Computer Arts Practice Semester 2

Returning to Computer Arts Practice (CAP) in semester 2, we have been given an incredibly open brief, essentially allowing us to do whatever we want. The prospect of this is both wonderful and terrifying at the same time. In essence, this is what our fourth year would be like, so it is a good introduction to the idea of being given somewhat free reign over our own projects.

I already know the project I would like to work on; that of a portfolio intended for the company Games Workshop. Games Workshop are a miniatures company whos franchise, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 are of particular interest to me. Many aspects of the hobby inspire me, but for this project, it is the artwork that I shall focus on. One of my potential future aspirations is to join the ranks of the elite artists at Games Workshop or it's sister company ForgeWorld. In particular, I find the art of Adrian Smith, Karl Kopinski, Raymond Swanland, Jon Sullivan and Paul Dainton to be especially influential. Below are some examples of each of the previously listed artist's work:

Adrian Smith

Karl Kopinski

Raymond Swanland

Jon Sullivan

Paul Dainton

With some excellent artwork to get me inspired, the best thing now would be to get straight into producing some images! My plan for this project is to produce a decent volume of sketches, as well as more refined designs and final pieces. I would like to make sure that I do not just focus solely on the inhabitants of Warhammer that I take a particular shine to, but also those that I am far less keen on or interested in. I still feel that it would be prudent to make sure a give plenty of attention to my personal preferences however, as I still need to continue to improve on drawing them too.






To begin the project, I decided to start in familiar territory by choosing the Tyranid known as Deathleaper (a one-of-a-kind species of Lictor) to concept. Over the years, I have been particularly keen on Deathleaper and Lictors in general due to the fact that they are essentially massive alien chameleons that are sent as scouts and assassins and use their ‘feeder tendrils’ to extract information from the brains of their victims. I have never found the existing concepts of Deathleaper to be that stimulating however and I find the model representation of it somewhat lacking too. Thus I decided that I wanted to create my own version of the beast, utilising the already existing material as reference and focussing on making it as it should be, a large yet agile creature that strikes fear into the hearts of even the most determined men. Thus, I created a moodboard of Deathleaper and normal Lictors before I started concepting. Deathleaper is represented by the 2 images at the bottom right corner and the model on the bottom left corner:

With my research done and more readily available at my fingertips, I could move on to sketching out my revamped version of Deathleaper:

As is shown in the concepts that I have done so far, I have spent a lot of time concepting the head of Deathleaper, as I find that that would be the focal point, the part of the creature that should be feared. I needed it to look malignly intelligent but without emotion. A creature engineered to kill and sew terror. I made sure that I stuck to the overarching design that it would have multiple eyes, large mandibles and longer tendrils at its mouth, as well as the standard 5-plate carapace on its head that all Tyranid creatures exhibit. I still need to do some more concepts to revise the design further as there are certain areas that I am not quite pleased with yet and I need to focus more on the limbs. For now I need to have a break to do other coursework, but I think the break will be beneficial, as it will allow me to have to remove myself from the designs and return to them with fresh eyes. Until next time.




 It's been a while, but I have returned intent on producing lots more sketches. I found the time to produce a couple more Tyranid sketches amongst my other coursework.  

The first is a Tyrannofex that I have dubbed 'Tim'. I decided to sketch him as an idea for a conversion of a model I plan to make based on the Tyrannofex from the Tyranid range. The second image is that of a Tyranid Zoanthrope, a powerful psychic creature that is shown deflecting oncoming fire from it's Space Marine adversaries. I am pleased with the composition of the Zoanthrope image.



