CAP - Project Evaluations

As part of our submission, we were also to choose 6 of our pieces and write short evaluations on them. These pieces could be taken from anything we did during the Computer Arts Practice module.

Portrait of Brown John –

This piece exudes a lot of character. It is clear that it has stuck closely to the description of the character of Brown John given in the book. It has also taken inspiration from the works of Paul Kidby. While the piece is most certainly not anatomically correct, this was a clear design decision made to make the character portray his qualities more readily. Lack of a proper finish lets this piece down somewhat, as parts such as the hair have been given far less attention than the eyes of example. This, however, was again a design decision. As the piece was only ever intended to be a sketched idea of the character’s portrait, creating focal points and paying particular attention to some details really brings the piece forward whilst maintaining its presence as a sketch. The attention to detail in the eyes is particularly important, as the eyes can say a lot about the character. For this one, it clearly shows that he is kind and empathetic, but has a spark of fun behind him. If it were to be drawn again, more attention would be paid to the wrinkled forehead and the eyebrows, as these are key features of the character, adding to his personality.

Character Design of Kitzakk Soldier -

A lot of thought and visual research has gone into this piece, aiding its authenticity and firmly placing it into the world that it was intended for. The stance and posture of the figure implies that he is disinterest in the machinations of weaker individuals and sees himself as better than others. A pompous figure who regards the arrows embedded in his shoulder armour with the same disdain he shows for the archer who fired them. His outfit design is practical for the climate he is intended to be placed in; a desert, and shows that he is combat ready. The character design is intended to be that of a scout, a desert raider. It could be argued that this character is too heavily armoured to be a mere scout, however, the design decisions are based upon the descriptions given in the book and so discrepancies with this can be put down to personal interpretation. One flaw in the piece is that not enough space was given on the page, leading to the foot being cut off at the bottom. This is something that would not show well in the eyes of potential clients, as it implies that there was no ideas or thoughts behind the ‘missing’ parts.

Character Model Sheet of Kitzakk Soldier –

Whilst this piece from first glance looks impressive, there are, however a number of flaws that cause it to be somewhat impractical if it was intended to be taken on into a 3D modelled version of the character. The front, side and back images look well designed and drawn; however, the ¾ views look stiff and lifeless with some anatomical issues that hinder the piece as a whole. The impracticalities start with the 5 images being too close together, meaning there is overlap in some cases and rendering some parts useless to a modeller. This is not as bad as it sounds however, as the overlapped parts are, in general, shown elsewhere on the sheet in full detail.  Another flaw is that the procedural A-stance has not been properly adopted by the characters, thus making the sheet more difficult to utilise. It is clear however, that the A-stance was not used as the overlap that already exists would be increased dramatically. Overall, the piece isn’t bad, far from it, but it does not conform to professional practices and in this it is let down. It does however remain true to the original design of the character, including all the details.

Final Character – Kitzakk Soldier –

This piece evokes the character it portrays well. It is clear to the viewer that, though a sand storm billows around him, he is not lost, nor is he worried. He casually strides over a sandy bank, unfazed his surroundings. Clearly, he lives here, or at least he knows the area well. From a distance, this painting looks highly detailed, however, on closer inspection it can be noted that the brush strokes could be described as messy, some of which are bold. This rough and rugged style of painting aids in defining the character, showing him as battle and weather-worn.  What could be improved on in this piece is bringing the character’s left hand forward by highlighting it more, as it is almost lost as to what he is doing with it. The rope he is holding in that same hand trails off into the storm, but to what? Perhaps it would have been better to indicate the horse that was intended to be being pulled along by the rope, even just with a shadowy figure. The banner looks somewhat static in the air, even though it should be straining tremendously against the wind pulling it in all directions. The best way to fix this would probably be to fade the tone of the banner a bit as it reaches the frayed edges, thus giving it more depth.

