| Candidate Name | Roxanne Henderson-Payne |
| Pathway | 2D digital art |
| Project Title | Dragon’s flower |
| Section 1: Review |
Before starting at college I focused mainly on traditional art, at that point I had come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be able to go into industry as I didn’t know a Games Development course existed, I thought for concept art I would have to go into a computing university course and then go into an art university course straight after. The idea of having to do two degrees worried me so I put down the idea of going into the games industry and focused on either teaching english to foreign students or going into illustration.
I wasn’t able to play many games during my GCSEs (I used to play crazy amounts but I gave up on it for the grades I needed) I did however still gravitate towards Nintendo’s games (Mario, Splatoon, Zelda and Animal crossing), Sonic the Hedgehog (My favourite game series) and Crash Bandicoot due to how easy they are to enjoy and get into, along with the unique characters, environments and art styles they offer (an inspiration for my art work).
(Promarker piece, 2018)
When finding out about the current course I am on I realised I could still get into industry that way, the course teaches technical skills, industry expectations and structure of industry and the skills I would need to progress to university.
The biggest thing I have gotten out of the last two years is digital art, I was doing just traditional art before. Because I chose this course, I have made the big jump to digital art. This was very natural and in a way a needed progression in my art journey, digital art has a lot more money, convenience and in a way, sometimes ease that traditional art doesn’t have sometimes.
I’ve been able to develop a style that I really like and I can also cater towards different styles as well. I’ve developed a huge love of environment painting due to last year’s FMP (Forgotten), environments are now one of my favourite things to paint digitally. The style I like to work with is a painted style that takes influence from when I did traditional art. I have transferred a lot of my traditional skills over to digital and have l learnt new ones on the way.
(Oil pastel colour study, 2018)
(Cacti diorama test pieces, 2019)
(Cyberpunk character design, calarts/japanese style inspiration, 2020)
Being able to study games development and still having the opportunity to create a career I have always wanted means everything to me. I’ve wanted to go into art since I was four and I have wanted to go into concept art since I found out what a concept artist is (when I was 11), I have doubted myself and whether or not I can achieve what I’ve wanted for a really long time for a range of reasons, the course has given me confidence in both myself and my work to the extent where I am happy but I also know that I can grow and improve, which is exciting.
Digital painting, or more specifically, my digital painting style that I use in personal work along with the Western project is something I have chosen to show and use in my FMP for both the creatures and the environment. I worked on this style over the Summer, taking inspiration and techniques from my traditional work.
When it comes to my future, I still don’t know where I’ll end up, but I do have aspirations and ideas.
Short term I would like to get into my first university choice (Staffordshire), possibly get some industry work experience if possible while at University and get good grades at University.
Long term I would really like to get into the entertainment industry (The university I want to go to does concept art for film and games so I could do both), I would really like to make enough money to live and also have a disposable income after several years. I would really like to have a family in the far future and be able to balance a career and family life.
| Section 2: Project Concept |
My idea is called “Dragon’s Flower”, it will be about a magical and peaceful forest filled with nature inspired creatures, the spirit of the forest is a dragon made from leaves, flowers and other natural elements. While dragons typically represent chaos I thought it would be nice if it could embody peace and order. The spirit of the forest is maintaining peace and protecting the forest from evil tree people that want to destroy the forest and put themselves in as trees.
It will include rich, natural colours with my own painted style. The creatures will be all nature bases, so the animals will have leaves, flowers and twigs all layered up. The best way for me to explain this is like the animal design from Rare’s “Viva Pinata” (2006) and how the tissue paper is layered up on the models, only it will be leaves, grass, flowers and twigs.
The colours will include things like greens, blues, pinks, yellows and some purples. Of course it may not be limited to these colours but this is a general idea for what I want to do colour wise.
The art style for my project (both my environment piece and creature paintings) is inspired by my own digital painting style. The creature won’t have line art but shading and lighting will define the shapes and forms of the creatures. I would like to add a little more depth and texturing than I usually do to make my scene a bit more interesting.
My idea links to the theme because the spirit of the forest along with the creatures and tree people all represent order and chaos.
The Dragon represents and protects peace in the forest and preserves the order. They protect the smaller creatures of the forest and maintain their safety.
The tree creatures represent chaos, they are disrupting the peace in the forest and wish to replace the forest (peace and order) with themselves (chaos). It is about the conflict and contrasts between order and chaos.
I will be creating a large creature design (The Dragon), the design will have one main painted pose, and a break down of what makes up the dragon (Flowers, branches and leaves), the second creatures (the tree creatures) will be across one sheet with three different variants of the tree creatures. The different variants will include different colours and design structures.
