Concept for an Object

6 Credit card Concepts

After talking with one of my classmates we decided that pictures 3-6 were the better ones (sword in the stone, plane sword, helmet on sword & axe in skull)
However 3 and 6 (sword in stone and axe in skull) were already very over-used and cliché and so I did not want to do this. I felt that 4 was boring (plane sword) and so this left me with 5 (helmet resting on sword)

 Because I chose the empty helmet resting on the sword, I done some very quick sketches of potential helmet designs. (1 - 6 reading across left to right)
1 - I thought was boring
2 - Was confusing and not well planned
3 - Was okay but not great.
4- Very Roman-like but looked almost futuristic & sci-fi and I thought this clashed with my picture
5 - Looked Royal, was a little planed but had potential.
6 - was just weird.
Ultimately I favored 5, and so did others.

A5 Refined Sketch
The reason why I chose these particular objects is because armor, both historic and fantasy intrigues me and is generally one of my interest. Along with this I didn't just want to have a simple object I wanted to show something in my picture even it was just to be two things - and what I wanted to portray was possibly war, or a battle. To portray this with just these to objects would be testing.

Part One) at this point I just traced of my initial sketch and corrected anything that was wrong, in this case I corrected the sword and made sure everything lined up correctly.

Part Two) I had just finished the helmet, I found this rather difficult as I needed it appear round and the trick to do this was with shading and highlights. Also with these tools I wanted to perhaps show signs of battle such as dents or abrasions upon the helmet, I have given slight signs of wear but not much as I preferred it looking tidy.

Part Three) I have started the handle of the sword, starting off with the grip. Although this would not really be seen or noticed I still wanted to but my time into it as I believe to cheap-out on something will show in my finished product and so I still put great detail trying to show off all the individual curves in the grip and finished it with gold thread twisting around the grip.

Part Four) I have now finished the hilt of the sword, I found this one of the trickiest parts, first of all making it golden was a pain. I found it really annoying to try and make it look golden without it looking fake or cheap, and I found in order to do this in the end wasn't with any brushes but rather with a image adjustment - 'Curves'

Part Five) At this point, I thought I was finished, but it didn't feel finished yet and so I thought I would add something small but surprisingly significant.

Part Six) As you can see I added a crown-like feature on to the helmet, which gives the feeling that the helmet could have belonged to someone who could have been royalty. and would have been a great loss to their people or army, which almost seems to give reason as to why the helmet has been mounted on the sword. 

This image, I feel looks very effective as the texture I have given it looks very metallic which is what I was striving for. I feel that it is the minor parts of this image that help make it look complete such as the curvature on the handle, and the general 3D effect on both the sword and helmet.

I have achieved this effect by using the dodge and burn tools to show light and shadow very clearly. By this it is apparent which direction the light source is shining from, which I believe also adds to the 3D effect in the overall image.
If I were to do this image again I would add more intricate detail to the sword and possibly to the helmet. This would be in the form of engravings, gems or possibly some form of runic enchantment to make it grander and less plain.