Final Character - Brown John - 

This piece certainly shows a lot of promise. The character is well portrayed, showing his initial dishevelled look, but also his in-charge posture and wise face that rounds him off. In general, the character is drawn well, though his neck could do with a bit of work. It is also clear that the style of the Prince of Persia 2008 game has been adopted here with reasonable success. The black outline is crucial in making the piece ‘pop’ and turns what would otherwise have been a mediocre image into a good one. The piece would have benefited more had it been completed using either watercolours or digitally painted, as the coloured pencils, whilst achieving a soft look to the clothing, makes it look a bit rough and give the impression of having been ‘coloured in’. More practice with the material would of course improve results, so as an early attempt at using coloured pencils seriously, it is still quite effective and shows a willingness to try new methods. The colours used in the piece have been chosen quite well, though the burgundy of the waistcoat could have been changed, or at least the pencil itself could have been used more effectively, as the effect given is very messy compared to other parts of the image. At any rate, the subdued colours aid in making the character’s overall appearance unimpressive (as it should be).

Life Drawing – 20 minutes –

It is clear straight away that the main focus of this piece from the offset would be the rather tricky perspective given by the model lying with limbs going towards the viewer. With only 20 minutes given to complete the task, it has been accomplished to a reasonable standard. The legs in particular show good perception of perspective and provide a sense of depth to the piece, even though it is but a line sketch. The problems with this piece start at the torso. The upper half of the model looks very awkward, with the shoulders hunched drastically. The arms too do not hold the same sense of perspective as the legs and seem somewhat misshapen. The left hand looks somewhat promising, but is let down by the unnatural looking fingers.  The head looks a bit too small as well, though perhaps the perspective makes this correct. The face bears a very suspicious look, though this was most likely not intended.  It is evident that the perspective has caused some anxiety and panic, leading to the unsureity of where to place charcoal to paper. As a difficult pose with a relatively short time constraint however, this piece is still quite successful and a good learning experience.

CAP - Death Dealer - Envisaging the Characters

With much of the research aspect of the project complete, it became possible to move on to actually conceptualizing the 2 characters. I decided to start with Brown John first, as I already had an idea of what he might look like floating around in my head.

To begin the imagining of Brown John, I decided to use the tried and tested method of character silhouettes. This way I could pick out designs that I felt best suited the character without being hindered by details, such as his face or how many buttons are on his tunic.

From these 27 silhouettes, I went on to choose my favourites. Some for the posture, others for the general 'feel' of the design and some to focus on particular aspects of Brown John's character, such as the fact that he is an entertainer.


























From these 9 chosen silhouettes, I picked 3 to turn into initial character sketches. It's not hard to see what silhouette became what sketch. This is something I find very agreeable with using silhouettes is that the best designs can be hand-picked with a relatively quick glance.

I decided at this point that before I move on to amalgamating these 3 ideas into the 1, I would spend some time developing a profile for the character. In other words, Brown John's face.

I focussed quite heavily on the descriptions he was given in the book and this was made easier by the fact that I had some idea as to how I wanted him to look. None of the above were exactly what I was looking for, but I knew I was nearly there, and so I did a final portrait piece to bring the ideas together.

I took a lot of inspiration from the art of Paul Kidby when creating Brown John's portrait and I am very pleased with the outcome as I feel it exudes plenty of character and fits the description given in the book. Though I am sure others having read the book might totally disagree, as we all have slightly different interpretations of characters in books and what doesn't exactly meet to our minds description, somehow just doesn't look right.

With the face nailed, I moved on to sketching out the final design for the character, bringing together my favourite parts from the 3 previous sketches.

I wasn't particularly pleased with this piece, however, I had got Brown John wearing what I wanted him to be outfitted in, and as it was only a sketch and I would be creating another final piece anyway, I decided to leave him as he is. I could now move on to the character model and accessory sheets - something I had never really done in the past before, so would make for an interesting experience. My only worry about the accessory sheet was the fact that Brown John does not carry many 'accessories'.

