✧Harmony✧

Module 2 (Click the hashtags to view the related posts for each module//topic)

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Step By step:

I designed another character version of myself. But I decided to save the basic progression of each step to show how I do my work. I start off by doing a basic outline of the head, & simple features. Afterwards I begin to add more significant detail. Then I begin to fill in with the foreground colours & proceed to build more colours on top of the first layer. After completing the most important steps & go over the lines on the face & replace bold black outlines with shade colours to make it blend more & so it looks realistic. I then fill the portrait in so theres no patchy spot & add the final details. And to finish it off I add a fitting background colour.

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Character Rendition of Self 2:

Decided to design a less “evil” character version this time around & went with an elven theme. I changed the shapes of the eyes to make them bigger and pointier. I elongated the ear & added no eyebrows. I also made the hair sleeked back to emphasize the almost alien look. I gave the background a bit more character compared to the last one to make it fit better with the portrait.

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Finished Character Rendition of Self:

Following on from the last post; After completing the basic of the portrait I wanted to take it further & thought to try colour in the sketch & try add some shading to it. After filling it in block colours I then began to add the shading tones, which were just a few shades lighter or darker than the basis colours of the features. After adding some of the final touches I decided to change the background as it no longer felt fitting to the more darker path I had took the drawing down. Based off of video-games I’ve seen & played this “character” fits more vampire/oldtime/roleplay games, such as Elder scrolls, Skyrim, even some MMO’s. It suits the aesthetic some games go for, being: fitting to real world appearances but adding minimal features to give it a more mythical & fictional look.

I’m happy with how this piece ended up turning out & definitely feel the need to incorporate more colour into my pieces to help take my work that one step further.

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Character Rendition of Self:

For this piece I decided to envelop myself into the game world. I took primary imagery of myself in different poses & picked the “best” one out to use for reference. I opened up FireAlpaca & began to draw the basis outlines of the face, hair & features. I ended up liking the way the non-joint lines looked & decided to incorporate into the piece. I decided to add some artificial features to the face to give it that other-world look. I referred back to my sketches from last term when I transformed myself into a demonic being. I added some horns to give off a more darker tone & sharp tusks to make myself look more “barbaric” so to say.

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Sexual Appeal In Games:

It’s no secret: sex sells. But there’s a difference between creating appealing, marketable characters and oversexualising them to the point of gratuitousness. The problem is, the line between them is increasingly hard to define. Online debates around characters in Overwatch, Street Fighter, Metal Gear Solid and more show conflicting views of what does and doesn’t need to be censored. In this climate, designing a heroine for your game might seem a risky business, so how do you ensure you avoid offending your audience?

First, says Rhianna Pratchett – the writer behind the Tomb Raider reboot – we need to establish the difference between ‘sexualised and ‘sexy’. “Sexualisation is not inherently a bad thing,” she says. “Context is the key. For me, ‘sexy’ is based on the character, while ‘sexualised’ is about the audience. 

“Sexy is more than just looks – it’s about attitude, personality and a certain amount of owned power. Sexy transcends gender, age and sexual orientation. Meanwhile, sexualisation tends to about be about the perceived desires of an audience. And characters can be both. Take Bayonetta, for example: she is definitely sexualised, but at the same time owns her sexuality. It’s very much part of who she is, she is in control and that’s sexy as hell.”

In contrary to Rhianna; I disagree with her points. Being sexy & sexualized is the same thing. To be sexy others have to see you that way; so isn’t that played into sexualization? Female characters in games are constantly depicted as”bodacious” & barely clothed, but why? Well as mentioned by most game developers, SEX SELLS and that includes pixelated beings on a screen. But when will this normalized propaganda end? aslong as sexualizing female characters is used to sell, the more objectified women become. A female body in old art history was painted to show its natural beauty & females paint themselves nude to empower them, to show that they are the owners of their body. Even in modern day games a male & female can wear the exact same gear yet the female always has to either have; her butt, chest, or legs out. But the male is always fully covered. It serves no practicality realistically. But logic doesn’t matter when it comes to a female, no matter the danger they must wear minimal clothing compared to their male counterpart. Aslong as this stands over-sexualization will exist. Especially in Asian mmo’s the female characters are depicted as little girls (Lolitas) and they were short dresses with their bottoms hanging out for no apparent reason. They’re sexualizing a girl who hasn’t even hit puberty yet, but thats okay because it “sells”. You shouldn’t give morals a price tag. Don’t degrade females for existing. Females exist to procreate with males & give birth to children to repeat the cycle of life. Not to live a life of torment, of feeling the need to cover up to hide yourself. To be named a tease because you wore something more revealing than usual. This isn’t a mans world so why should the video-game world be on.

