More Art Inspiration

Ian Wilding

I really like the colour scheme in this poster.  I feel the use of different shades of one colour across the entire piece is really effective, especially the subtle replacement of black with a high chroma purple.  The palette just feels really unified yet interesting.  

"JEBEDAI"

I also felt like this colour palette was really interesting.  I really like how the orange background contrasts with the black, greys and whites of the foreground and middleground.

Lynn Nguyen

I also found the subject matter of this piece by Lynn Nguyen really interesting.  The facial expression of the centre character is just so sinister and having the top area of his body completely inked with the exception of his chilling eyes and sharp teeth is really effective in creating that creepy focal point.  I also love how the characters in the background have thier faces eerily smudged out - causing the viewer question who or what they are.  The image just has a sort of creepy, cult-like feel to it.

Jon Klassen

I absolutely love this art style.  The use of simple, sharp blocky shapes with more complex gritty textures is really appealing.  Jon Klasson's use of colour is also excellent at conveying mood - I love how unsettling the blacks bleeding in to the gritty greens make the scene on the top right feel.

Francis Bacon

I've also been looking at the work of Francis Bacon a lot lately.  I read somewhere that the creature designer for the Silent Hill series took direct inspiration from his work - particularly the twisted humanoid imagery you can see in the first two images here - "Crucifixion Studies" and "Portrait of Lucian Frued".  I personally really like the last image here; "Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X".  I love the chaotic lines streaking across the entire composition and the contrast of the cold purples, blues and blacks with the golden yellows and how distressed the subject appears, gripping on to his chair.


Ikumi Nakamura

Although I haven't played The Evil Within yet I've been really inspired by the concept art for it.  I love Ikumi Nakamura's loose lines and use of contrast in her work.  I've been particularly intrigued by the design for the character Laura - A friend recommended I check out the monster she turns in to in game (sorry for spoilers) as it's particularly scary.  I found the second image here of the silhouetted monster really striking.  The lighting is just so well done as the player sees enough of the monster to know it's going to hurt them with its threatening pose and long sharp claw-like nails, but it's full appearance is still a terrifying mystery.  Imagine that thing crawling towards you in real life!  As I've mentioned before it's the human characteristics of a monster (in this case the limbs and hair) mixed with inhuman qualities (the mutated arms and the animal like posture) that really trigger the fear factor in people, myself included.  In the feedback for my own monster design there was a few people suggesting I should add more limbs, perhaps I should make them a bit more prominent in the design.