My experience developing and using the Split canvas method
The subject of my Masters year evolved through the year I originally started this year just knowing that I wanted to grow more confident at painting and build my work up to a point where I could build a portfolio that could get me hired.
During the first semester I had a focus on becoming more confident with painting landscapes and colour and essential finding my style of painting through becoming more knowledgeable about the fundamentals of painting. This stage of developing my work was needed as I had to take the time to start learning properly how to construct a successful piece of work. I started seeing growth in my skill towards the end of the first semester after learning through studies and then creating a variety of painting set in a western theme. However what I took from this was that although I could see a positive result from learning to paint , overall my concepts and paintings were too varied and although they were all western inspired they didn't feel like they would fit together as part of concepts for the same game. There was however an exception to this. Towards the end of the first semester I worked on two pieces, one after the other but used the first painting as a starting pallet and anchor for the second painting. seen below.
painting this second image while using the first one as a reference helps to speed up the process of the second painting while at the same time fixing the the problem of not having my images look like they belong together. I was able to still change the pallet to match the lighting I wanted for the second painting but having the first image visible gave me a good starting point. resulting in a faster process when painting.
This is when I realised that just having the skills to paint impressive work wasn't enough. I also had to work on the skill of creating these concepts fast and efficiently. Going into semester two I knew I would have to focus on developing a way of working that suits me and would allow me to work efficiently and happily.
Through semester two I experimented with different processes that I felt could help produce work more efficiently and increase my speed at painting and give my work some form of structure to follow. At first this led to my work not really looking how I wanted it to. Using these time saving ways of working resulted in my work not having that painterly energetic feel I like to have from my work. It also wasn't fun using these constrictive ways of creating concepts. I needed a way of creating work fast but not loosing the energy and quality of my work.
Around mid way through semester two I started painting two paintings along side each other as a way to keep myself focused on work and not take as many breaks. I like to use a technique of looking away from the image I'm painting for around ten minuets and come back to it with fresh eyes to spot mistakes. This works, but unfortunately eats up time that could be spent painting. This was the original reason why I started painting two images at once as I could freely hop between each painting when I felt like I had to take a break from it. An instantly noticeable result of this was helping to produce work faster. The big benefit was that it also allowed me to keep the painterly style that I have been working with.
The first set of paintings I created when using this was a variant of the same scene. I had imagined a scene of war elephants walking to battle in a fantasy theme. I started picking colours from one painting and seeing if it would fit in the other. I did the same with design elements to. From doing this I started to see how fast and image could be blocked in with interesting colours and designs that I might not have used in one painting if it wasn't for including it in another first.
I moved onto testing this split canvas set up on other themes, quickly moving away from painting two images of the same scene from a different angle. To instead seeing if I could use this method to create a pair of concepts that fit well together but focus on different things. Such as the example below of a woodland/forest area. One painting focuses more on the overall environment where as the other has more of the focus directed towards the character. Using the split canvas method to create these two at the same time allowed me once again to develop a colour pallet that fitted well with both scenes and to bring across design elements from one painting into the other (and back again).
This image shows what I see on my screen when I paint. The black frame is visible on my screen as I work. it acts as a way to separate my canvas into two separate areas in which I can paint. It's very easy to do as it's just a black layer with two identical layers cut out so I can paint under the layer. It's very easy to adjust as well because of its simplicity, for example if I want a cinematic canvas all I need to do is stretch the layer more horizontally and then I have the correct set up for that without having to waist time creating a new template.
Here's an example of changing the size of the canvas and trying something different again.This was created at the very end of semester two. I knew I wanted to test this method by creating a large series of concepts in the third semester so I could see if this method of working would hold up in a working environment where it would have to be used over and over again to in the early stages of game development.
Entering third semester I knew I had discovered a fast method that I was happy working with. It allowed me to fix the problem of creating work quickly but had also shown other beneficial additions such as having consistent designs through paintings and allowing my paintings to feed from each other when painting them. It was had also proven to be very adaptable so far by allowing me to focus on characters and environments. The aim for the third/final semester was to now use what I had learnt from the first and second semester and use the split canvas method to produce a range of concepts for my own game idea and see if it this method of working would hold up and allow me to create interesting work through a prolonged amount of time focusing on the same topic. This was a bit risky looking back on it because if the method failed I'd be lost with what to do in my final semester. Up to this point the split canvas method had only been used to produce pairs of paintings, where as I wanted to create a range of environments and characters using it.
