* Link to Amazon *

Top left image was animated for the opening sequence.

Bottom image was animated for the opening sequence.

Top right image by Roland MacDonald.

Top right image by Roland MacDonald.

.....I'd completely forgotten about so many of these! I worked in-house during my contract and blitzed through quite a few illos to meet the deadline. The brief was to create Japanese block-printing-style images with a modern twist and the AD was really pleased with the results (phew~).

I had a blast working there and was pretty sad to leave, but I'd been offered a permanent job at NaturalMotion Games Ltd. a month before my contract ended, so I left (2011). Breaking into the industry was super tough, but I couldn't have asked for a cooler first job. :) Many thanks to Kevin McDowell for giving me that chance, and to all the staff at the time for being so lovely.

Simple 4-frame animation.

I gave the client notes to explain the logic behind the design/decision-making, but felt it might give away too much to post here.

Some quick expression variations.

I didn't realise until I'd submitted it that the flute is backwards. D'oh! It's okay, she's a left-handed panda...

Cheers,
Naomi

Here are some basic sword silhouettes that started off being for Frog's Masamune but in the end I got some shapes for Chrono, Magus and Marle's weapons too (I've decided to give Marle some daggers for close-range fighting).
This is my first time designing weapons so I can't help but cringe at some of them but it's the same with everything, I guess. Gotta keep plodding along until it starts working. :)

The second silhouette from the left was later roughed out into 3 more designs:

By Sod's Law, the one I like most (far left) doesn't fit the character design! Instead it looks like the one on the far right would be worth developing.....maybe with bits of the middle one chucked in.

Last but not least, a progress shot of Frog so far. I automatically painted him green but may play around with other colours/patterns too.

FROOOOOOOOG!! Epic character. He's a chivalrous Medieval knight whose life is dedicated to protecting the queen and is easily my favourite in the game. Here's hoping I can do him some justice, eh?

Initial concepts:

I quite liked the last one as it shows more charisma so it was developed some more:

My preferences are currently swaying towards the one on the far left....also, the stick is there for placement. I'm looking forward to designing the Masamune!

EDIT: Initial studies before drawing the concepts. They're kind of embarrassing but oh well - it's only a sketchbook! Forgot to post these yesterday:

Sliiiightly unfinished but....



Here's my rendition of the starry-eyed, tomboy teen princess that is Marle (or rather, Princess Nadia). She definitely needs some bling but I haven't finalised her costume design yet so I'll add it on later.

I'm trying to make each portrait reflect their base element (her's being ice, hence the cool lighting).

Here's how Ayla turned out:



I later learned that she's referenced from another fictional character who's meant to be fair-skinned but I didn't like how it looked compared to my original vision of her, so I used Vanessa Williams as a reference in terms of skin tone, since she has naturally blue eyes.
The painting overall has gone through a few changes but I'm leaving it like this for now and will move on to a different one for a break. Been messing about with this one for long enough!

For those who don't know her character: She is a chief of a tribe and is from the prehistoric age. Statistically, she's the strongest human character and fights bare-fisted, so I wanted her to look tough and well-built. There's a rough sketch of her costume a couple of posts down but I wanna focus on mug shots first. :)

Here's where I am with Ayla's face design so far. Once I finish the details on the right, I'll play around with tattoo possibilities and slap on some colour.

I've decided to redesign my favourite game ever~ (besides FFVII) :D It's a good way to work on varied characters and play with different time periods...and add to my portfolio, of course.

I'm dying to have lunch so I'll keep this short, hahah.

Preliminary Sketches:


Marle:


Advert: Ralph Lauren



Lucca:


I've done some more sketches of Lucca but they're in blue pencil and so don't photograph very well....



Ayla:


Advert: Gucci
Proportions are way out of whack but I'll fix that later!

(Ads photographed from Vogue magazine, April 2011 edition).

Here are some ideas of how the mages might live. Pretty basic so far...


This one on the far right is partly inspired by Axel Erlandson's basket tree.
I bet the lighting inside would look quite interesting!
This one could do with more work in showing scale but it's only a sketch atm.


