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The product illustrator wants to do concept art.
Brizian
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The thread title really says it all.
A few years back, before I was a "professional", I used to do a fair bit of concept art. For the last few years, however, I have not had any personal time to draw...my work was somewhat consuming, and in the nature of product illustration.
However, now that I am self-employed (read: unemployed), I would like to get back into the practice. Please critique the shit out of my first concept piece in a few years:
Just a few quick notes before you all tear me to shreds:
1. I put the background together in about 15 minutes so you wouldn't be looking at a robot on a brown difference clouds render. Feel free to critique the background, but know that it was not my focus.
2. I know the robot concept is somewhat bland and unoriginal...any critiques you want to throw out about that are more than welcome, but I'm mainly interested in what you think about the execution of the concept.
Thanks.
A few years back, before I was a "professional", I used to do a fair bit of concept art. For the last few years, however, I have not had any personal time to draw...my work was somewhat consuming, and in the nature of product illustration.
However, now that I am self-employed (read: unemployed), I would like to get back into the practice. Please critique the shit out of my first concept piece in a few years:
Just a few quick notes before you all tear me to shreds:
1. I put the background together in about 15 minutes so you wouldn't be looking at a robot on a brown difference clouds render. Feel free to critique the background, but know that it was not my focus.
2. I know the robot concept is somewhat bland and unoriginal...any critiques you want to throw out about that are more than welcome, but I'm mainly interested in what you think about the execution of the concept.
Thanks.
Brizian on
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The concept behind the robot was that it would be sort of a standard issue guard-bot. You'd need to feel comfortable walking around town, seeing these things everywhere, but also know that, if you tried to get into that door, it'd kill you.
I did rush the background, although I would still like to hear what you dislike about it. For me, the brick pattern is too perfect, as with the point where the wall meets the floor, breaking the illusion for me. Is there anything else that jumped out to you?
I don't know if you have a wacom, or perhaps just use a regular pencil, but if you try to recreate this drawing in 5-10 minutes using either a soft pencil, or a big brush in PS, it will probably look more dynamic and powerfull. Stuff like the soft shadows, all so carefully placed, kinda kill the image off, IMHO.
Did you start from a sketch? Could we see it?
I like the way it looks, though, it has a lot of potential. If you can post some sketches from different angles the design would probably make more sense to me. I'll refrain from any more in depth comments because I suck at drawing and couldn't even recreate that brick wall of yours even if I had the tools.
As far as the robot goes, it doesn't look functional. It looks like a bunch of geometric shapes thrown together, like it doesn't have any joints for movement.
I'm assuming the top part is the head? Is the red line the eyes? The mouth? To me, the red lines indicate some sort or readout, like noise, so to me it is the mouth. So where are it's eyes? How does it see?
To me, it's not a guard robot. When I think of a bodyguard or someone blocking my path, they should be big and intimidating, not have pencil thin arms.
The wires sticking out seem like an afterthought to give it more detail.
What are the purpose of the arms? Are they for smashing? Why do they extend so far off the elbow?
I think the rendering skills are pretty good. Some places on the bricks look like cloud renders, but overall it's pretty impressive. I like the lighting and shadows.
Why not come up with a bunch of pen/pencil drawings first? Then you can test out your ideas and flesh out the one's that jump out at you. Good luck!
No, you don't need to be able to see the robot's eyes, ears, or mouth. They could certainly be hidden from view. I'm just trying to get this guy's brain jogging. It doesn't seem like he thought out the function of the robot. Honestly it seems like he just put a bunch of shapes together until he thought, "that looks kind of cool". Form follows function, and it science fiction and other things you can take a lot of liberties with that, but if you look at say the ships of the film Alien, the designer could tell you how the ships worked and why, which is what made the concepts believable. Hope that makes sense.
Edit: or to put it another way, could the original poster explain how and why the robot functions? Come up with a backstory?
I sketched out the general shape on my wacom, but that layer is part of the final design now. I've kind of gotten used to sketching things digitally, which might also account for the somewhat uninspired robot design. In the future, I will at least duplicate my original sketch layer, so I can show you that too.
I had intended for the shoulderish balls to be the main arm movement joints. If you look closely, there's a screw in each one. Also, the joints attaching the arms to the "hands" are hidden from view at this angle. The multiple balls at the base of the neck are intended to allow it to move the head forwards and backwards, and 360 degrees around.
The head is basically a big optical sensor. The readout is there mainly for diagnostic purposes
I was kind of trying to break the mold...make something that doesn't seem overly bulky, but is every bit as dangerous.
*shrug* you got me.
They are actually supposed to be for slashing/stabbing at the back, and smashing at the front. That's why they extend past the elbow.
Thank you, sir.
I was essentially creating finished images of unfinished products for production and promotional reasons. For example, if you had invented a new kind of toaster, you might hire me to create photo-realistic images of the finished toaster, based on your specs. It would also usually involve placing the image into some sort of ad.
It wasn't actually my main responsibility (far from it, actually), but it was about the only type of illustration I ever got to do at my last job.
Once again, thanks for all the criticism guys. Feel free to keep it coming. I'm taking it all into consideration, gonna do a few more drawings when I have some free time, and I'll post the results for you to see.
Good luck dude
If you want to do concept art, you need to learn how to draw. And then you need an imagination. Like, a really good one. Not sure on the second one, but I would have to recommend you step away from the computer and start doodling in your spare time as much as possible.