I was pleased with the result of the character model sheet as I had managed to stay true to my design. I found the 3/4 views rather difficult to accomplish and I don't think they add much to the sheet other than possibly lowering the quality of the image.

As I had said, Brown John really doesn't carry much, so I designed his short-sword, pouch and a small satchel for him.

At this point, I really wanted to move onto my other character, the Kitzakk soldier and come back to doing a final piece for Brown John when my mind was fresh and not so bogged down by having to have drawn him so many times.

Again, as with designing Brown John, I began with silhouetting character designs for the Kitzakk soldier. Not yet decided as to what sort of Kitzakk he should be, I encompassed all the details described in the book into the different silhouettes, focussing on the fact that they would essentially look like Japanese warriors.

Again, from these silhouettes, I chose my preferred designs based on posture and overall look.

From these 8 designs I again selected my favourites and turned them into 3 sketches. I adopted some of the aspects of silhouettes I had not chosen into my designs as well, as I felt that they assisted in developing  the character.

I found it very difficult to alter the design of the armour at all, as I was essentially designing Japanese bamboo armour, which I found looked best in the first sketch that I came up with, but looked more like roof tiles in the second design. The third design, I feel the bamboo aspect of the armour was lost. However, I liked the crossbow, trousers, helmet and back banner of the third design and I liked the main armour of the first design. I didn't feel there was anything to be taken from the second sketch, as his armour looks far too roman-esque and the other aspects are better designed in the other 2 sketches. Again though, like Brown John, I wanted to develop the Kitazakk soldiers face and so produced a variety of designs to choose from:

Some of these designs I felt didn't suit the Kitzakk soldier, but they did provide ideas that could be used in the final design. So I amalgamated a number of the faces into one design.

I was not at all happy with the outcome of this portrait. It just didn't work to me at all, but there were aspects of it that I liked, that I would want to utilise. So I did another portrait, focussing on getting rid of the details I disliked and keeping those that I felt worked well with the character.

I was much more satisfied with this design. From the bandages protecting his head from the sun, should he remove his helmet, and the cracked, dry skin, I felt that I had created a good design for a desert raider of sorts.

With his portrait sorted, I moved on to creating the final design for the Kitzakk soldier, taking the aforementioned aspects into consideration when putting him together.

I was very pleased with this design, it had all the right aspects that I was looking for and I particularly liked the pose of just casually strolling with 2 arrows embedded into his shoulder armour, looking disdainfully at the bowman who fired the shots.

To complete the character, I moved on to the character model and accessory sheets.

I found this to take a considerable amount of time to do, due to slowly losing interest and my will being sapped from having to draw those trousers over and over with all the studs on them I am, however, happy with the outcome, so I can't really complain.

Fortunately, the Kitzakk soldier had a lot more accessories than Brown John and so I was able to ptoperly fill up the page with designs. I am pleased with the pattern I chose to utilise throughout the Kitzakk's design, as it adds a bit of detailed interest, almost like a spot-colour.


With the character's designed and their model and accessory sheets complete, I could then move on to painting up final pieces for them. First up is the Kitzakk soldier. Due to how much I like the posture and design that I already have in place for him, I have used that as the basis of my digital painting:

I am very pleased with how this piece came out, as I really feel it shows the true grittyness of the Kitzakk soldier. The fact that he strolls casually through a sand storm with a deft grimace set on his weather-beaten face shows what a seasoned warrior he is.

The final task was to do a rendered version of Brown John, but as I was not happy with my 'final' sketch of him, I did a new one:

I decided that for this piece I would base the style on that of the 2008 'Prince of Persia' game that was suggested in the brief. I also decided that I would make this a traditional artwork and use coloured pencils to render it.

I am fairly pleased with how this came out, though I would certainly say that the use of coloured pencils is not particularly favourable. I do like Brown John's face however, as I think it envisages his description from the book.


Lastly, the brief requires 6 evaluations on any pieces that I have done throughout the semester, which I shall create a new post for.