Environments, Characters

I've been very busy these past few weeks. After not getting into the Spring Show last year I wasn't exactly holding my breath about being accepted this year, so I was blown away to find 6 of my pieces were being shown as well as winning two awards. I've worked really hard over the past year to improve, and it was nice to finally take a moment to enjoy some of the progress I've been making. After I did that for about 30 seconds though I decided to stop being emotional and GET BACK TO DRAWING.

In all fairness, when I think about where I was a year ago versus now I can see that even though I still have so much to improve on I have accomplished a lot. It occurred to me that since I'm trying to find a job I should start taking down the early entries to this blog (seeing as they are horrendous) but I think I'd rather leave them. I think keeping them there serves as an example that you really CAN make a big difference if you work your ass off, and there is no shame in that. No one starts out perfect, and some people have to work harder to achieve results than others, but knowing what sort of person you are and doing what it takes to accomplish your goal is what really matters. This time last year I remember making a spreadsheet of self inflicted homework assignments to complete over the summer - creatures, aliens, vehicles, and an environment every day. I'm grateful that I did that for myself.

Now enough wishy-washy rambles and on with the art!

This is where I got to with the thumbnails from the last post. It's a nice mood piece, but I think that I need to put more effort into creating useful ideas and objects that are good for modeling too. But it was faithful to the thumbnail I chose, and I think it came out reasonably well.

I was playing some Diablo, can you tell?

While my boyfriend was out visiting I decided to do some character work for my thesis. This character is Renee Murong, set in the time period 2150 or so. She is an undercover private investigator posing as an administrative assistant trying to blow the lid off some white collar crime.

I liked this outfit the best.

I like the blue and purple best. I'm worried she came out looking a little too much like Benjamin Huen's excellent character design for Ashley Williams from Mass Effect 3. I'm a Mass Effect fan, and I try to be conscientious of outside ideas contaminating what I'm doing. I just thought that the boots kept her feeling strong, and I didn't want to give her straight heels because it started feeling skanky. I wanted a balance of strong and sexy, because she's assuming a role and has to dress the part. Administrative assistants in any time period need to look professional, but they also tend to be attractive and these were all ideas I tried to hold onto while making the design futuristic.