These soldiers are simply armoured characters with a sword like rifle. In is these and the next one I am trying to make a more knight based style, The inspiration in these being Germanic soldiers from 100-400 AD and Roman legionaries from 300 AD.

 These are inspired more by the Byzantium infantry from around the year 700 (Middle one especially) and the Knights of the Order of St. John (1225-1525)

These designs were to reflect more cultures, but the associated thumbnail from which they sprang offered the unique silhouette. The right most image has a tribal feel to it, imitating the polished brass and bird symbolism of the Inca or Aztec cultures.

   The final version of the space dock scene. I added the roof to give a boarder to the image and the flags to suggest a more proud and distinct identity to the planet.

    I did this painting in a time limit of half an hour. However, I am far from happy with it and will probably edit it further at a later date. The driving theme here was to capture the light falling over a Roscillian city accentuating the futuristic look of it. The ship in port came out well, but the city seems dead and lifeless, as a ruin.

My second version of the image featured a stronger source of light and urban lighting to bring the city to life. In order to paint this, I am following the advise of digital artist Gary Tonge, who wrote in the book, 'Bold Visions: A Digital Painting Bible' the compositional balance can be achieved through flipping the image to see if it still works. This new perspective will highlight any mistakes and show any unnatural shading.

Development 03

 These designs are based on Roman soldiers, centurions, featuring the wrapped garbs and helm ornamentation. I have also stressed the bird-like relation in the design of these concepts, the helm ornamentation resembling the crest on certain birds such as Red Crested Cardinal.

 These two designs are drawn with the idea of a bio-technological theme. To this end I have made the armor resemble muscles and used a more brown palette.

These three designs are inspired by the idea of a sniper. A marksman cross scout. The first features a tactical visor (also resembling the beak motif), the second a light-weight scout, which provided further inspiration for the third (right) design which features integrated satchels and a backpack.

Development 02

 These are the next 10. The first 4 are more conservative by design. (From left to right) The first seems too future cop, the second features minimal armor but the triangular chest piece that my designs tend to incorporate. This is based on a bird's beak as in the emblem for Roscillia, a hawk. It is this page that reflects the better use of the colour scheme.

 These designs are evolved from the large triangular neck/shoulder thumbnail. The middle includes a concept for a mounted gun in the form of the blade-like attachment. The far right is a futuristic, bulletproof weave that features the hawk. (head on chest, wings at shoulders and arms, tail runs down legs.)

These designs are more along the seemingly impossible. The white suit is completely alien comparative to modern warfare gear. It lacks even a visor and has flight and weapons built in. The far right is an armored concept of the first, and the middle is a higher stealth look, more special ops.

Development

 The first 9 of some further developed thumbnails. These slides feature ideas that I will continue to work with. The aim is to produce more detailed images but also a large quantity in a short amount of time. The first design features overalls mixed with armor, giving an 'officer' look to them.

 This slide features a variety of ideas, (from left) skintight armor weave, armored/armor energized, and a 50s inspired flight-suit.

These are more armored knight inspired. I think the middle design, although striking, doesn't look science fiction enough.

   These are a series of concept paintings where I limited myself to a time frame. The first was a 25 minute sketch from a photo source (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gfryphotography/3678405302/in/set-72157619641495106). Here I wanted to show the side of Roscillia where the technological marvels could be considered magical. Hence the source photo being of a medieval castle. However, I feel that the image needs to be more fantastical and less of a familiar setting. This was also done as a tester image to warm up.

   The second image took half an hour and shows a planetary evacuation. Whether the planet is burning or just orange in light is up for the viewer to decide. The image shows the kind of technology available to the Roscillians. Almost their whole planet is converted into a infrastructure of cities, sky-ways, and factories. To create and indeed, live on such a world and not die out shows unimaginable technological achievement.

The final image is a tower situated on an island. The tower is more what one would expect a futuristic city to look like, with sprawling buildings of white and metal, mega-structures that are currently impossible to construct. This image was limited to twenty minutes.

 I have drawn 50 thumbnails sketches to give myself a starting point for generating concepts that I will develop into my final selection of fifteen soldiers. These thumbnails are drawn in very little detail an with a focus on producing a range of different images. I see it as translating as many designs as possible from my mind to the paper until I have brainstormed enough of them. The next stage is to take these thumbnails and develop them further into more detailed and coloured designs. One thumbnail can be interpreted in several different. As opposed to the last unit where I followed Scott Robertson style of sketching silhouettes thumbnail, I have instead used Mike Yamada's style of using a wide brush to avoid adding too much detail, but giving more of an idea towards what could be produced.

Roscillia

Abaddon by The Scriptorium, www.dafont.com/abaddon.font. Last accessed 15/04/2012

      The Roscillian Empire is an incredibly advanced society whose technological
ability is reflected in its military’s inconceivable designs. This allows for outlandish
technological marvels such as armor only millimetres thick, or guns in the
guise of melee weapons. It is a military where the soldier and his equipment are
so in tune with the warrior’s performance, that it seems they themselves are
weapons incarnate. Other examples might include (but are not limited to,) flight,
built-in weapons, energy manipulation, speed enhancements etc.
   The symbol for Roscillia is a black and red hawk, as such, this colour scheme
may be taken into consideration. The standard soldier bears traits of the whole
empire, red armor or bird-like designs for example.

Environmental

 

   I have downloaded Sketch-up software, an architectural program used to generate ideas and landscapes for cities, buildings, rooms, etc. I will use this program to chart out a rough cityscape and screen-shot it. This is to give me a guiding layout the buildings and how the shadows would be cast. Once imported into Photoshop I set about adding detail.
   This way of drawing however I feel limits me as I am confined to shapes already laid down in Sketch-up. Although the software is easy to use, I don't think that its potential lies in the early concept stage of development, it is better used when I have an idea of what I want to produce.