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A new label. Starting Out.

liveinabin

Entry posted by liveinabin

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Hallo all. David Exton here, artist of a fair few homebrew labels and manuals for the AtariAge store.

This is a bit of an experiment, and a risk. I thought it might be nice to have a little blog here charting, step-by-step, the progress of a new piece of art from conception to completion. I say risk, as I'm not usually the kind of person to show works in progress. I feel I'm rather bearing all, as it were. Still, I hope it'll be interesting for you, as well as providing impetus to me to keep going if I know I must post something.

 

That's the idea, anyway. :)

 

SO, here's the new work. I say new, the brief came up last October, but the game wasn't finished, I was working on other stuff and Albert (and I) had the Holiday Cart to wrestle with. The game in question is Stephen Engelhardt's very pretty new game, Cave In. A real Indiana Jones piece, this, which both gives me lots of thematic ideas and provides all sorts of problems too. After all, Lucasfilm have one or two lawyers and I don't want to sail too close to their intellectual property.

 

By the way, please excuse the needlessly verbose manner of my writing. I feel I must explain that it's because I'm English. Just read it all out in a C-3PO voice and all will be well.

 

The Design

 

So, how to get the content and excitement of the game across without looking TOO Indy? Well, Stephen was kind enough to furnish me with a load of material on the game so I could pick and choose.

Turns out we have a big snake boss! Awesome. And a crown to retrieve. Both good, strong elements.

The snake could be the main picture element, guarding the crown, with the hero trying to get to it. Very simple, direct, dynamic visual storytelling that would work on a tiny cartridge label.

 

So, as with all the artwork I do, the next stop is picture reference. I used to spend loads on books and lots of time in libraries, but it's SO much easier now to get good stuff from our old pal, Google image search. And half an hour later, furnished with pictures of cobras, cowboys, Raiders of the Lost Ark stills (for colour reference) and lots and lots of Mayan architecture (which might be nice to decorate the backdrop) I set to work.

 

First step. Freeform scribble. Lead with composition, as composition is king. Place your elements, add detail, refine, refine again.

And we have this:

 

gallery_573_247_30232.jpg

 

 

Very rough, but I'm pleased with the layout and Stephen likes it too. Usually it'll tale longer to refine before the design is nailed, but heck, I really like this. :)

 

Linework

 

Now everyone has their own way of working but I have to lead with linework. So we have two layers, snake+man and background. You'll see why I separated them in a bit. Some artists would lead with throwing some colour down, but I don't have the courage for that. Even with the benefit of an undo command, the blank canvas is still a thing of terror. :)

gallery_573_247_35848.jpg

 

And that's as far as the image got for a while. I just couldn't figure out the colours. Not only that, but my computer (a 2004 iMac G5) was not up to the job of painting any more and a new machine was needed. One huge hiatus later, one brand new Macbook Pro, 4Gb RAM and a lovely great 23" Apple cinema display and I'm back on the project, if only to justify the astonishing expense of my new purchase :)

 

Paint

 

Cool, I found a really great free image service, morguefile.com. Lovely hi-res images of, well, anything. While browsing this wonder of generosity, I came across a lovely image of a shaft of light streaming into a lovely red rock cave. It had just the mood I was looking for!

So, back in the saddle once again, I can now throw some colour down. Just digital pastels for now, very nice for large expanses of colour, and set at 75% opacity to blend nicely. I work quickly because that way, some control is relinquished and happy accidents can happen that can be developed into the final piece.

 

gallery_573_247_29768.jpg

 

OOOH! Atmospheric, and probably dark as hell on your monitor :) When my bank account manages to stagger back to it's feet, I must remember to sucker punch it again with a calibration device. Incidentally, here's why I had two layers of linework. I've reduced the opacity of the background lines top blend in with the paint while keeping the foreground nice and black, for now.

 

Still in it's very rough stages but I reckon I can make this work now.

Images

  1. CaveIn1004.jpg
  2. CaveIn0904.jpg
  3. CaveIn070408.jpg
  4. CaveIn3103.jpg
  5. bgnd_develop.jpg
  6. cavein_paint1.jpg
  7. cavein_line1.jpg
  8. cavein_rough1.jpg
View the entire Works in progress album
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8 Comments

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Nathan Strum

Very cool! Looking forward to more. :cool:

 

I'd be interested in reading about how you figure out how to incorporate logos. I'll sometimes design a label and forget to include space for it, then have to shoehorn the thing in somewhere.

 

I was really hesitant posting works-in-progress at first too, but there's a vibrancy in that rough work that gets lost by the final piece (most of the time) and that's what I wanted to show. I'm still selective though, since I won't show every rough in the process. There's a fine line (so to speak) between that spur-of-the-moment vibrancy, and throw-away drawings where I'm just trying to hash out something that solves a problem.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Albert

I also subscribed, so as to not miss future installments.

 

Thanks for much for taking the time to describe the thought processes behind the creation of artwork such as this, as well as sharing early versions of the work. While I'm sometimes privy to seeing a label before it's done, I don't get all the detailed commentary. :cool:

 

I look forward to reading and seeing more!!

 

..Al

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Gateway

Me too! Half the enjoyment of an artpiece, film, or game, IMHO, is the story behind how it came together!

 

Looking forward to more! :cool:

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DaveD

Welcome to the blogosphere, David. I've admired some of your previous label designs before and I'm also eager to see how this evolves.

 

I've done a couple label designs as well and have worked with Nathan on quite a few projects. And the immediate feedback I have on your piece is the same inevitable feedback Nathan and I have when working on a piece. I'm hesitant to mention it only because I don't believe in design by committee and I don't necessarily think it always will produce a better end product. Unlike the collaborative process that seems to ensure a better homebrew game, sometimes in design it just serves to water down the original intent and you lose direction. So with the disclaimer out of the way I'll go ahead and mention it anyway. :cool:

 

I love the rough. The colors, the linework, everything about it is great. It may not be as "accurate" but it's definitely a visual treat. There's an energy in the brush strokes that is hard to capture in a finished, refined piece. Take it for what it's worth or just ignore it. Either way, I look forward to seeing this evolve and thanks for sharing!

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cd-w

Also subscribed - looking forward to seeing how this label turns out, and your future projects.

 

Chris

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