Xavier Hodge 2024 Rookies Folio

Omg hi besties! Apparently my uni's telling my to submit a folio or something here and I don't really want to get into trouble by not submitting anything :( So like, heres some of my work for my recent projects, wowie!!

1. A bunch of plein airs, guache studies and knick knacks. Just things I've made recently, I wanna show off the knicks and knacks! :) 

2. Fish Fight!- Concept/Visdev art for a whimsical fighting game where customers at a fish market battle it out for a FISH. (Character work)

3. Inkuverse (Into the Berribush)- Concept/Visdev art for an animation about a deadbeat socially inept incubus, banished from hell, forced to live out his exile in a rundown city (Environment design)

So, like, I'm excited to present concept art for a whimsical fighting game came entitled 'Fish Fight'

Every ten years or so, a BUNCH of super rare fish swim into Berrigan's very own harbour. Since the fish are so rare (and because the economy's tough) the fish market settles who gets to take home one of them with an all our brawl! A fish fight, if you will.

I had a pretty clear idea of three of the characters from the get go and their personality/reason for wanting the fish from the beginning of the assignment. I also knew I'd have to develop a visual style for this project, and I set out to make something very playful, something with fun pencil textures and patterns and something with heavy emphasis on shape. 

The characters I wanted to develop were:
1. A chef. I felt like a sushi or sashimi chef would be a fun design prompt, and I also wanted a female character who was energetic and fought with really cool kicking attacks so I just merged those ideas together. I wanted her to be this bubbly, impulsive and tomboyish character that wanted the fish to simply cook it

2. A fisherman. Obviously a fisherman would make sense for a game like this, and I also wanted to make him EMO. I just thought that would be funny. mainly because I thought the visual pun of incorperating fishnets into his design would get a real chuckle out of people.  I spent some time in trying to figure out why he'd want to fight for the fish when he could just catch one but decided he really cares for marine animals and and simply wanted a cute friend to keep him company on his long voyages. I wanted to make him be a big muscular character, because you kind of need them in a fighting game right?

3. A hippie. I decided a character who wanted the fish just to free it would be interesting and thus followed making a hippie character. I wanted his design to have a lot of patterns but I wasn't really sure how to develop his personality. I either figured he should fight with projectiles from a fanny pack of some kind or a protest sign that could change each time it was viewed.

The first character I started on was the Emo Fisherman. I wanted to prioritise big square shapes to signify his strength, but also round them off to show the character's soft quiet personality. Above are some of the exploration drawings I made to figure the design out. Here are the highlights:
1. Backwards Cap- Giving him a backwards cap that has a fish silouhette.  That's how you knwo for SURE he's a fisherman
2. Shark Teeth- Giving him a row of decayed shark teeth around his neck from all the sharks he's helped with their dental problems. Aww, what a nice guy! Also, that shape's echoed in his beard. Wow, motifs am I right?
3. Fisherman Pants- Styling his fisherman overalls like EMO JEANS (and also fisherman's pants). Gotta rep the culture for the fish and other fisherman, I guess. 
4. The giant anchor- Oh yeah did I mention he has a giant anchor. I'm sure that's a real workout, swinging that thing everywhere.

Next design was the chef! I mainly just wanted to really square off her shapes and signify the strength in her legs so a lot of attentio went to building the shapes there. I pulled a lot of reference from female sushi chefs and their outfits, and also wanted to give the potential for really interesting animation by having having the tail ends of her belt flap behind her. Again, the highlights:
1. All the spices- I wanted to incorperate her chef profession into her fighting style... so like. consider. spices in the eyes. Would probably be an effective fighting technique. While attaching spice jars across her kimono strap as though it were a bandolier might have been enough at first, she's recently gotten greedy with how many different spices she brings into matches.
2. Her teatowel- I wanted to give the teatowel she always has handy a mediterranian/japanese style pattering (because, like,  those a seafood heavy cuisines). Her family runs a fancy fusion restaurant overseas and this is one of the products they've started selling.
3.  Coffee Stains- Even though she has great balance when fighting, the chef's apron is covered in stains from all the time's she's spilled things on herself while cooking. Apparently it's all part of the job.

The final design was the hardest, being the hippie. I wanted him to be lanky and kind of tall as a contrast to the other characters. I decided to lean into the irony of having a hippie sign up to fighting competition and made him super aggressive  and snappy. Finding ways to play around the common hippie motifs and turn them into a very peace-hating character was super hard, but things slid into place once I figured a mushroom cloud could be great inspriation for his hairdo. Again the highlights are:
1. His huge bag! It carries all sorts of things he can throw at his opponents (Think: rock salt lamps, incense sticks, pamplets) but theres a special pouch dedicated to this hippie's favourite weapon: specially made essential oil grenades.
2.All the patches on his leg- Looks like someone went crazy with that ebay coupon deal! 
3. His bare feet- Sorry feet fans, he doesnt bathe them :( Apparently it helps him 'ground himself to nature' more or whatever that means...

So, because like, its called visual development or something. Here's a painting of the character designs after this process with callouts referencing where the ideas in the design came from :D

And also the select screen for the imagined game! I wanted to set the game in a fish market, so it made sense to reference that in the game screen. Playing with all the pencil textures and the light in the scene took a lot of practice and time but it was enjoyable to learn from the process :)

Before we like.... say goodbye I wanted to share some drawings and explorations for a project I'm toiling away at on the side. 

Introducing... the Inkuverse :) The like, other visdev project i did recently lol.

Inku is a socially inept demon, expelled from hell, who lives in a shitty spare room in a shitty public housing district in a shitty city. Desperate to return home but profoundly lazy, Inku spends his time cooped up playing video games, convincing himself that he doesnt need to shower and peoplewatching at the local library. He's recently convinced himself that becoming famous online will solve all his issues.

I have less to write about this one, partly cuz I'm still working on it but mainly because im tired. lol. Hope you enjoy the paintings lol :)

That's all! Thanks for reading/looking! :)