˗ˏˋ Visual Research ˎˊ˗

Summary

For the first part of my Final Major Project, I needed to do some research on the topic that I have chosen to show how I explored different ideas and ended up with a final plan, this is in relation with LO1, LO2, and LO7 in the brief. It is important for me to research this in depth, as I have to be careful with how I present it. It is a sensitive topic and can be easily offensive to people who believe in the religions I portray. For it to be done properly and respectfully, I have to go into detail on the information I show in my project.

During this stage, I will show my progression of ideas and how I settle on a final plan; exploring different sub-themes, art-styles, and history in relation to my theme. By doing this, I can be inspired by both creations and real-world history and apply them to my project.

Renaissance

This period of time was highly responsible for the common interpretations of angels that we see in media today. Although they are complete misinterpretations, I believe it is still important to research them to understand how they were shown at the time, and how I could pull inspiration from it.

"The Fall of the Rebel Angels" Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562

Composition

St. Michael is in the middle, being the focus of this painting. The painting is split into 3 parts: the top angelic and containing many heavenly beings, dressed in light colours which give them the feeling of purity. In complete contrast, the middle is filled with strange beings in dark colours looking almost muddled up together as they are so close and similar in shades. This carries on to the bottom third, however this area is only demons and creatures, it shows hell as a chaotic place. The background Unity is thrown out of the window to cause feelings of anxiety and fear, the painter wants you to see how chaotic of a place hell can be to scare you away from it. Each small part of this painting has insane detail, and I would have to look at it for hours before I could fully understand it because of the amount of work that went into it.

Visual Elements

Using paint, everything is nice and blended whilst also adding definition with bold strokes for things like scales, hair, and metal. The colours at the bottom are muddy, whilst the top is light and the subjects contrast the background. The bottom also contains close to no negative space making it seem cramped, having no structure at all. Pieter does a really good job with textures due to his painting techniques and strokes; the fish look slimy, the metal looks shiny, and the fur is detailed. Without the textures being done properly, the painting would look completely off. Texture is extremely important, not only in painting, but with 3D modelling too.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

The angels portrayed here seem to be of the lowest choir, attending to help out the archangel St. Michael, who is wearing gold armour, wielding a shield and sword. Their wings are not pure white as they are usually interpreted, but instead look almost like bird wings. This could make it easier to understand as we are used to seeing bird wings, but could also be confusing as they look more like hybrids rather than heavenly beings, especially with the amount of creature hybrids painted below them. Upon a closer look, the wings are painted with light shades of pinks, yellows, and teals, contrasting the dull browns, reds, and greens of the creatures, making it easier to distinguish.

These hybrids are meant to depict hell's creatures, the combinations ranging from torn open frogs with eggs inside, to dragonflies with human heads. They are bizarre combinations meant to scare you, which they do effectively. Pieter also makes use of disproportion to make them look even worse, further portraying hell as a chaotic place of evil.

"Musical Angel" Rosso Fiorentino, 1522

Composition

This painting is extremely simple, in terms of composition. There is a cherub playing a lute, and although the cherub is meant to be the subject, your eyes are immediately lead to the massive and bright lute, more specifically the area where it is being strummed which sets this as the focal point of the painting. Most of the space is empty and black, making it feel quiet almost. There is some basic depth to the painting: background is black, midground is the cherub, and the foreground is the lute, this is shown through shadows and lighting.

Visual Elements

Fiorentino uses muted, warm colours like yellow, orange, and red. The lighting is also done really well, with the feathers beings semi-transparent where the light hits them. I really like the way the skin is painted, and would like to take inspiration from this for my work. The skin is pale, but there is light blushing around the joints, cheeks, and nose. It gives a softer feeling to the painting, especially in contrast with the negative space behind it.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

The picture is meant to depict a cherub, like in many other renaissance paintings. However, this is completely wrong in accordance to the Bible (as I had researched beforehand). Cherubim are meant to look otherworldly, with 3 pairs of wings and having some parts representative of animals. They are not meant to look conventionally beautiful in the eyes of a human, much less represented as a baby. I still think that they look quite cool as divine beings even if they are not accurate depictions, and would like to take some inspiration from this era.