I decided that I should aim to design something from the Warhammer universe next and focus on something that I am not entirely familiar with or initially keen on. Thus I have chosen to look at Dwarfs and in particular, the members of the race known as Slayers. These disgraced dwarfs make it their life goal to redeem themselves for a past failing by attaining the most glorious death that they can possibly achieve. Thus they throw themselves at insurmountable odds to prove themselves, more often than not, coming out on top. I find this background information, along with the established overarching design of the Slayers to be more appealing the more I research into it. I have created a moodboard that features many images of Slayers, from artwork to models so that I have some good references to base my work on:

I started by producing a couple of very rough sketches just to get into the feel of the designs. I find working so loosely in the initial stages of concepting something very useful for refining the idea later on, as I am more comfortable with the design.

From these rough sketches, I moved on to creating a dwarf template that I could use to produce multiple designs without having to redraw the actual dwarf form itself many times. With a template created, I have decided to design a number of Slayers that focus on particular other races from the Warhammer world, such as the Skaven rat-men, Vampire Counts, Lizardmen and Trolls, as well as a general Slayer, one who has no qualms with slaying whatever crosses his path.  

I found I really enjoyed designing these mad martyrs, the massive beards, mohicans and slaying trophies being a delight to concept. I had anticipated that I would struggle when it came to designing members of a race that I was not at all inclined on in the first place; however after the initial intrepidation, I found the concepts just flow nicely. I also have also decided to design the slayers axes as well, as that is a very important part of their design and their iconic weapon of choice.

I found this part somewhat more challenging, as weapon design is not something that I have taken a lot of interest in, though I know I should and I do appreciate when I manage to produce something I think worthy. 

With the concepts done, I decided to produce a couple of quick compositions using my favourite Slayer, created from the parts of the various concepts that I may take on later and use as a final piece:  

After dwelling with the dwarfs, I want to stay in the realms of fantasy, but this time go for a race that I am both familiar with and find incredibly appealing in both background and visual appearance. Thus, I have decided to move onto the sinister Skaven, a race of rat-men.

I have started the Skaven by producing a few sketches as shown above, just getting into the flow of drawing them again. They are somewhat tricky to draw given that they are humanoid and therefor exhibit many similarities to the human anatomy, but not exactly the same. However, given my fondness for them, I shall endeavour to continue with them. I shall proceed by concepting 2 of my favourite Skaven characters: Throt the Unclean; and Lord Skrolk.

Having concepted the 2 characters, I went on to sketch out a Stormvermin (an elite member of the race, oft used as bodyguards by high members in their society. I decided to base my design on a concept that I had done a few years ago of a Stormvermin from one of my personal favourite clans, Clan Ektrik (a group of Skaven who have a dangerous obsession with lightning).) as well as a pirate captain. I am rather pleased with the characters, though I feel they could be more dramatic in their poses, as just now they feel a bit rigid. They are definitely something that I would want to continue with in the future at any rate. I am very pleased with the way in which the design of the Stormvermin has developed from my initial concept and I like the idea of the pose that I have sketched him in. I would however, like to take more time at some point hopefully to address the anatomical and perspective issues that are present within the image. In particular, the Stormvermin’s entire left-hand side (the side holding the shield), as it breaks up the better perspective given by the right arm holding the halberd. I also seem to have developed an annoying habit of drawing characters with their heads being too big. This can also be seen in the pirate captain sketch. It may be because I try to focus on making the head a focal point and add extra detail to it before I’ve got the overall proportions right. It would be prudent to nip this problem on the bud as soon as possible before it becomes a full-on problem and habit. I’m glad I have discovered this problem now, as it should making realising my mistake before I go too far a lot easier.

As with the dwarf Slayer, I have chosen the pirate Skaven to produce a couple of compositions for, in the anticipation that I may turn one of them into final piece.

Having taken another break from this module to work on other work, I have returned with ideas of things I'd like to sketch out. I'd like to turn my attention to the Orks and Orcs of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer respectively, as well as all the denizens that coincide with them. I find the Orks and Orcs an incredibly entertaining race, filled with character and possibilities, so continuing in my working method, I shall produce some quick sketches before moving onto more thought out sketches.

