Mess of ideas

[Gkatsura]

Hi people!
I'm a game design student and i've been studying and practicing to be able to create art and concepts for my own projects as well as be able to join other people projects in the future. Sorry for my english in advance, it's not my main language.

I hope to use this sketchbook to receive critique and help on my art and concepts, so i hope people will be able to help me. I dont have an art style to focus, from time to time i change my art style or do an style that i think it's better for the drawing that im doing. But i always try to put my best with all my knowlaged into it.

My future goals are:

1. Get comfortable with my art and be able to improve
   
2. Improve my mind and imagination to  be able to create better concepts
   
3. Improve my illustrations and characters
   

-----------------------------------------

Currently i'm focusing alot on my graduation project (I'll be calling it GP from now on), so i dont have any recent sketches of stuff not related to it to share, but i hope its okay to start! 

About the GP, i need to develop a prototype of a game by myself (yes alone: concept art, UI/UX, animation n coding is all made by me). The game will be a metroidvania where food ingredients are monsters, basic recipes/foods (bread, pasta, ice cream) are bosse, and you play as chef. You need to hunt down the monsters and defeat bosses (recipes) with giant kitchen tools to be able to prepare food in your restaurant.

I pick this theme because first i love food (:v), second because i thought this would be a nice idea to study and improve my concept art with a theme i like in real life and in games.

This is the MC initial concept, he has 2 versions.
1) Regular Chef
2) Adventurer Chef



Final Concept



Monsters and bosses 
I dont usually do multiple versions of a concept until reach a specific model i like, i normally just keep redrawing (while observing multiple references) on the actual sketch until i reach a point im satisfied (this might be a problem). 



Starting from Upper Left:
- Tucanana: Banana Toucan (without wings). I also used the banana tree as reference, where the giant flower is the beak.
- Simão: Lemon Toad 
- Ceebo: Just an onion that cries alot
- Lenoura: Centipede Carrot
- Drasta and Drastarica (Boss): Well... It's a Dragon made of pasta (pun intended). I did a humonoid version as a joke but i end up liking it so i keep it. She holds Hashis as weapons and her clothes and hair are made of multiple types of pasta. The leaves in their heads and skirt are basils.
- Abacaxuro (Boss): Its a pineapple dinossaur. Pineapple in portuguese (my main language) is Abacaxi, so yeah, another pun intended. My main reference were Stegosaurus.
- Cogui: Its a regular red mushroom (the poisonous one), i made him cute as a way to "lure" the player into thinking their are dociles, while they are not.
- Cogum: Its the edible mushroom (Shitake), i mixed them with gorilla type of body and the "tentacles" i thought of a way for them to be able to "see" where they are going since they are blind, and use it to grab food.
- Boo: I used a regular potato as reference (a weird potato i found in the internet to be more precise). I didnt had any names, so i called it Boo.

Boo's Reference



- Sr.Vete (Boss): It's an ice cream mage. His name is also a pun (i'm sorry), in portuguese Ice Cream is called Sorvete.

Restaurant
This the restaurant (one star) i imagined for the MC, at first will be only the stall.


And yeah this is all i have for now to share that i'm focusing on.

[bonjidogen]

Hey there, really like your art! First thing that comes to mind when I see the clean/final concepts is that you put in a lot of thought into them!

If you want some feedback from me, I think that the composition on the restaurant and Sr. Vete is a bit confusing. The amount of detail on Sr. Vete draws my eye to the icecream balls on their body equally, and it feels like there is no central focus I should pay attention to? Similarly for the restaurant: it is overall fairly clean, but the rock texture around the building may be visually "too heavy" and draws attention away from the overall concept.

[Gkatsura]

Hey there, really like your art! First thing that comes to mind when I see the clean/final concepts is that you put in a lot of thought into them!

