Tuesday 20/4/21 - Concept Art

I decided to create two sketches based on my ideas for the film. I felt it would be a good way to visualise my ideas beyond the storyboard and give a better glimpse into what I want the film to be. The first sketch was inspired by one of Don McCullin's most iconic photos. It was one that particularly stood out to me and I felt related to my film idea, the image was of a shell shocked soldier during the Vietnam war. It was a really interesting and also impactful photo as the person pictured just felt very lifeless and unmoving, as if they were posed for the photo. But of course that wasn't the case. I recreated this with the design of one of the soldiers I'd be using in the short film. I felt that portraying them in a similar fashion of being shell shocked would be a good idea. Whilst there's not much context towards the war itself in my film it's definitely taken a toll on these characters. To the point that they won't even speak, just make gestures and movement. I didn't spend a massive amount of time as I wanted it to only be a sketch, though I was considering to later recreate this in blender with the actual character model.

This was the original image.

The second was inspired by Victor Hugo's ink drawings, something I included in the moodboard way back at the start of this project. I really liked his work as they felt very atmospheric even though they often felt difficult to distinguish what the actual subject was whilst leaving enough to tell what he was trying to create. They often had very abstract-like designs and also featured a range of shapes. I didn't really plan ahead with this, I just drew almost randomly aside from the soldier and lampost in the middle. The lines were inspired by droplets of rain but I had it swirl around the subject instead to create a sort of patten. I wanted to make these fluid-like shapes move around the soldier in the middle similar to the very stormy seas Hugo portrayed in his ink drawings. I also drew some shapes inspired by fire to contrast the water-like aspects and for the feeling of destruction at the hands of conflict. I felt that this managed to capture the atmosphere of isolation alongside a very stormy and intense scene.

These were some of the drawings that inspired me.

I felt these were a good representation of my ideas despite them being simply sketches, I didn't put many details or spend massive amounts of time. Instead I was focused on putting ideas in my head into light, especially the second as it's a shot I'd like to somewhat recreate in the film though of course without the abstract shapes.