Some experiments with concept art

The following images were composed before my tutorial with Alan on Tuesday. They were an experiment with composition in regards to the personal/metaphorical Hells of the before mentioned characters.

I didn't compile too many, as I wanted to know whether or not it was 'working' before I steam rolled into a ton of drawings.

Alan and I both agreed that it is, and that the idea of an 'Ant Farm' style Hell being watched from a static view seems to be the best way to go.

The final scene is definitely drawing closer, and I seem to have what I want the main concept to look like, sussed out. The next steps are as follows:

1. Continue to design the metaphorical Hells for the characters
(so I know what to model)
2. Draw up thumbnails for generic inhabitants in the background
3. Rough sketch of composition for final concept
4. Final concept painting
5. Design 'generic Hell inhabitant' orthographic.

Anyway. This first image is Just an experiment I did with black and white (I will talk more about this chosen style in another post) and drawings rocks. I had difficulty getting them to look realistic - actually getting them to look anything other than 'goo' was hard enough. I think I've cracked it now however. I want the rocks in the final piece to be strong visually - sharp points and long grain to emphasise those 'evil' traits we were taught by Justin.

This piece is medium-close up shot of Judas Iscariot hanging in front of a stained glass window of Jesus - he is forced to look through it for it eternity and witness the suffering in Hell. Me and Alan spoke about having these metaphorical sections being almost like a film set - split down the fourth wall so the audience can see what's happening.

This next piece shows more of what I mean with regards to the film set idea. This piece probably isn't going to be used in my final piece as the characters aren't Biblical, but I just used them to show to Alan the kind of idea had, using a story he gave me in the first tutorial. Now as it is quite up close, it looks like a dilapidated house more than Hell, so I thought for the sake of showcasing I would draw them from a further view too.

Now would be a good time to note, All the drawings I produce with regards to the metaphorical Hells, will actually sit on some sort of spire like these do in the final piece. I just think drawing them up close would be better for myself so I know what to model in the end. Think of this Hell as a hotel, with the floating cliffs being rooms (empty ones are vacant rooms) and the inhabitants are pretty much trapped in these rooms for eternity.


I know a lot of this can seem a bit confusing and hard to follow, but as Alan said "people won't understand this until they see it". So if you're a bit lost - Don't worry! I know exactly where I'm going with this, although suggestions are always welcome!

To give you an idea as to what I feel populating my environment will do for it (besides from stop it looking so generic and giving it purpose) refer to the next post.