If you want some feedback from me, I think that the composition on the restaurant and Sr. Vete is a bit confusing. The amount of detail on Sr. Vete draws my eye to the icecream balls on their body equally, and it feels like there is no central focus I should pay attention to? Similarly for the restaurant: it is overall fairly clean, but the rock texture around the building may be visually "too heavy" and draws attention away from the overall concept.

Thanks for the feedback and the compliment! And yes they took me a while to clean and give it similar lines and style, so it wouldnt look too different when putting into the prototype.

I see what you mean, i think the rocks in the restaurante might get a bit more hidden once i color (cus i will color the lineart i just know which colors yet) but i will keep it in mind for future changes, or i might just change the rocks if still gets confusing. As for Sr.Vete ill see what i can change on it, i didn't notice but he does look very simetric mainly on the body details... luckly this is just the initial concept so i'll try different stuff! Thank you!

[Rotohail]

I gotta say I'm pumped up to see someone doing stuff like this, and showcasing their approach.
The highlights to me are the creature puns and designs! Quite a few chuckles there, nice job! Honestly!
Alright question, is the chef battling creatures, is he getting something out of them or are just, obstacles? Because if you think about it, the creatures themselves could give not ingredients but cooked meals, so hero or playable character could be a failed chef or actually terrible at cooking, so hunting for creature meals could be their way to make up for it? Pursue their dream ha ha. Or, the hero could be anything but an actual chef (or have cooking knowledge) so hunting for those things would be their only way to get food. In any case, I liked it much, you may want to develop the puns by giving the creatures some catchy phrase or sound, in relation to their theme? I've seen artist do that and if you can pull it off you can get some extra appeal with it.

Edit: Oops, just read the core concept about it being Metroidvania and the structure. My bad ha ha, oh well the question is then more of a theoretical one if you want to discuss it? Looking forward then to see if you still would design other characters or what their powers/gear would be.

[Gkatsura]

I gotta say I'm pumped up to see someone doing stuff like this, and showcasing their approach.
The highlights to me are the creature puns and designs! Quite a few chuckles there, nice job! Honestly!
Alright question, is the chef battling creatures, is he getting something out of them or are just, obstacles? Because if you think about it, the creatures themselves could give not ingredients but cooked meals, so hero or playable character could be a failed chef or actually terrible at cooking, so hunting for creature meals could be their way to make up for it? Pursue their dream ha ha. Or, the hero could be anything but an actual chef (or have cooking knowledge) so hunting for those things would be their only way to get food. In any case, I liked it much, you may want to develop the puns by giving the creatures some catchy phrase or sound, in relation to their theme? I've seen artist do that and if you can pull it off you can get some extra appeal with it.

Edit: Oops, just read the core concept about it being Metroidvania and the structure. My bad ha ha, oh well the question is then more of a theoretical one if you want to discuss it? Looking forward then to see if you still would design other characters or what their powers/gear would be.

Thanks for the feedback and compliment! My friends and bf always get mad at me (in a good way) when i say a new food pun, cus its so bad haha.

Well to go more deep in it, there is two type of creatures: The Ingredientes and The Basic Recipes. For the normal creatures like tucanana, simão, etc, they drop fragments of their ingredient, if you defeat tucanana you get banana fragments. The Basic Recipes are the bosses, where you need to defeat them in order to receive their recipe, a rare ingredient/item and a skill. Like... if you defeat Sr.Vete you unlock some low level recipes made of ice cream, and then u need to keep cooking it and selling it until you be able to unlock more (quite similar to Moonligther - which is also my reference for this). Also you unlock the skill to freeze stuff for a short time, being monsters or water to unlock new areas to explore. But all bosses will respawn (more harder) after some point, since you still need to get some rare ingredients with'em to unlock more recipes.

[Abt the MC] In the story i put like, the monsters are their only source of food since all foods in there became like that due to a curse (cliche thingy), and Theo (MC) came from a family of chefs and mercenaries that end up in ruin due to it, so he needs to hunt them to recover the family's honor as well as to provide hope and food to people (cus the only way to defeat them is with kitchen tools and no one knew that, Theo discovered it afterwards - also not all tools are effective, like to defeat Sr.Vete you need to be equipped with a spoon, if you use a fork/knive your damage will be halved/null).