Although the Renaissance era is responsible for inaccurate depictions of angels, it has inspired many artists in their work. I also want to take inspiration from this, using the way skin is painted and using soft, blended colours. I think I might try to do some basic painting too to experiment with different mediums before I settle on 3D, even if I don't end up changing my mind I would have tried out different things and have them influence me somehow.

V&A Museum

For more historical art and research, I went on a college trip to the V&A and took pictures of the things that inspired me. Hover over the images to find out why I like them, and how I'm inspired:

This vase is made of pearl and gold with a manly figure in the middle, the handles representing snake like figures with wings. This inspired me because of the colour scheme, the iridescence of the base is appealing to the eye with the gold framing it altogether.

I could possibly be inspired towards buildings, creatures, textures, or even some kind of amulet. I think it would be really fun to experiment with iridescent textures and how to incorporate them. This kind of material is usually the first thing that pops into my head when I think of heavenly beings or even heaven itself, especially since I researched it.

This piece was in the Japanese section of the museum. It features a little girl with long, bouncy hair on top of some obscure structure.

It consists of many strange blobs with a variety of colours and textures all melting together into some kind of amalgamation. I think this sculpture is quite cool with the many colours, shapes, and textures that it consists of.

I'm not sure how I would take inspiration from this, but I definitely want to experiment with colour and texture in my project.

I really like how intricate this mirror is. It has many different designs carved into it, as well as figures, but it all blends together nicely and unites to create a beautiful piece. I want my buildings to be intricate like this, especially with the curved patterns surrounding it.

These are protective guards are called Tsuba and are placed between the blade and hilt of a sword. There were so many different designs and shapes which I found really interesting and I want to try incorporate these into my final piece somewhere whether its taking inspiration from the patterns or adding them onto any weapons I make.

Because they have so many intricacies, I would only be able to use these in my heavenly sequence as my main character wouldn't be able to make these by hand.

The ceilings in a part of this museum were painted and decorated with golden plating with small patterns. This is again something I want to consider for my interpretation of heaven: including gold and really detailed patterns into the buildings.

This sculpture of a young lady was made using terracotta. I personally think it would be interesting to do some modelling but maybe with a more readily accessible material like clay or plasticine as experimentation and getting used to building off of shapes instead of looking at the whole picture.

The main thing that caught my eye was the headpiece, I think the design is really beautiful and fits her head perfectly. I want to take inspiration from it and maybe use it for a character? I am not 100% at this stage but I would really like to fit this in somewhere.

I found this small corner in the museum and thought it looked interesting. The outside is simple with an archway but the deeper into the room you get the more detailed it gets.

This reminds me of getting to know someone personally, the more you talk the more you get to know about them as people don't usually show themselves fully on the outside. That might be something that I could expand on in my project, but it isn't a priority.

This necklace looks like it's made of a malleable metal to be made into the shape of an angel. It is a bit creepy, but biblically accurate angels are also described as that.

When I am designing the angels for my project, I want to take this into account. Maybe I could use different materials for their wings rather than feathers? It would be interesting for texturing too, or coming up with the reasons of their varying wing materials.

This is a set of jewellery the caught my eye in the jewellery exhibition.

The main structure of these are gold, but have red and purple accents to compliment it. As I had previously researched, heaven is filled with gold and has many precious stones embedded in the walls. Even though these are pieces of jewellery, I could use them not only for character design ideas, but also for structures and buildings in my final piece.

I would like to study some of the patterns in different pieces of jewellery in my design stage to incorporate into my work.

This balcony is overflowing with figures, both human and animal. Even though it is all made of one material and one colour, the way it is carved gives it shadows for more depth and detail. When thinking about the buildings for my interpretation of heaven, I wanted to take a look at several different things that I could possibly take inspiration from.

I would like to have a go at modelling structures like this as I think it would be good practice for more detailed models, I have stopped myself from doing that in my projects because I feel like I don't have the skill level for it, but I want to push myself for this FMP so I might try this out.

