A Realistic Approach - Kwabena Kyei

Kids Fly High

Hello this is my most recent piece titled "Kids Fly High". This piece is dedicated to the Kids in the Democratic Republic Congo that have dreams of a brighter future which were cut short due to no fault of their own. These kids are forced to grow up so fast that they never get the chance to find out who they really are, their youth got stolen from them. Kids young as 6 years are groomed to be child soldiers, to participate in senseless violence.  The title “Kids Fly High” has multiple meanings. One of the meanings which I chose to focus on is that kids are the future, and they are the ones with the most potential and they are the purest form of energy.  The other meaning is rate at which these kids face death. 

Breakdowns

Bolingo

The word “Bolingo“ /bəʊlɪŋgəʊ/ comes from the language Ngala spoken in Congo which means "Love".  Bolingo is the name I wrote on the gun to contradict the fact that it is a killing machine. I added the smiley sticker on the gun to show hope in some dark times and the angry face to also show some anger and bitterness the children in Congo feel for having to live in these conditions. 

Outfit

The oversized jacket represents forced maturity, the blood on the jacket tells the tales of having to commit a crime to survive. The Angel on the shirt represents both death and innocence.   For the clothing I used marvelous designer and substance painter to design and texture it.

Reference board

For the head reference my main inspiration was the Moonlight movie star Alex Hibert and the pose was mainly inspired by the black and white photography of the child soldier by Jonas Ekströmer.  When modeling the kid I tried to create an expression of a child who lost hope and feels dead inside.

I tried complex hair styles using software's like Yeti and X gen only to end up using the simpler version which was a lowcut because it was the most fitting for the scene.  

About the crab

This is a special piece to me because I had a bad experience with a cast of crabs years ago. I used this as an opportunity to better understand crabs and to rewrite my experience with them. The goal was to create the best-looking Blue Crab I could. For this project I bought a live crab so I could get a better understanding of the Blue Crabs anatomy and to take high quality pictures of the crab for texturing in Mari 3D. I spent about 4 weeks sculpting the crab and 2-3 weeks making the first pass. 

References

Texturing

I spent majority of my time painting the crabs' textures in Mari 3D by projection painting and created alphas to represent certain patterns in the crab. I mixed different colors to achieve the look I wanted and focused on textures for tertiary details such as little bumps. Here is what the nodes looked like for the shell.

Afia

In this project I tried to show my appreciation for hard working black women. The objective was to create a realistic character. I learnt a lot about fat distribution of the face and how the muscle and bones affect facial structure.

This is an alternative version I experimented with to create more vibrant colors and an intense feel.

Breakdown

The Swamp Man

The story behind this is dark. It is about a little boy that got abandoned by his parents in a polluted forest because they no longer want him due to the high cost of living. The parents hoped he would die but he, or should I say "it", survived via cannibalism. This creature would prey on other mutated creatures and plants. It now seeks revenge on its parents and on the society that failed to save it.

This is an alternative version I created. I create different versions to figure out which lighting is better for my character and to show it in a variety of moods.  The version below was inspired by Pan's labyrinth by Guillermo del toro.

 Breakdown

To Sum it up

I love creating characters that are very expressive and evoke emotions. In the future I would love my projects to maintain deep storytelling and speak to the souls of a wider audience. Thanks for viewing my pieces.

Below is my full demo reel.