Creating the Augment icon was a step aside from the sigils as it represents an agency rather than an Essence Form; the aesthetic is wholly different from the “natural tattoo” look of the sigils. The intentional chunkiness of the icon is designed to fit an agency, C.A.S.E, who deal with the mechanical augmentation of sapiens in-world, hence the cog.
Getting the placement of the cog’s teeth was easy, thanks to the quadrant symmetry feature of Procreate (which took a surprising amount of time for me to actually locate). However, getting the shape how we wanted it took a few shots; the depth and curve had to be just right, and it was a little irritating faffing with those lines - not helped by the fact I accidentally deleted the entire thing, at one stage, and had to start over. Always backup your work, folks!! Lesson learned the hard way!
There were several drafts of the dynamic image before we settled on the version we’re presenting today. If I recall correctly, one version was a simple orange background that was going to have cogs working across it, but we decided it was too busy. Instead, we workshopped ideas that would look like electronics; Xin specifically wanted a motherboard-look, but my skills aren’t advanced enough, yet (although Manna’s eyes are a step closer!). So I created this background inspired by those workshopped ideas.
The ombre of colour shifting from blue to yellow to red was my way of preventing this piece being dull - I like colour! And keeping the piece greyscale was too boring to me. The crossing lines represent circuitry/wires, and the bubbly effects were sort of inspired by DNA; the combination of these two represent what the agency is about. Adding chromatic aberration to the icon gives it a displaced kind of look which I felt fitting, since the augments are generally mistrusted throughout society.
The texture across the cog is created using three brushes, Grunge, Concrete, and Caged Iron, which are layered to mingle for this result. Overall, there’s metal, circuitry, and organic inspirations throughout the piece, which is exactly what we needed for the dynamic representation of C.A.S.E.
I can’t wait to create more advanced artwork for this particular group of characters now that my skills are further along! Now reader, we present to you the Augment Icon Dynamic image.
Comments