Here's some concept art behind the Family Matters comic! Original post description below; you can also find the video of his sculpture over on the patreon post if you're interested in that. It's as an attachment at the bottom of the post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/3362211
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Since all the pages for September have been completed, here's the promised concept art behind Kindle's Dad for this week!
For those interested, I'll talk a bit behind the process that went into the artwork shown above.
When designing a character, sometimes I know right away how I want that character look, other times I just know what kind of vibe I want from them. With Kindle's Dad I had a 'vibe' I wanted to try and capture. I wanted someone large and powerful that could throw his weight around, but really didn't need to.
The Initial Concepts were my starting point, despite being nothing like what I wanted. With me, personally, I find failing right from the start is a great way to see what you don't want so you can get closer to what you do want. There are a couple of traits in these concepts that got exaggerrated until I was happy with them in the final: thick neck and large barrel chest specifically.
The Secondary Concepts got a little bit closer to what I wanted. A thicker, more powerful tail, his hips and wings were bulked up as well to try and get across that no part of him was "dainty" or "fragile". He still felt too ordinary, though, and not nearly as intimidating or as powerful feeling as I had wanted.
The Tertiary Concepts pushed the bulk even more, but I felt a certain elegance or prowess was missing from his appearence. Primarily the lowered head made him feel too solidier-like, and not king-like. I wanted a character design that was in charge, and not just following orders.
In the Final Concept a lot of the traits I wanted were pushed to an extreme. Large, powerful wings that were so big they had to rest against the ground. A thick neck, but held upright and high for a more powerful presence. The hips and bulk of the body became even larger, giving him more of that classical dragonesque look. Where as Kindle and Vera are more elongated and slinky, Kindle's Dad was made to look like a bulky powerhouse. There was nothing slinky about him, and finally I felt he was giving off that vibe I was originally looking for.
Along with the concept art, we've included a small video showing off Kindle's Dad sculpted in 3D. Please find that in the attachment below!
Lawl, well thankfully that myth about stretching vaginas is false, it always goes back to it's original tightness, though that does mean she has a lot of experience taking big things :p
Lawl, well thankfully that myth about stretching vaginas is false, it always goes back to it's origi
I may be a little unrefined as I write prolifically upon this development piece, but I shall try to give it some organization into it. First, having analyzed the picture, I shall give in a unique preview for each part of the development sheet; then I will re-interpret after reading the text in order to enhance the critique a little. Then I shall sum up with my critical response to the design.
Here as only the partiality of Kindle's dad is shown upon the pages of the comic, I was pretty impressed. Upon the rough backstory of him a couple (?) of the earlier pages, the character as I could grasp seemed basically strict and intimidating as a king should act. Returning to the sights, he comes into vision of pure majesty and power, and tyranny. He would be the mean fierce ruler type of dragon, possessing great expectation of his son turning to heir to his throne; upon Kindle's rejection, he draws in me great fear, as I could anticipate in this soon-to-be well put-together story. This comic has premise; it draws real conflict and the characters play along with the backstory very well, and the diversity of emotions has truly expanded and the psyche really showed. The two page panel really blew my mind with the anthology-like setting powerfully drawing to a rollercoaster in bright transparency of colors and expansive branching of glass fissuring. This truly complements the personality of Kindle's Dad. I was dying of anticipation to see his presence.
Upon the first glance of the piece: the concept appearance along with the former concepts are beyond expectation. I mean when I first saw him, he is all BUTCH (like Incredible Hulk or Blastoise. WOW!) compared to the other FF dragons. Kasper, Fletcher, or even Thackery (Artie's brother), couldn't compete with him. X3 So here is my review.
Upon my best analysis of the initial sketch: the appearance is fairly suggesting some majesty, the anatomy does draw that, as a dragon should. Although showing great spunk and litheness, he doesn't (or didn't) reach out as what was shown on the pages.He may had been too welcoming or relaxed, and somewhat too lithe to be any common dragon. As far as the text, I can envision how a true artist works. As I can paraphrase, failure is the best starting point in order to get what an artist wants. So that to me is a motivational initiative. The neck and chest in their expanse of shape are the foundations of the artist's unique figure design.
As for the secondary concepts: The bulk is coming to life within the proportioning of his forelimbs and hindlimbs. Great detail is mingling to a progress, the relieving stands out. Although the digits on the palm do draw some fear along with the spining in direction of the wing musculature, the design of the wing, in its scale and surfacing, shows (or showed) little uniqueness and draws another personality initiative, but little to draw the desired effect. As for the text: the character does seem somewhat mundane or like any other FF dragon of physical rank, and he needed a little more boost to the thoracic and caudal design.