This Buddhist sculpture inspired me for ideas on the characters I could create. Specifically the fact that there is a large figure, and smaller ones guarding it. When creating my heavenly sequence I want to include something like this to show power.

I'm not sure what these are but I really enjoy the design of them. A lot of the other things had detail to them, but in my opinion not as much as these objects do.

When modelling, I want to take inspiration from these for either entire buildings or just the tips of them, it just depends on the way I composite the scenes.

This harp in a large room reminds me of isolation and feeling much smaller than your surroundings.

I want to make use of space and proportion in my final piece to show emotion and to tell the story without using words.

I think it is also important to show this through the use of patterns or lack thereof. To make my main character feel smaller and less significant I could put her in scenes where she is dressed in plain clothing, but is surrounded by many patterns and bright colours.

This trip was really useful for me to get some solid ideas for my design work and concepts. It also gave me the chance to take a look at other things that I might not have really paid attention to if it weren't for gathering inspiration for this specific idea.

I did have a look at some other things that had nothing to do with my project because I thought I could maybe change my mind, but nothing else appealed to me as much as these things did.

SillyChaotic

Composition

From the works that I have selected, all the lines flow and lead towards the subject, who is usually in the very middle. All of these complex, intricate, patterned lines surround the subject and frame it. Although there are many patterns in each of these artworks, none of them are repeating and each have a unique flow, shape, or colour.

Visual Elements

There is a lot to talk about in terms of visuals in these pieces. The line weight is fairly thin, but it tapers out where there is more physical weight, many of the lines act like thick liquid in their movements. There are also a large variety of colours that are used. They are usually bright near the subject, but get more dull as they get further away showing how lighting is used by highlighting the subject and its surroundings. Everything is smooth in texture, but the patterns make up for it by giving depth and detail, making it extremely pleasing to look at. I want to experiment with things like this, the use of colour and patterns is interesting to me, and it reminds me of the depiction of heaven being "many new colours" so maybe I can use this for a divine being character. It would also be a challenge to give myself as I have never done something like this before.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

Although there is no concrete referencing, the patterns remind me of aztec art, and the artwork in general shows depictions of some sort of spiritual/divine being.

I am extremely inspired by SillyChaotic's art and how spiritual beings can be perceived. I will definitely use this as my main inspiration behind the main spiritual being that I am planning to make, using the colours and flow in my work. I will have to experiment with some physical mediums before switching to 3D to further my knowledge in lighting, line, and texture.

End of Evangelion

Composition

For the end portion of the movie, the proportions are drastically different between Lilith & Evas, and the humans. The scenes usually consist of a dark background with large figures in the mid ground making it eerie to look at. We as humans don't see things that large in our lives, so seeing it in media makes it even creepier because we don't know what we could expect. By using planets as a scale, it shows the divinity of the subjects and how horrifying they truly are. Humanity is in the foreground in the majority of scenes as it is the most familiar to us, the further back the depth goes, the less familiar it gets.

Visual Elements

Colours like red, green, white, and blue are seen throughout the majority of the scenes. Red is meant to represent anger and danger, shown through the fact the world is coming to an end. Green represents harmony, shown through the humans joining into one being. White represents purity, which is shown on the divine beings. Blue represents sadness and melancholy; nobody can do anything about this situation and simply must submit to their deaths. Although they are bright colours, they represent sad and uncomfortable feelings due to what is happening. Organic shapes are used throughout, but the divine beings are usually a mix, it shows that they are both alive yet artificial.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

Evangelion as a whole usually has biblical references scattered throughout, including the names of angels, several references to stories, and the use of crosses when humanity is dying. I like the interpretation of Lilith being the main divine being bringing about human instrumentality instead of a God from religion.

From this, I will take the proportions of a divine being in comparison to a human into consideration. I think it can be intimidating, but also feels kind of motherly. I will also consider colours and what emotions they can evoke to make sure my final piece is as good as it possibly can be. I have to also consider the shapes I am using and the silhouettes of my characters or scenery and that is extremely important if I want to make recognisable characters.

