Starting year 2 we were given the task of producing a creature we would expect to see in the land of Thra to celebrate the launch of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance on Netflix.
We began with looking at some of Brian Froud's art as inspiration. When looking at his work I liked the way that a lot of his creatures were in a way human bit with some sort of animal feature such as antlers or frog's legs. My favourite piece of his was the drawing of a bushy-haired girl with deer antlers as I liked the contrast of her deviant expression and elegant antlers.
It was now time for us to experiment with bringing character to elements of nature much like Brian Froud and creatures in The Dark Crystal. We started this by going around the college and drawing anything from nature we find and trying to create some sort of character/creature. At first I found it a bit difficult to get the hang of giving something character but I picked up the technique of drawing the shape of something such as a leaf and finding shapes which could resemble human features.
From these quick doodles, I got inspiration for my character; I wanted to have a girl mixed with the element of leaves and antlers. After experimenting with different features and angles, I ended up with a drawing I was happy with. I knew I wanted to have the bottom half of her head human-like, fading into a leaf on top. I also wanted to include antlers as, much like the Brian Froud piece I liked, I wanted the contrast of the delicate leaf with the strength and power of antlers.
Once I scanned in this final concept, I brought it into Photoshop and started a basic outline. From this I found a light source and added shading; I found a "wet brush" created some texture along with defining shading which helped make the shading look more natural in the long-run. Whilst I've been using Photoshop, I found that shading with a low opacity grey worked best as I can easily increase shading without it being to harsh and empowering.
Next I added textures. To do this I selected some images off line of which I wanted to include in my piece, and using the clone stamp, I easily placed and blended textures onto my character. For the face and body I chose a orange leaf as I thought the warm colour matched well with the child-like features. For the clothing, I wanted it be also have a leaf texture so I went with a bring purple; I thought this contrasted well.Then using a generic texture for the antlers.
After I was happy with all my textures, I made a new layer and, using a low opacity white, I went over areas that would have highlight. Much like shading, I located my light source and built it up in selected areas such as cheeks, nose, and top of the leaf. I felt that this really helped bring realism and energy to the character as it looks fresh and full of life.
Overall, I am extremely happy and proud with how this turned out as I was quite hesitant at first with creating a character fit for the "Dark Crystal" universe, but I am surprised with the outcome. I love the way the antlers contrast the delicate leaf as this is something I liked in one of Brian Froud's pieces. I would like to mess around with the eyes however as I like the way they draw focus, but I feel I could make them less empowering and harsh, and bring them into the face more by adding highlights around the edges.
Comments