I'm liking the idea of this one, where the ground would be dug out to expose the
roots and make an entrance. The roots would be woven (somehow?!) to give it
some architectural structure and allow for creative designs.

Aaarrrgghh, I'm having one of those times when everything I draw turns out crap. Will keep plodding along and update this post with whatever else I churn out (and don't mind showing) by tomorrow since I have plans this weekend.


I started some digi paintovers of the previous figures but they were
looking too static so I whipped out the brush pen to loosen up a bit.



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Related Posts:
>> Mage Thumbs
>> Mage Headgear

Here are some ideas for a mage character design. When playing RPGs I rarely favour a mage as a main character because they're often quite [physically] weak and, well, poncy. They're great to have in the background as a healer/long-range damager though.

Anyway, I wanted to break the mould and design a more active mage who could instantly hold their own even at close-combat. Something along the lines of DA (pre-Arcane Warrior) meets District 13, hahah. So far the first variation is the closest to what I've envisioned for this character so I'll develop that one next. I like the last one too but will most likely save it for another design.

The weapons are there for placement more than anything atm.

My mind keeps bouncing back to an old painting of a blind mage and wanting to expand on its story more, so I started doing this today. The idea is that all mages are physically blind and instead 'see' in a more spiritual/magical way very similar to sonar technology; perhaps to the extent that they can see within beings to spot weak points, much like how CAT scans work. The more advanced their skills, the more they can see and respond to them. Such abilities can either make them deadly weapons or invaluable tools in medical treatment.

Anyhoo, that's the base idea so far and here's a start on some hat/hair designs.


The whole horn thing is kinda a mix of: a.) I like the shapes they make, b.) I've been playing Dragon Age a lot, where mages are heavily disliked and in a sense, are seen as sins or devil-like....but tbh it's mostly the former. :P Also, where there are big, flat spaces on the hats, I figured it could have a family/clan emblem or something (to indicate they're the leader or said group). It's all very up in the air right now!!

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On a side note, I haven't been a completely lazy bum and not drawing much but have recently designed a tattoo for myself. It's been an enjoyable process to design something so personal and time (i.e. funds, lol) will tell if I wuss out or not! I don't want to post it until it's literally on my back and chances are it'll be in the me/Me. blog.

If you know any really good (and cleeaan) tattoo artists in Newport/Cardiff (Wales, UK) then drop me a line, please! The more recommendations the better. :) If they have a website that would be grand - otherwise I'll contact them closer to the time to see their previous work.


PS: [In terms of all the photos on this blog] Scanned versions of these drawings will be on my website once I get enough done to make a compilation of pages for my portfolio. Apologies for the blurriness!

SO. Getting into the gaming industry is proving to be more difficult to do now with the current environment so I figured my (super-simplified) choices, besides improving my work and understanding in general, are the following:

a.) Man-up my work. Lots of brown....broooowwwnnnn.
b.) Go cutesy for casual gaming.

I've done some vector stuff lately and have loads of stylised shizz so perhaps it's time to switch sides to test the water. I received this really wonderful book by Adrian Smith (Dark Fantasy) as a graduation present and decided to use it (and some Brian Froud books) as a starting point to draw the kind of subjects I don't normally do.

I started this last night and haven't finished yet but wanted to post it now in case I butcher it later. :P




^ Let us not be sexist! Here be a lady.
She started off with longer hair until it looked like some
weird ogre shampoo advert so I gave her a plait instead.

These were for an art test. Unfortunately, I didn't get the job. ;( So I guess it's cool to post here:

I also designed an extra page describing the layout and gameplay possibilities and another one of reference material but don't see much point of putting them online.

Re-organising my portfolio took a lot longer than expected but it's pretty much done now so I can get back on track. New concepts coming soon. :)

Here's my current portfolio - I thought I'd upload it here on the off-chance that someone wants to see it right away (since the .PDF file is over 6MB!).

I am looking for work as a concept designer in the video games and/or film industry. :)

EDIT: Minor updates on 13/06/10.