Observational Drawing

Above is an observational drawing I made of an image of a spaceship, and the source image I used with which to draw it. Spaceships are relevant to my final piece, so this is why I chose this to draw.
There weren't any real complications, and drawing it was relatively simple, although the proportions were difficult to stick to accurately.
I tried to adhere to the Rule of Thirds in this image. I feel I could have done so better, as due to a mistake with proportions, the drawing ended up looking closer to the centre than I'd liked. I will try to avoid this next time.
Since I plan to use a design for a spaceship as my final piece, I will continue to draw different designs of ship throughout the project to attempt to develop my drawing skills in this field.

Initial Sketches

These are some initial sketches I've made of items I could potentially use in my final piece, and fit the overall theme of my project. In this image there is an asteroid (The jagged, dotted drawing), a planet (Shaded and cratered), a satellite and a distant star. These are all rather generic, common objects in space, and thus could all prove rather useful in the making of my final piece.

Rule of Thirds

This demonstrates how artists I've used for research throughout the project, such as Ralph McQuarrie, have used the Rule of Thirds to aid with composition of their work. The Rule of Thirds refers to a guideline rather than a rule, that states that an image should ideally be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines, and two similar vertical lines. Key features of the image should then be placed upon the points at which these lines intersect. It can also be used to give a general feel for proportions for things like land and sea/sky (Two parts land to one part sea/sky), or warm colours to cold colours, but its most common application is for positioning key components of the image. This is better for drawing focus and creates more of an interest than simply placing things at the centre of the image.

Colour Palettes

Below are some colour palettes sampled from the images I used for my artist research, as well as the images themselves.

Above is a colour palette sampled from one of the images I used for my artist research, as well as the image itself. I observed that things such as much of the background and the ships are often made to look rather drab, almost monochromatic, with subtle touches of colouring in order to indicate who they fight for. The way they avoid the ships from being dull and failing to grab attention is by making them darker and bolder, and presenting them in the foreground to make sure they stand out and get noticed straight away. Thrusters will use colours associated with fire or energy, in this instance blue. Lasers and such consist of several harmonious colours, such as red, orange and yellow, with yellow being the concentrated, centre of the beam, and orange and red making the mass of it. They are usually brighter towards the centre.

Consistent with the previous image, this picture uses a dull, greyish colour scheme for the majority of the background, albeit this time with a more blueish tinge. The ship is also placed in the foreground and darkened so as to make it stand out. The explosion in the pillar at the centre of the image uses harmonious colours, similar to the lasers in the first image; yellow at the centre where it's most intense, then orange and red at the edges of the plume. The thrusters in this image are, once again, blue. The pillar is cast in shadow to make it look darker than the rest of the scenery, and is once again placed into the foreground to make sure it's seen as important.

Very different to the previous two images, this image uses a much darker, blueish tone for the background. Rather than using shadow to highlight key aspects of the image, this picture instead opts to cast the general image in shadow, giving it a much more cold and lifeless, static feel, then chooses to cast light on the parts of the image he wants to be seen. In this image, the ship in the background is illuminated. Adding to the barren and lifeless feeling of the image, nothing appears to be happening in it; whereas in the previous two images there was clearly a lot of action taking place, the first featuring a laser battle and the latter having a large and prominent explosion, as well as what appears to be one spaceship chasing another, the ship is inactive and docked in this picture. Nothing visible is moving, or even alive, giving more of an alien, unsettling feel.

Artist Research

Ralph McQuarrie

 Some of Ralph McQuarrie's notable works as a concept artist consist of the first three instalments (IV, V and VI) of the Star Wars movies, Battlestar Galactica, Cocoon and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Paint was his primary resource for concept art. Colour, light and line are extremely important elements to his pieces. He uses light to draw attention to the action in specific parts of the piece, as well as giving an indication of speed in many instances. For use of colour, he typically picks rather dimmed, monochromatic colours, then deviates from this colour scheme with one or two (If two, usually complimentary) brighter colours (Such as the red and orange used for the lasers in the middle right image) to catch the eye and make the image more exciting. As for line, he seems to favour a two point perspective.

 All of these pieces of art depict some sort of spaceship, which is the primary focus of my project (Both as enemies and the protagonist). They all draw attention to the ship in each respective image. A variety of different methods are used to achieve this, such as the rule of thirds, contrast and colour. I like the use of lighting in these pieces as a means of demonstrating speed in each image whilst still highlighting key portions of each piece.

Hans Palm

 This is a picture of the "Pioneer" ship from the game "Fractured Space", a cooperative, tactical shooter set in deep space. The ship itself was designed, modelled and textured by Hans Palm. His work consists of many different designs for spaceships and guns. He has twelve years of experience working with 3ds Max and Photoshop, the programs he used to make this specific piece.

 Colour seems to be the primary focus of his piece. Blue is used to give more of a cold, energetic sort of feel to parts of the ship that wouldn't be populated (Such as the thrusters), whereas the more hospitable areas of the ship (Such as the deck, visible at the top) are more of a warm, inviting yellow.

 I like the patchy, rough feel of the ships, as well as the use of colours to give clear visual indicators of different types of areas on the ship without needing an inside view.

James Clyne

 This is a piece of concept art, depicting the Narada from Star Trek: Into Darkness. It was designed by James Clyne, who started their career in the games industry, working for companies such as Sega and Activision before moving on to pursue further development with entertainment design. Some of his other works as a concept artist include Transformers, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and X-Men 3. He seems to have used PhotoShop for this piece. He seems to favour dimmed, greyscale colours and a more distant, dim lighting, giving a sort of threatening demeanour to the ship.
 James seems to be trying to draw attention towards the front of the ship, as this is the only part of the ship with any sort of illumination. The ship itself has an extremely rough, jagged feel to it, with many parts being serrated, almost appearing teethed. This gives it more of a dark, intimidating feel, indicating it's an antagonist's ship, rather than a protagonist's.
 I like the way the piece isolates the ship, and uses the Enterprise, the protagonist's ship in Star Trek, to give a feeling of just how big the Narada is. It gives the ship an intimidating, unsettling air to it.

Photoshop Experiment - Cont.

Above is my attempt to make use of the previous technique "Blocking in", as seen before with the elephant, in a practical setting that's more related to my project. One of the ships previously shown on my updated moodboard was used as a template. As per the rules previously mentioned, I prevented myself from viewing the ship as a ship, instead choosing to see it as a mass of colours to be filled in over time. Whilst the spectrum used for this ship varied greatly, and it was very difficult to include many of the finer details, I feel satisfied with this as an experiment.

Photoshop Experiment

This is an experiment with a technique called "Blocking in", a kind of observational drawing that involves visualising objects as shapes rather than entities, and gradually filling out blobs of flat colour via the outline of the shape. Comparing the image you've drawn with the one you're attempting to replicate isn't allowed, and neither is viewing the image you're trying to replicate as anything but a mass of shapes. For example, the image you can see wasn't an elephant, it was just a "Mass of grey", and I had to attempt to recreate this.
Whilst straightforward, I found this exercise rather challenging; I find drawing without being allowed to look extremely challenging, and almost as much a test of mental resilience as it is drawing capability. Nonetheless, I believe I did acceptably well.