For the first week of Art and Animation, I was asked to create a concept image for either a character or a landscape. As I already had a few ideas in mind for a character, I chose that option.
Collecting Ideas
Initially, I knew the character I wanted to create would be from a cyberpunk inspired setting, but besides this I was unsure where to go with the idea next. After spending some time looking on Pinterest at different character concept from the genre, I found a character concept for a robotic character, similar to the characters from Stray. After finding this, I knew I wanted to create a robotic cyberpunk character, but I still wanted to put my own twist on things.
Combining my ideas
After finding lots of art similar to the one above, I wanted to add my own twist to my own character concept. Going back to how these robotic characters reminded me of Stray, I had the idea to create a robotic cat; a combination of the two types of character in that game. I continued to look for inspiration on Pinterest, but this time I decided to search for cat character concepts.
These three images helped me define that I wanted to create a more cartoonish-styled cat instead of a realistic one, meaning more emotion could be conveyed through the character. To bring my concept back to the cyberpunk theme I was originally planning, I was thinking of adding cybernetic elements to my design, for example: robotic limbs or making the character completely robotic.
Final Sketch
When it came to creating the concept itself, it took me longer than expected, as I had little to no experience with physical or digital art and had to learn from scratch. During the lab session, I had access to a drawing tablet, which helped me get started with digital much quicker than if I had to use only a mouse. As it was my first ever digital drawing, I worked heavily from reference just so I could get a better understanding of how photoshop worked.
For this sketch, I may have worked directly from one of my inspiration images, but I believe that it turned out quite well for a first attempt. I quite like how I managed to convey a different emotion compared to the original image, more curios compared to annoyance. I didn’t attempt to use colour as of yet, but I did attempt to use some shading and different blacked out areas t show the cat’s markings.
If I was to improve my drawing, I would attempt using cleaner lines when drawing the character outline. As well as this, I would work less from a reference and try to create my own style of drawing for the concept. I would also link the design back to my initial cyberpunk theme, as I was too focused on the drawing itself to remember to add all of my own ideas. This character concept is directly linked with a game idea I had, so I am planning on having another attempt at developing this character art at some point in the future.
References:
@m00d_x on Twitter (2020) Untitled [Digital]. Available at: https://twitter.com/m00d_x/status/1238198283320909830
Larsen, Q. (2021) lost a fight [Digital]. Available at: https://twitter.com/quinnecl/status/1400601362430189571?t=hm7pXu-GG0oXEW7z79I_UQ&s=09
Murpha, J. (2018) Untitled [Digital]. Available at: https://murpha.tumblr.com/post/181140665832
Rey-Mauzaize, L. (2018) A tiny troublemaker [Digital]. Available at: https://leareymauzaize.tumblr.com/post/174338370541/a-tiny-troublemaker