In the first image, my favourite thing about it is the Ork pilot (wearing the flying hat and goggles) and his buddy Gretchin (with the mohawk). They seem like a proper duo, the mad pilot always over-excited and somewhat dim-witted; the Gretchin resigned to being his co-pilot and having to put up with all his tom-foolery. One of the things I like most about Warhammer is the humour. It is made particularly predominant by the overall gritty atmosphere and exuded majoritally by the more comical members of the world. One such race of creatures that are full of fun are the Gretchin of 40k and the Goblins of Fantasy. In general, they are diminutive and mischievous, though that is not to say that there are not great leaders and formidable forces amongst them. I decided for as one of my ideas that I wanted to go for a cheeky goblin attempting to steal the eggs of a wyvern. Most would agree this a very stupid thing to do, but whether goaded into the act by mates, or just out of sheer foolishness, this Goblin has gone ahead and, rather unfortunately, been caught in the act. I found that creating the Goblin’s facial expression to be particularly amusing. I was aiming for a sort of apologetic and regretful look, combined with a sort of cheeky pleading. The grin of the guilty you might say. I also found it rewarding to give the wyvern more expression, making it less of a mindless beast and adding some cunning to it. It’s perfectly aware what’s happening and its almost smug expression says that it knows the Goblin has no hope. I think it is very important to appreciate the more fun and comical pieces within the Warhammer universe as they can be oft overlooked in favour of glorious battles and knights resplendent in their ornate armour. Adding a goblin stealing said knight’s pouch of money just adds so much more depth and reasoning to the world.

I have a clear idea as to the next image I would like to produce, sticking to the theme of humour in Warhammer and again, focussing on the realms of Fantasy. My plan is to sketch a River Troll that is fishing and his catch has come with a nasty surprise - a mean little Goblin!

I like the idea of such a massive brute attempting to fish and even better if his hard-earned catch is being threatened by a rather non-threatening enemy. It isn’t hard to see that a River Troll could squash and eat a Goblin with relative ease, but what makes this image work is the fact that all the power is in the Goblin’s hands. Again, like the Goblin and the Wyvern, this piece’s success comes down to the facial expressions of the 2 participants. Now, the majority of Trolls are incredibly dim, so the sudden realisation of the Goblin clutching to his fish and threatening him with a glower has caused him to adopt a surprised expression. This, of course would not last long when he realises that he is a monstrous muscle-bound creature with huge fists and a maw full of large jagged teeth, but the important thing here is capturing the moment. That precious moment when the fish is reeled out the water with an extra passenger and the Troll is unsure as to what to do. As the design developed from the first concepts however, the Goblin’s face became obscured and I feel like this is a mistake that should be rectified to bring back the contrast between the two characters and add emphasis to the fact that the Goblin is even there at all, as I feel he gets lost in the image. I would hope to develop this concept into a final piece as it is one of my better images that I have produced I think.



Continuing to stay in the realms of fantasy, I am going to move on to a different race; that of the Lizardmen. Strangely, though I have a fixation with large scaly monsters such as dragons, wyverns and dinosaurs, I have never been that taken with the Lizardmen. I am keen however to give drawing them a shot, as it is something I have very little experience in and as my goal is to practice drawing things that I am not entirely familiar with, this would seem like good practice.

I started out by producing sketches of the various members of the race, from the small intelligent Skinks, to the large brutish Kroxigor and the ancient Slann mage-priests. I found the Kroxigor in particular an exciting creature to draw, with his crocodilian head, muscle-bound body and heavy-scaled back, so I have decided that I would like to take him on and produce a traditional piece using one of my favourite, yet little explored mediums; ink.

