Character concept art layout research.

As mentioned before i was testing out how i should compose my page to lay the figure i drew onto for presentation purposes. I started study and collecting concept art illustrations to see how digital artists render their background to compliment and contribute to their designs.

These works are from a digital art student - Andrew Ryan. He have made these fanmade mock-concept illustrations in tribute to his favorite games Mass effect and Dragon Age. Therefore it is very similar to what i am doing for my own project as i am creating mock-concept for The Secret World.
From looking at his works, i feel like i am on the right track layout wise. The gradient of grey fading to white is aesthetically more interesting, also it creates a nice contrast for the figure's faces, making the faces a focal point. What i also like is the "surface" he created to place his characters on, most likely by duplicating the main layer and flipping it vertically in creating the reflection. It make the figures appear grounded and not floating, providing a more complete, more solid work.

Similarly, this is an concept art i collected from online gallery/portfolio website - Deviantart, by an user called Mikkuru. Mikkuru also have done a similar gradient from dark to light to create a contrast for the figure. For the ground the artist merely shaded in shadows to give the appearance of ground surface. Therefore i have a couple of option on how to compose my concept background, which i can experiment with to see which work and look the best.

Other concept arts also show the gradient flipped around, with the lighter shade on top and fade to a darker bottom:

This is a concept illustration for an unreleased title - Destiny by Bungie. Because the facial area is covered by helmets, i think it works better having the lower part of the background darker than the top. Therefore there is no real fixed rule on what is the right way up, but having a rendered background do complete the illustration, which is what i want for my final presentation. I want my works to be viewed as artworks and not just for design purposes.