I'm glad to say the split canvas method held up and allowed me to to produce a range of work that was thought through and looks like they fit well in the same game world together. As a result from this it also helped me to compose a portfolio I'm pretty proud of as when showing it around at a recent trip to egx it allowed me to talk in depth about my work and how everything connects with each other and has a purpose in the work I created this semester. When working this semester I felt as though using this method of working had trained my way of thinking in creating concepts to be more thoughtful of the purpose and reasoning for each concept I created so they each had their place and served as part of a story to my game. This came from painting in pairs in previous semesters as I found myself starting to think of the stories and game play that could come from these paintings when developing them.
When using the split canvas method in the third semester I first used it when creating a character and the characters home underneath. despite one being a 2D concept of a character and the other being a tighter 3D paint over of a building I was still able to easily hop between the two adding details onto the house to make it match the character I was painting.
The reason these concepts came to be was due to how using this method of work had me thinking. The previous painting I created was of knight with muskets and because of this way of working in pairs and creating a story with them I wanted to explore the idea of where these muskets came from and ended up with a blind blacksmith character who developed gunpowder.
The split canvas method also served a helpful purpose when using it to get the right values and lighting in a painting. I found it extremely helpful in this situation as I was using the method to experiment and teach myself while creating the concept at the same time, allowing myself to mess up in the greyscale version before adding to the colourd version. The greyscale layer was quicker to add to and take from as I don't have to work with colour. Only values. Meaning it saved me time because I wasn't wasting time getting the right colours and tones to then paint over them or delete them if they didn't work.
Over all this semesters work felt a lot more connected and fits well as a package in comparison to the first semester. Finding a method of working that fitted my style and helped elevate my creative thought process when painting has enabled me to control my chaotic way of painting and focus my thoughts to be less scattered and better fitting with each other in terms of concepts. It's proven itself adaptable to many topics of work from characters, environments and props. It started as just a way to help speed up my work but the result of using it repeatedly trained me to have a more professional approach to thinking and planning out my work as it allowed my paintings to feed from each other and develop through a controlled method that works well with my painting style.
During the first semester I had a focus on becoming more confident with painting landscapes and colour and essential finding my style of painting through becoming more knowledgeable about the fundamentals of painting. This stage of developing my work was needed as I had to take the time to start learning properly how to construct a successful piece of work. I started seeing growth in my skill towards the end of the first semester after learning through studies and then creating a variety of painting set in a western theme. However what I took from this was that although I could see a positive result from learning to paint , overall my concepts and paintings were too varied and although they were all western inspired they didn't feel like they would fit together as part of concepts for the same game. There was however an exception to this. Towards the end of the first semester I worked on two pieces, one after the other but used the first painting as a starting pallet and anchor for the second painting. seen below.
painting this second image while using the first one as a reference helps to speed up the process of the second painting while at the same time fixing the the problem of not having my images look like they belong together. I was able to still change the pallet to match the lighting I wanted for the second painting but having the first image visible gave me a good starting point. resulting in a faster process when painting.
This is when I realised that just having the skills to paint impressive work wasn't enough. I also had to work on the skill of creating these concepts fast and efficiently. Going into semester two I knew I would have to focus on developing a way of working that suits me and would allow me to work efficiently and happily.
Through semester two I experimented with different processes that I felt could help produce work more efficiently and increase my speed at painting and give my work some form of structure to follow. At first this led to my work not really looking how I wanted it to. Using these time saving ways of working resulted in my work not having that painterly energetic feel I like to have from my work. It also wasn't fun using these constrictive ways of creating concepts. I needed a way of creating work fast but not loosing the energy and quality of my work.
Around mid way through semester two I started painting two paintings along side each other as a way to keep myself focused on work and not take as many breaks. I like to use a technique of looking away from the image I'm painting for around ten minuets and come back to it with fresh eyes to spot mistakes. This works, but unfortunately eats up time that could be spent painting. This was the original reason why I started painting two images at once as I could freely hop between each painting when I felt like I had to take a break from it. An instantly noticeable result of this was helping to produce work faster. The big benefit was that it also allowed me to keep the painterly style that I have been working with.