[Abt the creatures puns] Tbh is becus i didnt translated all the names but all of them are puns hahaha. The only creature i used the sound for name was Boo, cus, in the end i needed to justify its name (and i was in a hurry to deliver the first part of the document), so i though with myself "ah ok, he does a boo sound and yeah...". Also initially Boo is the only creature that they can get food from (potatoes) since it's one of the few dociles monsters out there (because he is damn lazy). Back to the puns another example is Lenoura which means Lacraia (Centipede) + Cenoura (Carrot); Cogum (Cogumelo - Mushroom); Simão is Sapo (Toat) + Limão (Lemon) and so on (i'm so sorry). I might just need to do english puns later on if i ever manage to work on this for real after my graduation xD But i still have more monsters to design like apples, cabbages, tomatoes, bread, cake, peppers, alternatives to meat and so on.

In total i have 65 recipes (to design), 12 Bosses (need to design 10 + 1 skill that i'm trying my hardest to decide), 17 ingredients (need to design 8) and 20 Kitchen Tools (which i dont need to design since they are based on real ones :v) - But luckly this is just for the document, for the prototype i just need to do 5% of it

Sorry i end up talking too much, it happens @@

[Gkatsura]

Update: 
I forgot to share the initial idea for the inventory + ingredient book (i just colored it cus i needed for the assigment). I'll be translating everything in it and explaining that i can.


From left to right (up to down) - The white BG will be transparent later on with some blurry effect:
Life - Gold - Active Skill (can change with LB/RB) - Map - Current Equipament (Kitchen Tools)
Ingredient Book = Will have all ingredients (aka monters) in the game that you defeat, their description and where you can find it.
Recipe Book = Recipes you know that you can cook in your restaurant + what ingredients you need to prepare them.
Inventory
Belt = There will seasoning bottles in the game that you can use to debuff enemies or remove debuffs. These bottles can only be used IF they are in the belt. (HP potions are not considered). 

Ingredient Book Preview

Markers = Monsters/Bosses
"Bananas gained the form of a bird after the great curse, however they do not have wings. They use their sharp beaks to attack and the bananas around their neck can hurt you. When felt in danger, they will run away with their long and fast legs."

"Place/Local: East Forest, West Forest and Castle of ?" - I dont have a name for the castle yet.
"Ingredients: Bananas, Red Berries)"

[Rotohail]

Oh, well it's a nice detail to have weapons be effective depending on the creatures food.
Just to clarify, because I reread my comment and I see why it was misleading ha ha, I was trying to say give them a catchy phrase or sound to enhance the pun. Like lemon toad, could do a "citric" sound instead of "ribbit" like frogs are usually represented as? It's not a great one and ha, it's a toad not a frog but so you catch my drift? Stuff like that, maybe on your language there's thing like that, or like Sr.Vete could be all the time saying "I shan't be kept waiting!", like a very spoiled villain but it makes sense because is made of icecream and if they wait they would go runny lol. Dunno! If you can pull stuff like that you might get not just smiles but a few chuckles, enhances the atmosphere. It's a good hook.

I would say from the last one, ui wise you should bring back the food themes to it, hearts, gold, alchemy/chemistry glassware might not be an interesting/as fun fit. Keep it up!

[Gkatsura]

Oh, well it's a nice detail to have weapons be effective depending on the creatures food.
Just to clarify, because I reread my comment and I see why it was misleading ha ha, I was trying to say give them a catchy phrase or sound to enhance the pun. Like lemon toad, could do a "citric" sound instead of "ribbit" like frogs are usually represented as? It's not a great one and ha, it's a toad not a frog but so you catch my drift? Stuff like that, maybe on your language there's thing like that, or like Sr.Vete could be all the time saying "I shan't be kept waiting!", like a very spoiled villain but it makes sense because is made of icecream and if they wait they  would go runny lol. Dunno! If you can pull stuff like that you might get not just smiles but a few chuckles, enhances the atmosphere. It's a good hook.

