The Questionnaire

Yesterday I posted a survey online where the viewers had to analyse the image and tell the story they thought the image told.
I was very happy with the overwhelming amount of responses I got (20 responses in one day!)

The survey went as followed:

To get an idea of who the viewers were I asked some general questions:
1. What's your name?
2. How old are you?
3. How would you describe your experience with reviewing art? (Viewing artworks at museums for example)

1. Inexperienced. I've had little to no interest in art so far.
2. Casual. I know when I like something and I know when I don't.
3. Beginner. I'm familiar with the basics of art theories, such as composition and contrast.
4. Skilled or more. I'm familiar with most art techniques and I've studied existing artworks. I know when something "works" and why.

The prominent results:

- Most of the viewers were in their 20's. 

- A large majority of 55% (11 people) described themselves as a "beginner" in art reviewing. This was surprising because I expected a large number of these people (friends and family outside of my school) to be more casual or inexperienced. Only 1 person described herself as inexperienced and only 3 people described themselves as casual. (one of them was my art classmate!)  The other 5 people made up for the 25 percent of skilled viewers. They were mostly classmates.

Because the first glance of my artwork was so important, I wanted the viewers to know what they should look out for. Before they got to see the image, they saw the following message:

The next image is a rough "sketch" of the final artwork. 

When viewing the image, please take note which things you noticed first, second, etc.

Here's the image they had to review:

The questions were:

1. What pulled your attention first?
2. Could you name 2 or more things you noticed? (Please write your answer in the order you noticed them in)
3. What story did you get out of this image?
4. How would you describe the personality of the woman? (In two or three words. For example: cheerful, serious, sweet, mean, etc.)
5. How would you describe the personality of the boy? (In two or three words.)
6. How would you describe or label the relationship between the two characters?

A summary of the results:

- Most people saw the man behind the door first (9 people)

- The gun was more noticeable then I wanted because it wasn't an important feature in the story.

- The overall image was too dark

- Some interpreted the boy as an adult, it wasn't clear that the child was a child

- If I were to draw a line of the path the eyes followed, I would get a jagged line instead of a smooth one like I intended. Reason for this was that the length of the arm didn't add to the composition, the gun interrupted this line, the shadow on the floor lead straight out of the image

- The tension in the picture was very clear. Everyone understood this was a tense situation

- The boy wasn't interpreted as intelligent or independent, but rather as annoyed, angry, sad. Only a few described him as someone waiting for his opportunity.

- Although a lot of people used the word "serious" which was one of my example keywords, the other key words fitted Brooke as well. Professional, heroic, helpful, brave, firm, cool. 

- I gave Ryan a paper to symbolise his intelligence and obsession with facts, but instead people saw him as the paper boy.

- No one mistook the woman as the boy's mother. It was clear she was police officer protecting a civilian

- It wasn't clear that there was any relationship between Brooke and Ryan. Most people assumed they had just met.

- There was a lot of confusion regarding the boy's reaction to the situation. Some explanations led to the boy getting caught in the act.
- No one thought that the house belonged to the woman and that the boy was moving in.

More compositions

Finding a good composition wasn't easy. The more I tried to implement techniques such as the Rule of Thirds, the more difficult it became. At some point I decided to loosen the reigns and let my intuition do the thinking. I only used the techniques when I got stuck, my intuition still made the final decision.

Through iterations I found that I needed to make several layers clear: Background, mid-ground and foreground. By adding the wall and arch, I had a clear distinction between background and mid ground. I decided that Ryan would be in the foreground catching the cold light that came from the door to make clear he was the target of the intruder.

Composition - Mock Ups

The first 3D mock-ups from the scene. The models are from previous projects and will only be used for proportions, placement and determining the camera angle. 

I didn't like how everything was happening in the centre of the image, so I moved the characters to the right and the door to the left. The audience will see the door first, will somehow be guided to Brooke who is looking at Ryan.

 To get more value contrast I added light and shadows. The archway made the scene look a little more interesting. The set-up is still similar to the last one. A red laser bulls eye is added to Ryan's head.

Some more color. I removed the dot from Ryan's head as it was drawing too much attention too early.

Same set-up, but added actors and started on body language.

Building the 3D scene - composition - key elements

I already had a rough concept for a composition to begin with that depicted a scenario in the game.

The situation
The Mafia has discovered Ryan’s hiding place and are trying to break through the door.
Brooke being dominant and more experienced, tries to take charge in the situation and protect Ryan. She is also scared Ryan is going to run off on his own.
Ryan being independent is convinced he can look after himself and is ignoring Brooke while thinking of a plan on his own.

In this scenario I hope to make the story clear as well as demonstrate Brooke and Ryan's personality and relationship.

I've written out some key elements of the artwork and which purpose they have:

The story:
An agent becomes responsible for the life of a young boy who is a key witness in a murder case against the Mafia.

The game revolves around the relationship between the boy and the agent.

