Discussion on FMP Proposal and Ideas for Project.

I know that a lot of people are concerned about what they wanted to do for their Final Major Project in the third year, and that project is what will determine what you want to do for a career and artist. To me, whilst it’s something that I am looking forward to, will be the opportunity to express with my works what I want to do as an artist. I have a few ideas floating around, though I am not fixed on one idea to go forward just yet, as I want to be open minded on the things I could potentially do for FMP. There are three ideas I have in mind and they are of:

1. Re-imagining childhood drawings and their worlds.

Taking drawings I have done over the years that had led me to this point. These drawings can be of doodles, sketches, characters or anything I had done throughout my years of education and free time. Using these as a starting point or reference to re-imagine these drawings collectively to create an imaginary world together.

2. A-Z list of an imaginative world I create.

Create a world of my own and produce a list (A-Z) that are of characters, scenery, sequence, creatures or themes of that world.

3. Stand-alone and collective illustrations that shares the same universe.

Create a world of my own, and produce several illustrations that can work as a standalone piece individually, as well as being able to be part of a collective with other illustrations that can loosely create a story with one another together.

At this moment I am leaning towards my 3^rd idea of creating several illustrations that are standalone, yet can be part of a collective with other illustrations, such as character portraits, creatures, scenery or sequence, that draws up a loose story of its universe and its events. Although, I would probably go back to my drawings I had did in the past, at the time I considered it all as a hobby, to get some reference as to what I always liked to draw.

I have mixed feelings whether to approach the project as concept art, or as an illustrative project, because there are a few things that I liked from both, and things that I don’t like from the two.

First of all, I always had interests in concept art, and I had studied it in my previous university for a short time. I always thought that concept art was about designing cool characters, but that is what I thought in the past. After realising that concept art is much more than just producing fancy characters, it is more of a ‘design’ subject, and to break into the industry is really hard, considering you need to master the skills of anatomy, perspective, colour, etc. Majority of the concept art I had looked into (the higher tiers of concept art) are heavily influenced to semi realism in terms of style, in which I do not want to go towards.

I always wanted to do something illustrative, yet at the same time concept art, and I always wanted to pick a few things from it and apply it to illustrative works to paint, it’s more of a mixture between the two than being one or the other. With an art style I’m currently honing to improve, I want my art style to be my voice, a visual voice to welcome viewers to my world of imagination and characters, and that’s is what I like about digital illustration. This can open up opportunities to get some work sold as prints, which I do like about.

For concept art, the only thing I like from it is the presentation of artworks. The presentation of character portraits, as well as the graphic texts that are there to accommodate the illustration, is something I’m trying to work on at the moment, as it brings out that professional standard to showcase your artwork. This is more to do with online posting/web browsing, but it is noteworthy to know how to present at the right standard.

Judging from what I like about the two, I would want to blend my artistic style for illustrative outcomes with the professionalism of presentation from concept art for portfolios and online posting.

To clarify what I wanted to do, I will choose the 3^rd idea as my starting point. I always wanted to create my own world with characters that I can freely design, and sceneries I like to draw to feel fantastical and inspirational, its lore and its universe. This will most likely be my FMP, but this can change throughout the course of the project.