Outcast Odyssey Research

Before I began designing for the Outcast Odyssey, I researched into the themes that would be needed for the creation of the illustrations. I wanted to focus on the warrior and witch designs as to improve my skills further with the use of drawing the human figure. I researched into clothing, accessories and designs that other artists had created as to gain inspiration from their use of medium and stylised approach to the design. I noticed that the steampunk trend is built up with sepia and desaturated tones, that are highlighted with silver, golds and bronze to tie in the clockwork and gear. The style incorporates a Victorian esk attire through the use of corsets, petticoats and other similar clothing.

Using inspiration from the steampunk mood board, I then researched into the warrior and witch theme, merging both of the visual references to see if they would work well as an end result. For the warrior mood board, I researched into both fantasy and realistic imagery from different artists that emphasise their work with lack of or intricate amounts of detail. It was influential with the portrayal of media that each artist used, such as the use of the red inks and water colours for cape that made the fabric feel fluid and light, and another which used ink to make it seem as if the warrior was fading into the mist as it charges towards the viewer. A few of these imagery included work that other artists had submit to the  Odyssey challenge, which helped me to visualise what other artists creative mind set perceived as they research and created their final outcome. One of which did not include armour and absorbed mainly a steampunk effect to its clothing and visuals. I felt that the piece was lacking in a warrior design, as the sword is the only element that shows depiction.

For the witch mood board, I mainly researched into female portrayals as even though it is very stereotypical perception of a witch to be female, I wanted to improve my skill set of drawing the female figure, in which I felt this would be a good challenge. I researched into other artists work as well as book covers and found that the depiction of a witch was mainly shown with a broom stick and a pointed hat, which I found become quite uninspiring as I wanted something that was different. Instead I found myself looking at the style of the image, how the medium and colour portrayed the stance and narrative in the composition.

Steampunk visual mood board

Warrior/knight visual mood board

Witch visual mood board