For the Kroxigor piece, I again aimed for some humour and arranged for the Kroxigor to be holding aloft a Skaven Clanrat, tongue waving in anticipation, large eye goggling his prize.  To add to this, I have given the image the title ‘Lunch!’ I don’t normally give my work titles, but when I find it appropriate, such as in this situation to add a little extra humour to the piece, then I think it can add a lot and help clarify the scene. After all, I don’t want the viewer thinking the Kroxigor has more on his mind than dinner! I am fairly pleased with how this image has transpired, but there are a few key things wrong with it that unfortunately cannot be addressed now that it is completed with the ink and coloured pencil: mainly, the bad anatomy going on with the left arm of the Kroxigor (the one holding the weapon); as well as the right side of his chest (going towards the arm holding the Skaven). This is something that should have been fixed when I had the chance, before I delved straight into adding ink to the page. I did enjoy using the inks though, but I feel like a lot more practice is required before I can nail getting depth and perspective in the image, as it looks very flat at the moment. Using thinner layers and focussing more on certain areas should help with this. 



By this point, I feel that I have spent enough time in the realms of fantasy and should move over to the 40k universe, as so far I only have Deathleaper and a few Orks to show for my futuristic works. I have decided that, given I have addressed one of my favourite races in 40k, I should visit my least favourite; that being the Tau Empire. The Tau are a race of humanoids that seek to rule the universe for, in their terms, ‘The Greater Good’. They are very clearly influenced by Japanese fantasy and sci-fi culture, as they feature a lot of mechs in their force and are an incredibly advanced race in their technology, especially given that they are one of the younger races in the universe. Very little in the tau forces actually excites me, bar a couple of the mechs and vehicles, but I was determined to give them more of a chance, at least within my art. Worst comes to worst I can always have them being torn apart by Tyranids. 

I chose to start with the pathfinders; scouts of the Tau, as I liked their baggy trousers, for want of a better term. I found them strangely agreeable to draw, which was highly unexpected, as I was sure I would be plagued with problems from the offset. Though I am still not keen on the design of their cloven-hoofed feet, or their strange alien faces, I felt that I could at least appreciate them a bit more for what they are. The idea of a race of technologically advanced beings using supreme firepower and tactics to win battles was becoming more appealing, though they would certainly not replace my preferred races. I also did a sketch of a Stealth-Suit that I am not very pleased with. I find that I'm not very good at drawing mechanized things, such as vehicles, weapons etc. I think this is still a case of practice though, as I'm sure I would get better given enough time and effort. Though my initial foray into the realms of drawing Tau is both amateurish and unskilled, I feel like I could certainly improve on it with a more determined effort. Though I do wonder if it would be necessary for me to be able to visualise all the races in the 40k and fantasy universes, as it more likely that the company would get the best person for the job and ensure that each army is covered by the best artist at that race. So perhaps focussing on a few key races would be better than spreading thin over a number of races, meaning that the ones I am best at would only improve a little and the ones I am worst at would level out, meaning all my work would be very average.   


I will now take a break from Computer Arts Practice to work on other modules, but I plan to work on sketches of Games Workshop's most valuable assets; the Space Marines.

After a first sketch of a Space Marine fighting off a mighty Tyranid Carnifex using only a banner pole, I decided to take a slight off-shoot from regular Space Marines and go down the route of the far cooler (in my opinion) Space Wolves, however. The Space Wolves are still Space Marines, they just also happen to resemble Vikings and they ride to battle on giant wolves! Like Deathleaper for the Tyranids, I wanted to draw one of the special characters from the Space Wolves and thus chose Ulrik the Slayer. Ulrik is a Chaplain, meaning he is a powerful religious figure, inspiring his fellow Marines in battle and smiting his foes with the holy power granted to him by The Emperor (God of Mankind). Even mighty daemons fear Ulrik and would rather face a full force of Space Marines before engaging him in battle. Resplendent in black Terminator armour, Ulrik wears a large wolf-skull mask. He wields a holy crozius and Plasma Pistol as his weapons of choice. I had not seen any art work of Ulrik before I concepted him; solely basing my interpretation on the old model representation. Having now seen the artwork for him, I am somewhat disappointed in my efforts, as the art that is currently used to envisage him in the rulebook for the Space Wolves is truly awesome. I am however pleased with the direction in which my concepts for him are going, showing him to be a powerful figure, striding boldly into battle, crozius aloft, most likely shouting a litany, cursing the daemonic foes around him and inspiring his battle-brothers  to fight all the harder, with increased fervour and passion. I am in particular pleased with the expression of the massive Bloodthirster Daemon to the right of the image, shielding his face from the holy light of Ulrik’s crozius. There is a clear terror in his eyes, even though he has ended the lives of countless beings with little more than a flick of his gargantuan clawed hands. I think, for me, this shows that whilst it is important to get the main focus of the image feeling right, it can often be the other participants in the scene that add to the emotion and tension.

