[[ Artemis Entreri’s Cloak Clasp Design: A Detailed AnalysisAlthough it is never mentioned or

[[ Artemis Entreri’s Cloak Clasp Design: A Detailed AnalysisAlthough it is never mentioned or described in the books, Todd Lockwood’s design of Artemis’ cloak clasp has become an insignia of the assassin’s canonical look. Both fan and official artists have included this element in their portrayals of Artemis, however due to the small size of the item in the cover art, there have been many variations in its depiction. As I’ve been working on a 1:3 scale replica of Artemis complete with his armor following Lockwood’s depiction, Todd was kind enough to provide me with full resolution samples of his original paintings of this particular item. I can’t share those samples as that would go against Todd’s wishes, but I can and am sharing my investigation process.The above two images are, respectively, a three-dimensional version that shows the relations of the various shapes and lines, and an unshaded version. These are assuming that one is looking at the clasp straight-on, as well as that the clasp is in a flat state, which I don’t think is its final form. These images were drawn up with real life replication in mind. I will go into detail about what its most likely final form is based on Lockwood’s paintings below.Before I get into that, I’ll go over the steps that this investigation took. First, it required a good look at and study of the source material. I did directly trace from the paintings and then isolated the tracings so as to get a better look at the lines:As you can see, there is a fair amount of inconsistency within Lockwood’s art, in part due the angle in some cases and lack of rendering in others. The first one, from the painting for the cover of Promise of the Witch-King, is the only one that shows all the details, so that was the one I referenced most heavily, while ensuring that the concept fit the other paintings as well.This isn’t the first time that I’d studied that cloak clasp design. The most effort I’d put into it previously was for this piece. Although it isn’t apparent from that drawing, the bottom of the shape didn’t actually close, so I had to rework it before using it as a starting ground for this investigation. Here is the adjusted version from that:This rounded shape did feel the most pleasing in terms of symmetry, but it wasn’t accurate because what “roundness” that appears in Lockwood’s paintings of the clasp is due to angle and perspective. So, after straightening out the edges, I figured out the relations of the various lines, then made an image document in which I could move those lines around to generate the overall shape. This is the first result that came out of directly adapting the lines relation from the rounded version into a non-rounded version:It wasn’t as aesthetically pleasing as the rounded version, and my initial thoughts were that it was due to the two crisscrossing bands A and B being too thin. I also wanted to experiment with making the top band C thinner, like how it appears in the cover of Road of the Patriarch. However, simply making A and B thicker would’ve meant obliterating some of the side shapes, so I went with making A and B gradually wider. I arrived at this: Although I liked the look of A and B, space 1 was too big while spaces 2, 3 and 4 were too small. To make 2, 3 and 4 bigger, there were two approaches: make A and B thinner, and decrease the slopes of A and B. I decided to do both to see how it’d turn out.C also felt too thin, but since I was going to be tweaking the relationship between the other shapes, I left it the way it was going into the next rendition:This looked much better. As with the previous attempt, A and B in this attempt also gradually increased in width, but not as drastically. The relative sizes of 2 and 3 looked about right, but 1 and 4 were both too big. Decreasing the size of 1 by increasing the width of C would also mean decreasing the sizes of 2 and 3, unless I also increased the slopes of A and B again.But then, I had this crazy idea of incorporating non-straight lines, so things got a bit wiggly:The curvature did allow 2 and 3 to be bigger while also restricting the sizes of 1 and 4. In the above, A and B remain the same width across the diagonal.However, I did feel that the curves were too much, so I experimented with making A and B less curved while also increasing their width like I did with some of the straight line examples above:This was probably my least favorite one. A and B were overall too wide, C was too thin, 1 was too big, 2, 3 and 4 were too small. And, ultimately, I went back to the fact that the perceived curvature of this object is due to perspective, and that I needed to stop copping out and just focus on finding a good geometrical relationship with straight lines.Ironically, for the result I was most happy with, I returned to the first attempt I’d made. After some adjustments and erasing lines following the depiction on the Promise of the Witch-King cover, it was finished.——————————————————-All of that was just for the design of the top piece of the cloak clasp. As for how it would function, my work was quite cut out for me. I still don’t have a mechanism with which I’m totally satisfied, but I’ve made the following deductions:First, based on the art, there seems to be a bottom piece that’s attached to the chest piece or the belts, something like this: The belts cross over Artemis’ chest, and like the chest piece they’re on top of, follow the curve of his ribcage. Thus, this bottom piece of the cloak clasp would have to be similarly curved so as to conform.Then of course the top piece goes on top of that base: The top piece would also have to conform to the shape of the bottom piece and chest armor, so would be similarly slightly curved along the vertical axis.As for how this entire contraption would serve its function as a cloak clasp, my best theory is that the side view of the two pieces is something like this, so the cloak can be shoved into the opening: It would have to work by having some teeth or grabbing hooks in between the two pieces that will hold onto the fabric. I’m honestly pretty stumped. I know how to make it look like the art but not function like the art. I will update this post if I ever figure it out, but for now, at least the aesthetics are correct. ]] -- source link

More pics about