Arsulla: Project BA7 & BA8

Critical Evaluation: The Last Project

The time has come to end the project that is BA8: Final Project 2. Having worked on this particular project since late 2010, I’ve become literally attached to my creation and immersed in the world of my game concept. Working long hours day and night on various ideas through sketchbook work, notes and reflective journal posting, I’ve managed to create the most appealing artwork I have done since my time at university.

It all began with an idea to create a sci-fi/fantasy based conceptual idea revolving around abandoned dolls & child labour, which swiftly evolved into a game concept based around witchcraft, the Victorian Era and two characters with a strong relationship. Usually my character creations don’t leave an imprint in my mind, as they have remained weak and easily forgettable. For once I focused only on a pair of characters, not several or a group, only a pair. This pair I soon became attached with and my skills in character design & concept art took off to a whole new level. The theme of witchcraft came to mind during Halloween of last year believe it or not, after I realised that witches themselves make decent characters within any form of media and for years have sparked a great interest in me, thus the beginning of pre-production document BA7 “Arsulla” was born. Strangely enough I did become rather obsessed with witchcraft over the months, dwelling deeper and deeper into the subject, even as far as studying how witch characters behaved in television such as in the show “Charmed” or in video games such as “Bayonetta” to documentaries about the Salem Witch Trials, which provided inspiration behind my game concept characters.

After researching massively into how witches are portrayed in folklore and popular culture within my pre-production document and research report, my character designs had a solid foundation to be built upon in order for them to become noticeable figures with their own distinctive features & personalities as witches in BA8. As I spent months developing my characters before finalising their form, I spent hours every day or so building up my digital art skills such as painting skin tones, facial features and texture. Many trial images I painted ended up never being used in my final project due to my impatience with perfecting my drawings. Colouring has never been my strongest skill and with great determination, I focused hard on changing the way I work within my concept art. Various tutorials, life drawing and studying the work created by artists I admire strengthened my determination to improve. Originally I had in mind to create concept art on many characters, including possible villains, non-playable characters etc, but in the end I chose to only focus on my main characters as it would require less work and I could achieve creating better artwork through limiting myself, keeping in the back of my mind that “less is more”. A major weakness of mine is time management, in which I end up working on more than I can handle or become fixated on detail within my artwork, limiting the time I have left to make it look decent.

While focusing on only the portrayal of the two characters, I decided the most effective way to describe my game concept in the most simplified yet artistic form was to create a short illustrated storyboard featuring how the characters would act cooperatively in battle against their enemies and various conceptual pieces featuring them working as a team or standing on their own to give a sense that they are also strong individuals. Overall I think I have done a good job on portraying my game concept purely just through character concept art in a finalised show reel. I’ve worked to the best of my ability and it’s surreal to think this is my last ever university project.

Taking control of my weaknesses was tough yet achievable towards the end outcome. Throughout these three years of studying Games Art & Design, my final year has been the most challenging and required much determination. I know in the long run this will pay off and hopefully one day, something achievable will become of this game concept and my overall talent. With the amount of skills & techniques I have learned, I hope to improve continuously in the near future, all it will take is a good dose of confidence and motivation to become a better artist.