Land of the Lustrous

Composition

The composition of most panels is smart, and done well. I'll be speaking specifically about the middle image. Because I am planning to do a cold environment, looking at this picture helped. By using the rule of thirds, your eye is immediately drawn to the character standing in the middle, the icebergs surrounding giving you an idea of the scale of whole image. By placing the subject in the midground you are made to focus onto small details instead of the large structures surrounding.

Visual Elements

In the first image, the structure is very geometric and we don't see any curved lines except for the 3 subjects at the bottom (which also reinforces the idea that an odd number looks better than an even one). This makes it feel cold and lifeless, we tend to associate warm with living beings who are made of curved lines. There is also a lot of negative space, so it feels empty and lonely. The second image also has a lot of jagged, straight lines, but some are slightly curved, showing the nature of the image. Most of it is blue, but by using it's complementary colour, orange, it makes the image so much more pleasing to look at. The colours oppose each other, but they look wonderful together. In the third image we see a mess of 2 powers, clashing into each other and intertwining. It reminds me of the previously mentioned artist "SillyChaotic" with its patterns and opposing lines, one character used more jagged shapes, the other using curved edges and bubbly shapes. This also reflects in their personalities and story. By using a lot of negative space, your eyes are lead to this amalgamation, admiring the different shapes and lines used.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

The image on the left is taken in an area called "The Moon" which is told to be a different place of divine beings, even though they are bad, showing a different kind of interpretation to a divine place of living. The middle image is set during the winter time of the place they live in, having to set free trapped beings in the ice whilst all other characters go into hibernation. The last image is a combination of the two. The character on the left has stayed on earth the entire time, whilst the one on the right went through a large physical and mental transformation, leading them to become cold and determined. All of this is shown through the visual elements.

It was very useful to see how divine places can be interpreted in a negative way, even though it is visually appealing at times. I'm also quite interested with the idea of the ice having trapped beings in them, I could maybe use a fantasy aspect in my final piece to make it more digestible as it wouldn't be completely based on real life and religious teachings.

Dao Trong Le

"Spring" Dao Trong Le, 2025

Composition

The subject is right in the middle with foliage and flora surrounding her. The subject is in the midground, the foreground is mainly rocks and grass with a few flowers, and the background is darker filled with trees meant to avert your gaze. I can also notice the rule of odds in many places of this artwork: the flowers in the foreground, the lines on her legs, even the scales on her torso. The one exception I can see are the twigs on the log. However, this again might be done so that you are not paying attention to the wrong things.

Visual Elements

Dao doesn't use many bright colours that are harsh on your eyes, sticking to muted and pastel colours which feels relaxing and calm when looking at the artwork. He also doesn't use any jagged lines; sticking to smooth, curved lines for a better flow. He does this even with the tree bark, which isn't accurate but it still works really well. If it were any different, the effect wouldn't fit in with the rest of the environment and mood of the painting. There also isn't much negative space, in theory you might think this would make the artwork crowded and chaotic, but the way he has done it makes it so that everything works together in unity, creating a natural backdrop and environment that fits the character and her appearance. The lighting seems soft and delicate, hitting all the right places to tie everything together. It focuses on the midground where the character is sitting, again making sure that your attention to focused on her.

Cultural Referencing & Misc.

The artwork seems to be set in spring, the colour scheme and plants/flora used give me this feeling. It also seems to be a fantasy setting.

I want to take heavy inspiration from the way Dao creates his environments, I would need to experiment with several composition types and line flow to settle on designs. This is something that I have usually avoided in the past, so I really need to learn how to composite appealing environments. I also really like the way he colours and renders everything, I will try to take this into account when doing my textures or paintings.

Aritza

I never expected to be looking at jewellery for my visual research since my project focuses on a child that lives in the wild with wolves, but I got extremely inspired by one piece that this person makes, and then went on to look at the rest of her jewellery. I'm going to use these as inspiration for my Heavenly segment.

Aritza's jewellery seems to be made using the process of soft soldering to achieve this freeform look. This technique can be quite difficult to master since you have completely free control of a liquid metal, especially in crafting pieces as intricate as these ones.