[harm1ny-blog]

Research - Brutal Legend:

Brütal Legend is an action-adventure video game with real-time strategy game elements created by Double Fine Productions and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was released during October 2009 in North America, Europe, and Australia. Though Brütal Legend was originally to be published by Vivendi Games prior to its merger with Activision, Activision dropped the game from its portfolio after the merger. It was later picked up by Electronic Arts, though Activision and Double Fine brought counter-lawsuits against each other over publishing issues. The issues were settled out of court.

Tim Schafer, the game's creative director, was inspired to create the game by his own past musical experiences. The game features the character of Eddie Riggs, voiced by and modeled after Jack Black, a roadie who is transported to a fantasy world inspired by the artwork of heavy metal album covers. Eddie becomes the world's savior, leading the down-trodden humans against a range of supernatural overlords using a battle axe, his Flying V guitar that can tap into the magical powers of the world, and a customisable hot rod.

The game, a hybrid of the action-adventure and real-time strategy genres, includes Stage Battles in both the single-player and multiplayer mode, where the player must command troops to defeat their foes while defending their own stage. In addition to Black, the game features voices of heavy metal musicians including Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford and other celebrities such as Tim Curry, as well as more than one hundred metal songs selected by Schafer for inclusion in the game.

Brütal Legend was generally well received by game reviewers, praising Schafer's vision and writing of the heavy metal-inspired world, and the performances of the voice cast, particularly Black and Osbourne. Some felt that the hybrid gameplay of action and real-time strategy games did not mix well, however, blaming console control limitations and missing features normally found in games of either genre.

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Research - Alien vs. Predator:

Aliens vs. Predator is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments, the team behind the 1994 Atari Jaguar game and the 1999 Microsoft Windows game and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is not a sequel to the previous game Aliens versus Predator 2, but a reboot based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise, a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. The game also incorporate elements of the two live-action films, Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007).

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Research - Alien:

Alien: Isolation is a survival horror game developed by Creative Assembly and based on the Alien science fiction horror film series. It was published by Sega and released for Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One in October 2014. The game is set 15 years after the events of the 1979 Alien film and follows Amanda Ripley, daughter of Alien protagonist Ellen Ripley, as she investigates the disappearance of her mother.

Unlike previous game adaptations of the Alien franchise, Alien: Isolation places an emphasis on stealth and survival horror gameplay, requiring the player to avoid and outsmart a single alien creature with tools such as a motion tracker and flamethrower. It was designed to resemble the original Alien film rather than the more action-oriented 1986 sequel Aliens, and features a similar lo-fi, 1970s vision of what the future would look like. The game runs on an engine built from scratch to accommodate technical aspects such as atmospheric and lighting effects and the alien's behaviour. Creative Assembly intended to make Alien: Isolation a third-person game, but used first-person to create a more intense experience.

Alien: Isolation received generally positive reviews and had sold over two million copies by May 2015. Critics praised the game's retro-futuristic art direction, sound design, and the alien's artificial intelligence, but criticised its story, characters, and long runtime. The game won several year-end awards, including Best Audio at the 2015 Game Developers Choice Awards and Audio Achievement at the 2015 British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. Several downloadable content packs were also released.

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Research - Halo Franchise:

Halo is a military science fiction first-person shooter video game franchise managed and developed by 343 Industries, a subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios. However, Halo was originally developed by Bungie Studios. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and an alliance of aliens known as the Covenant. The Covenant, led by their religious leaders called the Prophets, worship an ancient civilization known as the Forerunners, who perished while defeating the parasitic Flood. The central focus of the franchise builds off the experiences of Master Chief John-117, one of a group of supersoldiers codenamed Spartans, and his artificial intelligence (AI) companion, Cortana. Other characters, such as Noble Six from Halo: Reach, are also introduced in the series. The term "Halo" refers to the Halo Array: a group of immense, habitable, ring-shaped superweapons that were created by the Forerunners to destroy the Flood. They are similar to the Orbitals in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels, and to a lesser degree to author Larry Niven's Ringworld concept.

The games in the series are critically acclaimed 1PS considered the Xbox's "killer app". This led to the term "Halo killer" being used to describe console games that aspire, or are considered, to be better than Halo. Fueled by the success of Halo: Combat Evolved, and by marketing campaigns from publisher Microsoft, its sequels went on to record-breaking sales. The games have sold over 65 million copies worldwide, with the games alone grossing almost $3.4 billion.

Strong sales of the games led to the franchise's expansion to other media; there are multiple best-selling novels, graphic novels, and other licensed products. Halo Wars took the franchise into new video game genre territory, as a real-time strategy game, while the rest of the games in the series are first-person shooters. Beyond the original trilogy, Bungie developed the expansion Halo 3: ODST, and a prequel, Halo: Reach, their last project for the franchise. A high-definition remake of the first game, entitled Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, was released on November 15, 2011, ten years after the release of the original. A new installment in a second series of games, Halo 4, was released on November 6, 2012. Halo: The Master Chief Collection, a remastered compilation of the four primary Halo titles, was released for the Xbox One on November 11, 2014. In October 2015, Halo 5: Guardians was released. In February 2017, Halo Wars 2 was released. In June 2018, the next main installment of the Halo series was announced as Halo Infinite.

