15 minute Rorschach
December 28, 2008 at 11:03 pm | In Rough Work | Leave a CommentTags: digital, rorschach, sketch, watchmen, wip
A quick 10-15 minute rorschach sketch
After I finished my last post I opened up Illustrator and was hacking away, I was actually really pleased where this was going, but since I have to work in the morning I cut my work short. I may pick it up again after I finish the chubby Batman, but I thought I should post it.
Fat Batman WIP
December 28, 2008 at 10:42 pm | In Rough Work | Leave a CommentTags: batman, comics, dc, digital, wip
Worked on this for a couple of hours today, I drew up an initial line drawing, but decided I wanted to paint it instead, just for the added challenge. It’s a work in progress, but I think it’s coming along.
I’m hoping to finish it tomorrow if I get a chance.
Sorry for the lack of posts, Christmas/family visiting has kept me busy.
Spawn
December 22, 2008 at 10:30 pm | In Rough Work | Leave a CommentTags: digital, finished, spawn
Spawn
I was able to get something out of my digital pen that I was somewhat proud of. It can be pretty tough when things just aren’t feeling right, but after some struggling today I finally put this down.
Pretty happy with the inital sketch, the colouring job was a quick rush job, but I just wanted some basic colours to enhance the piece.
Mainly I just needed to finish something to keep my sanity.
Last week a retrospective
December 22, 2008 at 2:21 pm | In Rough Work | Leave a CommentDespite the fact that I haven’t posted anything in the last week, it doesn’t mean I’ve not been drawing.
Life Drawing
I went to my first life drawing class last Wednesday, it was a little awkward at first, but I got over it and worked on some drawings. However, I think my ideas of what I was going to take from the session got muddled and I focused on too many things at once. While I was working out proportions/angles/form I started worry about laying down my value and ways of indicating my dark and light areas.
I got pretty frustrated with myself but I’ll definitely be going back. I need to spend some time focusing on what I want to get out of a session and how to achieve that best.
I was debating whether or not to post them because of their content, but I didn’t draw anything crude so I think I’ll post them only to track my progress. I may have to bind 2 scans though because it was on big paper.
The Green Goblin
I also spent some time on a Green Goblin pic, at first I went for a complete digital painting trying to avoid the black outlines. That didnt’ work as well as I wanted so I started a more cartoony version, and while it was getting close I didn’t feel good about it, so I’ve yet to finish it.
I may leave it all together and move onto something else.
This post was more for my sake than yours, I wanted to spend some time reflecting on the last week and why I haven’t had any decent output.
Learning Resource: Colouring Ideas
December 17, 2008 at 11:01 am | In Learning Resource | Leave a CommentTags: colouring, Learning Resource
Kevin Keele's Elf...
Note: The above image was not created or altered by me but was created entirely by Kevin Keele and borrowed from his blog.
http://beawesome.blogspot.com/2007/12/woodsy-elf-making-of.html
In my reply to a friendly comment about my previous post I mentioned that I used an effects layer with a low opacity and colour gradients to get some of the shading/lighting on my Louis drawing.
The above link is where the idea came from, an artist named Kevin Keele. He does a lot of exaggerated portraits which are pretty cool. The linked post is helpful because it gives a way of thinking about colouring in layers as opposed to a straight painting. While certainly people are able to create those effects using only a single layer (or canvas) this allows you to get a nice effect in a short amount of time.
I found it helpful, I hope you do as well.
Enjoy.
Left 4 Rockin’ Zombies
December 16, 2008 at 10:53 pm | In Finished Drawings | 2 CommentsTags: digital, finished, left 4 dead, louis, valve
Louis from Left 4 Dead
If you haven’t had a chance to try this game, I highly suggest you do, I could write an essay on why this is such a good game, but that would be for another blog, however I tend to play as Louis, the idea of a kick ass IT Systems Analyst hits home with me…
So I got inspired to do this little piece, wanted to a less static/posey image than normal so I tried something out. The canvas kept getting smaller and smaller as I removed things I didn’t like, but the cropped version presented here is the good stuff.
I spent a decent amount of time on this, and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out. You might be able to tell I was playing a lot with effects, lighting, gradients etc. in photoshop. My inks were a little messy so I was trying to get a cleaner look. Any suggestions?