Tertiary concept: I have to admit that I was getting more intrigued as I speculated; it was either that he's pretty bulking up for a new painting or the artist just got me thinking about Michelangelo in his drawings of muscles. Either way, I'm getting turned on concerning the formal aspects. Oh the muscles. Well it has to be the use of parallel lines that turn me on. X3 So focusing on the drawings, the musculature is really taking place to complement the personality. I have great zeal for detail, like Michael Cimino, a film director that did The Deer Hunter, or Van Eyck on his Arnolfini... I do have to generalize, or tone done, slightly the physique, and the tail does (did) lead me away from the desired effect for its length, thickness, and pliability. Upon the right side, it draws me to the effect, the same one as the last segment from Fantasia would.
Intermission. Back in 5.
I may be a little unrefined as I write prolifically upon this development piece, but I shall try to
Teritary concept drawings: The plane-like scaling stands out more in degree of relief (I said "relieving" to define altitude from a surface, my apologies for the confusion) is really standing out more, the spines are used sparingly, and the horns are really bone-dry solid and piercing in rhythm of protrusions. Text: I do have to give credit that he is much like a military commander. Soldier-like as I can interpret does imply tyranny in a manner of ancient times, though I am satisfied enough of that level, lest beyond demonstrates dictation, let alone the power of propaganda. He pretty much dominates the entirety of the cast of FF, I can believe.
Final Concept. Drawings: The wing design is astounding. The manner in which the limbs are at rest, the digit-ing, the position of the wing phalanges, the claws upright, the scale of the membrane-ing, the stance of the arms, the musculature, is absolutely fascinatingly phenomenally strong. The trunk in appearance approaches deep authenticity as that of a dragon (my reaction was like it seems Stegosauras Rex. hehe). The limbs do convey tenaciousness (aside from that to the ground) in personality. The tail and spine-in are very well economized to length (tail) and number and spacing (dorsal spines), the marking along the dorsal surfacing does adorn the profile of the tail well. The scale between the head and the neck is outlandish, but really adds to the war-like appearance. It's like you can sculpt a bust out of him. The skull formation through and through is pretty consistent and complements sternness of a dragon. The occupation of space does occur not only onto the ground, but the wings can pretty much cover up Artie whole, if I may. hehe. I mean the space itself surrounded is slightly wider that the thorax of him, and taller. And excuse for the sidetrack... I get fascinated in the sizeplay between him and Vera, I can already envision them courting. I do agree that the powerhouse stance is there, a dragon very different that the cave-hold, including Kindle and Vera. The bulkiness and intimidation is there before our very eyes.
Summary/Conclusion: The whole development piece in drawing is very much explanatory, and the artist does fairly explain the progress, to give credit. I really do love the draftsmanship of said artists, mostly revolving around Frisky Ferals (even though I'm dirt poor and Patreon™-disadvantaged ^^; I'm not very much expecting nickels and dimes when it comes to doing service), as I grow very concerned with the works, particularly with her expanse of visual tools that FEW artists (as far as I know) could make (foreshortening, anamorphism, framing, visual effects (alone), maybe chiaroscuro, and oh the radiating dynamism of fur and light upon it) it's like scientific when you think about it, it's like approaching the level of Albrecht Dürer. Or so I'm exaggerating. hehe. Sorry. getting sidetracked. So the anthology(?) of concepts, as always my zeal, is well put together to present the whole development of Kindle's Dad in design in order to "get the vibe". The four parts (head and neck, trunk, tail, and wings) are in harmony to scale, the overall musculature and/or surface and the physique texturing is well balanced, the profile is fairly shown. Though I shall point out that when I do attend to painting him I would expect more clarity of his physique. Other than that, I would say that Kindle's Dad is very well defined in design corresponding to the character. I would give this an A- ;3.
To be honest, I did take few seconds breaks to find words and used them in contexts as I could thus to make sense of the review. The whole process was overwhelming and tiring, but I shall say it was worth the effort. The motive being that I hope the effort of writing an essay can somehow equal to monetary contribution, or let alone the unity drawn to the reception. Well, I mustn't worry much. It's a pleasure doing fanart for Frisky Ferals. I hope I do more of it soon.
Continuation... Teritary concept drawings: The plane-like scaling stands out more in degree of reli