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Feral Bear:

A sketch of a bear in a more feral & vicious form based off of the druids in World of Warcraft. Decided to follow on from my previous Minotaur sketch with another feral creature. I wanted to really capture the savagery & viciousness of a bear while giving its lore more depth by incorporating the art of the druids in WoW. I used lighter lines for the overall outline but became heavier handed when doing the claws, bear, mane & emblem on its arm to add more depth to the fur.

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Minotaur Adaptation Sketch:

For the basis I wanted to recreate the Greek mythological being; Minotaur.  In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature portrayed in Classical times with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "part man and part bull". The Minotaur primarily stands in an upright, proud position & is muscular. In comparison I wanted mine to represent the more barbaric side of Minotaur’s than their prideful side. To envision it enraged & flooded with anger. To help me create this I used reference images of Minotaurs & some of the characters in video games to help come to a mid point. I decided to create 2 versions; Plain outline & Filled colour just to appeal more to people by adding some minimal variation. What I liked most about this piece is the emotion I’ve managed to capture in the beings face. You can tell just by glimpsing at this creature the overwhelming emotions it feels & the aggressive aura around it.

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Male Anatomy Sketch:

For this I decided to study the anatomy of the male body to start off with. I thought this would be very helpful for when I do more of my body form drawings. By studying each bodies anatomy it allows me to further myself when understanding the physics of each creatures muscles & movement patterns. Which will allow me to create more realistic stances when designing my characters. Moving forward I will be studying the female form, followed by animals.

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Sound & Audio Art Capturing:

This workshop focused on showing us a different form of Art that only uses sounds/audio. We watched many videos dedicated to this subject to help us understand the art form on a higher level. After watching all the clips we then did a short exercise; we were given a blank piece of paper & some charcoal. We were told to sit in silence for 10 minutes & try to draw all the sounds we heard in that space of time. Mainly no solid objects, but almost doodles. At the end of the session we were given the choice to either go out & audio record some sounds in almost a rhythmic pattern or we could write out a composition that someone else would be able to recreate. I found the session useful & it allowed me to be more open-minded to some other art forms I could attempt to introduce into my work.

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Artist Research - Jessie Wilcox Smith:

Jessie Willcox Smith was an American female illustrator during the Golden Age of American illustration. She was considered "one of the greatest pure illustrators". She was a contributor to books and magazines during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Smith illustrated stories and articles for clients such as Century, Collier's, Leslie's Weekly, Harper's, McClure's, Scribners, and the Ladies' Home Journal. She had an ongoing relationship with Good Housekeeping, which included the long-running Mother Goose series of illustrations and also the creation of all of the Good Housekeeping covers from December 1917 to 1933. Among the more than 60 books that Smith illustrated were Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and An Old-Fashioned Girl, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Evangeline, and Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.

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Artist Research - Michael K. Frith:

Michael Kingsbury Frith is the former Executive Vice-President and Creative Director for Jim Henson Productions. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and varied. Frith began his career at Random House in 1963 as a children's book illustrator and editor. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Beginner Books series, the line of books created by Dr. Seuss. He was also Dr. Seuss's book editor and close personal friend. In 1971, when Random House began publishing Sesame Street books, Frith was named editor and art director of the Sesame series.

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Artist Research - Bárbara Hulanicki:

Barbara Hulanicki OBE is a fashion designer, born in Warsaw, Poland, to Polish parents and best known as the founder of iconic clothes store Biba. Her father, Witold Hulanicki, was assassinated by the Stern Gang in Jerusalem in 1948, and the family moved to Brighton, England. While studying from 1954 to 1956 at the Brighton School of Art, now the University of Brighton Faculty of Arts, Hulanicki won a London Evening Standard-newspaper competition in 1955 for beachwear. She began her career in fashion as a freelance fashion illustrator for various magazines, including Vogue, Tatler and Women's Wear Daily.

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Artist Research - Butcher Billy:

Butcher Billy is a Brazilian artist and graphic designer known for his art pieces and illustration series based on the contemporary pop art movement. His work has a strong vintage comic book and street art influence while also making use of pop cultural references in music, cinema, art, literature, games, history and politics. Often crossing reality and fiction, his projects promote creative concepts that reference fictional characters with real life personalities such as musicians, artists, historical figures and politicians. His work started going viral on the internet in 2012 via social media and since then he has been getting attention online and offline from newspapers, books, magazines and vehicles such as The Guardian/Observer, Rolling Stone, NME, Wired, MTV, and more. His body of work has since been leading to exhibitions in contemporary art galleries in cities like London, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Lisbon and Dubai, and has attracted collaborations with companies such as ESPN, Michael Jordan, Foot Locker, E.Leclerc, British Gas, Billboard and Winsor & Newton.