Growing Branch

Excuse my recent absence, I was away longer than I’d like and WordPress went down when I finally did have something to post. Anyway I present to you the fruits of my recent labours:

This concept is a first in more than one respect; it’s the first full colour image I’ve created for this project (excluding my previous experimentation in shades of blue) while it’s also the first piece to feature two of my characters within the same scene. The latter point I felt was especially important, the intention here being to portray a quieter moment placing emphasis on more subtle body language over action or high drama. Scratch is laid back whilst remaining cold and calculated – a casual smoke in hand but a backwards glance and straightening of the tie suggesting caution. In contrast Curt’s neurotic personality is suggested respectively by a wringing of the hands and eyes focused on the ground.

I should also note that this is the first time I’ve drawn my setting from a street level perspective; something which proved a challenge thanks to the curved cityscape but is ultimately reassuring to have tested, appearing much as I’d have hoped. The characters fit into the setting convincingly while there should be just enough sci-fi evident in the backdrop to keep things intriguing.

Possibly the most troublesome aspect of the piece though was the colours, specifically creating a palette suitable to the mood but also striking enough to make the background and foreground distinct. As with previous colour work I used Corel Photo Paint 11as while I am competent with Adobe Photoshop I can work quicker with the former thanks to its preferable toolset and streamlined interface.In terms of the distant and immediate buildings, I gave the foreground a brown-orange hue and set it against a background of blue-grey tones to play upon complimentary colours and make the nearby scenery standout. I kept both of these elements fairly muted to evoke an appropriately grim atmosphere but also to avoid drowning out my characters. In contrast I made Scratch and Curt as brightly coloured as I dared to draw the viewer’s attention to them first.

Just as I attempted to communicate each character’s personality through pose and body language, so too have I tried to embody something of it in their colour scheme. Scratch is predominantly coloured with blues and greys to represent her cynicism and calm machine-like approach while emphasising her symbiosis with technology – the hard beetle like shell of her prosthetics and implants only furthering this sensation – Curt’s organic nature meanwhile is embodied through the green jumpsuit, while it could also be tied to less favourable (though appropriate) connotations such as inexperience, jealousy and sickness.

Generally speaking the concept is a sort of benchmark for the graphic itself, being a kind of prototype for the look of pages in the production phase. Truthfully I spent a disproportionate amount of time working on it and I can’t claim I’m entirely happy with the result but as ever it marks another significant step towards getting this thing off the ground and something to build upon further in my future work.