I would say from the last one, ui wise you should bring back the food themes to it, hearts, gold, alchemy/chemistry glassware might not be an interesting/as fun fit. Keep it up!

Oooh so that's what you meant, i got confused (as you notice). I liked that ill consider it, thank you :D
Abt the chemistry glasswares, i used them as a well to show where the seasonings will be stored (similar to potions), i imagined putting in small bags but it would take too much space in the screen and in the belt.

[Artloader]

Hey welcome to Crimson Daggers Gkatsura, really nice start here.

Designing, animation and coding? Wow that sounds like a lot of work! I wish you all the best with it.

I love your concepts, in particular the pineapple dinosaur :).

[Gkatsura]

Hey welcome to Crimson Daggers Gkatsura, really nice start here.

Designing, animation and coding?  Wow that sounds like a lot of work!  I wish you all the best with it.

I love your concepts, in particular the pineapple dinosaur :).

Thanks :D
Yeah it will be tough, but i still got alot of time since it's for the end of the year and im excited for it!
Really? I though he looked a bit meh hahaha thank you!

[Gkatsura]

Hello all, i'm back to give some updates on everything mainly on the GP.
I finished to color most of the concepts as well as to create 2 new ones, for this 2 i have the initial ideas (different from the rest cus i always draw on top of the initial concept, mainly when working on paper).

[About the new concepts]
Meet Moranha, the Strawberry Spider (Morango+Aranha - Portuguese Translation). At first i wanted it to look like black-widow/cyclocosmia spider or something of sort. I was going to use the strawberry white marks (the ones inside) as a mark of their abdomen but i discarted the idea after futher research and find out abt spiny-orb weavers. And that's the final result!



And finally Rhapple, the Rhino Apple (this time the name is in english becus i didn't find a better pun to do in portuguese). Rhapple was extremly troublesome to do mainly during the coloring. At first it looked like a tomato, and then like a cherry according to my friends... I tried to change the body a bit to have the curves of an apple, put some sort of a bite and some "marks" to simulate the apple "texture". I also thought (before the changes) to do a version with an apple's flower, but since its not a common known flower, i discarted... I'm still not happy with it, and i'm clueless of what i can do to fix it... So i put it aside cus i don't have enough time left to work on it (i need to deliver the complete gdd this week - 19 jun). I still need to do a new version of it without the bite (cus it makes no sense to a apple to respawn bitten all the time).



Anyway, here are the concepts i colored so far! I've been posting the concepts on facebook group's focused on concept art and also in reddit to get some review. For now all the feedback has been positive but i'm still looking for more feedback. I (again) still got more to color and to create, so i'm doing the max i can this week. I hope you guys like it and give me more criticism and feedback!!





PS (Its just a rant i guess): After i see the Sony livestream abt the PS5 having a game called "Bugsnax" with the same theme i got shocked, mad and upset... But after a while (some deep though + research) i notice the core would be different and i accepted (it's not like me being upset would change the fact the game was going to be launch anyway :v). Can't do much abt similar ideas @@ I also found out more ppl doing games with similar themes but core totally differents which made me a bit less upset, so i'm still not giving up from this yet!!

[chubby_cat]

I'm digging your sketchbook; your designs and overall theme is very charming. Try not to be too discouraged by the release of similar games. It sucks, yea, but as you said nothing can be done about it (also considering these games have been in development for likely years to boot). You could try and flip it and use these new games to push your project - making sure your version is truly different by putting unique spins on the similarities. Your character designs seem a world different from Bugsnax, so you're on a good path imo

Keep it up!

