Finals shown in Class

For the most part I liked this whole project. Until the end. I really dislike how the finished pieces came out. I hate the stats bars. They are too big and too white and too distracting. They take away rather than enhance the idea like they were supposed to. I had problems at the end with paint and pens, and spent the entire night on them. I came here once my roommate woke up and then kept working. I thin I was putting last minute touches(not that they helped much) a few minutes before the beginning of class. If I could do it over I'd not have those bars... And i would change the background in the one with Fawkes and the Basilisk. I'd try to fix the words and hp bars if I had the boxes at all. I put so much effort and so much time into this project. I wish it had turned out better.

Rough Drafts

These are the three rough drafts I have.

Contemporary Artist - Ken Sugimori

Ken Sugimori is the illustrator for the original pokemon artwork. I decided to include him in this because he is the artist behind the style I was trying to go for in the pokemon/potter creatures.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Ken_Sugimori

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Sugimori

His style has changed throughout the time pokemon has existed. This venosaur is an older drawing of his.

This venusaur would be a more recent example.

This snivy is a more recent drawing.

Lugia

Contemporary Artists and Artworks - Deviantart Artists

I decided to look on deviantart, since that is a good place to find work made by fans, and since pokemon has such a huge fan base, I knew it would have something good.

"BATTLE! Weavile VS Tyranitar" by  *ShadowAndreas69 (Andy Bell)

Click for Deviation

This piece is similar to my subject matter with pokemon battles, and the perspective is similar to how I thought I'd do my trainers (one facing the other, camera from behind one)

"Lucario vs. Zoroark" by =arkeis-pokemon

Click for Deviation

This piece is also similar to my subject matter. I like this piece because of the poses; both pokemon are about to strike. I also like that both pokemon are using an attack (lucario is using aura sphere, and zoroark probably just used transform but is about to use a different attack since he is in the air). The lighting and background is also very nice.

Another piece by this same artist also caught my eye:

"Elemental Clash: Harvey vs. Grace"

Click for Deviation

The characters are not pokemon, but they are battling in a pokemon style. This is very similar to what I want to do with my methodology. The perspective is very nice, since the birds are at two different levels while they attack. The only downside to me trying to use this idea would be that with this perspective, the angles of the trainer characters would have to be different than the typical DS game style which I was trying to copy.

Another piece I found on deviantart also involves a pokemon battle:

"Pokemon Battle" by ~mbcoolness 

Click for Deviation

This is a painting of a pokemon battle between Charizard and Pikachu. The way that pikachu is facing charizard with the camera behind him is what I want to go for in my paintings.

Historic Artist - Paul Cezanne

I personally really like this artist. Although many of his paintings are of fruit and cloth still-lifes, I think the techniques he uses for painting are really great. The brush strokes especially are really impressive, and something I eventually want to try to show. I used to blur my brush strokes away with my fingers (yes, I would finger paint in high school), and sometimes I still do that, but I am starting to appreciate having brush strokes show in my paintings.
I also like his colors and the way they are used with the brush strokes.

http://www.paul-cezanne.org/

Methodology 500 Word Reflection

For my methodology project, I am using a mostly convergent process. I have followed the steps that I initially made for my methodology. I had made several sketches in the beginning, and as I continued to research and find references, I made more sketches. Eventually I made my rough drafts, and after having them critiqued by classmates, I made more sketches based on changes I wanted to make for my final drafts. I then began painting on my three canvases. I have discovered things in painting that I hadn’t thought about, like shading styles and all of the color choices.

                I would say that my process is working. I think the preliminary research and sketching was my biggest challenge. After I figured out what my paintings were going to consist of character-wise, I could focus on executing it. I did have some challenges with other points, like poses being improved upon. During the critiques I had with classmates, I was able to improve my original idea that I had sketched. The rest of my process has been very smooth with few problems. I would say that my process is definitely working for me.

                If I were working in a divergent process, I don’t think I would have done as well. The idea of working without major plans stresses me out. I like to know beforehand if my idea will be successful or not, and if I were working divergently I don’t think I would be able to focus on the project because I would be too worried about the end result being perfect or not getting finished at all. I don’t think the specific project I have would have happened with divergent process, since I had to plan the characters and the poses ahead of time, as well as the locations. Although the locations were an after-thought compared to the characters and main idea, I still planned it before I began working on my final pieces. I do think my work would be fun (ignoring the stress of the unknown) if I were working divergently. I would have more room to play and experiment. Aside from not knowing what exactly the end result would be, it would be full of trial and error and experimentation.

                If I could do this over again, my process might be different because I might want to actually try to work with a divergent process. Even though the idea would stress me out, I also think it would be fun to experiment more and not know exactly what will happen. If I were to re-do the entire project, I’d want to try a different idea (probably because at this point, I am done with Harry Potter and Pokemon, and I’d want to expand and do something new). I have seen my classmates’ work and I think that has inspired me as well, and given the chance to start over I might want to explore the route that others took to see where that would lead me.