Enough on this one though, I’ll go start a new piece.
Learning Resource: Alan Tew’s “How to draw like Alan Tew”
December 15, 2008 at 4:37 pm | In Learning Resource | Leave a CommentTags: Learning Resource, tutorial, video
One of the things I try to do is keep reading, and learning. I spend a lot of spare time browsing art from a bunch of sources. I tend to spend more time on blogs of good artists (for better or worse). Sometimes I learn just by looking at their pieces (sounds so wrong), but other times I come across a good resource which I think other people might find useful.
So here’s my first “Learning Resource” , I have a bunch of these bookmarked so I’ll post a few over the next couple of days.
He does a great job of simplifying the human form into basic shapes, it’s one thing to know the name of all the muscles and tendons and bones etc. etc., but he focuses on shapes and it looks great.
Take a look at Alan Tew’s Blog, he doesn’t do a lot of amazing finished pieces, but he has a mastery of the human form that is incredibly inspiring, it’s not just the finished look though, it’s the speed with which he does it that truly blows me away.
That Tingling Sensation…
December 13, 2008 at 5:02 pm | In Rough Work | Leave a CommentTags: digital, finished, marvel, spiderman
My Spidey Sense is Tingling!
I tried not to spend too long on it, just wanted to get a feel for the differences. From now on I’ll only be doing my initial sketches in Illustrator and I’ll be moving the colouring to PS. Backgrounds, gradients, colour choosing, effects and hotkeys I’m more used to and it just felt far easier…messing with vector based lines while painting is stupid.
I really like the way this turned out. I was able to learn quite a bit using PS, and I think the background really helps this one pop.
I’m all pumped now…onto the next drawing.
Elephantitis
December 12, 2008 at 11:57 pm | In Finished Drawings, Rough Work | Leave a CommentTags: animal, cute, digital, elephant, paint, quick
You don't want to know what suprised him...
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A Rectangle Elephant
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An all round elephant
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etc.
In the end I went with something which is more my style, it felt good. I experimented with different ways of painting this, I like how it turned out. I didn’t want to spend too much time on it, so I focused on simple low and highlights to bring out some shape. Also I did a real quick greenery background.
I think I’ll try my hand at some more animals, see how it goes. I had a lot of fun with this one.
Thoughts: Sketchbooks
December 9, 2008 at 3:23 pm | In Opinion Pieces | Leave a CommentTags: thoughts
Sketchbooks!! *fist shaking
Love em’ or hate em’ ?
Opening a new sketchbook is simultaneously a wonderful and painful exercise. I love sketchbooks, for a while there it felt like I had 10 sketchbooks on the go. This is because, to me, sketchbooks are synonymous with fresh starts.
I always think that if I get a new sketch book that my work will somehow step up to the occassion, like the fact I own something new a clean and fresh will force me to get better. This feeling of confidence is the wonderful part, the part that makes me feel like I’m actually not too bad at this drawing thing. Then comes the second half.
Opening a new sketch book and having a blank page staring back at you is an incredibly daunting experience. You feel lke there’s nothing you can put there that’s going to look right and so you just stare at it.
This happened to me yesterday, except I forced myself to start, I decided…I’ll draw a picture of my niece Devynn. She’s cute and I’m not good at cute. What better way to challenge myself. I printed off a picture and some samples of Sarah Mensiga’s work (she’s great at cute, wistful, and everything else). I was ready to start.
I tried, I really did. I tried to be more thoughtful in my approach, take my time without being too slow that it becomes ridiculous. I studied my inspriation to try and capture the cuteness…and all I could get was craziness. She looked like Chucky and I ruined the first page of my new sketchbook (that I bought in August and was too intimidated to start filling). However, the plus side of the new sketch book is perferated paper. I simply pulled out the drawing (I scanned it and tried to clean it up…no such luck so far) and I’m ready to start again.
But “The Dark Knight” came out today and I’ll be watching that tonight, so I don’t know if I’ll get around to any drawing. I think if I’m going to try cute again I need to start with animals.
Note: The picture of the sketch book above is acutally the one I opened last night, I grabbed that pic from barnes and noble website. It’s designed by SCAD students and I picked it up while I was down in Savannah getting married this summer.
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