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14 Nov 2009

The Submarine Forest

I'll be honest: when I saw this unit I was dreading it. I'm not a concept artist or any good it but it's something I have to do so I have tried my best and created my first image of three:



The atmosphere has spread forward and faded out while I changed the lighting so it was visible but not overwhelming. The scale image is of a character resting (which happened in the chapter) adds... well, the scale. Fine details were added to make it look 'concepty'.

I have honestly tried my best to create an image and I know it's not as good as my classmates. But I tried right? But I have two more to do...

4 comments:

tutorphil said...

Hey Earl,

Not a big fan of the fatalistic defeatism thing going on here; really don't like the use of the term 'concepty' - pretty dismissive! It's perfectly okay to be apprehensive when a unit represents a blindspot or weakness, but I've got to enquire as to what steps you've taken to 'self-medicate' - i.e., if your drawing and perspective skills are poor, what have you actively done to improve them? Firstly, your 'submarine forest' resembles a woodland scene, which is a bit odd, considering the context; it rather suggests that you've rather missed the point - or swerved it. The challenges associated with the 'submarine forest' are all about the undersea atmosphere/lighting etc. that a person would expect.

Can I first applaud you then on 'feeling the fear and doing it anyway' and then suggest that you haven't finished 'the submarine forest' at all, but rather produced an interesting study that has enabled you to get more experience with a graphics tablet and with digital painting. Concept art - and its role in prepping for Maya - is going to be part of your projects from this point on - and an assessable part too - so you've simply got to get better at it and stop being afraid of drawing. I want you to go and find some help on perspective drawing and other techniques (there are many in the UCA library and probably a number of online resources). I also want you to pay a visit to Ruben and Leo's blog and just take a moment to see just how many thumbnail drawings and prelim sketches they're producing in order to understand their scenes in visual terms.

The bad news is this really isn't over for you and I do expect you to invest in your own improvement; the good news is, if you take this opportunity to get better at something, you'll be less afraid from this point on.

Now - go back to the excerpt, do visual research, look at Kelp forests, look at underwater scenes, give yourself a chance to get it right - and don't be intimidated by the successes of your classmates; they had to start somewhere too, right?

Good luck and word hard.

Ruben Martins said...

If you have the chance have a look at some "blue planet" episodes they are really helpful to get lighting and atmosphere underwater...

also you will find some interesting things there...

Bluejetdude said...

ok thanks ruben, I'll look into it.

Simon Holland 74 said...

Hi Earl,
I'm just going to add to what phil has already said, the line work is (with a little work) passable (however I can't open it up as a larger image so its hard to tell.

Heres some reference to get you started:

http://www.ianskipworth.com/photo/pcd1742/kelp_forest_15_4.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Kelp_forest-blue.jpg

http://www.lucasunderwater.com/images/photos/kelp_forest.jpg

check out the lighting and structures, the tonality, colours and atmosphere....

this was lesss than 30 secs on google. A lot of concept art is derived from observation and re-application.

Technically it looks like you are getting to a certain point and then choking and throwing colour at the scene.... do some research on colour theory.

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