Realistic vs. Non-realistic

While I know that my final piece is going to be in a manga style, I feel as though it is important for me to show that I understand that there are many differences between animated drawing and life drawing.

I started off by looking at real life drawings, which enabled me to be able to see just how different some cartoon styles can be in comparison. Out of the entirety of the book, I chose the above images as I felt they would be more helpful towards my final piece. While I know that my final piece isn't going to be in this style, I feel as though I can implement the above images into my work in order to make my piece feel even a little bit more realistic.

I chose the second image, as it shows facial structures and proportions very well. It helps me to understand a more realistic approach to drawing facial features.

I particularly like the third image, as it shows how the body looks when it moves, and it shows the process in order to draw it in such a way. Being able to see how the body moves with different movements is very helpful when wanting to obtain a more realistic approach.

This book contained mostly fantasy type drawings; while I'm no longer planning on a fantasy setting, I still feel as though this book was helpful to me as it showed me a completely different drawing style than I'm used to seeing. This book was particularly helpful when I was looking at clothing references, as it showed the base character underneath and then what differences their clothing made once it was added. There were also very helpful annotations on the pages that I found very supportive for my overall research. 

This book was the most helpful for me, as it included the areas that I'm not as confident in. Hands and different poses have always been a challenge for me while drawing, so the fact that this book contained guidance on both was extremely helpful in the long run.

There were basic poses, which were more helpful for the kind of piece I was producing, and also more complex poses that involved movements. These more advanced poses were helpful, as I was able to change the pose I was drawing my character in to make it appear more natural. 

This book also contained a section on facial expressions, which I learned a lot from. As I will be adding in some core facial expressions on my final piece, this particular section was beneficial, as it allowed me to use this section as a slight reference.

References:

Elvin, E, Felder, E (2005). Draw Manga - Complete Techniques. London: Kandour Ltd. p1-144.

Civardi, G (2014). An Introduction to Drawing the Human Body. Kent: Search Press Ltd. p16-36.

Caldwell, B (2005). Fantasy! Cartooning. New York: Sterling Publishing Co. p37-55.

Inspirations

While I was heavily inspired by my already completed outfit research, there were also many other things that helped to both inspire my character's design, as well as their backstory and synopsis. My outfit research has also heavily inspired a lot of my work.

From the 'Final Fantasy X-2 Visual Arts Collection'; Artwork by Tetsuya Nomura

This particular breakdown image was very inspirational for me, as it is something I wish to accomplish in my own final piece. Showing off the different accessories that help make up the outfit is very important, as these accessories may be very important overall. 

Artwork by Akihiko Yoshida

This piece of concept art is very helpful, as it is the layout that I am aiming for in my final piece. With the turnaround of my character, which will show his outfit from the front and back, and then some close-ups of his face that shows off his facial features and most common expressions.

References:

Note: Many of the images used here are from art books and visual arts collections that were released. However, I have been unable to find the credits from the books themselves, as they are extremely hard to come by. I have only been able to find the scans that have been uploaded to the wikia page, as I have linked.

While this will cause my references to be inaccurate, these pieces of artwork have been very helpful towards my work.

Unknown. (Unknown). Final Fantasy X-2 - Concept Art. Available: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2/Concept_art. Last accessed 29th May 2016.

Unknown. (Unknown). Final Fantasy XII - Concept Art. Available: http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XII/Concept_art. Last accessed 29th May 2016.

Experimentation

For my experimentation, I played around with some different possible colour palettes that I might consider using, as well as some brushes that I have looked at possibly using on my final piece.

For the colour palettes that I created, I decided to stay with a pastel theme, as I really like the effects the colours can bring out on clothing. While I may decide on some different colours when I create my final piece, these are a very helpful starting point for me.

Character Synopsis

Name: Lucas Durant (Lucas meaning 'bringer of light'; Durant from the nickname Durandus meaning 'enduring')
Alias: Luca
Age: 17
D.O.B: September 18th
Gender: Male

Personality:

When off of the stage, Lucas is true and honest spoken to the point, so much so that people often think he's quite rude. He hates lying to people, so he sticks with honesty no matter who it upsets. He's energetic and optimistic in all situations, even when he probably shouldn't be. His twin sister, Olivia, is quick to become pessimistic, so he maintains a bright disposition in order to lighten her spirits.

