Initial Thoughts and Ideas II

As I added details to the sketch, it changed quite a lot. Instead of being a queen, I wanted her to look a bit stronger. As a character, Noelle evolved into someone who defies gender roles and constricting traditional values, so I wanted her to be something other than a sterotypical princess type. I was playing around with different design ideas when the shadow/ reflection idea came up. I was thinking of ways to express the ideals that Noelle was breaking away from and this seemed like a great way to do this. I refined the Noelle in the frontground into a slightly more powerful, untraditional version of herself, and I liked this version batter than any of the others.

Initial Thoughts/ Character Background

The piece was initially going to be featuring Noelle and her partner in crime, Jayme. The idea was to be a major contrast to show how different they are- Noelle being a princess and Jayme being a pauper. However, I changed my mind on this idea when I noticed the lack of impact. The idea had no main objective, no real focal point.

My second idea, which I worked off of for most of this project, was to show Noelle as a queen. I liked the idea because it made her a powerful individual, which is what she's striving to become. At this point she had no clear background, but I really liked the idea, so I stuck with it. It did evolve quite a bit throughout the process, but the original idea of individualism and independance remained mostly the same.

Initial Thoughts/ Character Background III

The character featured in the piece, Noelle, lives in a steampunk inspired time period., and is a princess about to become a queen. The gender roles of the time are strict; women are expected to find a husband as quickly as possible and submit to him fully. As a princess, Noelle is especially confined by these values. However, she has no desire to submit to the roles of the time period. She wants to have a say in what happens in her life and in the ruling of her people. This is reflected in the piece through Noelle's reflection in the piece in comparison to her actual self. It also is shown by Noelle's posture, clothing, and expressions. I tried to draw her as a strong, independant, in control individual. I also used contrasting colors to make Noelle stand out from her reflection. Her goggles, top hat, coattails, and the numerous buttons were to help her fit with the time period, though women would usually be wearing dresses. The bubblegum was to give a pop of color, and to represent the color pink on Noelle. The pink in this picture seem to be mostly associated with her more feminine reflection, and I wanted to bring some of that into the central figure. In this screenshot, the piece isn't finished, and her reflection is basically a floating head, but this is the basic idea.

Digital Painting Practice

 I had to practice quite a bit to get to the point where I could digitally paint with any level of skill. These are a few of my practice projects. On two of them I decided to practice drawing body parts, consisting of mouths and noses. A few of the best examples are shown here. I also worked with eyes a bit, but I don't have a screenshot. I also digitally painted an apple which took quite a while, but it helped me get better at blending. These projects helped me a lot to improve emy digital painting skills.

The Corkboard

I created a digital corkboard to organize my thoughts, ideas, reference images, and influences. I have a few pictures here that are no longer relevant to my final project because my ideas have changed greatly over time, and the board has grown a bit since the screenshot was taken. However, most of the images have been really helpful in designing my final painting.

Sketches!

These are the three sketches that I really defined in the process of creating a digital painting. I looked at the ideas that I'd come up with, and I wasn't really sure which one I liked best at the time, so I alternated working on the three. This was also my third or fourth time working with a drawing tablet, which was very exciting. I needed to make a desicion soon, so I asked friends and thought on it myself for quite a while and ended up picking number three.

Final Sketch!

Today I made a lot of progress on my beginning sketches for the final painting project. I'm really excited to fine tune and color this! I really liked number three from the older sketches, and I was super excited to work with it, but, as I sketched in the details, I realized that I didn't really like the design. It got tweaked quite a bit, and I like it much better now. It better represents Noelle and her strength as an individual and her struggle to stand out.

I'm thinking that the color scheme will be mainly blues and greens for Noelle, and her reflection will be mostly shades of pink or red. I will probably make the background a similar color so that Noelle stands out the most in the painting. The hair will most likely change shape as it is painted, but I don't plan on changing much else. The coloring of Noelle herself are up for alteration, but I plan to draw her as I imagined her in my head. 

New Goal

My original plan for this project has changed. I had bit off more than I could chew, so I've decided to design an original piece of digital art instead. It will ideally be a cover design for a book I'm in the process of writing. The main idea of the book is to embody self discovery and the idea of tradition vs. new ideas. I'm hoping to embody that through this art piece. I am aware that there might not be enough time to complete a full art piece by the end of the semester, but I would like to if at all possible. I'm interested in this because I've seen other people do it, be it my peers or a professional, and it looked very cool. I didn't think it would be as challenging as it turned out to be, but I like the challenge it presents. I'm excited to see the final results.

Noelle!

Today I made quite a bit of progress on the female bust that I've been working on. I've begun painting, and it looks pretty good so far. However, a lot of detail needs to be added.