Continuing with Space Marines, I wish to move on to the heretics known as the Chaos Space Marines. They are more than just normal Space Marines with spikes though and feature a huge range of diversity that allows for a great deal of experimentation. Many years ago I designed a Chaos character, but only as a vague sketch. The idea of the character is that he is a Lord of Chaos, a follower of the Chaos God of excess and lust, Slaanesh. He is to wear terminator armour and is a member of the Noise Marines; a group of heretics who delight in extreme noise and use sound as their weapon. This bit of information gave birth to his name, that of Cacophony. He is vain, powerful and cruel. And so I would like to take this character on and turn him into a proper idea. My main focus of this piece will be to come up with a cool character design that I am happy with.

 

I have revamped my character in 2 forms, as shown above: one in resplendent in his Terminator armour, the other as a Daemon Prince. I feel that this is a character I am going to revisit many times over the years, improving and perfecting him until I can’t make him any better or get tired of him and I most definitely plan to use him as a final piece for this module.


I now want to move on to my final pieces, as time really is getting on and I am somewhat worried that I won't be able to get all I wish done. Firstly I am going to return to Deathleaper and finish my design of it so that I can turn it into a digital painting. With most of the design covered, it will be a simple matter of refining certain areas.

The body and limbs of Deathleaper were fairly simple to concept as I knew I wanted to stick fairly closely to the established Lictor design, but adding more claws, spikes etc. to add to the creature’s deadly appearance. If I were to spend more time on concepting Deathleaper, I reckon I would concentrate on the upper mantis-like limbs as I am not entirely happy with the carapace plates that run along the length of it, though I would still want them there, just in a different way. As it is, I must move on to producing compositions for how I will arrange it.

From my sketched compositions, I have chosen one final idea to go with, which I will now use layout paper to go on and refine the design, fixing any glaring issues and removing the sketchy aspect of the drawing before I move on to painting it up. I have opted for a scene in which Deathleaper is lurking atop an eagle statue in an Imperial City.

With my chosen composition drawn out neatly, I can move on to starting my first final piece!

With my painting now complete in both black and white and colour, I can reflect back on it. I like scenes like this, where the viewer can add their own story to the image: Has Deathleaper killed its target?; Is it still hunting?; Has the viewer themselves unintentionally come across the creature and is about to meet an unfortunate end? Is that rain thundering down in the background, or is that mycetic spores expelled from Hive ships in orbit, holding their deadly cargo of Tyranid organisms falling towards the earth, ready to tear the world asunder? I chose to paint this piece in grey-scale first, so as to put emphasis on and give me a better idea of the lighting in the scene. Once completed in grey-scale, I moved on to adding colour to the image, rendering Deathleaper in the appropriate colours of the Hive Fleet it was born from; Leviathan. In the end however, I feel like the grey-scale image has far more impact. It could just be the colours of Hive Fleet Leviathan that detract from Deathleaper being as menacing, but then again, it could just be the way in which I have rendered it. I feel like I didn’t spend enough time adding colour to the piece and know that this is something I would like to return to at a later date to refine it and make it a more powerful piece. I believe the black and white version works and is fine as a finished piece, worthy of Games Workshop perhaps. 

