Week 6 - Insectoid

This week we were tasked to design an insect-like creature. I started off with the mood board to get some ideas. I looked at both other artists designs of fictional insects as well as insects from the real world.

The thing that struck me first apart from the shapes was that insects have some potential for a lot of very vivid and interesting colours. I noticed many insects are quite similar to the crustaceans we studied before. They have exoskeletons and pointy, hard limbs.

I started off with some basic sketches which as usual I tried to do quickly. In the end I didn't manage to do these very quickly at all, especially compared to the silhouette technique. The advantage though was having more shapes and details to work with from the outset.

Right from the beginning I knew which ones I liked as I was drawing them. It didn't take long into each sketch to realise the general form was interesting. Sketches 1 through 3 were generic and didn't offer anything interesting in terms form or originality. The 4th was quite interesting and went down as one I wanted to pursue. Te others I liked in the end were 6, 7 and 9. Either they had interesting form or a good pose I could work with. I took those 4 forward to give a bit more detail and depth.

This part took me far too long. I was really trying out techniques. For the first one I made the sketch layer white, then on a separate layer coloured it in black. After that I went through the different shades of dark grey as I did previously in other silhouette designs.

The second I tried it a different way round. I kept the black sketch and then coloured the entire thing a medium grey. I then chose the lightest sections and gradually worked in the darker areas. This one took the least time and also looks dramatic, although some of the lighter areas are bland.

The third one I did was number 4. This time I did the opposite to the second one. I went from the darkest areas and gradually worked in the light areas. In my opinion this one looks much more balanced, maybe I just work more naturally with that technique.

The fourth one (number 3), I started with a medium grey then added all the darkest and lightest areas from the beginning. I then spent time blending between them. This one does look good but again took too long for just an initial idea.

In terms of design and which one I would make the final piece I couldn't decide for a while. I did like them all. I decided to rule out number 2 as even though it is an insectoid it was more humanoid-alien than a 'full on insect'. This led me to rule out number 3 too for similar reasons. I felt this one looks too much like a crustacean when I started looking into it's form a bit deeper. This left 1 and 4. I liked both but in the end I felt that number 4 is arguably less interesting that 1. However, 4 has some really cool features and this is the one I took forward.

I added in a lot of block colours. I tried to get that really bright, almost luminous look that some insects have. I wanted it to be a fairly detailed a reflective surface. After that I added all my extra details like textures and blended the colours and added shadows and highlights. I finally added my background and shadow. This is my finished piece.

Due to time constraints this week I didn't have time to complete the orthographic view which I was disappointed about. I learned some valuable lessons during this week however. First I learned my preferred and also fastest method for creating fast initial designs. I discovered half way through that my creature was missing a back right leg. Initially I had presumed the perspective was just hiding it but as I continued further I realised it would be in view. That will just have to go into it's history (Maybe it lives on a particularly hostile planet and has lost it at some point).

I also learned this week that when it comes to designing things, I need to be more creative in terms of what sections I take. For instance, this insect I really like the pose, general form and especially the head. However from the other designs I liked the tusks from number 1, and the shape of the body areas of number 3. I should have redesigned the final piece to incorporate those sections while including the areas I wanted from number 4.

I also learned how to create a quick(ish) shadow by using the Drop Shadow function in the layer styles and the chopping it up and re-positioning it.