I finally decided to stop lurking these great forums and participate alongside all the talented artists here, mostly in thanks to Roberto’s great idea for this Hardcore Modeling Challenge.
From Hell, written by comics legend Alan Moore and illustrated with much style by Eddie Campbell, is a graphic novel which investigates the famous “Jack the Ripper” murders, and is one of my favorite novels (graphic or otherwise). Campbell’s illustrations for the book are done in a very loose, scratchy pen & ink style which gives From Hell a very raw and powerful look that suits the dark subject matter and Victorian setting perfectly. For this challenge, I would like to create a CG representation of the book’s main subject, the royal physician Sir William Withey Gull. Here’s some reference I drudged up from the book:
I have wanted to create this character ever since I first read From Hell, and now - thanks to this challenge - I have a great reason to do so. I also hope to take this opportunity to explore some non-Photorealistic shading techniques in order to represent my 3D character in Campbell’s pen & ink style. While circumstances have made it so that I am entering this contest pretty late in the game, I still hope to make a character that does justice to this competition and the great work that everyone has made for it so far.
I think it is also important to state that, though From Hell creates a very fun and entertaining case for Sir William Withey Gull being the true identity of the infamous Whitechapel murderer, there is no concrete evidence to support this claim. My decision to create this character was not intended to defame Gull or his family (plenty of people have already done that with their allegations), but was instead meant as an ode to From Hell and the artists who created it.
Also, I have used the thread title naming convention that seemed to be adopted by most of the participants, even though it differs from the one Roberto stated in the main post. If this is a problem of any kind, I’d be happy to change it.
Thanks for checking out my thread. Any and all comments are certainly welcome. I’d love to hear from you all! Best of luck!
-Chance