I've been trying to find an approach to character concepting that feels efficient and enjoyable for a long time. I've dabbled with drawing directly in Photoshop a fair bit, but I never feel fully in control and I end up redrawing lines a lot which tends to kill any sense of movement or spontaneity in my drawings. Also, it never feels as fun as sketching on paper with a blue Colerase pencil. I think the method I used for concepting these guys is what works best for me: Linedrawing on paper which I tidy up a bit in PS. Then I just block out some simple flat colours and then paint choppy shadows within those flats. Quick and simple! I know this is a very standard approach, but it's taken me a long time to realize that it's the best method for me. It means I get to do more 'real' drawing too! Anyhoo:
Hopefully I'll have some more stuff over the weekend.
Cheers!
10 comments:
Lovely movement in these you sexy old butball!
Best way to go! I'm feelin' it.
These are fantastic! Best of both worlds.
Wow, the guy on the left is just brilliant!
Screw what is considered standard. I always feel like I waste time trying to render all of my character concepts. Sure it helps me to improve in that area but spending countless hours rendering one character when I wish to create a whole crew feels somewhat redundant.
I am loving this mate, keep on kicking it.
Badass! I've been feeling the same way lately, and try to boil my work down to a more simplified approach. Seems like rendering is way overrated sometimes.
Cheers guys!
Glad you're liking these - it gives me confidence to go on with a bunch more character designs.
And yeah, I agree that rendering is an important skill to have, but I'm seeing more and more concept work that looks photo-realistic or like a straight 3d render. Surely most concept art should be a jumping off point rather than the visual target? It's almost like the design goes out of the window in favour of slavishly rendered surfaces. But I digress...
And you do it so well!
I agree with you completely. And if you want to, you can start modelling and blending forms into each other and make it very realistic.
I find that nowadays ADs are so used to that photorealistic, dead look that they don't even approach personality side of a character design which, in my opinion, is the most important thing in the process.
Yep, that does seem to be the general trend, particularly with games/films with a realistic aesthetic. Which makes sense up to a point, but it does seem to take some of the creativity/style out of the process. You end up with a lot of very homogenous - albeit well rendered - looking designs.
Yup, I agree on that as well. It seems like there is too much effort being put into just creating the shine and polish. Having concept art posted in magazines and such. It is a great thing yeah, exposure to the people actually creating the beautiful art of the games but still. I really enjoy looking at your stuff, Paul Richards and Matt Rhodes, not to mention the amazing sketches of Samwise and a whole lot of other interesting artists. Look at the initial sketches of the characters from Disney movies. So much personality in so few strokes. I am rambling, sorry.
Keep up the brilliance!
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