Strange Behavior (Illustration) Entry: Peter Soderbaum

#2

Hohoho…getting off to a late start :stuck_out_tongue:
Hope to catch up fairly quickly now though :slight_smile:

Here is one of my early concept sketches.
The idea is quite simple really, and a bit greusome.
I want to make a protrait style painting of a person with a concerned look on their face looking out of the frame to something the viewer can’t see. Down in the corner he will be chopping off one of his fingers… :surprised
The idea is to make it very “normal” as if he was just fidelling with something, and get the viewer wondering what has got his attention “off screen”

I hope that makes some sense lol.
In this sketch i’m also playing around with odd proportions and faux perspective…trying to get an unsettleing feeling.

Oh and also, is there some official way of uploading pictures to our thread? Because i see others get an icon and also their latest img automatically entered in the first post…
EDIT:
I found the area where we submit our milestones, but I just want to double check if i enter this img as a concept sketch i can enter another one using the same process later right? its not limited to one img per milestone is it?

#3

worked out how how to properly submit images :stuck_out_tongue:
more updates to come soon.

#4

Hehe, I was also going for a picture of some auto-amputation.

I like your sketch, but wonder how you are going to make it look like this is deliberate behaviour rather than, say, a gardening accident?

I think the man’s expression will be key (deliberate not distracted?) but you could also maybe use other visual cues, like already healed finger stumps of various lengths? Also perhaps have him using the secateurs in an obviously not garden-like environment.

#5

Cheers :smiley:

Thanks for the crits, some very good points to consider. You’re right about the expression being key, i’ll be posting a few more sketches soon, with your crits taken into consideration :slight_smile:

#6

good drawing - gruesome concept :scream:

Gord

#7

ACK! Picture makes me nervous just looking at it! Heh good job!

#8

Disturrbinggg… Good!
Love your sketch, good luck with the challenge, catch’em up!!!

p.s. you may submit as many as you’d like to for any milestone.
Except for the final I think…

#9

myabe half of that finger should already been cut, without showing much blood?

#10

Well a little more time has flowed between now and my last post, life just got in the way :confused:
However I’m back and ready to go!

This is my new concept. Its going to be called, something like “Getting those hard to reach places”…
The idea is a guy brushing his teeth, and trying to get to those…you guessed it…hard to reach places. Thing is, he solves this problem by ripping off his jaw and brushing away O_o

This is just a rough 20 min sketch to get the idea on paper, i already see some things i was to change, but your feedback will be most welcome :smiley:
I want to have the white froth of the toothpast juxtapozed with the thick red blood, the relaxed bed hair/PJ’s look against the severity of the action…
What do you think?

Better sketch, coming tomorrow :slight_smile:
lets get this thing rolling!

#11

Really powerful, and disturbing concepts. Out of the two, i much prefer the first one, it has much more staying power with it’s subtlety over the horror fest of the second. I also like very much the distorted perspective you used.

steve 8)

#12

thanks for your feedback handlebar :slight_smile:
Do you think the second one is missing some of the “bizarre” that the first has in its strange perspective?
I have a few more variations on the first, that are more “subtle” and less overtly in your face, i’ll put them up tomorrow along with the reworked second one.
I’ll take your advice and see if i can’t include some of the essence of the first into the second.
But i’ll also run a few alternate versions by you as well :slight_smile:

#13

mate… they are indeed grusome… loving both off them… cant decide which one… probably the first a bit more… the subtleness of it is powerful

#14

To answer your question, i think the first one has more shock value because at first glance it’s not overly obvious what’s going on, its not untill you study the image a bit closer that the real strange behaviour manifests itself. Think of all the best horror films, the fear is in what you don’t see, glimpses and sugestions that something grusome is about to happen. Also most people tend to look at faces first in a comp and the way you distorted the perspective leads the eyes from the face down to the hand where the grusome deed is about to take place. You’ve also set the scene where the act hasn’t taken place yet, and left it to the viewer to decide the outcome, will he, won’t he and why? You won’t get these questions asked in the second image as it’s direct and ‘in your face’ which in my opinion makes it a weaker concept.
It’s just my thoughts, hope it helps.

Steve 8)

#15

Hey, Layer01, pretty neat drawings you got there! I think I prefer the first one over the second for now, but it’s a hard choice. Can’t wait to see all those variations you’re talking about.

#16

The second idea is really great! I would choose that.

#17

I had to post since i would love to see the jaw one done!!

Yes is more in your face, but I’d say:if you are going for gruesome, well, go with it all the way! It kinda reminds me of Poltergheist too, and that is’ good I think!!

Gory good luck!!:twisted:

#18

Just a quick upload to fill in the gap between bigger posts.
These are some quick thumbnails of the second idea. I’m toying with the idea of having bits of the character coming out of the frame. You can probably tell which ones are working better, but please feel free to point out any you like more or less.
Also getting a feel for how big i want the parts to be in the screen. This is pretty rough, but i’m just trying to get things clearer in my own head.
Hopefully better stuff is on its way :wink:

#19

Mmmmh, I think I’d go for the last one, you know, more perspective would match the subject well.
Keep it comming!:thumbsup:

#20

OK…after another slight delay (i wish i could say important things got in the way, but nope, it was just a new xbox 360 lol)
here is the initial line drawing sketch.

I 'm sorry the scan is such a crappy quality it because this was drawn in blue pencil so that it wouldn’t show up on the inked picture, as such i had to play with levels etc a lot to get itto show :stuck_out_tongue:

A bit more work needs to be done on it. The tooth brush needs to be added in properly, and the hand holding it should be a bit bigger i think. I might also revisit the face.
Oh and i think maybe less of his teeth should be showing (not on the jaw but the face)…hmm what do you guys think?

#21

not much difference, but touched it up…probably i’m the only one who can see the difference…
but i fixed up the hand, teeth and some of the gore “anatomy”

thoughts?

PS: shitty scan, due to it being still drawn in blue, makes it really hard to scan :stuck_out_tongue: