Devils ladder

Devils Ladder

Looking at the image ideas I had it became apparent that I would have to work really hard to give them visual impact.  I decided to take a distinctive feature of each mountain and use that.  The first was Carrauntoohil which has a portion of the path up it called the Devils Ladder. That's what I went for.    I did not finish this as I had a rethink on the whole approach. 

Bloodsports 12

Bloodsports 12 was a design challenge.  

 we are asking you to create a BEER LABEL to be put directly on a BOTTLE.

you get to choose what brand of beer youll be working with- or if youll opt to create your own. both are acceptable. the important thing though is that your label has an intended market, and a fitting style for that market. is this a fancy beer meant for upper class people? is this a trashy and cheap beer meant for college partygoers? is this a badass beer meant for biker gangs? its up to you. Choose a market, choose a style, and go to town!

 I have not done anything like this before so it was going to be a trip into the unknown.  

The first thing was to decide the theme for the beer.  It happened that a colleague of mine was wrapping up training for a charity event called the Four Peaks Challenge.  This involved climbing the 4 highest peaks on the island of Ireland. I figured this would be an interesting theme to play with. 

Ironman -+ Variations

Ironman Study

Ironman Greyscale

After the Bloodsports 11 submission I had resolved to try harder on hard edges.  I did this Ironman study as practice.  It was done in grey scale then used colour overlays.  This seemed to work really well for this subject.  It is not my usual approach.  What this method does offer is the opportunity to try out different colour combinations. 

female character- Artic combats

Female character - combat

Well whats the point of a study if you don't try and put what you have learned into practice.  So following from the previous photo study here is a female character sketch. 

White Combats - study

Snow Combats Front- study

Snow Combats Rear- study

Photo studies.   References found  on Deviant Art by sharpener. 

These were good practice pieces figure and limited pallet. 

Bloodsports 11 final

Bloodsports 11 final

This was the image I submitted as final.  As ever I could have done with more time to refine and embellish.  The poor model designs stand out the most.  I have done very little character design at all so I resolved to do a bit more homework on this.  A few posts to follow on that theme. 

Bloodsports 11 studies + inspiration

 

Bloodsports 11 WIP

Bloodsports 11  WIP

Here is the image in an early stage.  Yes the character was developed planned and this fully finished concept sketch put together in just under 5 minutes.  I know it shows.  This was the a major mistake on my part.  I fumbled with the studies and then I should have spent much more time on this.  It was supposed to be the main element of the illustration and I really need the practice. 

Parachute guy toy - study

Parachute toy - study

This was the last of the studies I did for this image.  This one was kind of rushed too but I kept with it to get it some sort of finish. After this I dove right into putting the image together. 

Bloodsports 11 -studies

Boat study

ornament -study

These were some studies I attempted to get done prior to getting into the main image.  They were miserably unsuccessful.  The biggest reason was I think that I rushed them.  If I had stuck with them I might have overcome problems and learned something.  I had spent a few evening working on this study and that seriously ate into my time for this challenge.  I figured if I stopped working on the Boissieu I would have lost the momentum and benefit of it. 

Bloodsports 11- starting

Bloodsports 11 thumbs

Bloodsports 11  consisted of the following -
"Your Task is to use a monster (pre-existing or self developed) and turn it into a living statue version of itself. Similar to the concept of a gargoyle, these statues can be of any monster, and can be made of any  material. Once youve decided- bring it to life! backgrounds are a MUST."

 This one was gong to be hard - creature - textures - environment.  I started doing thumbs.  Unfortunately most of them got lost as  I juggled files between my computer and laptop.  The remnants are above.  I plumped for a toy come to life.  Originally it was going to fly but that got ditched when I moved into more detailed sketches.