These 2 rings are meant to look like weaponry, I want to use designs like these as swords or daggers for my heavenly segment; more specifically making angels wield them. The designs remind me of sigilism, containing lines that flow in many directions creating unique silhouettes. To create designs like these, I would need to experiment with making use the flow of my pencil is loose to make curves and designs that work together, but also appear natural.

The first image on the left was the first piece of jewellery by Aritza that I saw, leading me to look through her gallery for inspiration. After seeing it, I had a really specific idea come to mind. When the child is brought to heaven, I wanted them to appear in a very heavenly and divine way. My idea is to have the child in the middle where you see the gemstones, with a pearl like substance surrounding them like the soldering in the jewellery. The metal flows so beautifully and creates really unique silhouettes which I love. I really want to take this as inspiration for my final piece.

Breath of the Wild

I only started this game recently, so I will cover the areas that I have visited myself in game, more specifically the human characters of the Necluda region: Paya and Purah.

These characters are simple yet recognisable due to their designs being unique. These designs seem to focus a lot on silhouettes and simple colour palettes making it even more impressive: good character design doesn't always have to be complex.

For Paya, her design is focused on the silhouettes of her hair and sleeves, leaving the rest of her outfit quite plain and simple. Although simple at first glance, there is a lot of effort put into her design: how the clothing is put on, its separate pieces, and how her hair is put up. This is something useful to consider for making character designs, they have to make sense if they were in the real world unless otherwise explained. As someone who sews cosplays as a hobby, this is extremely important, and something that I take into account when creating characters. Even though her colour palette matches most of the other people in her village, small details and her silhouette make her stand out against NPCs. When making my own character designs, I want to take inspiration from this in both the way they are designed, and also in the concept sheets.

For Purah, her design is focused on her whole silhouette and proportions. Although her colour scheme is again very similar to other characters, these things make her stand out. Her puffy skirt already makes her instantly recognisable against other characters, together with her shortness, hair, and accessories. Purah has a lot of small details in her design that lead back to her being a researcher in a tech lab: specifically her goggles and backpack. I want my main character to have small details like these in her design to make obvious of her role, personality, and purpose in the animation.

I'm using the Lanayru mountain range as an example for environment design. Breath of the Wild is an open world exploration game where you must make use of the materials you find to survive and traverse the lands for the story.

This game creates unique shapes and placements for the mountains. I want to use this in my final piece, I want to make a snowy region and based off of my research on wolves they tend to live in these areas too. To make it more visually appeal and less generic, I will try to experiment with different shapes and curvatures that mountains in real life have, whilst also adding my own twist to them. I have to make sure that the environment I design looks good for large shots and close up shots.

Genshin Impact

Due to the fact that I had researched these creatures for my contextual research, I think it is important I come back and look at them again from a visual point of view.

Hilichurls live in the wild, making use of the resources around them which is why I need to look at their designs to further develop my understanding in this topic. They seem to make use of scrap fabric, covering only their lower torsos. The rest of their bodies have bandages, necklaces, belts, and/or other accessories. These are also made from scraps that could be found laying around, having minimal design to show this.

I think when designing my character, I need to take into account the resources that could be used for her clothing that she herself has made. Dangling accessories, pieces of fabric quickly made into clothing, and materials such as animal hide and bone all need to be considered for this. I still haven't come up with a solid idea for an environment: my mind keeps wandering from a small mountainous region to a snowy area after some kind of apocalypse has happened. The apocalypse seems more understandable if I were to make an intricate design for the character, but I'm still not too sure about it.

I was only going to research the hilichurls, but then I remembered a character that is very similar to the idea that I have. Razor is a semi-feral boy that was raised by wolves after being abandoned by his parents.

His design seems to be very obvious about this; dull, earthy colours are used together with simple materials that he could've scavenged for. His silhouette is also quite recognisable. This is because of his hair shape, but also all of the clothing working together. He has a lot of hanging bone accessories, showing his hunting abilities and life with wolves. The scars on his body also prove this. His clothing is also very loose fitting which helps with easy movement; considering he lives with wolves they tend to move a lot, and fast too.