitely developing as I instinctively have been able to paint in shadows and highlights to bring an area to life, and the before and after screenshots have felt like night and day. I also feel more comfortable in photo-bashing, developing my skills with the puppet warp tool to adjust the shape and direction of an image to fit my sketch better. One lesson that felt pretty large to me was my perspective change on colour, learning to overcome my bad habit of washing out artwork with muddy tones and muted pastels. My fear of eye-bleeding colours compensated for making alluring artwork with vivid hues - learning this in the colour iteration stage helped me apply this to the end result as I used more of a warm vibrance in the lighting and deeper greens in the shadows. Overall, the colours and their saturation reflect the youthful whimsy of this character that feels strongly joyful and innocent to me.

I do feel as though I could've done more to communicate her role as a figure skater, apart from the skates' presence themselves. I don't think it was a bad choice to pursue the route I did with faerie whimsy and puffy child-like clothing, but it doesn't strongly reflect the gear of a figure skater and only suggests she's wearing skates. Figure skaters tend to be more elegant and sophisticated, with bedazzled outfits encrusted with rhinestones galore. This is a nice mix of theatrical sport and organic bug/forest themes, but it doesn't immediately scream "figure skater". I also believe I could've done more work in the hand-painting to add more expressive strokes with harsher lines such as to the shorts and legs to communicate some more faceted edges and sharper form as the artwork appears overly soft like this. A final thing I believe I could've done is go a bit crazier with the photobashing, I stuck pretty closely to the theme of flora and vegetation, with a hint of bugs for the head, limbs, and wings, but some tertiary detail like jewellry or rhinestones could've added extra flare to this drawing without such a narrow mindset in searching for references.

Overall, I still believe I have such a long way to go but I am glad I had fun in creating this character. The whimsy I wanted to portray has been communicated and she looks pretty decent. I just need to keep on practicing and making fun characters, enjoying the process along the way!! I will do my best to continually improve. Wahoooo!!

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