A lot of my visual style and design inspiration comes from fantasy genre video games such as Skyrim and World of Warcraft. I knew from the beginning of the project that my model couldn’t be too realistic as she is a fantasy elf-like character so I wanted to go for a more exaggerated fantasy style. As I said in a previous blog post – I can imagine my character appearing in a comic or a video game, because of this I researched styles that I liked in these categories.
This style was a style that influenced me heavily in the concept art and modelling of my character. The art created by Matthew McKeown (senior concept artist at Blizzard Entertainment) has always inspired my art heavily, I love the exaggerated features but still sort of realistic aspects. I wanted to take some of these aspects into my own character. I tried to do this by creating an exaggerated angular eye and eyebrow and create a sunken in jawline and cheekbones.
Another artist that really inspired me was the concept art for Skyrim drawn by Adam Adamowicz. His designs and concept art are so free and effortless. Again this is an Elf design, so all the features are exaggerated, narrow and angular. I have always loved the design of elves in fantasy games and really wanted to translate similar features on to my character. Adam Adamowicz style really inspired the visual style I went for when modelling my character – a mix between a stylised and exaggerated features and realism. I tried to create this by not making my character too flat, I added a lot of detail into the shadows and highlights of the face and clothes, but I also didn’t try to make my character seem too realistic.
This artist makes quite different art compared to my other references however has a massive role in inspiring the design of my character. This comic ‘Lore Olympus’ follows the romance/drama story of ‘Hades’ and ‘Persephone’ and also follows the other greek gods and goddesses. I love the style that Rachel Smythe uses in this comic it is very free yet beautiful to look at and the characters convey so much personality just from the simple drawings. I wanted to take this into my character too, I wanted her personality to show through the concept drawings and the model itself, I tried to do this by exaggerating her features so she was easily recognisable yet also you can tell immediately from looking at her that she is supposed to be intimidating. ‘Hecate’ is a character from this comic, she is a best friend of Hades, she talks sense into him and slaps him when he does wrong. She is a strong female character wearing a suit and tie, similar to my character. I wanted my character to be similar to this, she is charming yet also very strong and intimidating. I tried to incorporate these features into my final model, I tried to convey her personality in the modelling of her face.
Overall I feel that these artists really influenced the look of my final model and character. The thing I like most about these artists and inspirations is that they all show personality in their concept art, I really wanted to make sure that my model had enough emotion and character.
References:
Adamowicz, Adam, 2008. High Elf Fem [digital drawing] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/47857688@N08/6877526985/in/album-72157629321466509/ [Accessed 22 December 2021]
McKeown, Matthew, 2018. World of Warcraft Night Elf NPC Concept [digital drawing] Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/b6XKm [Accessed 22 December 2021]
Smythe, Rachel, 2019. Lore Olympus Episode 49 [comic panel/digital drawing] Available at: https://www.webtoons.com/en/romance/lore-olympus/list?title_no=1320&page=15 [Accessed 23 December 2021]