I wanted 4 character sheets with unique drawings, and I also wanted to expand my skills at drawing people, so I managed to get my brother to do a few poses for me to draw and use as reference, one in particular I wanted to use as the basis for one of my main characters. Just don’t ask me why he took his shirt off... he’s just like that.
I wanted a more upright stance from this one so i tried adapting it in a way that makes his body and legs longer. Seeing as he weirdly took his shirt off, I was able to study better the different shapes and muscles on the male body, it also helps that he’s very lean.
In this stance i wanted to change it so that he looked a little more upright and a little more bulky, and i also wanted to straighten out his posture so he looked a little more intimidating. This picture was taken at the end of the photoshoot with very little time left so the quality isnt the greatest
‘yThe Trash Goblin is meant to be a humanoid creature who lurks in allyways and blown-out buildings searching for rubbish to hoard and repurpose into weapons, clothes and totems. Trash Goblins are also devout recyclers; he may want to mug you on the street, but will also appreciate it if you don’t use single-use plastic.
This is the earliest sketch I have of the Trash Goblin. I didn’t like the eyes to begin with so I went on a mad tirade to find a more intimidating way to draw the eyes.
Too friendly
Too wonky
Eventually I just got bored and drew him with anime girl eyes
...Until eventually I came across this idea. If I could only get one eye right, I could make the other eye different, so I came up with the idea of giving him one normal and one crazy eye.
The next step was to create a body for him. I began trying multiple ways to elaborate on this goofy-looking sketch which I actually really liked for a long time until I got sick of re-drawing the body over and over that I wanted to try a different pose. Perhaps I should’ve done poses first.
I tried this pose but he ended up looking buff and kind of heroic. I hate it.
I came up with the idea of a creeping, hunched-over Goblin that looks like he wants to stab you. I took direct inspiration from my friend Mat.
It’s also worth noting here I almost changed his name to Milk Goblin as I felt like he could be carrying two milk jugs in his hands.
I wanted to give the Goblin 2 knives he could hold in each hand (not milk jugs), but I wanted them designed that they would look like they were made out of broken scrap metal. I designed the handle to be a bit of broken pipe with a large bolt as it’s pommel, it’s handle wrapped in green garden twine and then nailed to a tarnished shard of scrap metal with notches, uneven parts and scratches across it’s bladed edge.
I also wanted his clothes to be made out of repurposed junk, such as his loincloth being made of old newspapers. How I got the effect of blurred text was by pasting Lorem Ipsum into a text box, converting that text box into a regular layer, merging it with the rest of the newspapers and then wetbrushing over it, bluring the text into the brown paper.
I took inspiration for his shoes from some particularly grubby trainers I found a picture of on the internet. I had to do a lot of mixing of gray on to white in order to give the impression that the white was there to begin with and it gained the scruffy look to it over time. I also refuse to belive that Goblins tie their shoes.
In the end, all I could get was this. I think the issue with why it wasn’t finished is that I am not good at art, and spent a lot of time experimenting and designing with no real finished product.
My project is to create the plot and design for a potential game inspired by classic JRPGs such as Final Fantasy VI and Xenogears, with a storyline and theme based around a struggling system that relies on big corporations to foundate society after a massive economic collapse due to mass expansion by a government that grew too large and greedy to sustain itself. It confronts issues such as the potential exploitation of Globalism to create an underpaid working class, how sweatshops in corrupt and developing countries which allow corporations to produce overpriced goods for low prices are allowed in the current year, and how big businesses are seemingly monopolising society and culture through social media dominance, biased journalism, and mass consumerism. I want to be able to portray these issues in my story for people to look at in disgust, before eventually realising that all of these things are happening in the world around us.
What I want to produce:
4 Character designs for the main characters and members of the party
2 Character designs for the main antagonists
2-3 Designs for enemies and monsters that could potentially live in the world
2-4 3D models for mechanical robot suits that are used by the protagonists
4 Portraits of the main characters
4-6 Designs for company logos with a paragraph explaining their place in the world
Designs for battlefields and menu screens
A few paragraphs of exposition explaining the technicalities of the world
A logo design for my game's title: Savage Reclaim
A Tech Monopoly is an internet-based business such as a social media company or search engine that is so large and continuingly expanding that it’s impossible to find a website or digital product that isn’t in some way related to it. From this definition, a few namely examples of Tech Monopolies come to mind such as Google, Facebook and Amazon.
Google logs around 5.5 million searches and their results each day, and then sells that information to advertisers in order for them to direct their marketing in different ways- but it doesn’t stop there-Google has an impossible amount of users that access their service, and Google are the ones responsible for what search results they give, Google can potentially use this to their advantage by directing users to shareholders, or even create bias against certain political figures.
