These speed painting tutorials really helped me create my environments. The repetitive structures really come together in the end to create futuristic scenes.

Architecture influence

I was inspired by the cold vastness of brutalist architecture. I felt like it met the requirements of having a modern look, but also not being over the top. The vast use of concrete creates a cold atmosphere, isolating the subject form the environment and portraying a separation that I want to convey between the character and the environment.

Police car influence

The Peugeot Onyx inspired my police car, through its flat stance and rigid angles, it resonates qualities of the brutalist architecture.  

The ideas portrayed in the book/movie from George Orwell 1984 helped me push atmospheres and ideas in my comic. I wanted to portray similar ideas of isolation, control and dystopia.

Final work;

Brutalist architecure
Black and white to emphasis aesthetic of bleakness and isolation
Rotoscoped character figure, stays proportional and adds a sense of skewed reality
Minimal dialogue, emphasis on showing rather then telling.

Loose plot influence

Hopkins & Delaney LLP from Sean Buckelew on Vimeo.

The loose plot in the short film by Sean Buckelew really inspired me to keep a loose plot in mind when spacing out and composing my panels for my comic. I wanted to give the reader flashes of environments, feelings and ideas.

This short film gives feelings of what its like in a modern mundane office.

Original character render

Done by using reference photo on photoshop with white brush, then colour blocking in simple colours. In final images, I will make it black and white but the difference in tone will still be noticeable.

Final storyboard link

Dropbox Link

Reference photos

• Colour of skin blue to represent off-kilterness and isolation?
• Environments subtle - mostly dark to show darkness and lonliness of city
• Texture of environment subtle, use inverted colours against black to show subtle lines and details
• Establishing shots of city - make the city a character

Created by tracing of photo taken outside my apartment

Character style shift

Developed character work. Second style developed from tracing taken photo of myself. Experimenting with skin colour.

Stylistic Investigation

The earlier style I was going for proved to be to time consuming and difficult to get anatomy and perspective on point, so I have decided to head in another direction.

Own Work

Rotoscoping or tracing over taken or found photographs has proven to me to be a lot quicker and conveys emotionally and atmospherically a lot closer to what I am striving for. The bottom image I developed when crafting my storyboard, and seems to work a lot more effectively.

Environments

I want my environments to have the atmosphere of a dark city, with subtle elements like Charles Huettner portrays with his spaces. Because my story is set at night, I will use a muted/dark colour palette, with subtle inverts of white for details.

Chosen Story - The Pedestrian

I was interested in this story due to its science fiction elements, and its atmospheric descriptiveness - "misty evening in November, to put your feet upon that buckling concrete walk, to step over grassy seams and make your way, hands in pockets, through the silences"

Initial sketch of The walker after reading the short story.

To get city environments I could take photos of Wellington city at night and trace?

Initial sketches/doodles

Artist Model - Sean Buckelew

Sean's work inspired me from it looseness and movement. Specifically his animated short film 'Hopkins & Delaney'. The abstract technique of animating aspect to aspect, with no character ever being static really intrigued me. The whole plot is made up of specific moments jumping time and character, constructing subtly a narrative along the way. 

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Before creating his short animated film, he went into every detail about the characters lives and the environments they would be portrayed in.

The limited colour palette also appeals to me as I feel it does not overtake and push itself onto the viewer.