Full screen / Process - Final Image

In my last post I mentioned I was going to work on adapting to existing game styles. As Cut The Rope is a game that seems to get mentioned by every freelance client ever, it seemed like the appropriate place to start!

This may seem a little overcomplicated for what is, after all, a pretty simple style. That’s because it is. But my reasoning is that the more closely I analyse different styles, the more instinctively I will be able to adapt to new styles in the future.

I’d like to continue working on this particular style: create some new characters, different poses, backgrounds and maybe even animations. However, for now I have something more pressing to work on, so I will have to put it on hold for a few days…

Some quick little characters I drew to spice up my CV.

Here is some art I did as a test for a recent job interview. I often seem to fall down at the art test stage of interviews, so I plan to spend some time over the next few weeks practising adapting to other styles. In particular, I think I often rush into creating the art without taking time to analyse the style first. In this instance, the bottom row of characters in particular (which were to be blocks in a gem-type game) were too geometric to fit with the existing style. 

Some concept art I did a couple of months ago for my game pitch ‘Chrome Ocean’.

Fullscreen / Image 1 - Image 2 - Image 3

*Not sure if it’s just me, but my Tumblr doesn’t seem to always function correctly in Chrome (not all images seem to full screen). I’m therefore going to start include a link to each full screen image in my posts…

Working on a little more horror stuff.

1. Quickly sketched some shapes in Photoshop based on a little doodle.
2. Improved the lines and added some basic black and white shading.
3. Colourised shading and built up a bit more depth.
4. Added a bit of texture and more detail and re-drew the line in Illustrator. In hindsight, this step did not work very well and starts to be where the colouring and line styles don’t go together.
5. Having decided that the line and colouring don’t match very well, I decided to see if adding more contrast and bolder colours would improve the creature, so I did some quick experiments over the top of the existing art.
6. Added varied widths to lines in Illustrator and tidied up colouring. At this stage, I felt that the detail and subtle colouring in the skin was somehow jarring next to the clean vector lineart. I was reluctant to lose the textured skin (particularly as the overall aim was “semi-realistic”), but felt that the drawing perhaps had better potential as a bolder, more cartoon-y image.
7. Took the image out of Photoshop altogether and coloured in Illustrator. Already felt that this could be a stronger path.
8. Decided to experiment with combining the new and old colouring. Looks promising.
9. With some level adjustment, the creature is looking more solid than the first colouring attempt. This is just a little too luminous, though.
10. Further adjustments in the levels and opacity of the two images, creating a nice balance between the cartoon-y and the textured looks.

Unfinished bits and pieces. Not quite sure what I’ve been doing since my last post five months ago…

Was stuck on a train outside Hereford for an hour with only my laptop for company.

A few bits of recent freelance.

Shiny coin is shiny.

Bit of background for a game I’m working on.