Fantastic Voyage - Concept Art #1

For my first experimental concept art, I wanted to capture a composition that fully reflected the approach I wanted to take with my animation. Therefore, the image communicates a shot from the middle of my narrative, a mushroom mid-cycle. I tried my best to communicate style, but found it challenging to simplify my painting methods in order to translate a 'graphic novel' theme. before creating this piece, I looked through some existing comic material, and tried to extract textures, patterns, dynamics and camera angles that I deemed appropriate for my own artwork. I think that the outcome is a little stiff and unsure of itself, most likely because I haven't stylised my work like this before. Hopefully, when I continue to research and practice similar styles, my concept art will become better and more effective at creating atmosphere.

I tried to include as many themes and discussed research topics as possible, as I want my concept art to truly capture the concept of my animation. The yellow patch on the fallen tree trunk (the foreground) is supposed to represent the fluorescent spray paint that was used to mark that particular tree before it was chopped down. This process will be seen in my animation. The blue shape represents the mushroom, the main subject of my animation. Following on from my mushroom species research, it is supposed to share similarities to the 'Mycena Interrupta', an Australian mushroom also known as 'pixies parasol'. Future concept art pieces will hopefully make the location (Australia) clearer. The mushroom, in this composition, is at a 'button stage', meaning that its relatively juvenile and underdeveloped. I tried to keep the colours of the composition muted, as the vivid tree marking and vibrant blue of the mushroom needs to be the focal point of the image. From my research into comic books and graphic novels, colour is extremely important. I think it would therefore be beneficial to experiment with colour pallets further as I create more concept pieces. Overall however, I'm quite happy with this outcome.

Colour Experimentation