Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Hey guys, This is what I've got so far, it's still rough and pretty preliminary feeling, but I wanted to know what you guys think about the direction I'm going. I took a castle silhouette that was interesting to me and tried to give it an owl vibe, but I don't know if I've taken the owl thing too far or not far enough, thoughts?

4 comments:

  1. Hey there KT, I like the Owl idea for the castle! What is your aim or feeling for the castle? I would say that the multitude of eyes brings it into a more cartoony world, rather than threatening- it just depends on where you want it to go. Regardless though, the architecture looks like it is appropriate for the period and place. Maybe you could push that center shape by making it bigger or more prominent, -or- push the large tower on the right. Either way i think the shapes compete a little and there could be a more defined dominant shape- in order to avoid volume redundancy(fancy term right?) I'd love to see the development move into the 3-d realm next, showing how the forms could tilt, jut at us or backward, or spiral, all within the silhouette. If I were a witch I'd definitely nest in there before hunting for young lovers

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  2. I think the owl faces on the towers are too much. They also look more like they're painted on rather than part of the architecture as in the main face. I think it would work better if you found a way to imply owlness rather than drawing on owl faces.

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  3. Thanks for your comments!!
    Ken- I appreciate the input, but it puts me in kind of a pickle because what I got from JP's last crit of my owl castle was that it needed to be more obviously owlish and he suggested I look at Emperor's New Groove for ideas (which I did). To me the trademarks of an owl are the round eyes, tiny beak combo. Do you have any ideas as to how I can make it owlish without faces? I was planning on hiding the faces with architectural elements, but this is still in the early stages, do you think that would make a difference?

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  4. I think the main owl face is fine. I can tell its windows and a door. The owl towers are a little repetitive, and more just like cartoony owls. I think it primarily due to the round shapes of the face breaking the architectural structure of the castle. I like the parts where you just let it be two round windows instead of making a face, because it still reads as owl and it is more creepy. All those faces in there kind of compete with each other. Things like pointed roofs or awnings can make beak shapes as well. Also, I don't know if it supposed to be a bridge or what, but that big black wing shape is really distracting. Hope that helps!

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