Facebook logs the data of every one of it’s users to sell that data to advertises which is already immoral for a site that’s whole purpose is to share personal information, but it is also able to creat “shadow accounts” for people who aren’t already on Facebook by associating information from images posted and messages sent in order to create a potential account for someone who doesn’t use the site. Facebook has 2.4 billion active users and moderators with strict criteria on what is and isn’t allowed on their website. If they feel it necessary, Facebook moderators are able to censor political content they disagree with and direct users to political content they find more agreeable.
Amazon is the best online shopping service; best for shipping, returns and prices, yet all of this is off of the backs of underpaid employees in conditions similar to that of a sweatshop, with a hostile environment that encourages complete robotic compliance to the system and even discourages things such as joining workers unions.
All of these things are facts of the world we live in, but nobody seems to care.
Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, what do all of these countries have in common? They are some of the biggest abusers of child labour and sweatshops, making goods possibly in the trillions each year for companies like Disney, Apple and Adidas, costing these companies pittance to pay for labour and materials for them to then sell these products for extortionate price; this is a genuine fact of the world we live in, yet nobody seems to care- in fact, some even consider this necessary.
We live in a world where it’s commonly believed that child labour is necessary.
Ester Arms is an arms manufacturer with a long and prosperous history in the industry. I wanted to make it look like an old-timey buisness logo so I first of all looked into that.
They generally have a circular design with bold and stylised text. Many of the images are designed as vectors too, so I’ll have to try and use Adobe Illustrator.
I also wanted to look at designs for classic gun manufacturers such as the above. All of them have a strangely homely look to them, and also a circular design. So I got to work.
I knew I wanted one gun at the center of my logo: The AK-47. Though not the poshest or exotic of weapons, I wanted to emphasise the scale in which Ester Arms produces weapons, so the most widely produced assault rilfe came to mind. In some war-torn places, an Avtomat Kalashnikova can cost as little as $15. In my mind, the AK-47 represents corruption and abuse of power, so it makes an excellent piece of imagery to use for this company.
I also wanted to come back to the circular design that I found with the older logo designs, so I thought about the idea of creating a wreath, but instead out of used bullet shells and casings instead of leaves.
I began making variations of bullet shells as vector images on Illustrator.
I then wove them into 2 half circles, stylising them to look as though they were stacked up on top of each other in a seemingly random manner.
I felt the two half circles would look too bland simply crossing over one another so I came up with the idea of making two revolvers that I could then weave into the wreath and cross over one another then.
I finished with this, with the additional text: “ESTER ARMS Est. 46562″. I wanted the logo to seem quite homely, and the name “Ester” I’m told sounds like someones Grandmother. Also, I’m told the wreath made of bullet casings look like Islamic text from a distance and some people tell me the whole thing looks like an ISIS recrutement logo, which I had no intention for it to be associated with. I really wanted it to be the kind of thing you have to look closely at to really understand what message I wanted to portray.
Finding inspiration for a money-minded mercenary militia was very difficult. I began looking at old coats of arms.
All of them were a bit too regal for me, but then I found a thread of army insignias.
I didn’t feel that it really worked but I took what inspiration I had and went my own way.
First I came up with this circular design. Reminds me of the american Department of Defence logo. The shape in the middle of the design is the shape of the landmass in which this game is set on. More on that in another blog post.
I think that this could be used as a badge or mark for lower members of the militia to distinguish themselves.
This oval design I think could be put on to the sides of vehicles and armaments as it is larger and more imposing as to stick in the minds of the people it passes by to be either intimidated, or to make them think of a potential business proposal. Perhaps I should add a phone number.
The final design is a more official emblem made to look like something you’d put on soldiers of rank or official documents. The continent in the center has also changed colour to a much more inviting green, distinguishing it from the other designs.
I wanted to design a multi-media company that could fit into a world that’s trying so desperately to return to an economically established position, so I started looking at the simplistic designs of social media logos.
So I came up with this: It was too simplistic.
So I began looking into more elaborate media company logos
I like the professional look to them, but I wanted to make a company that looked more inviting, and encompassed the idea of a media company that unionised everything media, so social media, movies, video games, kinda like Disney or Facebook.
From searching “Unity” on Google, I found a lot of imagery of multiple things merging into a circle, so I decided to use that.
From here I begn sketching ideas
Until I came up with this:
The arrows represent the company’s monopoly on all media, along with the name and font trying to give it a more wholesome and friendly design so that consumers are more likely to trust the company. I made one that can fit with any colour background and one that can fit on white backgrounds with some blue that kind of reminds me of my original design.
I sketched up a design for a slug that robs people at gun point. I felt it would link into the world I am trying to create but also add a theme of much-needed humour as I literally cannot live without humour.
The idea originated from seeing an enemy called an “attack slug” while playing Earthbound and I came up with the idea of a giant slug with a handgun protruding from it’s back. Eventually this idea turned into a slug with two arms and a glock.
I began tracing the sketch from my sketchpad into photoshop as I liked the design.
