Saul Lane Showcase 2022

This is a collection of the work I produced during my final year of University.

The first series of work is my self-directed final project, 'Ice Runners' - centred around world-building; this project explores a world where a civilisation lives on giant sleds during their great exodus to a warmer region, enjoying a competitive racing culture along the way.

The second is a personal project of mine, a character design of a nautical/maritime-themed vampire.

Finally, the third project was produced for the 'Character Design Challlenge' hosted by characterdesignreferences. The theme for the month's challenge was, 'Bird Warrior.'

I had some early ideas which didn't appeal to me so much, which led to me taking a step back and trying some quick idea generation. Throwing a variety of photographs together and playing with opacity and sizing, I extracted these paintings out from the mess of visual noise and shapes. 

This process led to the idea of 'Ice Runners,' - a world where people live on giant sleds as a means of survival. I particularly enjoyed the sheer absurdity of the idea, but I also wanted to see how I could transform this initially wild concept into a more sophisticated, grounded concept for a world.

Contextual exploration, understanding the whys and how this setting exists.

During the development of this project, the culture of racing came into the mix. I found it blended well with the fundamental lifestyle of these people who spend so much time travelling, where they would learn to find unique ways of enjoying and even celebrating the journey and their efforts to survive.

Just some of the many initial thumbnails for what the sleds could look like. I initially drew direct inspiration from traditional sleds, just making them big and plopping some buildings on top. Through further iteration, I drew more inspiration from more aerodynamic and sleeker vehicles such as boats and sports cars. The end result saw a blend of modern aerodynamic shapes mixed with the traditional materials and elements of traditional sailboats.

The 'Front Sled' of the city which acted as the 'head' or leader of the city, went through the most iterations and developed. I wanted to establish a clear sense of importance of this sled amidst the others. Through this, ideas of a 'guiding flame' much like the Olympic Torch were found.

A final series of breakdowns and cut-aways of the front sled, now known as the Torchbearer. This sled originated the idea of the sleds transforming at the end of their journey into more accommodating structures.

The Snow Moth sled, built to accommodate the people of this city. There were many challenges I needed to solve when designing this sled, such as how do people store and use things in a constantly moving and shaking structure, drawing more inspiration from traditional sailboats.

The Turtle Shell sled, the largest in the city. Built to act as the trading hub during the journey, allowing small trading sleds to dock and engage in the 'dangling market' of trading sleds within.

I decided to produce a small series of mood paintings to further illustrate and reflect the world of Ice Runners beyond just the sleds themselves.

I used 3D modelling in Blender to create 3D blockouts of each scene, providing a great foundation to work from when illustrating these paintings.

The 'Champions Hall' found within the Torchbearer sled. A hall of reverence for ancestors and famous racers. Also the home of the 'guiding flame.'

The 'Dangling Market' - inspired by real-life floating markets. I was interested in depicting a similarly chaotic and sprawling mass of traders.

This illustration gives an insight into the racing culture of the civilisation. 

Initial inspiration was drawn from the idea of a vampire turning into a flock of seagulls as opposed to bats. This kickstarted the idea, where I drew further inspiration from the iconic lighthouse keepers and Dracula. I also looked at iconic pieces of nautical folklore and even Lovecraft.

Silhouettes ranged from fantastical and beastly, to the more subtle ones more akin to the stereotypical Dracula character.

The subtle character design appealed to me more. I wanted to capture the iconic subtlety of Dracula, with hints of the character's true nature hidden in their clothing and appearance. As seen in the designs above, I continued to draw much of the aesthetic and design motifs from seagulls.

Face Designs for the character, mixing the original look of Bela Lugosi's 'Dracula' with characteristics of a seagull and bird-like elements.

Turn-around for the character. A vampire-lighthouse keeper who uses their lighthouse as a means to misguide sailors, crashing their ships and trapping them on their island, only to meet their doom.

The Character Design Challenge's brief asked for a 'Bird Warrior' - I decided to take a real life bird and play with their unique characteristics to create interesting silhouettes.

I was most drawn to the Hoatzin bird for its unique head of hair and the wild look in their eyes. It conjured up images of a poison/assassin like character, which was further complemented by the Hoatzin's unique quality of being unusually stinky.

A model sheet of the Hoatzin Prowler. I was very pleased with the outcome of this character.

The competition asked for a singular image for entries, and so I produced this illustration depicting the Hoatzin Prowler capturing its prey.