Making Progress
So the realisation of my free time after the normal 9-5 working day has becoming very limited to work on this project. Among other things like existing design jobs that require completion and social commitments that I had already agreed to before commencing this endeavour.
With the whinging aside about not making any progress and putting updates on this blog. I’ve decided to share some aspects of my behind the scenes research and concept sketches to keep you entertained before I get down the the nitty gritty of the illustrating side.
After doing some quick sketches on the template provided by the promoters running the competition, I realised that my design concept (as much as I love it) will have to change in some aspects. Firstly, the speeder bike. its not going to work in such a limited and narrow design space that of a snowboard. I will however keep the bike to the side , and I might use some elements from it in the rest of the design. More on this laster.
The Characters
Ok so no names have been made for these two just yet so to simplify who Im talking about I’ll refer to these two respectively as The Beast and The Girl.
The Beast
I always loved the companion aspect that Han and his faithful Wookie friend and co-pilot Chewbacca had from Star War : A New Hope (Let us not talk or refer to the prequels, ever!) A gigantic furry co-pilot that doesn’t speak a word of english, who isn’t human, doesn’t wear any clothes (except for a satchel bag), and for some reason he is accepted, can be understood and nobody even thinks twice about a giant walking carpet in the room.
My decision is that I wanted a Wookie on my board. Well not a wookie but a giant creature companion to ride along with on this board. From my sketches below, I looked straight to the animal kingdom from inspiration (Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh my!) before settling with more of a Lion like influence with the face and maine. Also taking such influences from more recent TV shows as well like Game of Thrones with elegant and gentle looking Khaleesie with her giant bear looking hulk of a husband Khal Drogo.
The Girl
Now taking that I have a hulking humanoid lion towering behind this girl, I wanted her to look just as powerful, a feminine hero with battle worn clothing. I started with some sketches and found elements that I really loved that I wanted to explore even further. Taking these sketches I went looking for more inspiration from such characters as Sarah Connor from the Terminator series, Cortana from the Halo video games, Khaleesie from Game of Thrones, Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider video games, Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, and the battle suits from Evangelion Neon Genesis. I’m leaning towards a more armoured hero with all little sci fi gizmos and holograms coming off her armour displaying information.
Hopefully my next update I can provide a more closer look of my finished characters and some work in progress of my colouring and line work.
Im getting excited, its fun seeing this flowing vision in my head starting to take shape.
The count down has begun . I must finish this!