Champions of Ashe - Archetype Orisha Cards

I haven't posted much work here that wasn't directly for a submitted assignment, so over Winter Break I'd like to go back and revisit some of the work I did RPP and other projects that never made it to the blog!  

For Production for Media, the cohort was broken into large teams and had to create game pitches for a non-American audience.  The team I was on pitched 'Champions of Ashe,' a stylized arena-style PvP aimed at a Nigerian audience.  The artists on the team made some great concept work for this project - I drew 4 cards depicting the 'Archetype Orishas' that the player would be able to choose between (these would determine the player's weapons and abilities for a match).

This project was inspired by the Yoruba religion, which tells of many Orisha (powerful spirits), popular in Nigeria and the surrounding regions.  Each Orisha has certain elements, powers, colors, accessories, and history associated with them, which I tried to incorporate into the designs.  If you don't know much about Yoruba, I would encourage you to do some research - I did a lot of reading in preparation for this project, and it was really neat to delve into such a colorful tradition!

Here is a slide from the presentation for context (slide put together by Audrey, and circular abilities at the bottom of each card made by Cameron), followed by close-ups of each card.

Common Art Week 6 - Use of Perspective

 

I was unsure what I wanted to do with this assignment, but then I searched for "military transport vehicle" and found a lot more inspiration than I was counting on - I finally settled for this Cougar 6x6, and ended up having a lot of fun making the model and had a hard time deciding when to stop; there's still so much I could do with it.  If I had more time, I would definitely keep working on this model and the art to make a fully photorealistic scene!

Common Art Week 5 - Use of Composition

 

I sketched out a few designs based on different composition styles before looking at the target artists.  I really liked several artists, but decided on CreatureBox (I especially like the environmental pieces they did for Ratchet and Clank).  Coincidentally, a piece similar to my sketch already exists, but I ended up sticking with my idea anyway - two capybaras on a rocky crystal landscape watching a pirate airship overhead.  The main inspiration I took from CreatureBox is the purple and blue color palette (I found a palette I liked online and then toned down the colors).  My intent is for the audience to look at the airship first, and then stray to the crystal landscape and notice the creatures.  In this sense, the title of "Watchers" describes the capybaras in the scene, but also the person viewing the image.  

Common Art Week 4 - Use of Basic Lighting

I had a lot of fun with this drawing!  The glass material and emissive lighting reflections on the ground were the hardest part to get right, especially with the way the blue light is speckled on the floor in the screenshot.  Some things do still look different between the two, but the drawing looks a lot better than I expected it to at the beginning and I do feel like I learned a lot in the process so I'm very happy with it.

[top one is the drawing, bottom one is the screenshot]

Common Art Week 3 - Use of Value and Contrast

 

I feel like I learned a lot through this assignment.  I don't have much experience with Photoshop and have never used any of the techniques demonstrated here, so following the demo video took me a long time.  The workflow feels totally different than traditional drawing or painting, and definitely takes some getting used to, but I'm pretty happy with my result and will definitely use this process again in the future.

Common Art Week 2 - Use of Silhouettes

 

The moment Nick mentioned Frankenstein, I knew I had to re-design the Monster, but with more robotic body modifications.  I've never seen him portrayed book-accurate in a film, and Frankenstein is one of my favorite classic novels.  I started out this assignment on paper since I was feeling a bit stuck on the tablet, and was able to come up with a few thumbnails pretty easily.  However, once I tried to recreate those sketches digitally, I really struggled to create something that looked and felt like the original drawings.  I think I came up with some good designs, but the process certainly took a lot more time than I was anticipating!

Common Art Week 1 - Use of Basic Shapes

 

These are my 3 creature designs for a circle, square, and triangle - I drew them left to right, and my style changed quite a bit by the time I got to the third one, so I considered re-doing the frog creature, but the new one didn't look quite right so I stuck with the original.  I tried a lot of new things with this assignment in terms of brushes, lines and shading, and overall style, so it looks very different from anything I've ever drawn which is pretty neat.