Environment Sketching - Week Two!

So this week was still in the official sketching out/image break down stage. Learned a lot about reference images and extracting as much information as possible from them. The particular process we were to try this week was how to pick reference images (10-20 pics per both inspirational and informational spreads) and add to your own visual library (the visual database we all have in our heads from what we see and experience). The visual breakdown is a way to focus more on the reference image and think about it in a new way; to remember it clearly. That includes actually writing down key terms that are inspired from the image, as well as an actual listing of shapes from what you see in the picture. Then, once that's done, those shapes may further be imagined and reinterpreted by creating basic little silhouettes -- for a mini cross-section of the created world/scene. BELOW: The first image is a breakdown of a reference image (that I do not own!) that I discovered on Pinterest. A simple trio of pill-bug poses with the shape breakdown next to it, then the descriptive terms. Both images have their own shape language; this one typically seems to combine circular and square/rectangular parts to create new organic shapes that don't really conform to anything traditional. Tried to keep the essence of the pill-bug in the silhouettes, but stayed true to the basic forms that kept reoccurring in the reference. The second is a breakdown of another reference found on Pinterest (that I also do not own!). This is some sort of Japanese garden gate, possibly meant for ceremonial purposes. This offers a vastly different shape structure, that mostly combines squares and triangles. There are some curved, circular elements too, but it is primarily the former combination. I had fun with these silhouettes. The varied subjects within the reference image supplied me with more ideas -- I liked the concept of a transportation hub/station when the world is a treehouse kind of city in the second silhouette from the right. Or a station built into the mountains, with that overall Oriental style.