[Gkatsura]

I'm digging your sketchbook; your designs and overall theme is very charming. Try not to be too discouraged by the release of similar games. It sucks, yea, but as you said nothing can be done about it (also considering these games have been in development for likely years to boot). You could try and flip it and use these new games to push your project - making sure your version is truly different by putting unique spins on the similarities. Your character designs seem a world different from Bugsnax, so you're on a good path imo

Keep it up!

Thanks, and yeah its just shocking once you see in the exact moment that is happening, but it's alright now! And ty for the feedback n tips :D

[cgmythology]

Great character designs here, and I love your crisp/clean style. Your images ready very easily. Looking forward to more, keep it going! :)

[Gkatsura]

Great character designs here, and I love your crisp/clean style.  Your images ready very easily.  Looking forward to more, keep it going! :)

Thanks! I hope to update soon with more designs :D

[Gkatsura]

Hii, i'm back to add some small updates to the project :D I was busy with college and work that i end up having little time to work in this (but now i need to go back, since i have 4 months to deliver everything ><). I wish i had more time but with the pandemic going around i needed to give priorities to other stuff (btw i hope everyone stay safe!)

So first things first, there is no new concepts for now, i'm working in the itens, recipes and props as well as the character animations for the alpha game. Sadly i cannot make anything more polished/detailed like i wanted to but i might polish after my graduation is over since i'm aiming for one of the national game event (SBGames for short) where they give prizes for student works, so i'll update more about this in the future! For now i need to focus on graduating :P

So here are some new updates:

Theo (the main protagonist) and 2 monsters already received running animations. I'm not focused in the animation field but i always liked frame by frame so i tried my best (i've never finish an frame by frame animation like this, i normally just do experimental sketches but is not that frequent, almost never).

Theo animation has 12 frames, while the monsters i decided to stick to 6 frames since i dont have too much time. Lenoura has some mistakes but since it i'll not run around too much, i think its passable. I also recorded all the cleaning for Theo animation.


12 Frames 


Cleaning/Correction proccess


=========== Enemies Running Animation ===============

Ceebo - 6 Frames


Lenoura - 6 Frames


============== Art of the Itens so far ================

Most of these will go to the document, not to the alpha, i might add at least the potions but not sure yet. Anyway some could had a better look but welp... I'm always open to criticism of how to improve! I won't share some itens like the weapons or drops, because these are just regular kitchen tools (like variants of knives, forks n spoons) n the ingredients are regular food like onions, carrots, etc.

Itens and Recipe Sheets


Some Recipes
I'm currently working on these, i just did 4 for now, but there are 68 recipes in total. Some are rather simple while others i want it to look more complex. I might bring some more later. This is my first attempt with food art, and because all the game is cartoonish i'm having a bit of a hard time to make the recipes fits the style (as well as to make some ingredients believable, like meat, cream, etc). Normally i would just shade it like i usually do, but i'm not sure it would fit well.


============= Final Thoughts ================
I hope you guys like it and can give me some ideas/criticism of how to improve and how to do some stuff properly. Still got alot more to do but hopefully everything will be finish until the deadline. After i finish the recipes i'll go back to the creatures and npcs concepts, as well as the restaurant.

Hope everyone stays well and keep up the good work!

[Zorrentos]

Nice update! The character animations are looking sweet to me!

I like the food icons and graphics. I think overall they all read quite well. The only one I had a bit of a problem understanding is the spaghetti and meatballs one (I presume that is what it's meant to be anyway).  I found an image that could provide some good suggestions on how to improve the readability (Not my work).

[Gkatsura]

Nice update! The character animations are looking sweet to me!

I like the food icons and graphics. I think overall they all read quite well. The only one I had a bit of a problem understanding is the spaghetti and meatballs one (I presume that is what it's meant to be anyway).  I found an image that could provide some good suggestions on how to improve the readability (Not my work).

Oooh, i see, i didn't though of that since i did without reference, thanks for the suggestion it indeed look better in that perspective. Thank you for all, i'll work on it again :D!