While on stage, he lives under a persona; he understands that there are certain ways that he has to act and, while it makes him slightly uncomfortable from time to time, he understands that it's just show business. On stage, his bubbly personality draws flocks of fans towards him and he can't deny that he loves the adrenaline it gives him.

Backstory:

When he was younger, he had a weak constitution and couldn't be very active, spending most of his childhood inside a hospital room watching his sister learn dance routines from her favourite TV shows. His dream was to become a superhero so that he could stop all of the injustice in the world he lives in. As he got older and his illness less severe, his twin sister was scouted by a talent agency. Upon hearing the words "you'll become a symbol of light for those living in this dark world", he volunteered them both in an instant. 

They became a duo and, due to their bright appearances on stage, they quickly gained popularity. While the show business causes stress to them both, they learnt to adapt over the years. He still longs to be a superhero, to give his city back their brighter days, but he supposes that being a symbol of light is as close as he can get where he is.

Weekly Review 2

By the end of the second week of this project, I managed to complete my initial, artist and outfit research. While this was more research than I had originally planned to do, I feel like the added research will benefit me greatly in the weeks to come. However, as I added to my original plans, it took me longer to complete them, so I had to use more of my free time in order to complete them.

For my initial research, I found it difficult to find the right words to use in order to get my point across, which took a lot more time than I had planned for. However, despite this, I felt as though it was a piece of research that had to be completed in order for me to be able to move on with my project. I feel as though it's important for me to understand exactly what concept art was and how it contributed towards games, which is what I covered in this section of my research.

Whilst researching artists, I decided to choose someone that had worked on games and someone that had worked on anime/manga. My reason for this is because I also wanted to see how differently they went about completing concept art. While the ways are similar, they are still carried out differently. This research helped me greatly, furthering my understanding of concept art, as well as the difference between concept art and promotional illustrations.

For my last piece of research, I decided to research different outfits in order to prepare for creating my rough sketches. At this stage, I'm unsure of which gender I will decide to make my character, so I thought it would be better to prepare if I researched both male and female outfits. I also decided to research matching outfits as, while I'm unsure of the gender, I know the basic synopsis of my character, and that they're going to be a part of a duo. By researching matching unit outfits and expanding my ideas, it will be easier if I decide to expand on the setting and characters in the future.

Outfit Research

As I am creating an original character, I need to create the outfit that they will be wearing as well. While I was gathering my ideas for a design, I looked up outfits from different games that I know of that helped to inspire the design of my finalised outfits. As I am currently unsure of my character's gender, I have decided to research both male and female outfits.

For the female stage outfits, I looked up some different ones from the mobile game 'Love Live!', which centers around female idols. I chose to research outfits from this game, as I know that there are a lot of different stage outfits that I could take inspiration from, if I decided that the gender of my character would be female.

In this game, the members of the main groups have a main colour that will often appear on the outfits that they wear. In the times that the whole unit has a matching outfit, each girl's outfit will be slightly different, as their own main colour will be implemented somewhere on their outfit.

The characters in the above image are part of a sub-unit called 'BiBi', with the main unit, 'μ's' (pronounced 'muse'), consisting of nine members altogether.

The reason I chose this particular 'set' of outfits is because I found that they were pretty much a matching set, regardless of being released at all different times. It shows one way that 'unit' outfits can be designed; rather than being a completely matching outfit, they can be different from one another but still with enough similarities that one is able to tell that they're part of a sub-unit.

While these outfits could be worn as stage outfits, I feel that they also fit in under the entertainer category. Given that the theme of the outfits is a circus theme, this could be very possible. The above characters are from the main unit, and don't form a sub-unit; the whole of the main group has a circus stage/entertainer outfit, but I chose these two as the whole of the character is visible, which allows me to look at the kind of leg-wear and foot-wear the characters are wearing.