Becomes clear:

- Mafia silhouettes in the window, high value contrast (Mafia is at the door)
- Sniper dot at Ryan's head, some form of bullseye (they come for Ryan)
- Ryan’s stuff in duffel bag(Not the home of Ryan)


The characters:
Brooke Warren
Brooke comes from an ordinary family living in a small town. She was offered a position at the precinct in the big city. Her main traits are being dominant and reserved/private. At the precincts she is admired for her tactical intelligence: she can asses a situation quickly and act accordingly.

Becomes clear:
- She already has a plan (waiting for the right time to act)
- She is in police uniform
- The house looks tidy, lots of square shapes that depict stability (couch, decorations)
- The house has items laying around that tells that the home belongs to Brooke. (police coat on a hanger, pictures, police diploma)

Ryan Goodwin
Ryan has been transferred from one bad foster family to another, who only adopted him so they could cash the government support. Because of the lack of a steady and safe home he runs away a lot and has become adept at living on the streets. He is sly and independent. He also has a knack for remembering information.

Becomes clear:
- He is pondering on his own while in a stressful situation (normal response in this situation for a child should be fear or looking at their guardian for guidance. This response shows off Ryan’s independence and intelligence as well as giving the audience something to maybe re-evaluate if they thought that Brooke was Ryan’s mother)
- Carrying paper: Ryan's interests for facts
- Shaggy/dirty clothes: poor background. In contrast with Brooke's clean environment, shows that up until now Brooke has had no influence on Ryan's life.
- Duffel bag: Ryan's belongings can fit inside a worn duffel bag. He just moved in and that duffel bag has been used a lot by Ryan. (It says "Ryan", has scribbles on it)

Mid-Term results

The mid-term went well, although I didn't achieve the goals I had set out I learned a lot that could help me in future projects.

To put things in perspective:

I couldn't finish the emotion sheets like I wanted to, I ended up cancelling that part of the project. Reason for this was because I only started to draw faces with emotion two months ago and I didn't know back then how much I still needed to learn and how frustrating it was going to be. 

Learning a skill this complex takes more then a few months and some tutorials. 

But, I learned a lot about what makes the face: 

- Skull, muscles and features such as eyes and nose determine someone's appearance. I know now how these elements are structured together and how they work, which will help a lot with 3D modelling and animation. 

- The skull is the base that supports the muscles, features and eventually the skin. It determines the shape of the face and can differ in profile, width and height. 

-There is a standard for face proportions Andrew Loomis mentions, but it's important to know that not all faces are confined to these standards. The features that deviate from the standard are the features that makes a person recognisable. Someone's eyes might be farther apart, or someone's nose might be larger then usual. These are the things you'll notice when you meet someone. 

Aside from these facts, I also gained some general knowledge about acquiring a new art skill:

- Two months are not enough to learn a new skill

- "defining your own style" is a not a goal. It is something that happens through process. It is a preference you develop for little or big details.

- Some things are better to draw from 3D then from 2D. While drawing the skull from other drawings I had a difficult time imagining the shape of some parts, such as the eye socket. But when I used the 3D skull from Visual Science, it all snapped into place and drawing became a lot easier and logical.

- You think in 3D, but you draw in 2D. Always imagine the whole shape before drawing one aspect of it.

- A classmate of mine showed a lot of progress by drawing 20 quick poses each day in his dummy. I'm still hitting myself on the head for not doing that with the face practice. In the end he had a book where you could browse through the pages and see the progress as you went on.

The mid-term put an end to the research phase and the next step is to build the scene. I'm going to start building a mock-up where I could have an audience test my assumptions before finalizing it.

Reconsider approach

Because I've been drawing characters with childlike features for so long (anime/disney style) I had little problems drawing the line art for Ryan. It wasn't until I tried shading the line art or drawing the mature face of Brooke, I realised how little I knew of the mechanics going on under the skin. This opened up a whole new research into the studies of face muscle anatomy, skulls, face proportions and defining the features.

After spending a day on basic face proportions and their angles and another day on drawing a skull from different sides I began to see beyond the tip of the iceberg and panicked on how little time I had to research all of this. Unfortunately a lot of projects I have done so far didn't gave me time for this kind of research as well, for this reason I still went ahead with the research.

To keep a clear goal in mind here is a list of what I want to have before the Mid-term (April 20th):

- 2D modelsheet of Brooke and Ryan

- Emotion Sheet of Brooke and Ryan

For this research I referred to the book on Hands and Heads by Andrew Loomis, Proko's channel on youtube and RKingslien channel on youtube as well.

Ryan Goodwin Face study

In the face study I tried to figure out what it was about faces that made people capable of distinguishing one face from another. 

From some articles I learned that people subconsciously analyse the distance and shapes of the eyes, nose and lips. Some people are better at reading these features than others, which makes them better at recognising people. There is a disability called Prosopagnosia, also known as Face Blindness which makes a person unable to remember faces. 

It took me a few days of sketching from digital images before I found out what it was that made Jonathan's face different from others. I started with rough sketching and sometimes even tracing, but it was the critical examination that lead me forward. Every time a sketch didn't work out, I challenged myself to look at why and what I needed to do different. I remember a quote from -originally from Rita Mae Brown but made popular by -Einstein:

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results"

Below are some of the sketches as well as a final drawing: