Joseph Shaw
P13202443
P13202443@myemail.dmu.ac.uk
Project title: Leyendecker Vikings
The goal of this project was to design a selection of semi stylized Viking characters that had to be somewhat influenced by the work of 1900's American Illustrator J.C Leyendecker. The main character is described as a "sprightly young girl" however the rest were up to me.
As this project had to be "semi stylized" I felt I had a lot of leeway, as semi stylized can refer to and incredibly wide variety of styles. In a similar vein to Leyendecker, I tried to keep my characters looking fairly whimsical while still grounded in reality and believable to look at.
I spent a lot of time browsing pinterest for some basic reference and things that interested me, and collected a few Leyendecker pieces that I thought were a good representation of his typical aesthetic
Leyendecker Illustrated contemporary american life throughout early 1900's America, this is far from the subject of Vikings, so I knew the main thing to look for and take influence from was his colour palette, mark making and overall Aesthetic.
I started out by concepting the sprightly young girl, as I knew this would be the hardest by far. I created a few rough silhouettes, which I took forward as value paintings to see which worked best and why. At first I wasn't happy with the way this character was turning out. A lot of the concepts showed lack of character, or had a slightly uncanny appearance. I worked through the concept further until I arrived at something I was satisfied with. At this stage I wasn't as preoccupied with the Leyendecker side as much as trying to get a good design down first.
At one stage throughout trying to design the character I thought about what it would be like to have the young girl somewhat older, and in doing so I ended up with another character entirely:
I also made a point to try and convey some kind of personality and actual character within my characters through the way that they were posed while still highlighting the main qualities of the design/silhouettes.
Some of the more simple characters were more easily concepted in one shot:
At some point I had to design some kind of a villain/enemy. I imagined a very typical horned helm viking, or a more brutish warrior/raider. In the end I went with a character who looked more akin to a mercenary or warrior, in contrast to the other characters who so far had been villagers and workers.
I created a couple of concepts for a sage/wizard like character too, before creating a character line up. I worked on a lot of my characters besides each other as means to try and create variety in scale and shape/silhouette.
Up until now I had only been taking influence from Leyendecker in terms of how he used a lot of straight edges and angles along the silhouette and outline of his characters. I chose three characters to render up as "final" images. Here, I started to look at more of Leyendeckers aesthetics, such as the well known hatched brush strokes and subtle variation in edges. I also took note of his colour palette which uses a lot of neutrals and warm colours.
I established a basic palette using flat colours beneath the line work first, and then a basic shadow multiply layer over the top using a single colour. After that, I rendered over the top of each character trying to achieve some mark making reminiscent of that Leyendecker might use. I wanted the far left and far right characters to have a cool/warm contrast, as conveyed with the skin tones and red beard/blue loin cloth, as well as some shape contrast; the centre character links the two using elements from both of the others.
In conclusion, I am fairly pleased with how my final paintings turned out, however I believe a few of my initial value paintings were somewhat stronger that the ones represented in the final image. I also wish I could've spent more time refining the final character paintings, particularly the stocky blacksmith who underwent a large transition from the initial concept. Trying to find a design for the young girl was particularly tricky, as I had never drawn a child character before. There are a lot of subtleties in the form that I struggled to achieve however I hope that I could properly represent her demeanour and personality with her body language. I also feel that my characters don't do a good job of imitating or representing Leyendeckers aesthetic as well as they could. The Leyendecker influence isn't in anyway obvious, unless pointed out. A lot of this is simply down to my fundamental knowledge and skill.
If I were to have more time on this project, I would probably go back and spend more time developing several of the characters further until I could find more solid designs that resonated with everybody. I also felt I should have taken the opportunity to show some kind of narrative or world building, perhaps a way to tie the characters together more. Overall, I think I learned a great deal about my own work flow, and how to take paintings beyond the initial concept phase.
