Originally published at: https://www.ronenbekerman.com/making-taekwondo-fighters/
First of all, I am very grateful to be invited to write a making of/behind the scenes of my recently finished project titled Taekwondo - The fighters. I have always held a great deal of respect/admiration to Ronen Bekerman’s Blog and learned so much from it. I love this community and enjoy the knowledge sharing and interaction between the artists, so do share this around for all to see!
Introduction
I will walk you through this project process and stages from the beginning of the initiation of this rough idea till I managed to translate it into this set of visuals. I have to say I have enjoyed this journey so much and was a very emotional experience for me creating this project and seeing it finished.
Inspiration - Motivation
I had practiced Taekwondo professionally from when I was only nine till I quit at the age of 25 to pursue a professional career as an architect/visual designer and artist.
Taekwondo for me was more than just a sport; it was a way of life, it taught me so many things, it forged my personality, I have passed through some extensive experiences through it good and bad, happy and sad, painful and inspirational. It gave me purpose and goals.
Doing a project about Taekwondo was always in my mind. Creating a set of visuals that will translate a few moments from the Taekwondo players fighting experiences. Moments you can’t feel being a spectator. I wanted to get the viewer as close as possible to the fighting scenarios, with its speed, its power, its dynamic motion kicks, its victory, its defeat.
That was the pivotal inspiration and motivation that kept me going.
Art Direction
I started to lay down some initial directions and thoughts about the visual intent having in mind the experiences I wanted to communicate and present.
I started by gathering some relevant references that could inspire me and boost the idea that I have in mind. In this case, one of the most influential inspirational moments was a fight my wonderful ex-colleague was competing at the Athens Olympics against this fantastic Chinese Taipei competitor, and they were both movie style moves.
Things like crouching tiger hidden dragon type of stuff!
crazy flying double kicks that are almost unreal, I never forget this fight, and to my luck, I saw one amazing photo taken in this contest that just boosted my inspiration and art direction like no other.