Updating concept art/exploring ideas

idea 7:

update I

I took a second look at the graffiti inspiration and tried to approach the outline differently, trying to use shadow and lightning to help convey the shape. This was fun and new to me since I haven't really practiced drawing shadows in a convincing manner, as in one light source, a lot.

My idea was to have different light sources for each character, related to their respective perspective pose; the focus was to have the shadows leading "withIN" the centre. Perhaps I could make the inside character have a white outline and stand out in a complimenting manner. We'll see how it goes upon further developments.

update II

I am giving myself the benefit of the doubt and just... trusting in the process. This is fine and I'm starting to like it the more I look at it. There are interentional decisions made in having the dripping 'paint' overlay other areas of the other colour. This is to so as give more of that feeling of layers, like the order of metaphorically painting each outline on this canvas. Well, to me it reminds me of a feeling of stamps and stencils, but with spray paint.

update III

okay I am starting to feel the potential more strongly. The lighting looks nice for the red and blue, followed by yellow, and green being...uh.. more harder to grasp where the light source is. I might have to redo that at a later date. But so far I am liking the visuals.

masking the white with a black colour conveys a graffiti feel more strongly to me so I will keep it as is.

update IV

added an outline to each coloured figure and made them more transparent to still show the paint splatters. I really like the progress at this point, though I am unsure whether to move the characters since they overlap, or rather, keep it because it overlaps. Hmmm I will keep as is for now since the poses were already spaced into a good composition before this stage.

This leaves me lost as to how to approach the centre character now at this point. I need to make it stand out while also not interfering with the other characters, or maybe they stand out too strong?.... I will see how doing the backgrounds would go at this point and find out if I can keep up the aesthetic so far, or else I would keep as is (but would have to refine more of course), just because I think it looks cool at this stage.

update V

started to work on the backgrounds + doodles. I am unsure of what to draw so I will just use letters for now. The letters used are initials of the four MBTI personality groups: Analysts, Diplomats, Sentinels, and Explorers. Of course, they are also colour-coded.

It was fun making the patterns by hand, and with a little copy & paste magic too. I got my colors by color selecting the possible colors in the MBTI personality drawings. This was helpful.

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I edited the backgrounds so that I could get this result. It looks nice but it contrasts against the colors of the characters. I might need to see if I can rearrange the colors since it seems that the darker colors are in the characters, and the lighter ones are in the background.

There was something nice about the empty, see-through quality shown in the previous photo... I filled in the centre man and made its background black but... it still feels off? I am more keen on looking at the color swap adjustment idea at this point.

update VI

okay, so I tried to do some color switching and the backgrounds look off. I only did a few but they didn't look nice to me, so I scrapped that approach. Luckily I found a new way.

I changed the outline so as to include the paint splatters as well. It makes it more readable I think so I'll keep it that way. From here I am unsure if I should change the doodle into other items. Perhaps I will create some iterations that would show my idea though it would be unrefined. Depends on the remaining time that I have.

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"Red/Pink" perspective = card shows this at a certain angle, only colours in red/pink and changes the background to match.

"Green" perspective = vice versa

"Blue" perspective = vice versa

"Yellow" perspective = vice versa

"Blank/Default" perspective

Default alt. 1

Default alt. 2

Default alt. 3

Default alt 4. = seems empty now but supposed to have a background filled with doodles. To be continued (maybe).

update: alt

(disabled bg for focus)

I observed that what could helps in conveying the graffiti aesthetic I want to achieve is in the visual texture of the characters. Some graffiti are done against walls with small bumps, which also is reflected in the work. I don't have any brush similar to that at the moment (perhaps I may find one to download if I search for it) so I attempted to replicate that with a different brush instead.

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update:

(textured insides)

(textured insides + textured outlines) = looks more stamp-like

(textured insides + textured outlines + outline opacity) = looks more stamp-like + graffiti-like?

Something about this appeals to me and maybe the texture really contributes somehow. I do have concerns as to whether this obstructs a visual expectation I have of the outcome.... let's see how it goes and maybe I will like it more after not staring at it for days.

inspirations

In this collection, I looked for references what could help in presenting a "character card" that I have kept in mind.

This lead me to look at dynamic posing and how they can be added on top of each other to form the composition in the overall design in a separate "composition card", or something of the sort.

The persona image on the right is just looking into ideas of displaying the character. I have looked at character portraits in games before, focusing on full body for representation so I am leaning back now to see if I can do the same with different presentations. Some thoughts are such as, mid-shot/partial shots of the body (not fully displaying it in full) and, with previous references and this persona reference, a close up shot could possibly worth considering

There is the problem that these close-ups work because there are unique features in the character so as to distinguish them, which would be difficult in my case, maybe... I am trying to keep it featureless so far but hmm, I should consider looking into clothes and/or accessories. But I digress. I think in my case colors would be fine for now, and I can make the space more interesting by making the other details more uh dynamic? Let's see where I go with this.

update:

I feel like I could improve this but I don't know how. I am trying to find other versions of the colour within the same color, so like different shades of yellow, being brighter or darker. This proves hard to do for some reason while making them be distinct to each other. Perhaps adding background items and other...UI elements(?) could change my feelings on the visuals. To be explored.

I like the post card so far but I don't know I would use the same layout for the other characters as well. I could explore but I don't think I would devote too much time to this considering other potential developments that I can do.

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I finally found the art aesthetic(?)/genre(?) I was looking for!!!

The term used to refer to these can be called under "selective colour art", where a monochromatic palette is used alongside a separate, saturated colour. Of course, this applies to only a few of the images shown above, whereas the rest offer a similar vibe and style.

These would be helpful in making the colors I use simple and effective despite its limited color scheme.