The first set of paintings I created when using this was a variant of the same scene. I had imagined a scene of war elephants walking to battle in a fantasy theme. I started picking colours from one painting and seeing if it would fit in the other. I did the same with design elements to. From doing this I started to see how fast and image could be blocked in with interesting colours and designs that I might not have used in one painting if it wasn't for including it in another first.
I moved onto testing this split canvas set up on other themes, quickly moving away from painting two images of the same scene from a different angle. To instead seeing if I could use this method to create a pair of concepts that fit well together but focus on different things. Such as the example below of a woodland/forest area. One painting focuses more on the overall environment where as the other has more of the focus directed towards the character. Using the split canvas method to create these two at the same time allowed me once again to develop a colour pallet that fitted well with both scenes and to bring across design elements from one painting into the other (and back again).
This image shows what I see on my screen when I paint. The black frame is visible on my screen as I work. it acts as a way to separate my canvas into two separate areas in which I can paint. It's very easy to do as it's just a black layer with two identical layers cut out so I can paint under the layer. It's very easy to adjust as well because of its simplicity, for example if I want a cinematic canvas all I need to do is stretch the layer more horizontally and then I have the correct set up for that without having to waist time creating a new template.
Here's an example of changing the size of the canvas and trying something different again.This was created at the very end of semester two. I knew I wanted to test this method by creating a large series of concepts in the third semester so I could see if this method of working would hold up in a working environment where it would have to be used over and over again to in the early stages of game development.
Entering third semester I knew I had discovered a fast method that I was happy working with. It allowed me to fix the problem of creating work quickly but had also shown other beneficial additions such as having consistent designs through paintings and allowing my paintings to feed from each other when painting them. It was had also proven to be very adaptable so far by allowing me to focus on characters and environments. The aim for the third/final semester was to now use what I had learnt from the first and second semester and use the split canvas method to produce a range of concepts for my own game idea and see if it this method of working would hold up and allow me to create interesting work through a prolonged amount of time focusing on the same topic. This was a bit risky looking back on it because if the method failed I'd be lost with what to do in my final semester. Up to this point the split canvas method had only been used to produce pairs of paintings, where as I wanted to create a range of environments and characters using it.
I'm glad to say the split canvas method held up and allowed me to to produce a range of work that was thought through and looks like they fit well in the same game world together. As a result from this it also helped me to compose a portfolio I'm pretty proud of as when showing it around at a recent trip to egx it allowed me to talk in depth about my work and how everything connects with each other and has a purpose in the work I created this semester. When working this semester I felt as though using this method of working had trained my way of thinking in creating concepts to be more thoughtful of the purpose and reasoning for each concept I created so they each had their place and served as part of a story to my game. This came from painting in pairs in previous semesters as I found myself starting to think of the stories and game play that could come from these paintings when developing them.
When using the split canvas method in the third semester I first used it when creating a character and the characters home underneath. despite one being a 2D concept of a character and the other being a tighter 3D paint over of a building I was still able to easily hop between the two adding details onto the house to make it match the character I was painting.
The split canvas method also served a helpful purpose when using it to get the right values and lighting in a painting. I found it extremely helpful in this situation as I was using the method to experiment and teach myself while creating the concept at the same time, allowing myself to mess up in the greyscale version before adding to the colourd version. The greyscale layer was quicker to add to and take from as I don't have to work with colour. Only values. Meaning it saved me time because I wasn't wasting time getting the right colours and tones to then paint over them or delete them if they didn't work.
Over all this semesters work felt a lot more connected and fits well as a package in comparison to the first semester. Finding a method of working that fitted my style and helped elevate my creative thought process when painting has enabled me to control my chaotic way of painting and focus my thoughts to be less scattered and better fitting with each other in terms of concepts. It's proven itself adaptable to many topics of work from characters, environments and props. It started as just a way to help speed up my work but the result of using it repeatedly trained me to have a more professional approach to thinking and planning out my work as it allowed my paintings to feed from each other and develop through a controlled method that works well with my painting style.
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