Reflection of week Eleven

Week Eleven was review week, Therefore I had no lessons. I handed in all my visual design work, apart from life drawing and then spent the week working of the week to work on my stylized tree project. For this new project, we were briefed to make two stylized trees to fit the same style of the assets we had been creating so far, for the village style and surroundings.

As this week was a review week I used this time to work on my tree project. I was in the process on developing my concepts.

To begin this project I wrote myself a time plan in my diary planner, so that I can make sure I manage my time well and stick to the deadline. First I started my research for stylised tree, I mainly sourced my research from the internet, using website such as pinterest. After researching image material such as Bonsai trees, fantasy trees and bark photography, I created mood boards so that I could start generating ideas into silhouettes. While creating my silhouettes I started by making basic shapes or brush marks, then cutting into them to create a tree shape. With some of the silhouettes I tried to capture the fluid shapes of Bonsai trees by using exaggerated curved branches and roots.

After creating my silhouettes I refined my ideas and quickly decided on two final ideas that were the most realistic and interesting for a stylized fantasy world. 

Once the idea generation stage was complete, I could move onto concepting ideas.

Next I moved onto colour values. I took the first colour painted trees, experimented with the colour balance and duplicated to different variations of the trees. I finally decided on three similar colours for each tree, then continued this process again to achieve the right tone and colour to fit in with the surroundings of the village project. I decided for the floating tree concept a light 'bubble gum' like pink on the leaves and a light yellowish brown on the bark, with a purple hue in the shadows, I thought the pink blossom worked well for a positive fantasy environment. And for the woodland tree I decided a bright blue for the leaves and a purplish brown for the bark, I also thought the unusual colours for the leaves worked well for a fantasy environment, as it wasn't too extreme of a colour and has a green tone, which makes it look slightly more natural. The bark also worked well for the style guide, as the purple tone fit to the colour palette.  

I then produced orthographic paintings of my final designs. I chose to use these trees as a final result for my designs, as they fit within the style guide and brief. Compared to the style guide they fit the stylized fantasy world of the village, the bright colour palettes fit the positive colour scheme and the unusual colours add to the fantasy theme. Overall I feel the final concepts achieved the brief and would make a good asset, however if I were to improve my designs, I would push them further thinking about environment change due to lighting and weather. I would also spend more time on producing final concept art for each finished tree.