Reef Character.

The next character project was to create a character based off the word Reef, the character also had to be a humanoid but apart from them 2 criteria we had free reign.

Reef

1. a ridge of rocks or sand, often of coral debris, at or near the surface of the water.
2. Mining. a lode or vein.

I had no idea that the word Reef was also the name for a lode or vein, so already I should have researched the word at the start of the project, because my mind went straight to the coral reefs. Luckily I learnt a lot during the previous character project so I made fewer mistakes overall and had a much more enjoyable experience this time around.

Research

We started by looking at existing work and also by doing our own research into the subject. After an hour or 2 I had gathered a good selection of inspiration, a whole range of sea characters and interesting marine life. The main thing I think about when I think of a reef is colour, with all the vibrant coral and fish, so I really wanted to try and get some of that in my mood boards.

Silhouettes

I had a good starting point with all the reference but I needed to turn this into some actual ideas, the way to do this is with silhouettes but before I started my own I looked for some examples online and I found a Feng Zhu video which really helped me.

Once I had done a few the ideas really started to flow, not all of them are great but at this point it doesn't matter, they only take a few minutes each. I'm not sure why but I gave most of them weapons, when I could have imagined them in any situation possible, which is something I should consider for any future open briefs.

Still following the Feng Zhu video I selected a few of my favourites and worked into them more, looking back I could have selected a few more, like number 4 or 11 as they both stand out from the others.

Design Iterations

Working into the silhouettes was again quite a quick process, as half the work was done. I do think I made these images a little dark, they could have used a levels adjustment but they definitely flesh out the original silhouettes effectively. Off these I chose what character to push forward with, I really liked the idea of the semi-opaque, jellyfish oracle. I didn't move forward with the oracle because of the difficulties of painting the transparent material, and her having to be underwater. I was not confident with painting this so I went with the middle-left, a sea serpent warrior.

Using some quick reference to make sure my anatomy was correct (I hope!) I sketched out variations for this sea serpent warrior. My idea was that these creatures wouldn't be able to craft metal due to being underwater, therefore the majority of their weapons and armor would be scavenged from us or from the environment.

I merged my favourite parts into a final design and added values so I could get ready to play with some colour choices. Colour theory is a huge weakness of mine but I think I have just enough of an understanding to have a go at making a good selection of colours, without making them seem ridiculous. With the final design done I could also complete the orthographics for this character.

The only thing left for me to do now was to create the final piece, I am still not comfortable with my digital painting abilities but I've done as much as I can to make the process easier. I made sure to do some quick thumbs before I started the final and gather reference if I needed, below is a quick WIP of my Photoshop file, showing some of the reference I used.

I started my image with values and added the colour later as I am not confident enough with painting straight in colour. Overall I think this is my best digital painting I've done but I think it lacks some of the expressiveness and mystery of a more professional painting, at the moment I think I am painting far too clinically. To finish off this painting I adjusted the saturation, levels and added a subtle texture in hopes of binding it all together.

Sculpture

Like the 2D side of this project, I learnt from my mistakes during the last character creation task for the sculpting too. This time I made sure to make a sturdier frame so my model could stand up, unfortunately it was still slightly unbalanced but I didn't need to man-handle the model as much.

This time I had to attempt to sculpt some anatomy, and I couldn't hide the facial features behind a beard. I found this a real challenge and it really put my anatomy knowledge to the test.

Compared to the "Interesting Character" project I had a lot more fun with this task, I think this is because I made sure to not repeat the mistakes I made and I also done research to help me improve in the areas that I needed. I found the final 2D piece a little annoying but this is because of a lack of practice I think, something no amount research can improve. I must do more paintings!