I needed a better reference to draw the gun, so I traced a picture of a glock i found on Google.
Eventually I finished the linework of the slug and then went on to finish it up with some digital painting.
I added some reflection on the top of his head and on his belly, I also added some see-through slugtrail underneath him.
The enemy sprites in Earthbound show both a satirical and supernatural way, having the party fight aliens and robots along with new-age retro hippies and hula-hooping gangsters. They’re not always meant to be taken seriously.
Enemy sprites for FFVI show off the game’s unique direction into an industrial and steampunk world while still retaining essence of fantasy and magic, combining mech suits and armed soldiers with dragons and monsters.
I don’t want to only be able to draw characters with a single body type, there’s a lot you can tell about a character from their body type and characterisation.
Tall and Skinny has very long and slender limbs and torso, and a very undefined muscle structure with smaller shoulders.
Danny DeVito here has excess weight built up in places like the thighs and upper arms, as well as the face, neck and belly.
Buff is more like a balance between the two but with more defined features, the lower body being drawn more square-like than with any other form. The legs, arms and shoulders are more refined and the width of the shoulders are also bigger.
There are definitely more variations and gray areas I could make with these body types but on the most part, these are the most recognisable and distinct.
I had gotten pretty good at sketching faces after getting art lessons away from college during half term so I began sketching out a random face from my imagination on Photoshop.
Here is an earlier point in progress. I wanted to give him more chiselled facial features as I moved forward.
Eventually I finished off with this. The cheeks were taken in a bit more to accentuate the cheek bones. His expression and his eyes are very simplistic as I was really looking for more of an art style than going in for a realistic depiction.
I was satistfied with this little experiment but I wanted to take it futher and create my own art style to use for future projects. I went on to experiment with digital painting.
I began manually erasing the sketch lines and only keeping the most prominent features which I would then paint over and erase later.
With some help from others I came to blending colour and giving the impression of reflecting light and shadow across his face while erasing some of the unnecessary lines.
Looking back, the eyebrows are actually quite crap as I really just left the original eyebrows from the sketch, and the blending doesn’t really work so I’ll try a lower opacity paint brush next time. He also looks kinda creepy and many have said he looks “overly friendly”, but whatever, I’m getting better.
“There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?”
The film follows Nicholas Cage as the fictional arms dealer Yuri Orlov, a Ukrainian refugee from the Soviet Union to America who decides the only way to make a living during in the world today is to deal arms to anyone who is buying.
The film shows Yuri as extremely morally bankrupt, but the people he deals with are far more corrupt, sadistic and greedy, which almost shows Yuri in a more positive light.
Yoshitaka Amano is an experienced artist who has worked on an assortment of Japanese animation projects, but truly shines through in his personal art style with his commissioned work and work in video games like the Final Fantasy franchise.
His art style is known for it’s vibrant colour and whispy lines, possibly influenced by renaisance Japanese art. He uses watercolours and fine linework to create vibrant and active images with impecable details.
I want to use his character design for Final Fantasy 6 as inspiration for my own work.
The Death of Stalin is a historical comedy based on the mass confusion and power struggle of politicians after the death of Joseph Stalin.
The film takes a satirical and political jab at the greed and black-heartedness of people in a position of power, how they abuse their power for their personal benefit and how willing they are to scheme and backstab their friends and oppositions.
The film also takes a jab at the social conditioning of the Soviet Union, as the main cast over-exaggeratedly weep at the sight of Stalin fallen ill as they must uphold the image of the Soviet government devoted to their glorious leader- even though they all blatantly hated him.
I feel like the depiction of the NKVD Spymaster Lavrentiy Beria was an excellent characterisation. He is old, fat and ugly, yet so imposing, intimidating and really quite creepy.
Experimenting with Male form, positions and actions
My figure drawing was never too good, so I spent the day trying to get it right
I began with researching some of the above examples which I got from the internet and attempted to design a style of drawing off of it.
I started with this first sketch which I then added to tremendously in the end and have no progressional pictures of, but what I did have were some notes along the side of it telling me what to brush up on next. I thickened out the arms, changed the position of the legs and also changed the position of the waist as a big problem I had with characters was making their bodies too long.
Here is a figure I drew immediately after the first one and never really added to thereafter, so it still shows some of the issues the first had before I began changing it. It still retains it’s baby arms, long body and unaltered waist.
Here is a simple sketch and diagram I made to try and get in my mind the proportions and design of how to draw a torso, which is something I really needed help with. I found that drawing the chest as a square and adding the waist, legs and torso on to that made a far more anatomically correct human.
From here I went on to drawing another figure which took a similar design to an example i found on the internet, but still kept in mind the square torso idea I came up with.
I also went back to the first drawing to make some changes and make it into the image you see now.
Finally, I finished up a bored sketch of a creature born of pain and suffering using some of the skills I learned with this study.
Yes he is wearing his underwear over his shoulders.
