Jacky Jones -- 2022 Concept Art

PREFACE

This submission entry of mine will include both some of my personal works, alongside works I have done during my first and second year at the auckland university of technology for my bachelors in digital design. I may also include further context to support these. Concept art has always been the foundation of my infatuation with the digital world, rooting my desire to enter the gaming and film industry -- ever since I was a kid back in my first years of primary school, you could find me drawing little characters somewhere in a corner. Digital painting and character design will always be a love of mine.

This was a concept art piece I created based on a game I was playing a criminal amount at the time; black desert online. I adored the mmorpg's abundance of incredibly detailed, gorgeous armor and attire and even moreso the colour palette of softer, muted pastels and yet how I could still create an incredibly strong looking character with such.

Here is a practice piece I did using a reference photo of Robert Pattinson to challenge myself on creating more photo-realistic digital paintings opposed to my usual, preferred semi-realism. Here I just attempted to make it as accurate to the reference as possible, while still retaining some feel of personal touch in my artistic style. I included a clip where I recorded a couple snippets of this process, clipping them together.

This is another concept art piece I did based on an original character I was inspired by from a tiktok content creator under the alias shinocosplay. Her ability to essentially shapeshift into her characters captivated me alongside its strong inspiration aesthetically by the witcher, and so I chose to bring her cosplay to life in a character concept art piece based on such. I included a clip where I recorded a snippet of this process.

This is a concept art piece for a character I conceptualised, designed, and modelled for a university VFX assignment. As of writing this it is yet to be textured and animated however this unfortunately will not be done in time for me to include here. I wanted to create a creature for my short film that embodied both the past and future of the human protagonist, to bring their internal conflict to life and allow them to interact with this 'impending crossroads' in a visual, touching way. Alike my other art pieces I drew it up using predominantly Medibang Paint Pro with some Adobe Photoshop, and modelled it using Maya 2020 and blender. I kept the concept art/isometric sheet a lot more minimalistic compared to how I prefer painting, as to ensure it easier to understand and follow.

This is a storyboard I created for a hypothetical short film as one of my assignments for university. We had to convey this narrative through a cover art piece and no more than twelve panels. My concept entailed the story of "a pretty red thread", in which my logline reads as follows: "upon waking up to find a thin red string bound to her finger, a girl finds herself submit to the whirlwind expedition of first love and is ultimately tested to see if her own threads will hold up in its mercilessness." 

This is a isometric concept art piece for a low-poly diorama piece I had to create for a university assignment. We were given multiple options to choose between and I opted for the tavern, then adding my twist to it with the heavy crystal accents to add visual contrast in shape, colour, and partial glow/emissions. I again used predominantly Medibang Paint Pro to create the isometric drawing, then proceeded to create the 3D diorama based on such. For that I used Maya 2020 to model, Substance Painter to texture, and Arnold to render.

Here are a few other digital paintings I have done to support this entry. These were also personal pieces, not university related. The first is a concept painting I did yet again experimenting with a more realistic style, opting for the approach more like an oil painting than my usual semi-realistic look, as you can see in the bottom two pieces. The middle piece is a recreation of chihiro and haku from spirited away, and the bottom is of tamaki amajiki from my hero academia. 

CONCLUSION

Thank you for viewing my entry. Your time and energy is utmost appreciated. I am incredibly passionate about what I do and am only looking to expand my skills from here, as I am currently 18 and always a firm believer in room for improvement. I hope you enjoyed looking at my art, and again, thank you.