Third Rail Design Lab - Thom :: TRDL Redesign Series

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 4: Boba Fett [TRDL Redesign]

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Artwork Details

Title:	TRDL 2011 Series, No. 4: Boba Fett [TRDL Redesign]
Artist:	Thom Chiaramonte (All)
Media Type:	Mixed Media
Art Type:	Pin Up
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,081
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	1/23/2011
Comic Art Archive:

Description

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 4: Fett Boba [TRDL Blank Slate Redesign]

This is a TRDL Clean-Slate Redesign project. The subject: Boba Fett.

The inspiration for this project was two-fold:
One, regular readers will know I’m always into redesigns, both on-model updates of recognizable characters, and wholesale redesigns from original source material description. I recently did a redesign of The Joker, which was done with the intent of taking a fresh look at the simple concept of a grinning, clown-themed villain. But I didn’t have any text description of Joker to design from in a raw sense. My redesign was necessarily responding to the original material, rather than from a blank canvas.
Two, I recently posted a look at various designers attempting to redesign Darth Vader based on script description. Here, I felt like the designs, while awesome, were still reactions to his film imagery, and understandably so.

My challenge this time was to design from a Star Wars script reference for Boba Fett, but to do everything I could to divorce the description from the familiar character design we know and love.

Unfortunately, unlike Vader, Fett wasn’t really clearly described in the script, but rather referenced and then dependent upon the design team to be fleshed out. As I was trying to avoid being influenced wherever possible by the original design work, I avoided the behind-the-scenes descriptions of how McQuarrie and Johnson came to the familiar look we have etched in our brains. I looked at the brief script reference, and then hopped over to Wiki for a little more description to work from.

"Boba Fett stems from initial concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter..While Vader became less a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character. … Fett’s armor was originally designed for "super troopers", and was adapted for Fett as the script developed…Screen-tested in all-white, Fett’s armor eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black. The character’s armor was designed to appear to have been scavenged from multiple sources, and it is adorned with trophies.]"

I chose to include the reference to the screen test in white (A design I’ve actually already drawn, here) because I wanted to take into consideration that he should look somewhere between the absolute black of Vader and the absolute white of the Stormtroopers. However, I ignored actual design cues from those designs. In other words, no familiar Stormtrooper details in the armor. I basically had to de-McQuarry the character, which is admittedly hard to do.

The description was boiled down to this:

1. bounty hunter.
2. less conspicuous ie. less iconic in design than feature characters would be
3. super trooper armor framework, ie. non-vacuum militarized infantry armor of some type
4. scavenged from multiple sources
5. adorned with trophies

You can read on in the link below for my process notes on how I got to this design, and see progress pics, etc.
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/blog/2011/01/14/trdl-2011-no-4-fett-boba-trdl-blank-slate-redesign/

Click through to read more about it and see process pics and the like, if you enjoy such behind-the-scenes business.
Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=27

Other viewing options:

You can see this illustration here on the R3 Forum: http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=19716
Or here, as above, on the TRDL blog: http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/blog/2011/01/14/trdl-2011-no-4-fett-boba-trdl-blank-slate-redesign/
And you can see a larger view right off my TRDL Illustration Site, here: http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/images3/trdli1104_fettz.jpg
A choice for everyone!

Thanks for looking,
Thom
Third Rail Design Lab
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com

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About the Owner

	thom chiaramonte
Joined:	November 2005
Last Login:	June 2015
Ebay Id:	thirdraildesignlab
Website:	http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com
Country:	UNITED STATES
On CAF:	Artworks Commented On Liked Art Site Activity on CAF

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