For my next final piece, I have decided to go for one of the Skaven pirate compositions I had sketched out a while back. I have chosen the one in which the Skaven captain is condemning an on-board traitor to a watery grave. A classic ‘walk-the-plank’ scenario. Originally, the victim was to be a terrified Clanrat, most likely judged unfairly for not having tied the ropes properly or something similar. Instead as the idea has developed, I want to change him to be an assassin; the idea being that he had been discovered trying to eliminate the captain and been tied up. As with the Deathleaper image, I shall take the rough sketch and produce a clean version to use as the basis for my painting.

I am pleased with how the concept has developed, especially the Skaven Assassin at the front who seems to have a potential trick up his proverbial sleeve, as there is a blade clasped in his tail, ready to strike perhaps? Inspired by the art of Jon Sullivan, who produces artwork for many of the Games Workshop novels, I have decided to attempt to use photo textures to render the final image. I have used this technique for another module to create an environment piece and that had worked out rather well, so I wanted to try it again, this time involving characters.

Unfortunately I am really not pleased with the outcome of this piece and find it incredibly disappointing to look at, especially given that it took so long to complete (far longer than my Deathleaper painting took). For me, it is mainly the background/environment that ruins the piece and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out exactly what I was trying to do for it. I am however, quite pleased with the captain himself, so I have chosen to take him from the scene and place him on his own and use that as my final Skaven piece:

 

I found the technique of using photo textures somewhat difficult when it came to the characters, but I feel that for one of my first few attempts at it, the outcome is not too bad. I feel like this is simply a matter of practice to improve the technique.

Time is seriously getting on now and I feel like I will only have time for one more piece, as other work is becoming a very pressing matter. As decided earlier, I knew I wanted to finish my Chaos Lord into a final piece and so, as with Deathleaper and the Skaven composition, I shall refine him into a clean image that can be taken into Photoshop and painted up.

I am very pleased with how the character of Cacophony has developed, even from my last sketches of him. I decided to combine aspects from both my Chaos Lord and Daemon Prince versions to make for the best design possible at this point. Though, as I have voiced the opinion, I believe I will continue to use and renew this character many times over in the future. Now it is just a matter of painting him.

I decided that for this, my last piece, I would employ the technique of compositing, so I could add extra details into the background, as though Cacophony is leading an army across the battlefield. I took the images of the Chaos Space Marine Mutilators and Heldrakes straight from the Games Workshop website. Given that Cacophony was the focus of the piece, I made sure that the background and the other members of the Chaos army did not overpower him and made his presence more foreboding. Whilst painting I also tried to employ the technique of bringing focus to certain parts of the character by adding additional detail and contrast to them. This was aimed at the face of Cacophony, so as to get across his cruel, unforgiving nature with his cold dark eyes and pale skin. All in all, I am very pleased with the piece and find that the additional details, such as the lightning arcing around the clawed gauntlet make the image a powerful one.


Unfortunately, with 3 other projects on the go, I never had the time to get all the images completed that I wanted to. I did however have a number of images that I wished I had time to turn into paintings. Namely: the River Troll and Goblin; Ulrik the Slayer; a dwarf Slayer; and potentially another, better Skaven piece. This really has shown me not to underestimate how long it can take to complete certain tasks. My digital paintings of Deathleaper and Cacophony went really well and didn’t take a huge amount of time to complete, but the Skaven pirate piece took the best part of 2 full days, as well as various other times messing about trying to fix it. The problem was also attempting to learn new techniques that are both difficult and take a long time to learn even the basics. I think if I had mainly focussed on certain aspects, I would have got more done. I did however really enjoy the project and wished that I could have spent less time on other projects to achieve more in this one.  I do plan on working much more on this portfolio over the summer so that I can expand on it and get pieces done that I wish I had time for now. That however, calls an end to this project.