So Many Ramas

Thumbnail designs for Rama of a video game rendition of The Ramayana. I love silhouettes, so much fun and loose. These are each probably four inches tall. I use a black Copic marker for these -- I'm not usually much of a marker person, but for quick shapes like this the brush tip is fantastic.

The Glass Coffin - Synopsis

For those of you following my thesis, I am designing environments and characters and props -- essentially creating a concept art portfolio -- based on my take of a Brothers' Grimm story, The Glass Coffin. Here is a very quick summary of my version of the story, enough that you can see the characters and environments it centers around.




Once upon a time, an ARCHITECT who was fascinated with ancient ruins traveled to a distant world in search of a beautiful city that he had read stories of. Upon arrival, he found nothing but a huge wasteland, and in the distance what looked to be a solitary palace above a vast lake. In the wasteland he encountered an OLD MAN fighting for his life against two massive beasts, and rushed to his aid. Once the beasts had been slain, the architect began to ask the old man about the city. The old man brought the architect to a cliff overlooking the lake and palace, where the architect saw for the first time the reflection of a beautiful city that only existed in its mirror in the lake.

The old man told the architect of a QUEEN who had ruled the city, bound to it by an amulet, with the help of her BROTHER as an advisor. A NATURALIST traveled to them one day, and befriended both queen and brother, but then he slipped into the queen' bedchamber one night, and attempted to steal the amulet from her neck, hoping to take the city for himself. No sooner had he lifted it did the earth quake, for the amulet could not be removed from the queen without destroying the city. Alarmed, the queen woke, and her brother suspecting the worse stormed her quarters. But she feared the naturalist would try to kidnap him, being the one way to control her, and so she commanded her brother to flee. He did, and the naturalist sealed the queen in a glass coffin under a deep sleep while he tried to find a way to take the amulet, hiding her by burying the coffin within the castle. The city vanished into the ground and had not been seen ever since. The old man told he architect of this story, and asked for his help, the architect being much younger in years. The good hearted architect agreed.

Both men snuck into the palace, and tricked the naturalist into revealing where the queen was. To create a diversion, she put the amulet on the old man's neck, and he reverted to his youthful age, revealed as her brother. The three fled to the city, shaking at its foundation, while the naturalist pursued. The architect then took the amulet and placed it upon the naturalist's neck. The city was falling apart, and as it crumbled into rocks, it destroyed the naturalist along with it.

The queen and brother were saved, but the city was destroyed. The architect promises that he will help rebuild. The ending is hopeful and the story ends with a summon being sent for the villagers who had fled many years ago to return.

Character Ortho and More

Sorry I missed yesterday for posting. Here's a few images to make up for it, both for the Cyberama project. The first is a quick ortho/turnaround for the minor character I designed, as well as an update version. Sean Murray did paintover crits with suggestions and comments, where we were then to bring them back with such changes incorporated (or with a very good reason to omit them). The ortho reflects the new design along with a few smaller details I encountered while Googling, such as more details on the turban.


The next image is an in-class project where we took one of our team members' thumbnail designs and brought it to a more completed state. This design is for a demon boss, created by Amanda Christensen. It was pretty fun to take someone else's rough concept and focus on the technicalities! Some of which mine are a bit questionable -- does she need to be THAT long? -- but eh, you know.

Landscape - Progress

I meant to upload something I did for Advanced Character Design, but got held up, so here is the progress on my two landscapes. The reflected city is more of a color shift than actual painting. Hoping to have these finished by the end of this week.

Landscape Thumbnails

My two color and composition starts for the landscapes for thesis. I'm hoping to condense my story into about two paragraphs, at which I'll post it up here on the blog. In the meantime, enjoy these and hopefully they'll both be finished Thursday.

Minor Character Design

A human villager for the sci-fi Ramayana. I wanted to do an ortho or even just paint out that big staff, but I got a little pressed for time as tomorrow's going to be hectic! I thought the staff might be able to be thrust into manufactured wells - basically holes in the ground with which water can be retracted. The staff also filters the water before it would run out the spout. Once finished, the spout can be pivoted back into the staff. Water might be scarce - especially clean water - and they would have these manufactured wells to make water more of a communal thing, which pressures people to consume it with care and not take half hour showers. Having people like this little dude who are the ones who can withdraw the water is extra pressure to be considerate about consumption.

ETA:
Redid the face and colors.

More Character Silhouettes

It's been way too long since I last posted. Classes are really kicking off and I've been working on thesis. On the interim I've been working at a bookstore and cafe. It's been pretty alright.

I'm starting to collect work to put up for this semester, but I'll start with something for Advanced Character Development, which I am taking with Sean Murray, lead concept artist at Big Huge Games in Timonium. We essentially have a semester-long project to focus on in a small group. I'm already enjoying the creative dynamic we share - I think the right enthusiasm in a team can be very productive.

We are currently designing minor characters for a hypothetical video game inspired from the Hindu epic The Ramayana. Of the nigh-30 silhouettes I drew, these five were my favorites.



A few monkey villagers, a few human villagers. That short little guy with the huge staff-thing was the group favorite and so you'll be seeing him return as I develop his design further.