Here's the lowdown of all the different colour schemes I tried out with our friend Kanan. I lined up each variant of the design - realistic, sem-stylized and fully stylized, in columns so that I could see how these sets of values worked with the altogether ensemble, rather than just the one design. I tried to keep each chosen palette relatively grounded and unsaturated to a certain degree, using darker, more earthy colours to reinforce the role of the uniform (I also tried to stick no more than three colours per design, for the same reason). Once I had assembled these value studies, I wrote my thoughts below each column, so that I could weigh out the pros and cons. In the end, I chose the red/blue/gold design featured in the seventh column because the I believed that it achieved the criteria the best: sensible and practical, with a hint of regality.
At this point in the project, I realised that I should probably consider including additional characters, as following through with my original intentions of "one character, one environment" would probably leave each piece feeling a bit bare. Above you can see three very early designs for a sort of "floating robot companion" I'd been thinking of giving the Diplomat. From the very point of conception, I knew that I wanted it only have the one central eye, and appear somewhat spritely and cute. The above designs were a promising start, but I regarded them as too lumbering with their robotic limbs - they appear too autonomous, when their function is simply supposed to be more of a floating hub of information.
Here you can see some more focused designs for the mobile companion - each one has its own personality. Labelling each feature definitely helped me to envision the functions that they could potentially serve in the final pieces, as well as helping define the silhouette for each one. I didn't want the designs to be too noisy, but I did want to get across that they were heavily equipped with gadgets which were ready to deploy at a moment's notice. I think you can tell which are the best designs here by how much you connect with them - just like the grill of a car can appear to be a face, each of these designs convey a certain character through the shapes of their eyes and main consoles.
A favourite has been hand-picked and taken to the next stage! First I went into Photoshop and created a cel-shaded vector of the original image. Then I added shading and shadows using the layer style feature, and finally colour. You can see all the different colour schemes I tried out below the first image, where I've used various palettes to compliment the Diplomat's uniform (therefor using less bright values). As you can see, I've used the same method for this as I did with the Diplomat himself, however there will only be a single variant of this character, as I only intend it to appear in the fully stylized (Disney Infinity style) piece.
Here are some of the doodles for the third and final character that will feature in my pieces, the Martian Guard. In all honesty, I wish that I had dedicated a little more time to the sketches, as I feel a few of them are far too careful and dull. That said, I had already chosen which design I would be using, and that is the one labelled "Cyclops", as I felt that the "face" conveyed just the right amount of mystery, without appearing outright evil. The aim was to keep the design somewhat sinister, but only to the extent that a first-time viewer would identify with the Diplomat over the guard.
Same process once again. I'm not 100% happy with the final design for reasons similar to the diplomat's original concept, but I can always make small amendments to the design in the final pieces. I acknowledge that this concept exists in a rather wishy-washy zone stuck between "realistic" and "semi-stylized" but I've found that without a redesign it is rather difficult to hammer home where the design lies. That said, I've made sure that the proportions line up with the "semi-stylized" design for the Diplomat (larger head and hands etc.) so hopefully it will translate a bit better when seen in more dynamic poses in the production paintings.
Although I'm not entirely decided as to what each piece will depict as of yet, I've drawn up some building thumbnails to possibly go in the backgrounds of the pieces. My favourite designs would have to be the first of each row, as they're still very practical while maintaining a very futuristic feel. These designs were quite difficult and time consuming to produce, as my strength has never been with designing hard surface or architecture - I'd definitely rather sell myself on my ability to create organic shapes. Still, it's a part of the process that must be done in order for the final pieces to come full circle, so this is what I have so far.