For the first week, I was set a challenge to create either concept art of a character or an environment. I had originally planned to create an environment piece that is inspired by a place that I had visited while I was abroad in Hong Kong. I had photographed this picture and used it as a reference as I created my concept art.
To create the environment concept art, I experimented with watercolour brush tools as I wanted to create art that had similar style to Chinese Calligraphy art. Throughout the process, I explored the different tools such as the shape tool to produce straight lines for the barrier.
In order to create the dragon boats, I used a reference of real Chinese dragon boats that are used to compete in Dragon Boat Racing Festivals. As the original reference photograph taken by myself had a regular boat, I wanted to add my own addition to the concept art rather than heavily copying the reference. Rather than using the same colours that the reference image had, I decided to experiment traditional colours that are popular within Chinese culture such as red.
As I was experimenting with a certain colour scheme, I decided to use faint colours to create my concept art. I opted for a murky green for the colour of the sea and used the blend tool to smooth the colours together. As for the sky, I really liked the clouds in the photograph that I had taken, so I wanted to use the same colour scheme and exaggerate it in my concept art.
Furthermore, as the first draft seemed a little empty, I decided to add shadows to the boats and the buildings that were situated at the background of the piece. As I continued drawing, I added the reflection of the clouds onto the water to make the concept art appear a little more realistic.
Once I had completed the environment concept art, I was not happy with the outcome compared to the reference photograph that I had used; therefore, I decided to attempt creating concept art for a character. So to begin with, I had decided on creating a character wearing a traditional style of clothing called “Hanfu” which was worn by the Han Chinese.
In order to begin creating my character, I searched for different reference images that I could use as inspiration for my concept art – until I finally found one that I particularly liked.
[Reference 2]
I took inspiration from the reference image I found and began with a quick sketch of the pose that I had envisioned and decided to use Clip Studio Paint to create my artwork.
During the process of producing my character concept art, I experimented with different brush tools; starting with the default ‘G-Pen’ brush tool to sketch (left).
After creating the initial sketch, I altered the opacity to around 45% so that the outlines of the sketch would not impede my drawing.
Once I had completed the outlines of the drawing, I decided to add colour to my character concept art. Using the reference image as inspiration, I opted to use sage green for the Hanfu layers by using the watercolour brush tool with a custom brush that I had experimented with; this is because I wanted to mimic traditional Chinese artwork which has a calligraphy-looking style in terms of painting.
After producing the first piece of concept art, I wanted to experiment with different hairstyles and accessories for the hair to match.
Following on from the first 3 designs, I then altered the facial expression and the tone of the skin.
Character Concept Art: Design 2
Following on from my previous drafts, I felt quite unsatisfied with the designs; therefore, I decided to draft another concept art that had similar characterisations from my previous drafts. I wanted to maintain the Chinese inspired concepts to express the beauty of my culture through art, which is when a book that I had read popped into mind called “Daughter of the Moon Goddess” which is inspired by the popular Chinese mythology and the legend of the moon goddess “Chang’e”.
Based on the story about the main character, Xingyin, she is described to be a powerful archer and in order to encapsulate her character into my artwork, I decided to use a reference image of an archer with a bow (left).
Final Outcome
Overall, I was quite satisfied with my final outcome of the character concept art compared to my initial design ideas. There are a couple things that I would change and improve on in future concept artworks. For this concept art, I would alter the colours of the characters’ outfit and add lighting to the image so that the colours of the character would appear more dim due to the light emitting from the arrow.
Compared to the environment concept art, I was much happier with the character piece as I had a clear idea in mind of a character based on a book. As there were limitations set for the characters, in comparison to the environment art, I was able to freely add to the piece as the reference used was quite plain, so I struggled to create a piece that felt coherent.
For improvements, I will practice anatomy of humans so that in future pieces of character concept arts, I will have the knowledge and understanding of the structure of humans so that the outcome of my characters are anatomically accurate as possible. I would also like to have created a moodboard to explore different ideas when creating an environment concept art, so that I am able to freely experiment with different ideas that work well together.
[1] enzozo (n.d) Dragon boat. Chinese dragon boat festival [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dragon-boat-chinese-festival-1115243048 [Accessed 27/9/2022].
[2] TheHanfuStory (n.d) THS | Hanfu | Sage (Green). Available online: https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1181014567/ths-hanfu-sage-green?variation0=2493946613 [Accessed 27/9/2022].
[3] Sue Lynn Tan (2022) DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS is out in the UK today – my Chang’e inspired fantasy of immortals, magic and love! I am holding the book of my heart in my hands, and am so grateful 💖 [Twitter]. Available online: https://twitter.com/SuelynnTan/status/1484136384604479493?t=-wtXJ1PfDI-4V9Ozs5Z06Q&s=19 [Accessed 7/10/2022].
[4] YAY Media (2013) a37359c1-04fc-4090-baa3-82b08b960516 [Photograph]. Available online: https://www.alamy.com/a37359c1-04fc-4090-baa3-82b08b960516-image269929602.html?imageid=9F98EDF1-11A9-46DC-9245-F21F643BE039&p=255710&pn=4&searchId=cae822e455dd88d61286a3d9b022f592&searchtype=0 [Accessed 27/9/2022].
