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Swampy ruins enviro sketch

Closeup:

Monster concept paintover

Did a quick paintover last night for an aspiring concept artist friend, Jacob.

Thought others might benefit from this, so I’ll post the paintover first then expand on some critiques.

Note: This is entirely his concept and design, I just did a 10min paintover with some colour adjustment and extra details.

The rendering was pretty solid, and limiting the value range a bit (through curves adjustment then overlay colour) was an quick way to make it less muddy. The original was painted in greyscale and then colourised, which can often be troublesome.

My main points centered around adding more variety to the design.
Variety in colours, textures, materials, purpose etc. Adding more narrative to the image.

The original concept didn’t really distinguish between sections of the monster other than the shape of muscle forms. The ribcage area paintover is a good example of what I meant; changing that to a deep, fleshy, muscular red colour now makes it look like a vulnerable spot on the monster. Possibly a great visual cue if this appeared in a game. It also makes the blue flesh look stronger and more solidified in contrast.

Developing a good concept is about pushing these contrasts. One aspect exaggerates another. I also added some furry patches to add environmental context and textural variety. It looks more like a descendant of some animal/creature now. Maybe its ancestors were a lot more hairy and it’s only left with a few patches after climate shifts. In terms of its back, the furry patch also seems to make more visual sense than muscle strands.

You can also add pattern in areas for more visual interest, I put some spots on the back, and things like subtle veins would push the flesh even further.

All in all, this was just a quick pass to make a few points.

What I imagine Skyrim is like

I’m a little hesitant to play it. I like to complete games… Instead I made this comic: