Nishant Thelakkat-Concept Art Showcase 2023

Hanuman Reimagined

This piece expands on a piece I did a couple of years ago which was based on the Ramayana. I loved working on this piece! I wanted to make him older, stern, and formidable. Hanuman was also a Hindu figure that I drew a long time ago, so it was nice to reconnect with him and imagine him in a new way. These images show some of the processes and breakdowns of his design along with the final rendering. Done primarily in Photoshop, with some rendering done in Procreate.

Gabriel- Reset

Gabriel is an old friend of mine. He is a man who was mysteriously transported into a ruined town on a desert planet. He scavenged cloth and swords and fashioned himself some clothing to survive in the new, unforgiving world.

I have drawn this character many times, but this was the one where he felt the most tangible. Through this project, I felt I had a breakthrough with my rendering. Gabriel has been a great way for me to judge where my skill level lies. Done with a mix of Photoshop and Procreate.

Medieval Back and Forth Challenge

In the midst of a busy schedule, I tried my hand at an Artstation Challenge, where the theme was medieval times mixed with the modern era. This gave me the opportunity to do more key art. Having studied illustration, I saw this as a good test of my skills as a storyteller. These three images told different stories about the world where people could freely move forward and back in time. The project also allowed me to delve more into something I love to do: world-building. Done in Photoshop.

Swordtember 2022

In addition to characters, I like designing weapons, particularly swords. When this monthly challenge came around, I had to do a few of them. The prompts were single-word ideas from which you would develop the concept and create a sword. It served as a way to develop my rendering capabilities, speed, and creativity. Done mostly in Procreate, with some work done in Photoshop.

Cubera

The Cubera is one of my favorite pieces. This creature was born from using ZBrush. When you insert a mesh in ZBrush, it can jut out of the existing mesh in a funny way. When I saw that, I thought it would be cool to develop an idea from it, which is what you see above. This project helped me to develop my process and improve my rendering ability. As I went, I came up with ideas for his appearance which enhanced his appearance, such as the way the cubes intersected the body. The colors were also inspired by the colors traditionally attributed to the X, Y, and Z axis in 3D software. Done primarily in Photoshop, with some rendering done in Procreate.