We are beginning a project in which we will be developing the concept design and a series of images for a narrative that is based on a fairy tale that you will choose to work with. Examples might be Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, and Jack and the Beanstalk. You will use the story line as the basis for your narrative and images, however, your final work should be a personal reinterpretation of the original story. For instance, the three little pigs don’t need to be pigs, Little Red Riding Hood may be set in another environment besides a forest, Rumpelstiltskin may be set in a different time. Invent or reinvent, the characters, time, place, and even the essential relationships between the characters. As with many of our projects, the story-line and characters will evolve through both planning and through the process of making. Your drawings and digital paintings, should be exploratory. Even though you may be making finished drawings. Use that process to generate and refine your ideas.
The first part of the project involves creating an environment for your characters to exist. Use 1-Point perspective to create value sketches that describe your environment. Make sure that you have a clear foreground, middle-ground and background in your scene. Value and silhouettes should be emphasized instead of line as objects in the environment recede. Work small so that you are looking at the overall compositions and essential shape relationships. In some cases you may need to do separate drawings of the objects in your environment to develop features and clarify their silhouettes.
By Monday, February 18th you should have 5-10 value sketches of the environment (feel free to do more). If the drawings are more refined and complex, then 5 images are fine. Create 10 images for average studies, and 20 or more for simpler studies. See the examples in the link below to get a sense of what I mean by drawings with “average involvement”.
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=107208
You may also find several other tutorials on examples on digital painting throughout this site. This is one site of many that I am suggesting as a great resource for digital painting and concept design.