This is my second environment final piece, Unfortunately due to bad planning I was unable to spend as much time on this one as I would have liked, I feel that the light shining on the glen has a real nice effect, My character and the whole right side of the image need much more work doing on them.

This digital image by Raymond Swanland I believe was done using the golden ratio. The curve of the tail and shape of the head form a spiral that leads us to the focal point of the picture. The golden ratio is everywhere in the natural world.

I imagine that this Painting is using either iconic or cross composition techniques, as its pretty much symmetrical and has a leading line through the center of her body, and her arms cross to form a stopper.

One of my final environment pieces. I think the contrast of environments and colours works well, the lighting within the portal is blurry to represent some kind of magic field. I added some glowing Celtic Runes to the Stonehenge frame, I feel these added that extra touch to get across that this structure  is something of great power.

I used this in my final character piece I was just putting it up as I liked how it came out considering it was quite simple to do, just using the gradient tool and some new brushes it didn't take to long.

These are my four line, value and colour thumbnails, I like how the each is very different. I had the idea that the Stonehenge pillars were doorways to other Stonehenge dotted around the world. I liked the idea of being able to show two very different environments in one image using this doorway idea. As i did on my last thumbnail where i have the opening to a warm forest on top of a snowy mountain. The second thumbnail shows the burning man ritual which was a form of human sacrifice that the druids performed, often in order to make the woman more fertile. As there beliefs were heavily influenced by the link between life and death, so for a new life to be made one must be taken thus the sacrifice.

I started out having this (above) as the full image but after tuition decided to crop the piece in order to focus more in on the character. I then added the final lighting's and got this (below), I'm pretty happy with the result, however am curious how the other sketch would have turned out.

After a lecture on composition, I attempted to use the golden ratio for my final character piece. I did not
feel that it was working it out so changed my piece to a different viewpoint. I regret doing that, I think I should have stuck with this pose and just been zoomed in as to concentrate on the character. I feel this pose was more dramatic and thus more interesting.

Another Throne pose study, this time from a more interesting angle. I think the angle worked really well to show his "couldn't care less" attitude. I was thinking of having some of the heads he had collected (e.g. the Kings, Queens and executioners .) in the scene either on spears or around on the floor. The throne should be interesting to design, I think Im going to keep it quite simple as I want the main focus to be on the character.

I was wanted to depict my character lazily sitting in his new found throne. All arrogant and cocky. The kind of person who acts like they're to cool to be there. The middle one is my favourite.

Just doing an eye study in photoshop. Came out pretty well but pheraps a bit too manga like.

Finalisation of my characters facial features such as war paint and scars.

Hair study, I decided in the end that I didn't want my character to have hair. I preferred the bald monk look as my character is of druidic origin, and the baldness allows me to show war paint on his head.

This is my first attempt of doing a face on photoshop.

Character Sheet showing my war paint design for my Celtic Warrior.

Anatomical Character Sheet in pencil

I am happy with this build type for my character.

These are my colour studies for my Warrior Character. I have a rough war paint design to them to get the feel of what they would look like. Its thought Woad a cabbage type plant was used to make their warpaint. But now recently Woad is thought to be an unlikely source of the blue colouring as it is irritable. The accounts of Julius Caesar lead to belief of it being blue war paint, however they most likely used copper ore if anything which is a more blue/ green colour. There were also a few accounts of green war paint, as well as orange in areas of Belgium.
I prefer the red or brown cape and kilt than the blue ones, and a more gold/ bronze helm than silver or steel. Over all my favourite is the second one, in red with green war paint. I also like the black war paint but it doesn't relate to any historical evidence. The last yellow/ gold version was because I had the idea of my warrior being the living embodiment of Lugh the celtic sun god, who was the best warrior. That design was a bit to bright war paint wise though.

For this one I misinterpreted my silhouette and have drawn him facing away, now looking back on it I realize that it would look more natural for him to be facing forward, I had lots of trouble with the feet because of this. I like the idea of my character having a combination of weapons, and the bald look does interest me as its different to the usual long haired or spiked up looks. This particular warrior is to hulky in appearance for me, id prefer a more nimble but muscular character.

In terms of body build this is closer to what I have in mind. I have him wearing a wolf head and show him close to the floor as I imagine him stalking his victims like a tiger. I was trying to get away from the idea of my character wearing a kilt as it seems a common theme. I know that in some cases Celts were known to run into battle fully naked, instead of that I made this throw like thing. I'm not sure how I feel about it, might be to little.

Overall I'm very happy with this one, I experimented with different textures and brushes and found the effects worked really well. I think the helmet would be more ornate but I really like it, and feel that from far of it would have scared the Romans ,plus it could be seen as worship to the stag god Cernunnos of the forest.

This is exactly the body type I want my character to have. I like how the cape looks blowing in the wind but I don't know if i want to have one as I like the idea of being able to see most of the upper body, showing of ornate Celtic war paints. I think this armored type kilt is much more practical and looks a lot cooler, especially with the bulky belt.

These are the silhouettes that I chose to take on into my value studies.

Library Research & Reference Books

Harvard References

Christiane Eluere, 1993, The Celts - First Masters of Europe, London, Thames & Hudson

David James, 2003, draw your own CELTIC DESIGNS, Devon, David & Charles

T W Rolleston, 1993, THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO CELTIC MYTHOLOGY, London, Studio Editions Ltd.

John Sharkey, 1975, CELTIC MYSTERIES - The Ancient Religion, London, Thames & Hudson

Light Study

This traditional styled digital painting, being set in a snowy environment is naturally full of light as very little light is being absorbed by the snow, its all bouncing of and being reflected. To me the soft pure white lighting suggests perhaps an overcast sky, there appears to be a parting in the treetops that allows the light from the source to directly radiate the upper half of the young girls body. Our attention is drawn there to the brightest point, and then on to her pre-Raphalite red hair which stands out as it is the strongest contrast in colour within the piece.

 This digital painting shows a clearing in a bamboo forest, the sunny day penetrates the forest canopy throwing shadows into form. The top of the picture is full of cool blue and green hues which contrasts softly with the warmer yellows of the bottom. I feel that the root in the foreground and the robot who is slouching and creating his own shadow, create almost a crescent shape of darker hues around the little girl standing in the spotlight/ clearing creating a contrast that brings her to are attention. 

I really liked the idea of my Celtic Warrior wearing animal pelts such as wolves bears and stags. The Celts were so close to nature, I imagine that in battle they were just as savage and primal as the animals fur they wore. A wolf head hood was a common theme in my silhouettes, as wolves to me symbolize fear which is what the Celts wanted. They were famous for being feared as they were so wild and unpredictable, I also really liked the idea of a stag horned helmet, used to seem bigger and intimidate the enemy. Towards the end of my 50 I started to consider using farming tools such as sickles instead of the typical warrior weapons.

We were given the task to draw 50 silhouettes, this helped us to produce varied and interesting poses for our character. Below are my 50. I choose to design the warrior character.

The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools and weapons in Britain to the Romanisation of the southern half of the island. I'm very happy to have Iron Age Britain as my time period, as very little is known about it. Its an age shrouded in mystery and myth, this gives me lots of room to let my imagination run wild.

Celtic Warrior Concepts that inspired me