This set also shows that unit outfits can also be matching, but with slight differences, such as added or differentiating accessories, that allow a character to show off their personality and individuality. 

From the same game, but a different unit called 'Aqours', I chose these two outfits as they are perfectly matching. The only difference between them is that the flower near their waist and the dots at the top of their socks are changed to match their own main colour. I really like that the matching outfits in this game are changed for each member depending on the main colour that they associate with.

For my research of male stage outfits, I chose to research outfits from 'Ensemble Stars!', another mobile game that centers around male idols. As I am familiar with the game itself, it is quite an easy topic for me to talk about.

Whilst looking at the different outfits in this game, I found that the individual units have matching stage outfits for performances; however, I chose to use examples from the main unit in the game, called 'Trickstar'. Aside from being the main unit, their stage outfits always match, even though the colours that they wear differ. As can be seen above, their outfits are the same; however, it feels as though the unit itself is split into two, as they wear two different coloured outfits among the four of them.

These are the initial stage outfits for this unit. These outfits also match, even though they wear two colours among the four of them. When in these initial outfits, the colour of the sweatband they each wear on their wrist, as well as their footwear, changes to the colour that represents them.

My research on the different outfits has been extremely helpful towards my project. I mainly chose to research matching outfits, as opposed to just solo ones, as my original character is a part of a duo. While my final piece will only contain the one character, I wanted to have done the research on unit outfits in case I decide to continue with designing other characters and aspects for my plot in the future.

Concept Artists / Illustrators

• Yoshitaka Amano

Yoshitaka Amano was born on March 26th 1952 and is a well known name among video game fans. He, himself, considers Final Fantasy to be the series that made him as famous as he is. He was once in charge of the character designs for a number of the early Final Fantasy games in the franchise. He has since stepped back slightly, these days working on the different logos and promotional artwork and illustrations for the newer games.

When designing the logos for the games in the franchise, Amano is given limited information to work with. As the logo is set around the central concept of the game, specific and important aspects of the game aren't required when creating the logo for the game. Amano is given text-based information about the general concept and, from that, he creates the logo. 

Concept pieces for the Final Fantasy I & III Logos

These are some of Amano's concept designs of the logos for Final Fantasy I and III. These show different potential ideas he had whilst designing. I really like this sketch piece, as it showcases the different ideas that were thought up while being created. It's very nice to be able to see how something started off and what it ultimately ended up looking like.

• Akira Amano 

Akira Amano was born in 1973 and is most well known for her work creating the manga series Katekyō Hitman Reborn!, which became a hit manga series in both Japan and ran for 411 chapters that were compiled into 42 volumes between 2004 and 2012. It was published in the Shōnen Jump magazine and became a hit, later being made into an anime series that consisted of 203 episodes.

In the same year that Reborn! finished, 2012, Amano took on another project as the character designer for an anime original series called Psycho-Pass. While was an anime original series to begin with, it later branched off into a manga series; however, this manga adaptation had a different manga artist. More recently, a visual novel style game was released that was set during the original anime season.

This is one of the pieces of concept art for one of the characters in Psycho-Pass. I particularly like this piece, as it shows the different outfits that were considered before the character, as well as giving off pieces of base personality just based on the poses that the character was drawn in.

References:

Juba, J. (2016). The Art That Shaped Final Fantasy: Thoughts From Famed Artist Yoshitaka Amano. Available: 
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2016/04/27/the-art-that-shaped-final-fantasy-thoughts-from-famed-artist-yoshitaka-amano.aspx. Last accessed 2nd June 2016.

Regniez, M. (2002). Video Games. Available: 
http://yoshitaka-amano.kouryu.info/genre_eng-jeux.html. Last accessed 27th May 2016.

Plunkett, L. (2012). The Beautiful Final Fantasy Art of Yoshitaka Amano. Available: 
http://kotaku.com/5917619/the-beautiful-final-fantasy-art-of-yoshitaka-amano. Last accessed 27th May 2016.