Hi everyone! It's been quite a while, but I've updated so many different pages now that it's hard to keep track of what's where. These last few weeks were quite hectic, but I still managed to find some peace with the weekly model drawing sessions. I have brought my laptop and Wacom along for a couple of sessions, and I have definately fallen in love with the wonderful ease at which I can pick my colors. I needed to step away from my safe-zone concerning accuracy in form and lines, and start with the realism in terms of colours and lighting. I must say I am wonderfully pleased with the result, even though I feel I can do better with more practice. It is difficult, though, the maximum pose duration is 15 mins - it really speeds up your workflow!
The above three images were from one of the first sessions I did; and where I was immensely pleased with the colour palette. The sketches were made from three three-minute poses.
These last two images were from today's session with model Maria - who actually has pink hair:) Hope you like them!
I finally found some time to work on this - my freelance work kept taking all my spare time... I have spent tedious work on the boobs-area, the hair and the face, and I also found a new enemy: SHOES. Forget the knees - SHOES are the devil. Seriously:P
It's not finished yet, I'll have to scrape the courage to start on the hands (uhoh), give her those awesome goggles and finish the umbrella - hopefully I'll find some inspiration for the background :) Enjoy!
Every once in a while, I tend to copy some of my favourite artists to try and be as awesome as they are. My absolute number one favourite is Hyung Tae Kim, a Korean artist with a knack for anatomy - impossible and exaggerated anatomy that is. He often draws his character in the most dynamic poses, while adjusting the anatomy to fit the flow. Bt not only does he excel in anatomy, his use of colour is absolutely drool-worthy. He was the artist from which I learned colour and lighting techniques.
This time, I wanted to re-imagine Penelope Pitstop (I love her Dutch translated name more, 'Pitspoes') and make give her some curves! It is still a work-in-progress, but I already love the latex feel of her suit! Enjoy, and 'til the next update:)
The sketch, you can see I hate knees...
The W.I.P. itself. I love the way the rim highlight makes the image pop.
The last week was extremely productive for me; I have written some small exerpts of fiction surrounding the Monks, allowing me to understand and feel the atmosphere thoroughly. I now have various attacks, various enemies, strategies and humorous quotes concerning the IP, all helping me greatly when creating artwork. So, without further ado I would like to present you with the following Holy Shitload of artwork:
At first another go at the Demon Faction, now in more closeup and definately to my liking.
Secondly: the Unholy Underworldly Evil Pope - Leader of Demons:
(he scared me a little when working on it at 01:00 am in a nightblack room)
And finally I've begun finalizing the art of my storyboard; below is as you can see a work in progress of shot 9 of the trailer.
And as a last mention, a second shot from the 'moneyshot' moment of the trailer: the battlefront allout clash of the two forces. I've drawn the Monk Karl (yes, for those of you who know him, he was based on Sjoerd even in the original project, and will now ever be! Muhaha!), ramming his crucifix in the Demon's marble body, to break it in pieces by slamming his unopened Biblegun into it. I've already tested it in After Effects, and it looks quite gooooood!
So if these Monks are engaging in a Holy War, against what forces do they have to stand? Of course, it will be Hell. Their Church was attacked by Demons, so now they want to break open the Gates of Hell to eradicate them once and for all. Below you can see my concept of the Gates - I am not quite sure about the colour scheme (I think I need to go fo a cliche red to avoid weird questions about why Monks would break their own church...)
The architecture of Hell is based on an old project of mine, called Theta Sins. In there, Hell is based in a large city-like Cathedral which is built hanging upside down. This calls for a challenging architecture.
But who inhabit these evil walls? At first, I designed some Demons that were tough, evil brutes - but even though I loved their design, they did not scare me. I found them too bestial and cliche to inhabit Hell.
Thus, I started from scratch and approached the Demons from my personal view on fear. These were much more to my liking, and although I still need to adjust some small features, plus design different variations of Demons, I have decided that this sketch will be my starting point. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here...
As for supporting my narrative, I needed to create a (fictional) game that could support my intro cinematic. Thus, I reinvented the Last of the Monks. Quite early on, the initial idea for a game concept came to rest on a third-person Beat-'m-Up like God of War or Devil May Cry, in which you fight your way as a Monk through ranks and hordes of Demons.
This is Matthew, the (main) Monk from the LotM, who would be the main character of the game. However, after a lot of discussion and inner conflicts, I have chosen for a more setting-based approach: an RTS game. Thus, Matthew will be the standard for the faction of Monks you will play. He will be sided by ten-foot Cardinals, cunning Bishops and other holy comrades to fight this war. Below you can see a small concept of a Bible-Gun I made. I'm not sure if it will star in the cinematic, but you can understand the direction I want to take this in.
After my proposal, I have finally begun searching for inspiration for my own (personal) graduation project. This project needs to be supported by my narrative, so I thought of creating an animated cinematic cutscene for a game (that might function as some sort of trailer). I already found a lot of animated cutscenes that inspire me greatly - but I only recently found this one again - the Cinematic StarCraft II Trailer....
I had forgotten all about this, maybe because it's 3D, maybe because I haven't played StarCraft... But still this trailer gives me the shivers. I find the anatomy and impossibility of the design choices a bit laughable, but the bad-guy diehard message is absolutely clear - and not laughable at all - it's awesome. This convicted murderer is being welded and screwed tight into his space armor: he will most surely never come out of this suit again. And with the huge gun he is ready to take down the enemies one by one.
So, back to my own project. I am planning to do a retake on an older project of mine: 'the Last of the Monks'. In the (original) story, a small church in a futuristic metropolis is trying to defend itself against the jungle of technology that is trying to crush them. The five monks fight off crews of bulldozers and workmen that are trying to demolish the church. In my own graduation project, I am allowed to take a (fictional) game and make an intro cinematic/trailer for it. So, I chose to make the Last of the Monks a fictional game. I will punch up the graphics, choose a different feel (less cartoony), and make it a bit more hardcore.
The first mockup-screenshot can be seen below; I edited game-footage with some photo-reference and created this shot. This is the last church, almost being crushed by the enormous metropolis around it.
I then began writing some game premises, all based on different kinds of gameplay. Many examples I had found were based on Real-Time-Strategy games, where you build an army/base against evil forces. You send out teams/squads of people and place them strategically around the battlefield. I finally came with an interesting (first?) premise for an RTS game.
‘A monk was condemned to Hell for killing the demons that attacked his church. Now that he’s in Hell he can finally kill them all.’
You play as a faction of monks that will build their sacred base inside the deepest ditches of Hell, to rebel against the Devil himself. You build squads and sanctuaries to protect your life and conquer the forces that have destroyed your church on earth.
Sounds a teeny bit too dark for me, now that I write it like this, but I am trying to take it a bit more humorous and lightly, more of a parody (of StarCraft). I made a quick storyboard for a trailer, where you see the monk being condemned to hell after having killed a demon. Little do they know, that by sending him to hell, he can get closer to his enemies... When the gates of Hell close behind his back, his hands reach for the wooden cross around his neck - which transforms into an epic gun. 'Heaven it's about time.'
