Term 2: Steampunk H/w Project Session 5

This week's project set us the task of designing anything of our choosing but was Steampunk in design. As usual I created a mood board to provide myself with a few reference images to draw inspiration from.

I knew from the get go that I wanted this well dressed steampunk character for my final design and thus started sketching models with straps and waistcoats and ties. I also began designing accessories, specifically goggles.

I continued adding a bit more of an adventurous flare to the attire which I very much liked the outcome of, especially the right hand figure with the trench coat.

I then decided to continue sketching some accessories and started off with some leather strap goggles, however I don't feel as though this came out very well due to my lack of experience in drawing accessories.

As a last minute thought I tried designing some top hats to create a more 19th/20th century look for the character but I eventually decided against it.

This is my final piece, it took me 6 hours to make. For this I hand drew the image and then scanned in said drawing and painted it in Photoshop. One of the main themes of Steampunk is this aesthetic of the industrial revolution and so to add a feel for that old time I used a stock photo of burnt paper, similar to the very first photo's. In terms of apparel, during my research I noticed that most clothing designs were of an almost upper-class like style with ties, scarves, coat's, shirts and waistcoats; so I designed my character accordingly, outfitted with a sleeveless trench coat, a maroon scarf, brown waistcoat and a dirty shirt underneath it all. And finally to make my character feel more steampunk inspired I added a staple pair of goggles with a leather strap to the design.

There is room for improvement but overall I am happy with my outcome, one thing to note however is the right eye is slanted too much and that the curvature of the eyelid should follow the eyebrow line I made so I shall correct that at some point in the future.

I have since gone back into Photoshop to improve upon the shading, although there is still room for improvement I think it is better than the previous final piece.

After showing my updated shading to my tutor he went ahead and showed me what I was missing, I was being too cautious with my shading and meant the depth of the figure was not being highlighted as best it could and so for future reference I know not to hold back when shading, as it can be seen above the improvement is undeniable.