The small creatures of the forest won’t have turnarounds or breakdown. Due to the fact that they are small and aren’t incredibly important they won’t have detailed breakdowns. There will be 3-5 small creatures, the attention will be put into the dragon, tree creatures and environments so the small creatures will only have a few concepts.
![[Closed] Mothy Pacapillars! by toripng](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/aa4ccfeb-8e9d-413b-8e0b-d389983cae07/dcjyjs9-b068a47f-b315-471e-a179-a05e3a5a726f.png/v1/fill/w_689,h_1160,q_70,strp/_closed__mothy_pacapillars__by_toripng_dcjyjs9-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTcyNCIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcL2FhNGNjZmViLThlOWQtNDEzYi04ZTBiLWQzODk5ODNjYWUwN1wvZGNqeWpzOS1iMDY4YTQ3Zi1iMzE1LTQ3MWUtYTE3OS1hMDVlM2E1YTcyNmYucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwMjQifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.FRTWPKOWK1LbYrIchFRCUg9b0hyTR_MUBkxPek8Mh7M)
The environment will be on one board, it will take up the entire board as a normal piece of art, similar to my fmp work from last year. It won’t be an enclosed diorama but rather a landscape environment painting.
What software/materials are you going to use?
To create my digital art I will be using adobe photoshop, to create the painted look I will be using a mix of wet and dry medium brushes in photoshop, on top of this I may look into texturing effects like what I did in my cyberpunk project, Anya Butler (One of my favourite Youtubers) made a very insightful texture video which has really helped me.
As well as this, I may go back to doing my initial concepts and ideas on paper traditionally since I find quick sketching on paper a lot more convenient than digital sketching.
| Section 3: Evaluation |
In order to keep track of my thoughts and ideas, notes will be made on how I feel about concepts I have made and I will show the work flow and changes in my ideas to show a clear and understandable chain of thought. That way when I look back at my work and write it all up in my development log, I am able to understand what I was thinking and possibly elaborate on it in the description.
During the design and ideas generation I work through my thoughts to understand why an idea isn’t working or why I don’t like it so that I can sit down and think of how I can improve it and make it better while designing.
As well as this I will reflect on both peer and tutor feedback between interim deadlines to improve my work before assessment.
To evaluate my work throughout the project I feel that the peer and tutor review system along with my own reflection of my work to figure out how I can improve my work. This will be documented through my word press development log and artist notes in my sketchbooks so that all of my evaluations are up to date and accurate.
The evaluation of my final product will be done by me reflecting through the whole process of my work from start to finish, this will include me looking through my workflow and process of my creature and environment design: Did it meet the brief? Did I achieve the style and colours I wanted? What would I change? What worked? Questions like that are how I will reflect on the whole product along with feedback from peers and tutors.
My decision making will be recorded through my wordpress, I will need to write about the decision being made, the pros and cons of both and why I made the choice I did. Decisions will be seen through my art flow and artist notes as well but they will be expanded upon in my blog.
How you will you document changes to your ideas as your work progresses?
Despite planning our projects out we will almost always alter our ideas throughout the project as they may not be going to plan. It is okay for our work to change throughout the production process but it is important to justify why the idea was changed during the project. Whether that’s because the colours aren’t working or the style isn’t looking great it can be changed, but I will need to justify and write about how and why the element isn’t working and how I will change it.
| Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format) |
List your initial research sources, both primary and secondary, that you intend to use.
These are my intended primary and secondary sources of research for the project. Bare in mind that this may change over time throughout the project:
Primary research:
- Books, these may include the how to train your dragon art books, story and picture books that depict dragons (Waterstones has a range of books).
- Films, these can include how to train your dragon, Pete’s dragon, Shrek, Mulan and Sleeping Beauty
- Tv shows may include Game of thrones, Merlin and My little pony
- Games may include, dragons lair, the Spyro series, Skyrim and the how to train your dragon game.
- Own photos and outings that supports work
- Examples of leaves, flowers and twigs
- Surveys
- Books from libraries
Harvard reference formats for proposed media:
How to train your dragon. (2010). [DVD] Directed by D. DeBlois/Sanders. U.S.A: Dreamworks.
Pete’s dragon. (2016). [DVD] Directed by D. Lowary. U.S.A: Disney.
Shrek. (2001). [DVD] Directed by A. Adamson/Jenson. U.S.A: Dreamworks.
Sleeping Beauty. (1959). [DVD] Directed by C. Geronimi. U.S.A: Disney.
Game of Thrones. (2011). [DVD] Directed by D. Benioff. United Kingdom: HBO.
Merlin. (2008). [DVD] Directed by D. Moore. United Kingdom: BBC.
My little pony. (1986). [DVD] U.S.A: Hasbro.
Dyer, R. (2020). Dragons Lair. U.S.A: Don Bluth.
Spyro. (1998). U.S.A: Insomniac games, Traveller’s tales, Toys for Bob,.
Skyrim. (2011). U.S.A: Bethesda Games.
How to train train your dragon. (2020). U.S.A: Activision, Blizzard.
Secondary research:
- Websites such as Deviantart, Instagram, Reddit and Dragon Forums online for research
- Youtube
Harvard references for websites:
| Project Action Plan and Timetable | |||
| Week | Date Week
Beginning |
Activity / What you are intending to do – including independent study | Resources / What you will need to do it – including access to workshops |
| 1 | 03/02/20 | Initial research and activities like meanings, mood boards, mind maps and ideas | Pinterest, Books (How to train your dragon, Brave, Character design books). |
| 2 | 10/02/20 | Finishing up initial research and ideas, writing up proposal for final idea and collecting research sources (Primary and secondary)
Starting up developed research for project, includes mood boards, photos, books, samples and tests |
Pinterest and books, proposal base (Google drive), cite this for me for harvard references.
Gardens, forests and locations |
| HALF-TERM
17/02/20 |
Continuation of developed research, includes mood boards, photos, books, samples and tests | Pinterest and books, Gardens, forests and locations | |
| 3 | 24/02/20 | INTERIM DEADLINE 1 –
CONTEXT & RESEARCH Task 1 & 2 – 28/02/20 – 4pm Finish off developed research if not finished, start ideas generation of environment . |
Pinterest, books, gardens, forests and locations.
Sketchbooks, pens, pencils, photoshop, photobashing, silhouetting |
| 4 | 02/03/20 | Carry on with ideas generation environment, include:
|
Sketchbooks, pens, pencils, photoshop, photobashing, silhouetting |
| 5 | 09/03/20 | Carry on with ideas generation, move onto creature design. Include:
|
Sketchbooks, pens, pencils, photoshop, photobashing, silhouetting. |
| 6 | 16/03/20 | INTERIM DEADLINE 2 –
PROBLEM SOLVING Task 3 – 20/03/20 – 4pm Finish off ANY ideas gen that hasn’t been completed in the event that there is outstanding work both in creature and environment design. |
Sketchbooks, pens, pencils, photoshop, photobashing, silhouetting. |
| 7 | 23/03/20 | Begin painting, sketching and planning final product layouts, stark with environment painting first (Will be using lens blurred environment on backgrounds for creature sheets.) Environment should take ONE week at most! | Photoshop, Maybe sketchbooks for sketched plans, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. |
| 8 | 30/03/20 | Start creature paintings, start with Dragon, do the main pose and breakdown of design.
Do shading, lighting and possible texturing |
Photoshop, sketchbook for planning, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. |
| EASTER BREAK
06/04/20 |
Carry on with creature paintings, move onto tree creatures
|
Photoshop, sketchbook for planning, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. | |
| EASTER BREAK
13/04/20 |
Carry on creature paintings, move onto small creatures.
|
Photoshop, sketchbook for planning, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. | |
| 9 | 20/04/20 | Finish off ANYTHING that is still standing in final products.
This includes:
Start writing evaluation |
Photoshop, sketchbook for planning, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. |
| 10 | 27/04/20 | INTERIM DEADLINE 3 –
PRACTICAL SKILLS & PRESENTATION Task 4 & 5 – 04/05/20 – 4pm PRODUCT COMPLETED Finish off ANYTHING that is still standing in final products. Start writing evaluation |
Photoshop, sketchbook for planning, reference from pinterest and primary research for accurate and good quality pieces. |
| 11 | 04/05/20 | Prepare for exhibition. Help tutors out with displays, hand up flowers, ivy and anything else I will be using for my display.
Carry on writing evaluation, reflect on
|
|
| 12 | 11/05/20 | Prepare for exhibition, Help tutors out with displays, hand up flowers, ivy and anything else I will be using for my display.
Carry on writing evaluation, reflect on:
|
|
| 13 | 18/05/20 | FINAL DEADLINE –
EVALUATION – Task 6 – 22/05/20 – 4pm Finish evaluation, reflect on:
|
WordPress, all of my work created |
Roxanne's Development Blog (Second year) 