Pit of Ideas

This is my interpretation of elves, using the Hulder in Scandinavian folklore as inspiration. The main goal of this was to develop a more illustrative concept art style, like the character and creature concepts done for God of War.

Steeds are native to hilly and mountainous fields. In the past century or so, they have been domesticated by humans and are used as pack animals or transport.  Microscopic scale-like structures in their chest fur bristle when a Steed feels threatened. The change in structure changes the perceived colour of the fur to reveal imposing warning patterns.

I like drawing muscles :) And that's about all I have to say.

Final Year Project Semester 02 Self-Set Brief:  Concept 1 character, mount and prop. Illustrate 1 environment. Setting is a xeric shrubland/desert with influence from Chinese and Himalayan tribes. Nomad: The Environment Whilst the nomads travel a xeric shrubland-like desert, their ancestors were once one of many much more advanced tribes. However their disregard for the land led to their deity stripping the land's abundance from them. Thus, they had to leave their settlements in order to try and find sources of food and water, all the while attempting to appease the deity and show them that they could be worthy of its blessing once more. The final painting - I learnt a lot about photobashing doing this project, and also about painting fast. This was a huge challenge for me given that I rarely sketch environments, let alone paint them as finished pieces. A small amount of the thumbnails I made for the final painting - none of which I liked ...

Final Year Project Semester 02 Self-Set Brief:  Concept 1 character, mount and prop. Illustrate 1 environment. Setting is a xeric shrubland/desert with influence from Chinese and Himalayan tribes. Nomad: The Mount These bird-like mounts traverse the desert, using their large thin ears to regulate their body temperature. Whilst they can fly, they have evolved predominantly to run with their long legs. I sketched up a lot of rough thumbnails (only a select few are shown here), exploring a wide variety of body shapes and animal types before even coming to create a moodboard. I ended up going with a predatory, bipedal creature since I had previously been designing a lot of herbivorous quadrupeds. Plus I love ghost bats and had wanted to use their ears in a design for a long time. Whilst I didn't have much time to do many secondary iterations due to an injury, I did play around with the idea of a more raptor-like and scaled creature, and also with fleshy area...

Final Year Project Semester 02 Self-Set Brief:  Concept 1 character, mount and prop. Illustrate 1 environment. Setting is a xeric shrubland/desert with influence from Chinese and Himalayan tribes. Nomad: The Scout These scouts travel the xeric shrublands on their bird-like mounts trying to lead their tribe towards new water and food sources. The instrument they carry is used to communicate with each other over long distances. Research went into a lot of different tribes, eventually settling on Chinese and Himalayan styles, particularly the Mustang tribe and their masks. I start off with some initial silhouettes using a calligraphy pen - I find it's easier to get ideas flowing if I start out on paper. After I've narrowed down the direction of the design, I move into digital silhouettes which are more accurate to the brief and can have more detail put into them. I then choose a design I think works best and push tha...