Cinematic Spaces Presentation

Cinematic spaces by Ashley Knuckles

Photoshop Thumbnail (3)

Last Thumbnail idea before final development

This is the last of my final 3 ideas that will be further developed into my 3 finished concept paintings. for this particular thumbnail I used various textures to get the ancient inscriptions on the walls, I'm not sure if i was subtle enough though. What do you think?

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnails (3)

More Thumbnail Ideas

These are the rest of the thumbnail biro sketches I've done. I'm just using these as a guideline to discover more scenes, angles and ideas that I hadn't thought of already. I know '24' is less of a spaces and environment study and more of a camera shot of some sort but I left it in because I feel the use of perspective can work in another scene effectively.

Photoshop Thumbnail (2)

Second Photoshop Thumbnail

Like my first digital thumbnail, this one was just an exploration of perspective and depth but I'm really happy with the finished product so I'm keeping it as another final idea which I will experiment with further.

I was told by Jordan (digital painting lecturer) that I should veer away from using such soft brushes which I will do in future with my colour and composition studies of this scene. I know I've made some obvious mistakes and miscalculations but I'm hoping with the practice my further studies of these scenes will give me, my technique with photoshop will improve immensely.

Photoshop Thumbnail (1)

First Photoshop Thumbnail

This is my first attempt of a digitally painted thumbnail on photoshop. The composition was loosely inspired by thumbnails '12' and '14' where the main focus of the scene is a form of extraterrestrial architecture found by the arctic expedition. In this thumbnail I'm still getting the hang of digital tonal use and haven't found my specific technique in painting but after some more tries I think I should have my own individual style.

After some thought I figured I will probably stick with this composition as one of my final three thumbnail ideas although I'd have to do extra research on the details found on arctic mountains and probably adjust the angle to make the scene appear more sophisticated.

Perspective studies

Brief Perspective drawings

After my last bunch of thumbnails I felt that I needed to do some perspective drawings to improve on the angles of my thumbnails. These are just brief drawings to get my composition up to scratch so I'll probably end up doing more perspective studies later for my photoshop thumbnails.

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnails (2)

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnails (2)

Here are my second set of thumbnails. After doing them I feel I need some more practice with perspective and composition. I think I'll be taking a couple of these ideas and painting them up on photoshop. What do you think?

Online research: Further knowledge on the novel

Online research: Further knowledge on the novel

To make my thumbnails a more accurate reflection of what the novel is about I did some extra research on the plot, characters and the environments. On doing so I discovered that there are several different creatures in this world that the antagonist William Dyer and his expedition discovered. The two most known are:

Concept art of Elder thing

Elder Things

Described as "Six feet end to end - Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves -  In furrows between ridges are curious growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans". In context, the elder things are meant to have been the first extraterrestrial species that inhabited the earth around a billion years ago. They built huge cities on dry land and underwater with the help of the Shoggoths which are the race they created.

Concept art of Shoggoth

Shoggoths

Described as "a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us".Creations of the Elder, they built the underwater cities for their masters. Although they could understand their masters language they were controlled hypnotically and had no real consciousness. These are the creatures that subtly feature in some of my thumbnails (tentacles) and are the explanation for any thumbnails with penguins (what they eat in the novel).

The Arctic

I also found out through my research that the author of the novel H.P. Lovecraft had almost an obsession with the Antarctic and its exploration. Biographer S.T. Joshi wrote "Lovecraft had been fascinated with the Antarctic continent since he was at least 12 years old, when he had written several small treatises on early Antarctic explorers"

Images of the arctic, Lovecraft's inspiration 

Type of mountains Lovecraft's novels were centered around

This realization made it all the more easier for me to seek inspiration. I could use this as an opportunity to study a specific type of atmosphere and note the small details about them (rocks, mist, details in snow) to make my final three thumbnails more accurate in depicting what the environment described in the novel would actually look like.

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnails (1)

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnails (1)

Here are my first set of thumbnails for my H.P. Lovecraft novel 'At the Mountains of Madness'. As I said in my previous posts I prefer the traditional method of thumbnail drawing and jotting down ideas although it would probably be wiser to use this as an opportunity to practice on my photoshop painting, but for the limited time we were given to do these thumbnail drawings this method is best suited for me. feedback please!

First Influence Map

                                   INFLUENCE MAP

This influence map is derived from the highlighted descriptions in the H.P. Lovecraft novel excepts 'At the Mountains of Madness'. All the images on this influence map are based on what I saw in my mind while reading the excepts and therefore I will be using them to inspire my first set of thumbnail drawings.

I did this in the traditional way (jotting ideas on paper) because I feel when I work with paper and pen my ideas flow more naturally opposed to when using a computer.

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnail ideas

'At the Mountains of Madness' Thumbnail Ideas 

Because all three of my excerpts are from the same book I've just chosen what to me are the most significant pages that influenced my thumbnail ideas. From what I gathered from the excerpts and some brief online research on the novel I got a very strong impression of the type of mood the story is attempting to portray and therefore giving me an image of the types of surroundings I will be depicting in my thumbnails