Development - Background

With the upcoming presentations due I took inspiration from the WW2 papers I had read in an earlier book and designed a back ground image for my slides. This will also be used in a few weeks on my design document to give my research and authentic interesting look. This is the process I followed.

Original Texture from

http://degeneratelove.deviantart.com/art/PAPER-TEXTURE-95681576



Design

Initially drawn on paper I then used the Photoshop to give it a more crisp look.



Editing

Adjusting levels and contrasts.



Final outcome



Resized for presentation

Book – The Visual Dictionary of Special Military Forces

This book was a great help to me. As I mentioned in my learning agreement I would be taking a brief look into the Special Forces within the period my game is set. This book offered me those visuals that i needed, since my main character will be designed to be an infiltrator.



In particular I was looking at special weaponry and items of clothing that could be used within the game. As I have said from the beginning, the aim of this research document is to get as much visual research and knowledge as possible before I begin to develop and hone down my own designs. Giving me that knowledge will allow me to create believable designs in FMPA2.

Here are a few of the images from the book that I found of particular interest and significance to my project. As you can see there is a decent amount of detail contained within the pages, and all of the items are ladled to help understand how they work and there function.













It was the image on this page in particular, that play a key rolled in one of my ideas.



The little identification card at the top of the page displays all sorts of forged information about the person, designed to help aid the disguising of their actual role with the allies. It made me think how i could possibly plan to present some of my work, in the form of a sort of Secret mission brief. Life for instance, pictures of targets for the player to investigate and blueprint designs of the rooms so they may navigate. All contained on some rustic looking, rough paper bound into a Mission file.

ArtRage

http://www.artrage.com/

This is a program that is new to me and I hope in future to have a look into it. I wish to primarily focus on using Corel painter for this project as learning two new suits might be a tad too much work. This doesn’t mean to say in my personal time I will be able to keep so disciplined as to not experiment.

Artist - Borislav Mitkov

When browsing some of the potential talent among the art community on one of the popular sites Deviant art, I discovered this fellow. Borislav Mitkov, a Bulgarian digital artist with a strong personal style within his work is currently working for UbiSoft.

http://www.borilius.com/home.html

It is particularly his ‘Speed paints’ that interest me most, the quick, thick application of line is so technically placed. It is amazing how manages to contain so much with so little. These are the images that caught my attention initially and are my possible favourites.







You may have already noticed some continuity with my previous posts but I can’t stress the important this is to me, and finding the correct style in which to work to my best ability, and to the strengths of my work. I’m always looking for new techniques and methods of working, and Borislav has enlightened me on one of these.

He primarily uses Painter and ArtRage to produce his work. Both of these, unlike Photoshop are more suited to a more natural approach to producing works, featuring brush strokes and canvas options. Photoshop is more of a manipulation program that doubles as a painting program, where as these have been developed to imitate, and for the sole purpose of painting.

Artist – Paul Ruiz

Recently I have been having a look around for more artists to take inspiration from for this project, through some extensive searching I came across Paul W Ruiz. A contemporary artist, his oil painting of the human figure I found interesting.

You can visit his website here

http://www.paulwruiz.com/

And a BlogSpot interview

http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2008/08/art-space-talk-paul-ruiz.html

Following on from my previous research, it was the mysterious dark look to the work that I found particularly attractive, combined with the grain achieved from the think paint being drawn across the textured surface of the canvas. It added a rustic look to the work, tying in with the points I made about the illustrative work I looked at before. Making the work look rougher, dated and aged, rather than pristine and clean (new). Here are a few examples of my favourite pieces.



Untitled Man 2007 oil on linen



Saltimbanque 2008 oil on linen



El Desconocido 2008 oil on linen



Ausencia May 2008 oil on linen

The surrounding theme of this research is the fact that I want my work to look dated, I want the game to look like you’re playing in the period it is set, rather than modern and sleek. What better way to achieve than this through the artistic style. When I look at old war photos, they have an element of eeriness about them. Not only because you know what happened during the war but the way they are presented, often in greyscale from odd angles, and in a poor grainy quality. Rarely do you see a pristine colour photograph of everyone ready for the camera and smiling.

Artist – Ronald Volstad

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ronvolstad/

Here is a little more work from Ronald Volstad, a WW2 illustrator who is mostly known for the work he has done for a range of Osprey military history books. He pays a lot of attention to detail in order to generate these impressive images, quite in contrast to some of the artist’s I have seen. Though these are final, published products so it isn’t any wonder why he puts care into it.











The style is quiet a reflection of the era, and the colour schemes are quite true to the originals. Since computers were not so widely used it would have been illustrators who made the bulk of the imagery in books these sorts of books. So when you look at them now they feel even more dated, maybe an effect I would like to achieve in my work.

Artist - Pior Oberson

Pior is a French born artist, currently working for Blizzard entertainment. I stumbled across is page when browsing through other concept artists and was intrigued by his style to paint in particular. The way he lays down colour in a very think fashion especially when combine with dark and light extremes if find very appealing. Here are a few examples of what I mean.





It is almost as if he has used Oil paint, though in digital format. A style I certainly would like to reflect in my upcoming work also, even if it is only for a small series of images.




I may have a look into some oil/acrylics painters and see what I can learn from their work on characters, how they apply colour to shape the skin and contours of the clothing.



Here i have a found an image reminiscent of my previous work on silhouettes, you can see how the blocky designs are almost still silhouettes with very basic detailing and no colour.