Final Week: Model Sheet and Self-Evaluation

I feel like I've gotten better at the colouring aspect of digital painting but there's still a lot to do, but I am happy with how this project turned out overall.

As this is potentially my last project of university, not only of just this year, I would like to use this time to reflect on the experience as a whole. I've watched my classmate complete amazing things, and improve so much, and I feel like I've been at a stand still for most of these 3 years. I understand that you're your own worst critic, and perhaps I didn't put in as much time as others because of the time I've lost due to my mental health but I can't say I haven't gotten better. I may not have improved as fast or as much as others but I have seen growth in my art and in myself through these years.
In these 3 months of this project, my timekeeping, whilst still not good, has improved. My ability to judge how much I can do and get done has improved, and my confidence as improved. I didn't get everything I wanted to do done but I have been more proud of what I've been able to do than I have ever been. I've been able to keep up relatively well with my blog posts and my mood and overall, it's been good for many aspects of my life.

I may not have an idea of what I want to do or be able to get somewhere as soon as others, but I genuinely now believe that I can carry on with art and do well, I'll keep practicing and hopefully doing well.

Final Week: Weapon Iterations

You'll see single blades here as I only need to design one when they're twin blades. I really liked the idea of a curved blade, which would have reflected the fangs of a snake but also the mechanical and rusty-kind-of look that the straight blades gave. I wanted to play with the colours and shape of the blade changing on account of one of the abilities of the rogue doing extra damage so decided to have, instead of a metal blade, a energy powered/formed blade.

I narrowed it down to two knives I liked from the initial studies and created some iterations on those - focusing on the handles and the shape of the blades. There couldn't be too much design on the blade due to their material and changing nature, but I wanted the blade to be a bit more different than a standard one. There were eyes on the handles, furthering the snake likeness of the knives. A button was created on the handle as it was a tech blade - with the energy changing with a press, rather than magic. I picked aspects of previous designs I liked and put them together for the final design.

The direction of the blade was changed due to how the character would hold it. I imagined her jumping up and plunging the curved blade into her enemy, like snake fangs into her prey, and the original blade just didn't work. Here I played with colours and it was actually extremely hard and I don't think I've don't such a good job. I've stayed with a similar colour scheme to the outfit but I think it might be a bit too dull and just doesn't actually have a wow factor, but I didn't know how to make that happen.

BA3b - Week 15 - Character Sheet

I am pretty behind but I'm working and doing things I like and I'm quite happy with, I may have to scrap the hero painting in the environment part so I can do the model sheet better - it just depends on how long it'll take me to paint things but I want to do this well. I am halfway through the weapon iterations and I've started the model sheet.

I am quite happy with this character sheet as it's the first time I've done expressions like this - it could do with some work but I've stepped out of my comfort zone and tried something new and I'm pretty happy about how it's turned out and what I've managed to do, even if it's not as good as it could be, it's built a foundation from which I can have more confidence to do more and improve on. I tried a new style and it's a much different one than I'm used to so I'm glad for the practice on new things.

BA3b - Week 14 - # HEX CODES

There's not enough done to show, I'm just going to carry on working, and note down some of the base HEX CODES I'll need to remember for my pieces

Hair
Base - #17110c
Highlight - #5e0c29

Cloak
Hood/Top Half/Gloves - #0e0e16
Bottom Half - #050713
Highlights - #822220
Armour - #04050f

Top
Breast - #201a2f
Over/Under - #100f19
Highlights - #822220

Skirt
Over - #201a2f
Under/Belt - #100f19
Highlights - #822220

Legs
Base - #131925
Snake Skin

Boots
Base/Top - #0e0b13
Soles - #08080f
Back - #0e0b10
Highlights - #822220

Colours Shown on Model Sheet
Hair Base - #17110c
Hair Highlight - #5e0c29
Top Breast/Skirt Over - #201a2f
Top Over-Under/ Skirt Under-Belt - #100f19
Clothes Highlights - #822220
Legs Base - #131925

Timetable
Weapons Iterations/Colours
19/05/2018
Model Sheet
21/05/2018
Submission PDFs
27/05/2018

Hero in Environment if I have time after Model Sheet

BA3b - Weeks 11, 12, 13 Recap: Slowly Working - pt. 4 - Hair Colours

I picked the few I liked and coloured the base with 4 of the basic hair colours and then used 5 different colours onto 5 different hairstyles to test out colours combinations and where I'd like to highlight them.

This 6th piece is the hairstyle and colour combination/position I had chosen, plus a darker version of the green I had earlier as I thought the original one was far too bright against the black. This shows the same highlighted areas but just in the different colours I liked to help me make a decision I could then move ahead with. The one I had chosen is the red on black, so there's a connection with the clothing and the type of snake I wanted to represent - green was far too out of place and there would have been too much blue had I chosen a blue/purple highlight.

BA3b - Weeks 11, 12, 13 Recap: Slowly Working - pt. 3 - Hairstyles

Here there are the front and backs of the most basic versions of different hairstyles I wanted my character to have. I experimented with long, short, straight and curly hair with different style fringes, or ponytails etc. I then picked a few and created some small variations of each of them. I wanted to go with something with a plait so it represented a snake, subtly. I wanted a hairstyle which would be easy to add colour to a certain area and make it look good

BA3b - Weeks 11, 12, 13 Recap: Slowly Working - pt. 2 - Clothes

I began with just doing block colours and changing the hues just so I got a bit of an idea of what colour I wanted as my base, then played with the lightness and contrast, while adding more notes for idea and choosing between those.

After picking the shades and small things, I experimented with both colours and adding highlights to the clothes with the different colours.

It was pretty hard to see the details so I made two of them lighter so it would be clearer to me which parts were which and where the patterns were. This was just for the reference to me and also a way to see the different colour combinations and where they were too.
These last two sets of designs were just experiments of where I wanted the clothing highlights to be, I'd mix and match them once I'd seen how it each part looks, again, I created a lighter version to not only see the colours better, but also to see if a generally lighter colour would work.
The back took far too long for me to start doing, so this part took longer than expected and lost me a few weeks but it was pretty simple for the patterns.

BA3b - Weeks 11, 12, 13 Recap: Slowly Working - pt. 1 - Revised Schedule

I will be posting these week recaps in different parts over the next few days - I am the slowest and worst worker there ever was...

I'm just going to keep working when I can instead of worrying so much about the deadline and getting enough done, and I need to make sure I just work instead of trying to make everything good and perfect the first time around - I should have done this a while ago.

I've received an extension and my new deadline is Tuesday 29th May.

07/05/2018 - 13/05/2018

07/05/2018

- Clothes colours
08/05/2018

- Weapons iterations/logos* and colours/ 'animations' *(Not necessary) 10/05/2018

- Character expressions

- Character movements - running, attacking, crouching, jumping, abilities / 'animations'

- Character Sheet - expressions, movement, attacking* *(Character Sheet may need to be just expressions)

14/05/2018 - 20/05/2018

Model Sheet - front, details and weapons (reference guide) #hex colours

21/05/2018 - 27/05/2018

Hero painting in environment

29/05/2018 - Submission