Strange Behavior (Illustration) Entry: Ben Hooley

#1

Ben Hooley is entered in the “Strange Behavior Challenge” update: View Challenge Page

Latest Update: Concept Sketch or 3D pre-visualization: The One-Man-Ninja-Band

#2

An obvious idea I guess. I wanted to show some collection of hard cases sipping tea and knitting - at first some futuristic soldiers or perhaps a gang of bikers sprang to mind. A friend suggested Chuck Norris which I thought was pretty cool, but then I didn’t really think it would be so much fun to draw Chuck Norris whether he was the hardest man on the planet or not…
But the I thought ‘Valhalla!’ and my group of characters became clear.

The three dead vikings do not look particularly fierce yet, but I hope that this rough at least conveys the message efficiently. The tea cups, ball of wool and skull teacosy were the first props I though of, but any ideas to incorporate would be welcome - as well as thoughts about a more interesting composition and ideas for the background.

Oh yeah - the vikings are blue cause I thought it would be fun to try and render them in some kind of semi-opaque ghostly style: They definitely need to look meaner though :slight_smile:
If you popped your head in - thanks for looking. Leave a message and I’d be happy to stop by yous.

Peace
Beno

#3

Hey, Ben, good to see you back for another Challenge. Cool idea, although ‘Swizzle’ is already working on a really similar idea with 3 vikings. Not to say you’re ripping him off, just that maybe you’ll have to think about how yours will be really different. Anmyhow, good lcuk with it!

#4

Well - hey Walrus Baby.

Thanks for the heads up - If I had done this weeks ago I would probably have stuck with it, but I also have another idea that I had shelved (in my brain) about a ninja who turns up to ninja school armed with the bass drum & Symbols of a One Man Band. This I imagine really would work best as a short film - probably cause its basically a spin on ‘that’ scene out of Monty Python’s Holy Grail:

Scene: Rooftops of mediaeval Japanese Fortress - before Dawn.

Over the distance crenelations of the Castles outer walls; the small speck of a silhouette grows nearer - with it the distant but unexpected harsh tones of cymbals crashing and drums banging chaotically.

In the foreground we hear guards become alert and quiz each other.

Torches begin to move around, only evidenced in the frame by their light reflected on the tiled roofs above.

The silhouette draws nearer armed with a grappling hook and performs a series of unlikely acrobatic feats. The drum beats sound much nearer but just as erratic and as well as the cymbals comes the wail of an accordian.

There are shouts from the foreground as troops are alerted from where they had been dozing in their barracks. The sound of an organised military unit forming up in a dusty yard. Possibly a whistle.

The ninjas grappling hook wraps itself around a stone carved lion adorning the nearest building. The sound of hurried breathing through a mouth organ. The Cymbals scrape and clatter up the tiles…

The ninja - wielding more musical instruments than could be wielded by a full concert orchestra, pokes his head over the peak of the roof.

…This picture is a still from the following ACTION scene :smiley:

I hope no-one has already done anything like this :open_mouth:

Peace

#5

I am glad that I get to do this one instead - I am happier with a more dynamic scene!
Also the main reason I wanted to do the vikings one was to work on a way to make them ethereal and ghost-like. In this idea I hope to focus on the lighting - The light from the torches below - and the moonlight… it should probably be a f(oo)ull moon :slight_smile:

…ANd LOTS more instruments.

The things I want to challenge myself with in the development of this illustration is I guess - inspired by the crisp vector graphics of the intro and credit sequence in the incredibles - and the amazingly sad clowns of Johnny Duddlebug’s Spectacular challenge.

#6

I hope no-one has already done anything like this :open_mouth:

Not only is no-one in this challenge - to the best of my knowledge - doing a one-man ninja band, but I think it’s safe to say that no-one has ever done a one-man nunja band. I think you’re safe. And by safe, I mean brilliant! I love this concept, a lot, and I’m glad I inadvertantly pushed you away from the last concept to come up with something like this.

i hope you’ll have the chance to fool around with some alternate ideas for camera angles. While this works, rooftop adventures suggest, perhaps, a lower camera angle looking up more. At least something less straight-on and more dramatic might be worth experimenting with. And it might work better flipped horizontally too. But you probably already have other ideas - this is just the first preliminary sketch. But I like it… Looking forward to seeing more!

#7

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